Life Within the Cuckoo's Nest: Happy New Year!! Welcome 2019!

Happy New Year and Cheers to 2019!!!

We had a wonderful New Years Eve this year! It was the first year we really involved the kids and made it a family event. Usually we tuck them into bed early and Josh and I enjoy a fun night of games and whatnot. But the kids are getting older and we felt that they would be able to understand the whole New Years thing this year.

The kids and I spent the day at the dollar store getting decorations and then at the grocery store buying all the food we could think of to make our evening celebration great! Which of course included multiple bottles of Martinelli's and individual champagne flutes that said 2019 on them that we found at the dollar store! The kids were in heaven as they felt so cool with their special drinks!

When Dad walked through the door from work, the kids ambushed him with silly string and confetti poppers! It was such a fun way to kick off the evening and get everyone in a silly mood! Then we set out all the food on the table, popped open our sparkling grape juice, and spent the night watching movies, playing games, building legos, and eating! I had thought we might be able to make it to midnight this year but the kids started getting grumpy just in time to count down with the folks in New York on the TV so we called it a night at that point and tucked our kiddos into bed.

Josh and I stayed up after that and had a relaxing evening together. We talked about our hopes and dreams for this upcoming year and all the things we are grateful for... it was the perfect ending to the perfect year. Seriously, I was so sad to see 2018 disappear from sight. Despite losing the baby, it was the perfect year! We did SO MUCH TRAVELING! And we lived every day as if it were our last! I've spent every night over the past week looking through pictures of this amazing year and crying myself to sleep with gratitude! Life since 2015 hasn't been easy, but 2018 made it all worth it! It almost makes me scared of 2019 because I don't know if anything could ever top the previous year and the last thing I want is to suffer like those horrible years past.... But I am putting my faith in God and that he knows what is best for me and my family. "Que sera, sera...." right?

My word for 2019 is Peace. I want to spend this year finding peace in my life. In my heart, in my soul, in my longings. I want to slow down and enjoy the beauty around me; my children, my husband, my home and community. Teaching yoga taught me so many things, but mostly it taught me to slow down and focus on what is in front of me. To live in the moment. So that is what I am going to do this year, and it is going to be amazing! Goodbye 2018, and thank you for EVERYTHING! and Welcome 2019! May you be fabulous and fortunate!! :)

Since Austin still had a couple days left of his Christmas Break before he headed back to school, we decided to finish off the week in Logandale with my Mom. She and I haven't seen eye to eye for a while now and there has been more fighting than kindness and love. But since I am striving for peace this year, I knew we needed to fix this. So we drove out there and spent a couple days in the country. The kids played outside all day every day jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, and playing with the neighborhood kids. And when it got dark, I called them in and we all happily made dinner together. The kids had a blast peeling carrots and chopping up celery for our homemade chicken noodle soup (which tastes amazing by the way) and Grandma loved having the company! She has been so lonely and lost since the divorce and it was so apparent how much she needed this. She and I had a HUGE blow up the first night we were there that had me crying until 3am and wondering what the hell had possessed me to go visit her in the first place! But the next day we worked it out and things were good after that. Like I said, there is a lot of stuff we have been needing to work on in our relationship but she and I struggle big time with communication. So we will keep trying and pray that God graces us with enough patience to figure it all out.

Visiting the mini horses that live next door! They are so dang cute!

Grandma trying to teach Austin how to ride his bike without training wheels! It's a work in progress and he asked to put his training wheels back on after this haha! But we will get there someday!

Playing in the desert.... It brings back so many childhood memories of my own.

Helping make dinner!

After that, we headed home and life went back to normal. Evie went back to Dance class and preschool, Austin went back to school, and Mom went back to work. It has been a struggle getting back into the swing of things this past week, but we are getting it figured out :).