This time last year, I couldn’t dream of actually accomplishing any goals. Literally! No sleep=no dreams! With a newborn (and a “Surprise” preemie at that!) my only goal was making it through the day. So I guess maybe I’m a little proud of myself (and my husband) for the goals we did manage to meet in the 1st year after baby being born (while having a little fun along the way). Some of these may not seem like a big deal but let me toot our horns a little:

• Bought our first house (1st for me anyway)
• Started re-building our emergency fund (Can we say “house down payment”? LOL!)
• Landscaped the neglected yard (my mom & hubby did this mostly) & had dead tree limbs trimmed around property
• Restored pool from pea-green to crystal clear (this was all hubby & his dad…and not an easy task!)

• Had safety fence installed around pool
• Put-up gazebo (With hubby of course!)

• Completed several projects around the house (but I won’t bore you with details)
• Visited Galveston, TX & New Orleans, LA
• Took the kids to Disney World during Halloween-time

• Visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Started MommyThoughts.com
• Started The Cemetery Project & met each monthly goal

• Went to a play (The Addams Family Musical!)
• Read a few books
• Started preparing for the zombie-apocalypse. (You think I kid…)

I’m sure there’s more, but I don’t want to spend too much time reflecting on 2011 because I’m ready to move on to the new year! But I think we did well, all things considered. I might be over-doing it with my 2012 goals. Isn’t it better to be ambitious than not? You guys won’t hold me accountable, will you? LOL! Some are financial goals, some are personal & some are just for fun. Here goes nothing (in no particular order):

• Pay off student loan
• Finish funding 6 month emergency fund
• Blog more
• Spend more time outdoors
• Plant a small garden
• Visit another country (or two!)
• Take the kids to Animal Kingdom
• Spend some one-on-one time with my stepson
• Visit a museum (either w/ the kids or w/out for “me” time!)
• Visit my godson (who lives out-of-state)
• Forgive a friend, and finally move on
• Replace our dilapidated old fence around backyard
• Get the kids in swim lessons
• Walk 3 times a week & hopefully lose the last 15lbs of baby weight
• Resume Roth IRA contributions
• Open Spousal IRA
• Invest in commodities
• Resume 529 Plan for Iain
• Open 529 Plan for Maia
• Finalize our estate plans
• Finish the painting I’ve been working on for…FOREVER!
• Start a new painting (hopefully a large-scale one)
• Complete The Cemetery Project (I’ll be sad when it ends!)
• Read more books
• Finish prepping…see “zombie-apocalypse” above!
• Get a new ‘do & donate hair if it’s long enough

OK, I think that is enough for one year! I have about a week until the new year so i’m going to spend it with my family NOT accomplishing anything. Here’s to another productive & fun year!

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!

Tags: accomplishments, experiences, New Year, Personal Finance, Resolutions, To-Do's
Filed under: Goals

As I type this, I can’t believe my little baby girl is already a year old! Where did the time go? Her birthday seemed ages away. Then you blink, and here we are! Baby’s 1st birthday!

We decided to keep Maia’s 1st Birthday small (just immediate family) for a few reasons: 1) Finances; 2) My stress level was high and I didn’t want to deal with throwing a big bash; 3) She’s 1…did we really need to go all out when she won’t even remember, not even a little bit?  No…so there!

Anyway, I still wanted it to be special, so I chose a sweet butterfly theme with light purple, light green, and pink as the color scheme. I bought a few party favors (hats & blowouts) which I put out on the table but forgot to tell everyone to grab. (Hosting is not my forte’!) Maia had her own toddler sized cake while guests had matching cupcakes & vanilla ice cream (which I also forgot to pull out of the freezer until everyone had already eaten their cupcakes! Better late than never, right? Doh!)

We started with present opening, which I have no photos of her doing because I was helping her open the presents. I’m sure someone took photos! She got some of the cutest things…clothes, her 1st doll house, a tea set, stuffed animals, etc.

Here she is playing with her 1st Doll House (from her Grandma).

We saved the cake for after presents. She dove right in, sticking her hand in the purple rose in the center of the cake.

Here’s the cake before. It got a little messed up around the edges on the drive home.

It was a good idea to put down a plastic table cloth. Easy clean-up!

Maia looking for our approval that it’s okay to keep doing this!

Mmm this is yummy!

