Mommy&Me

Recently I realized that I have a TON of pictures of Cora. I don't think you can have too many pictures of this sweet little girl. Nope not possible. But the sad part? I have almost no pictures of the two of us together. I am always taking pictures of her or her and daddy. So I decided I needed some pictures of the two of us. Ben took them for me and I think they turned out great. I LOVE MY LITTLE GIRL. Isn't she a doll?

My Pretty Surprise

Ok, let's get one thing straight. Saturdays are MY day. Every other day Ben is caught up with work, school, and other obligations. Well this weekend, school took over yet again: I was not a happy camper! Then when Ben wasn't home from studying an hour after he said he would, I was starting to get cranky. I called him to see if he was still coming home or what and he told me that he still hadn't gotten all of his stuff done. Although I was frustrated, I told him not to worry I would find something to do (yes I was pouting). Then two minutes later I walk out of my room to find this:

 What a sneaky boy! I was sure excited about the surprise though! My favorite flowers and fudge. I am so lucky.

Ode to Jimmer

Taxes

In case you were wondering, I am not a fan of taxes. And to make it worse Turbo Tax just wasted half of my day...seriously. I was on the phone with technical support for over two hours (not to mention the time it took me to get their phone number--try to find it on their website, I dare you) and they were still unable to get my issue resolved. Hate them. And the only reason our call ended after two hours was because I had a screaming, hungry, wet baby and had to go. What did I get for all my troubles? A free download of the Deluxe Edition of TurboTax & hopefully a reimbursed for the $30 I paid to efile my state taxes. Totally not worth my time.

Perfection

So yesterday, after much debate I decided to go to class (I had NO motivation to do anything let alone sit in a typically boring class for an hour and a half) and I am glad that I did. We were talking about the quote "I think therefore I am" and its origin--Descartes was sitting one day trying to decide what he could actually know for himself and basically the thing he came up with was that he was capable of thought so he knew he must exist. From this topic we moved to Descartes belief in the existence of God. He said "Consider your human experience. Does anything within any aspect of your life rise to perfection?" The obvious answer here is no. Perfection is not a feature of earthly life; there are flaws in EVERYTHING. How then do we as humans come up with this idea of perfection? It is because God exists that we can be aware of perfection! I thought that this was really insightful for me and helped me realize that I need to stop trying to make things perfect in my life because NOTHING in this earthly life is perfect! I am grateful to know that one day I will be able to return and live with my Heavenly Father and know what perfection truly is.

Bath Toys

Cora finally got some new bath toys and as you can see, she throughly enjoyed them.

Birthday

A few days ago we celebrated this guy's birthday:

Cora got to eat some of Daddy's cake, you can tell it was a moment of pure joy.

Ok so we found our dream home:

8 bedrooms
4 bathrooms
huge kitchen/living area
garage with workbench
LOTS of storage
chicken coop out back
& a slide from the deck.

Even more significant: ITS IN OUR PRICE RANGE!

The catch? There are two other offers on the dang thing.

SO, we will be waiting on pins and needles to hear back from the bank.

Can you say stressed/nervous/exited/amillionotheremotions?

Just got my butt kicked by Jillian Michaels. Just thought you all should know. That lady is a crazy one.

New Year's Resolution

What is my New Year's resolution you ask (ok you probably don't really care, I think this is more for my benefit)...no its not eating healthier, or to lose ten pounds, or to work out everyday (although those would all be great for me)...its budgeting. As you all know I suck at this. I tried to put a budget in place several months back but our circumstances changed and I never changed our budget and overall it didn't work. Its not like I ever spend too much money, or don't get the bills paid. The problem is I by things and always feel guilty about it! With a budget in place (its going to have to be cash based for groceries/dates/gas/ect) I will hopefully be able to shop worry free. I will know exactly how much money I have and won't be able to spend more than I had planned because I will only be able to use the cash I have. I hope this works because worrying about money is not fun! And it is a constant struggle for me. I don't know why I worry so much, but it is one thing that consumes me. Probably more than you all needed/wanted to know. But there it is. Written in stone (not really). Ready, set, go.

dadduh

Cora loves her dad. I mean seriously. All day she babbles dadduh, dadduh, dadduh...papuh, papuh, papuh. Its not like she doesn't know the difference between momma and daduh either. I mean she does on occasion (ok, only when she is mad or extremely upset) scream mommamamamomma. But when she is happy...always dadduh.

You can bet she's got her dadduh wrapped around her tiny little fingers too.

Cora's Christmas Pictures

 Cora sucking on her Christas ornament as if it was her bottle.

 Not to happy to be having her Christmas pictures taken...

 Thanks Ben for trying to look decent in this picture...

 The snow globe that great grandma and grandpa Jardine got for Cora. It blows snow and sings Christmas carols which she loved!

 The piano Cora got from Grandma and Grandpa Spalding. I think it is so funny how she explores things with her one finger!

 The little ham with all of her presents on Christmas morning.

 I am pretty sure this tractor was her favorite gift. Thanks grandma and papa Hoopes!

 She also enjoyed the loud toys daddy picked out for her.

 Obviously the baby doll was not a big hit this year...

 But she did love driving the little "car" that Aunt Jamie got for her.

 Cora looking stylish in the socks, mittens, and hat her great grandma Marilyn made for her.