Real Men Do the Dishes

Does your husband do the dishes?  Mine does and although he doesn't look happy about it in this picture, he really doesn't look this way the entire time he does them!  Plus, I am not sure anyone looks happy doing the dishes!  :-)

I told him what I had put as the caption to this picture on Instagram.  "Real men do dishes for their wives."  He said that he doesn't do it for me...he does it for himself.  It really doesn't matter WHY he does it or who he does it for.  The important thing is that he does them and that makes me happy.  Sure, I can do them and did do them for the time that he was gone.  But I didn't like it and missed the help.  He doesn't usually hand wash the dishes that can't or won't fit into the dishwasher.  Those wait for me. He unloads and then reloads the dishwasher.  He also puts the dishes away that are drying in the dish rack at times. 

He may not realize it, but he's doing it for our sons as well.  It's good that they see him doing things that may be seen as more of a "wife job."  I think it's important that our sons know that men can clean or do laundry or whatever else needs to be done.  Someday, their wives will thank us...especially their Daddy for showing them that it's not just HER place in the kitchen, but there's room for HIM to be in there as well!

Jan 6 - Skateboarding...or something like that!

It was such a nice day today that quite a few kids in the neighborhood were outside, including our 3!  The older boys were out with their skateboards, at least until they all went into one house to play video games.  They left those skateboards outside and the little kids took over.  ;-)

 The top photo is my photo of the day.  I love this picture!  This is so Colten.  He usually has no fear and just goes head first into everything he does.  I love his passion!

 He had so much fun and it was funny to watch him work those legs and arms to get himself moving. 

Not the sharpest picture, but a picture of a sharp boy!  I love this boy!

Some Love for the Doggie

 Today, I am sharing a couple of pictures.  Aiden was in a loving mood and decided to show that love to Abby.  Abby is 9 years old and is so laid back with our kids.  She just let him climb right up on her and hug her for several minutes.  When Aiden was done, he got off and just walked off.  She stayed there and fell asleep.  I love that she is so good with our kids and that our kids love her so much!  

Abby has been an awesome dog.  We love her so much and as she gets older, it makes me sad to see the lumps get bigger and her slow down.  She was our first "kid!"  Of course, I wish she would show our other furry kid how to calm down!  :-)  I do have to say that Koa has had this same exact treatment recently and has reacted the same way Abby did. 

Indoor Picnic

Tonight, we ate dinner in the living room, picnic style.  The kids love doing this.  We watched America's Funniest Home Videos while eating and even pulled Aiden's chair in.  Of course, he threw food on the floor, but I knew those crumbs would be cleaned up as soon as we let the dogs downstairs. 

Ok, yeah, the kids like to do it, but that's not the real reason.  If you look closely, you'll see the embroidery machine still on the table in the background.  Yep, I didn't want to clean it all up and move it to another spot, so we ate in the living room.  Hehehehe. 

Hey, it doesn't matter WHY we did it, just that we did!  :-D

Jan 2 - Learning Something New

Tonight, I am up later than I wanted because of this machine.  People, let's just say that when you gasp at the price that people charge to embroider, know that they deserve EVERY. SINGLE. PENNY just by learning how to use the damn machine.  Yes, and I totally cursed on here.  That is just how frustrating it can be!

You'll be happy to know, or either you don't care and you thought I'd actually post interesting pictures on here, that I did get it working.  No, you can't see because it's not the best and I am still working out the kinks.  (Read: it looks crappy and I'm too embarrassed to show it off after hours of trying to figure the thing out!)

So, tomorrow, this will again be on and I will waste yet another old t-shirt.  :-) 

Jen, my friend, you will have your machine figured out soon.  I promise!  Oh, but I will be borrowing it anytime I want!  LOL

Yep! I'm gonna do it! DAY 1 of 365

This is the year!  I'm going to try, no strike that, I am DOING IT!  I am going to post a picture each and every day of 2012.  Yes, I know that it's been more than 3 months since I posted anything on here.  However, I am determined to document our lives by posting at least one picture a day!  Maybe at the end of 2012, I'll make a book and turn it into a tradition.  We'll see. 

Already, 2012 is starting out much better than 2011.  Last year, we were facing Brian's 3rd year long deployment to Iraq.  He spent almost all of 2011 away from us and it was pretty tough in so many ways.  However, we made it and now 2012 will be a year of staying put!  Well, staying put in Army terms...which means he may be gone here or there for training or something, but he won't be deployed.

So, for the first picture, I wanted to post the very first picture of us together in 2012.  Ok, there MAY have been a couple of outtakes, but those don't count.  hehehe

Here's to a deployment-free year, a year of family and a year of fun. 

Oh, and I have two other resolutions...
1.  lose weight and get back into shape.  The last year has not been good to my body.  Stress and stress-eating has taken it's toll.  Brian and I are starting P90X again tomorrow (we want our "off day" to be on Sundays).  I also have my gym membership, so I'll do my cardio there on the days that I can with the kids' schedule.  This will be the year of fitness!

2.  pay off debt.  Brian and I saved a lot of his deployment money over the year and addition to a trip to Disney World (which the kids know nothing about until we pull through those Mickey Gates!) we are paying off my van and stacking payments on other debts.  This would be the reason Brian didn't get his motorcycle and he is excited to see the light at the end of our debt tunnel.  It's not big when compared to some people, but it's more than we should have. 

So, there it is, people.  Our New Year written out.  2012 will be awesome!

Touch of Sun - I Heart Faces Challenge

This week is the Touch of Sun theme over at I Heart Faces. I know I just posted this photo, but I iimmediately thought of it when I saw the theme. I haven't been doing much entering because life just kind of takes over, but since I had just shot this photo, I figured I would try and put it in. Of course, I have tried to publish this entry more times than I can count, so I'm not even sure if it will post at this point. Crossing my fingers and pushing "Publish!" Hope this works!

Head on over to the I Heart Faces webite for more sunny photos - www.iheartfaces.com