Happy New Year!

Happy 2010 to all my wonderful friends and family! I hope this year will be filled with happiness for each and everyone of you.

I don't know if it is the economy this year or what, but no one seemed to be planning anything too exciting for New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is my birthday, so Trav and I typically have a celebration at our house to ring in the New Year. With the Christmas illnesses that decided to linger over our household, Trav was not feeling like partying. So we had a pretty low-key day. We went to Tepanyaki for a scrumptious early dinner of sushi, filet mignon and salmon. Anna was fascinated by the Japanese chef, and she loved the stir fry noodles. Then we headed home to relax. I had invited my friends and family to come over if they so desired, but most of them just stayed home with their families. My brother and his wife came over to visit for a while (bringing with them a hefty birthday gift card to Cheesecake Factory - thanks, Brandon, Maday, Justin, Cody and Laci!). Then my in-laws showed up with a birthday cake (that we completely forgot to cut into) and a cute sweater for me. The boys played PS3 in the basement, the girls sat in the kitchen, and Anna was the social butterfly climbing up and down the stairs between the 2 groups. Everyone was fairly exhausted and ended up leaving by 11 pm, so Trav and I rang in the New Year by falling asleep in our recliners by the fire. It's official...I am old!

I hope that the first few hours of 2010 are not an indication of how the new year will be...Anna had somewhat of a rough night. She woke up crying at 12:15 and would not settle down. She had to be rocked back to sleep by her momma. I then went to bed, but I heard her start crying again at 1:30. Trav then had to rock her back to sleep. She NEVER does that! Occasionally she will wimper and cry in her sleep, but she soothes herself back into a slumber. I don't know if it was all the sugar she had yesterday, or if she didn't feel well (she is still fighting a cold), or if it was a nightmare. Poor baby girl! She is still asleep this morning at 11:30, though, so hopefully she will be happier today.

A few of my New Year's Resolutions:

1-Spend more quality time with my family. For at least a few hours each day, I will put all of the "stuff" I have to do (laundry, dishes, cleaning, facebook ;-), etc.) on the back burner and spend that time really paying attention to my husband and my baby. I feel like I do okay as a mom and wife, but I could always improve.

1-Improve my overall health. I know this is a "typical" resolution, but I really need to work on this one. This is not necessarily to lose weight (although I hope it is a positive side effect), but to improve my high blood pressure, which has been high ever since my pregnancy and preeclampsia issue. I need to work out at least 3 times a week. Hopefully I will work out more, but I don't want to set myself up for failure. I also need to eat more fruits and vegetables, less sugar, and drink more water (or at least fewer caffeinated carbonated beverages!). To accomplish this resolution, I also need to cut way back on fast food and learn to cook more healthy meals.

3-Capture better memories of my family and friends. I would like to learn more about my new camera, either by taking a class or by reading the manual and practicing. I would also like to learn how to use Photoshop. I have Photoshop Elements, but I know so little about it. I have also thought about delving into the whole digital scrapbooking hobby, so that I can actually do some scrapboooking. I have a room full of hands on scrapbook supplies, but I so rarely have the chance to use them. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get started, please share!

Have you noticed that these resolutions all involve a lot of time? More time to cook, work out, scrapbook, and spend time with the family...couldn't we just have more hours in the day? Or maybe if I didn't require any sleep, I could get everything accomplished...