January 6th Date

January 6, 2016, Brandon and I went to institute together and then, not wanting the night to end, went to Monument Circle and got hot chocolate at South Bend Chocolate Company. That night, I burned my mouth on my hot chocolate, worse than I ever have in my life. But also that night, I knew I was going to marry Brandon. It was a point of no return and I haven't looked back since! To commemorate, we now go to Monument Circle and get hot chocolate on January 6th every year. This year, it was actually pretty mild and nice to walk around. I'm so grateful for this wonderful husband of mine. 

Resolutions 2018 Recap and New 2019 Resolutions

New Year, New Goals! It was a bit harder for me to decide on resolutions this year - I couldn't decide what I really cared about enough to set a goal for. I think I've found a few good ones, though, and no matter what happens, I'll come out better than I am now!

First, a recap of last year's goals:

Spiritual
1. Indexing once a month. Done! I actually have one month that I didn't mark, but sometimes I forget to mark things. So I'm going with yes. If not, I definitely did it 11 out of 12 months.
2. Attend the temple twice a month. Done (I think)! Again, I had a few months I think I forgot to mark, but this goal helped me get to the temple pretty regularly which I'm thankful for.
3. Memorize The Living Christ. Done! I had a plan that was going to help me get it memorized by Easter, but then I lost momentum. I picked it up by the end, though, and finished right before New Year's. Now this year I've just got to maintain it!
4. Do an act of kindness/service every month. Nope. I lost steam with this one after a few months. Of course I did do acts of kindness after that, but I stopped tracking it by June. 

Personal
1. Read all the books on my nightstand. No. I think I got through 5 or 6. I've realized this year that I really struggle with reading non-fiction books quickly. I just get bored and it takes me forever to get through them. Most of the ones I'd chosen for this were non-fiction, so that didn't help. I'm hoping to finish them this year. 
2. Blog twice a month. Done! This was a huge achievement for me and has helped me get caught up. I think there was one point this summer where I was actually completely caught up with the most recent pictures. Now I'm usually working a month or two behind but that's pretty good and definitely manageable.

Financial
1. Pay off debt and fund emergency savings account. Debt - done! We paid off our last debt in December, and it feels so good! We've started on the emergency fund but have a few months left in that. We did have a few unexpected setbacks that kept us from getting through the savings this year like we'd hoped, but I'm still incredibly proud of the progress we made and so grateful for the way the Lord has taken care of us and made this possible.

Physical
1. Lose 30 pounds. No. I did get 20 pounds off but I'm sure I've put a few back on over the holidays. My motivation has come and gone, but I also have found it's not as easy to lose weight now as it used to be. Age. :(


2019 Resolutions

1. Study “Come Follow Me” curriculum once a week. I'm hoping we'll be able to do this together each week, but I can at least do it myself if we aren't able to.
2. Get 25 blue dots in Weight Watchers app each month. I've been using Weight Watchers for a while and it works really well for me when I actually do it. I like the flexibility it offers. Within the app, you get a blue dot for each day you're within a target points range - a little above or a little below your daily allowance. My goal is to stay within that range at least 25 days of the month. It'll give me a few days of leeway but keep me on track for the most part.
3. Practice piano once a month. I don't have a piano at home anymore, but I teach seminary and can easily stay after to practice at the church, so I plan to do that once a month. I want to be able to play more hymns, so that's what I'll be focusing on.
4. Read with Jackson twice a month. I want to strengthen my relationship with Jackson, and reading together is something he usually gets excited about doing. I don't really read with him at all right now, since Brandon puts him to bed, so I want to make time for that twice a month. He's learning to read now, so maybe he'll be able to read to me, too.
5. Spend time with in-laws twice a month. I still don't feel very close to Brandon's family, and I want to change that. He sees them a lot, but I don't, so I want to make a point to spend time with them at least once a month to strengthen those relationships.
6. Keep a prayer journal. I've wanted to do this for a while, so I'm going to do it this year. Nothing too big - I just want to keep a journal by my bed and write down things I want to pray about. I feel like when it comes time to pray, it's often the same stuff and there are so many other things I care about and want to pray about. Hopefully this will help me keep my prayers more meaningful.
7. Save $17,000. We've got our debt done, so now we're looking to savings. We're hoping to get through our emergency fund and then start throwing money at retirement and a down payment for a house.
8. Go to the temple once a month alone and once a month with Brandon. Repeat goal but want to keep myself accountable - tracking it helps me make it happen.
9. Indexing/family history once a month. I haven't been doing a lot of family history because I'm so behind on temple ordinances, but I want to work that back in with my indexing this year.
10. Blog twice a month. It worked so well this past year, that I want to keep it up!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve

My parents hosted their annual New Year's skating party on New Year's Eve. We didn't have Jackson this year, but Brandon and I went and skated with friends and family. It's so fun to see the kids improve each year as they become more coordinated.

My cousin Melissa and her family had come out from Utah to visit her parents in Kentucky, so they came up for the skating party. It was so fun to see her, and always fun to see our friend Chrissi Harris who lives in Columbus.

That night we hung out at my parents' house and played lots of games and ate a bunch of food. Since we didn't have Jackson, we stayed past midnight to ring in the new year. Thomas brought a new game - Skull King - which was the hit of the night. We all loved playing that, along with our standards Euchre, Ticket to Ride, and Settlers of Catan.

Welcome 2019!

Brandon's 29th Birthday

Brandon's birthday is New Year's Day, so he had the day off. Yay! I set up 5 surprises for him throughout the day, which he found out by popping the balloons at the allotted time. 

We got Jackson at lunch time, so one of the surprises was to go downtown to eat and play glow-in-the-dark mini golf. We had a lot of fun!

He got some other gifts and a few other surprises. We ended the night eating super nachos and watching some college football. Then he sharpened my kitchen knives because he's the nicest. I love celebrating Brandon - he's my favorite person that has ever existed and I'm so grateful to spend every day with him!

Winter Break

I always get the week between Christmas and New Year's off, so I got to spend lots of time with all our family that was in town.

I went down to Columbus one day and helped my grandma hang a gallery wall in her room. She'd  mentioned before that she liked the one I have in my living room and asked if I'd help her do the same. I think it turned out pretty well! Afterwards, we had a girls night. We went to Panera for dinner then saw Mary Poppins Returns in the theater. So cute!

I borrowed a puzzle from my parents in case Brandon and I needed something to do together Christmas morning. We didn't do it then, but I did it later by myself. And then I got puzzle crazy and did two more that week. It's so satisfying to complete it after working so hard! I had to go back to work the next week and didn't have any more puzzles to do, so my addiction hasn't continued, though now I'm getting the itch again!

We went to see Winterlights at Newfields with most of my family - a lights display at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We got pretty lucky and it wasn't raining or snowing and the temperature was pretty mild for late December. The lights were beautiful!

You can't really tell, but that's our little family in front of that tree on the right. And then all of us below.

Cutest little bundle! Alexander loved the dancing light show the best.

Part of the lights tour included an indoor (yay!) tour of the Lilly House, all decked out for Christmas. One of the themes throughout the house were these huge paper chains. I can't imagine how long it took to make them all!

Afterwards, we went to Moe's for dinner. It was so fun to spend so much time with my favorite people!