it's New Year's Eve ...

well here it is, 2014 is (literally) nearly over! 

the year is nearly over and yet I still have quite a few photos that haven't made it

onto the blog yet ... oh well, I don't think 46 posts (that's for the whole year, I might add that

in 2011 I had 317 posts, that year was my all time high as far as this blog goes)

merits me having a book printed this year ... so if I could schedule in time for me to blog

and manage to catch up in 2015 - I'd still have all my 2014 photos within one book!!!

what a year it has been.

another year of saying "see ya later" to my hubby ...

the past few months have been spent as temporary single mother status!

never easy, but having him away has given me the opportunity

to try to achieve some things that seem more a challenge when he's home.

(for example, the house is quite torn apart currently - as I go through boxes, bags, baskets, etc. in another attempt to get this place all organized ... my theory is the same as always, if everything had a place it wouldn't be such a disaster all the time ... we'll see how true that ends up being ... if, that is, I actually do make it through this slow process to the side of actual organization!  I've managed to that only once before in my married life - and that was three kids and far less stuff ago!  we shall see!)

it's also given me time.

time that I need to spend in prayer.

time that I need to study the word of God.

time to spend with my children.

time to learn more about myself.

I have this goal to really give a lot of effort toward working on, what I like to address as,

character issues.  whether within myself or within my children - there are

absolute things that I am trying to eliminate (ie: name calling, fighting, angry outbursts, etc.).

so far I don't feel I've made much head way ...

BUT

I believe the Lord can change me, first and foremost ...

and in turn, my hope is that I will be a positive role model for the children

and they will also incur some positive changes in behavior.

I know I can't do it. 

I also know that God can!!!

I believe.

I have faith.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also have this goal to get all of this years "good camera" pics up on this darn blog!

whether that means there is little to no editing or not, I am getting 

more and more determined to get back to blogging!

so, shall we begin -and end- with Christmas morning?

here it is ...

 this was Christmas Eve ... I love a good "Santa's been here" pic!!

 this year "I" decided to really scale back ...

I did the "three gifts" idea: a want, a need, and something to read!

in addition to that, each child got a "Santa" gift

(which actually I ended up just putting a $30 limit on Santa - this worked well so that

I could give Zoey the "big" gift for her and also the boys their "big" joint gift ...

 but it all still added up to right at $30 per child!)

in addition to those four gifts, I assigned each child a sibling to buy for ...

this way instead of a bunch of dollar store junk (which is how you have to do it when you

have four kids all buying for each other) each child got another nice gift!

it also was meant to help foster some attention and care for siblings who tend to squawk!

so, right there each child got five nice gifts - or more if it was a multiple

piece/item type of gift!

bring in the grandparents, aunt, uncle, & cousins - and my kids were beyond spoiled!!!

 opening her Santa gift!

 despite the face, he was quite excited about his Minecraft tee shirt!

 so many presents!!!

 he loves Christmas morning!!

 we forgot about the stockings, usually it's tradition to open those first!

so we did them sort of in the middle, but toward the end of the gift opening!

(notice in the background I have mugs out, ready for hot cocoa - and I had cinnamon rolls

in the oven ... after all the unwrapping and fun they were excited for a fun breakfast!)

 Zoey, trying out her tricycle from Nana!

we are going to really be working on learning to pedal!!

 can you believe it?

I didn't take 1.1 million pics of Christmas morning!

it was a little hectic, I'll be honest, with daddy on skype - I had to prop

up my phone when the battery got real low and I had to plug it in!

at one point I was holding my phone, trying to video tape, and trying to take photos!!!

I really just wanted to enjoy it.

to watch my children's faces light up with each gift ...

to see their surprise and delight ...

to look at their newest priced possession ...

so that's what I tried to do!

Happy New Year!

2015 holds much for us, I am sure of it!!!