3/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015"

Peyton: best big brother, but slightly creeper-ish here ;)
Lia: she's refusing photos so like any good mother, I'm getting the best ones I can {insert sarcasm}
Austyn: relaxing after school.
Tayt: too much attitude for one little body.
Nash: too interested in older brothers videos.
Drew: even more attitude in her little body.
Meg: completely normal morning.
Will: he thinks he's hilarious, cruising.

2/52

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015"

Peyton: forever obsessed with his Xbox.
Lia: forever dodging the camera.
Austyn: forever loving the camera.
Tayt: lounging preteen like.
Nash: ready for bed.
Drew: one of my favorites. when she's excited she does this with her hand. beyond adorable.
Meg: cheeks.
Will: blues. 

a couple days late, butttt adorable just the same ;)

another one bites the dust

Drew is at the age where she naps mayyyybe every other day. This in no way means she does not *need* a nap. Lord knows she could use a nap every day. By the end of said days where no nap is in her schedule, she falls asleep quite quickly. Not to be heard from until morning when the kids wake for school. 

Sunday was just one of these days. Drew went without a nap. Later in the afternoon she went  missing. I couldn't remember the last time I saw her so Lia and I went to find her.

She could have been painting her nails. Playing quietly with her new Frozen dolls. Coloring. Buttttt... 

curled up. sleeping on top of a foldable tv tray. strangest place to find one of my kids sleeping to date. and funniest!

1/52

As a clean start for 2015, I'm starting over with #the52project. Inspiration found here!

Last year I ended at week 11. I'm going to blame that entirely on Will, #ochosmith  ;)

I love looking back at them so much. It's also very painful. They're growing, right before my eyes... okay, maybe this is a *terrible* idea. Kidding! It is amazing to look back through them :)

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015"

Peyton: Nash is his biggest buddy, but I catch him with the littlest ones a lot. Melts my heart.
Lia: This one. This one is straight up a teenager. Eek.
Austyn: Girly, girl. Through and through. (pretty hair courtesy of aunt Mal)
Tayt: Heart throb in the making. And currently growing his hair back out. 
Nash: Currently obsessed with Legos.
Drew: I was going to post an amazing, beautiful, innocent photo of this one. But it's totally inaccurate. While she is amazing and beautiful, she is *not* innocent, and this is 100% a better portrayal of her personality.  (pretty hair courtesy of aunt Mal)
Meg: Oh brown eyes, you are the light of our days. And also quite a challenge. (pretty hair courtesy of aunt Mal)
Will: Under the weather lately, but smiling (and napping) through.

intentional

well, hello 2015! jumped right out of nowhere, didn'tcha. and now it's almost a week in and I'm still thinking about what to blog about. yes, with 8 children, we have a lot I could be blogging about. but a lot of it that I don't.

I'm rather disappointed to read my resolutions from 2014 and have the same feelings. I'm taking that as a "pull it together, Courtney!"  :|

moving right along...

my sister, Casey, has a great post on her blog currently regarding being the 8% this 2015 year. she has seriously inspired me when it comes to blogging and doing better overall. while watching the video she posted, I came to the conclusion that I need to 1) have less 'goals' and 2) have an ongoing list of these goals so I can move from one goal to the next once one is complete. SSSOOO here goes:

ONE
live intentional:
I want more than anything to be present in my daily life with the kids. More often than not I'm distracted by blogging, Instagramming, people I have no control over, situations I have no control over, why I'm not getting enough done around the house, why I'm so unorganized, why why why, why not why not why not, blah blah blahhhh... 

I'm not sure how to clear these distractions, but I'm going to give it my all. Less worrying aimlessly. Less for others, more for my family. I realize that sounds completely selfish as I also want to be able to serve and help others more because I think we're all called to help others in some way, BUT I think in order to serve others, you need to have your faith and family in check first. SO... I need to be much more intentional about all time and energy used.

TWO
read:
part 1: I ran across this Bible reading plan, printed it, and I'm diving right in. I don't like to put it out there that I'm attempting to read the Bible (again actually... only made er half way last year), but I feel as though if I don't put it out there, I'll never finish it.  so attempt two, in full swing.

part 2: "book club!" This was probably a coffee morning idea with the sisters, but we just recently picked a second book. Mallory picked and finished the first pick... first... but she's a cheater so we're not really counting it ;) 

book club: the idea is to pick a book, read it in a month, and who ever finishes first gets Starbucks or a meal out (to be determined)... on the others...  again, Mal is a cheater ;) you need to do laundry and dishes in addddddition to reading, not instead of... Meow! ;)

feel free to join along with us:
month 1) Mal's pick: Dave Ramsey's, The Total Money Makeover
month 2) Renee's pick: R.J. Palacio's, Wonder
(picking order is youngest to oldest)

This goal didn't go so well last year. I read 2 and almost a half books. :| that's progress, right? ;) I'm half way through the book club pick. I'm a slacker, but I have good intentions. I'd like to read more and nap less, because in all honesty... naps are rare for me these days because coordinating naps for the little 3 is rare :(

anddd
three
organize:
(there will probably be a million parts to this, but I'll start with only a couple... baby steps people!) :)
part 1: counters
I'm continuing with the "organize" again this year. This is usually an epic fail for me. Almost daily. In an attempt to take this baby steps at a time as well, part one of this 'journey' is going to be the counter. Decluttering. Tossing papers. Wiping it down daily. You know, all the things I should be doing daily regardless of everything else going on around here. Der.

part 2: office
My office was intended to be the organizational hub of our house/household. It most certainly is not that currently. This one is going to take some time, and I realize that. But I'd like for this to be an entire year long goal. Anything in this house that we don't know what to do with... goes in the office. I may have come to the realization that it may mean we don't necessarily neeeeeeed any of the things in that blasted office. The entirety of that office hasn't been seen in a year so why have it? I can't remember where I read it, but it really struck a chord... and it went something like this: if you lost your home tomorrow, what would you pay to replace. I came to the quick realization there isn't much I would want to replace.

so I'll end this post with this line from last years post because this sums up my 'resolutions' almost perfectly ;)

There are some things I want to continue working on, some things I want to start working on, and some things I maybe want to quit working on.

here's to a wonderful 2015!