New Year But Same Old Us

We're here! That's a good announcement for the new year, isn't it?
We're doing our regular routines of teaching, going to kindergarten and preschool and church on Sundays.
We're still learning about life and being rambunctious and trying to make it through each day with some semblance of living and not just surviving. (Wall-E quote: "I don't want to survive, I wanna LIVE!")
Oliver has been overly involved in trying to see the most birds in Tooele County in 2013 that he can. He's taken us with him a few times and he's had some good luck in finding different birds, except for the rosy finches. We found a group on December 28th, but when Oliver went back on January 1st, 2nd or 3rd. He's a little sad about that.
Oliver has also played his trumpet with the high school band at two of the basketball games.
While we've been family history consultants for several months now, it wasn't until this past Sunday that we've had the burning desire to do some research and have stayed up late two nights in a row being detectives and being successful in such things. My mom has talked to me for a very long time as I have questions and she searches through her many files of family history paperwork. It's been amazing.
As far as new year resolutions go, I wrote some down and have been working on some(successfully!). My focus for resolutions this year was that there would be a reason behind the things I was resolving. To give an idea, I have successfully read my scriptures every morning since the 1st of January. I've also successfully written in a gratitude every night since the 1st. These two things are doing some nice things. The scripture reading is helping me be more focused on a multitude of things: my own spiritual awareness, my knowledge of the scriptures and the gospel, and my children. It makes me step outside of myself and be focused on the boys because I don't immediately turn the TV on for Evan when he wants it and I don't bury my head in the computer all day long like I would before. The gratitude journal is helping me be a better record keeper for my daily life, but it also helps me try to focus on the good things during the day a little more. Knowing that I want to write about things at the end of the day helps me pay attention during the day. During our nightly family prayer, we ask everyone to share something they are thankful for from that day (Thanks Charlie & Chelsea for introducing this concept to us, I am really enjoying it!) and so I will also write down what Ryan said that night in my gratitude journal. It's been interesting to see the variety of things important to a 4 year old at the end of the day.
On Monday, through a long Facebook "conversation", it was determined that I would start to participate in a health challenge with 2 sisters, a brother, a sister in law and my mom. Oliver decided he could to. It's been interesting to see some of the challenges effects just over a few days, and to also see how much I crave sugar. But my efforts to make sure I get a certain number of servings of fruits and vegetables makes it easier for Ryan and even Evan to have more servings than normal as well. A great blessing, at least at this moment in the challenge.
So 2013 has been good so far. Despite the very cold single digit temperatures causing us to have our water heater overflow and then all the water to not work all in 3 days time frame, we're extra grateful for at least living in a home where we can complain about the loss of warmth. We're also grateful for all the new things coming this year, getting a new house and then getting to make important decisions about what we can afford to adorn said house and whats the most important, etc. And every year brings new adventures whether we choose them or not. So excited to see what 2013 will give us.