Hey, how did my foot get in there?

Once she realized her hands were covered in frosting, she ran to me for rescue.

I knew I’d have to whisk her away to the bathtub once she was thoroughly covered in frosting. And she cried all the way through her bath. Oh well, she had fun for a little while!

The rest of Maia’s Birthday was spent just hanging out with the family and playing with all her new toys. Now that it’s over, I have to let it sink in that my baby is no longer a “baby” but is now a toddler.

How did that happen?!

Tags: Birthday, Celebration, Firsts
Filed under: Special Occasions

Apparently it’s been ages since I’ve posted, or even logged into my site. The last post I was working on, which I never finished, was Maia’s 9 month update!  Um, she just turned 1 two days ago!  Guess I’m not really good at this blogging thing.

Things are a little hectic these days. Well, they’ve been hectic for a while, but there doesn’t seem to be an end in site. Such is life, right? So, I am going to attempt to post on a more regular basis from this point forward.

Stay tuned for Maia’s 1st Birthday update. I should get around to it before she turns 2!

Tags: Updates
Filed under: Uncategorized

Maia is 9 months old, and I haven’t had to buy her any clothing. Well, I did buy her some preemie-sized clothing when she was first born, because obviously we didn’t anticipate having a preemie-sized baby and therefore had no clothing that fit her. But aside from that, all of her clothing has been gifted to us. My mother shipped me a huge box of my old baby clothes (some of which were her old baby clothes!). My mother-in-law and sister-in-law showed up with boxes of clothes they had bought at yard sales. And then of course there was the baby shower. We made sure to only register for a few choice articles of clothing because we already had a ton, but who can resist those cute little baby outfits in the stores?  So I found myself in a bit of a panic last week when I realized Maia had almost outgrown her current size and I didn’t have enough clothing in the next size up. But there was a silver lining in this (well, 2 actually!). 1) I get to go shopping! 2) I get to choose the clothing I like for my daughter!

Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with pink or designs like flowers & butterflies. I don’t even have any issues with “princess” clothing (gasp!). And I most certainly wouldn’t turn a gift away just because it’s not what I would have chosen for her. But if given the choice between something pink & frou-frou or something with, say, skulls on it…well, do I really need to answer that? I have seen very little alternative clothing in the stores, and what I have seen has been grossly over-priced. I refuse to pay $17 for a onesie because it’s black or leapord print or has a band name on it! Not gonna happen!

So when the children’s resale shop was having a huge sale the other weekend, I headed over with my fingers crossed hoping I could find something less typical than I expected. And much to my surprise, I found tons! I present to you the loot:

How cute is this skull design? Yes this was made specifically as a Halloween tee, but I shall be cheesy and quote Ministry (um, the band..in case you don’t know): Everyday is Halloween. Bwahahaha!

Considering I wasn’t expecting to find a whole lot, I think I did pretty well. I even bought a pink shirt, although that wasn’t what I was on a mission to find.

Maia loves her daddy, and this jacket proves it!

I also picked up 3 pairs of shoes…2 pairs of differently sized black mary janes, and these with black & white polka dots.

A week later I went back (tax-free weekend!) and found a few more things. Yay!

I’m so happy with what I found! I hope that I continue to have luck finding the style of clothing I like. You know….until she’s old enough to protest & choose the clothes she likes. Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll have my taste in clothing.

Sigh. I can dream, right?

Tags: Alternative, Clothing, Resale, Skulls, Tax-free Weekend
Filed under: Non-Traditional

We had our first family portraits taken during our stay-cation a couple of weeks ago. With an almost-four-year-old and a 6 month old, I can sum up the experience in one word: challenging! Iain had at least two melt-downs, and Maia decided she was extra hungry ahead of her feeding schedule and demanded her meal in between poses. Luckily, the photographer was very good at distracting both children and coaxing smiles out of them, even amongst the tears. Here are a few of my favorites.

The Engilis Family

 Iain

Maia

Big Brother & Little Sister

Daddy & Maia

Mommy &  Maia

Are We Done Yet?

That last one is just to show you how the day ended. Yup, those are tears in Iain’s eyes. The look on Maia’s face about sums it up!

I’m surprised we got as many good shots as we did. Thank goodness the photographer tried to make the experience as painless as possible…she worked fast!

Tags: Family, Photography, Portraits
Filed under: Firsts