Ringing in the New Years, Making Resolutions, and Searching for a Needle in a Haystack!

Wow... even though it is January now and life has slowed down considerably, it is still so hard to sit down and find time to write! So I'm hoping the kids will stay asleep long enough for me to write this... :)


We rang in the New Year down at my parents' house this year and had a great time! Greg had to work until 6:00 (of course), so we didn't get down there until about 8:00. We just hung out, ate pizza and lots of yummy desserts (by the cuter version of Martha Stewart - my mom), and watched some Brian Regan. (For those of you who have never heard of him, he's a funny comic and his humor is pretty clean. Here's a clip from youtube if you want to check it out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj9KUwSGKOs.) The guys then went downstairs to watch a movie, leaving us with three HYPER boys (Ty was in bed by this point). My mom and I decided that the only way to calm them down was to put a movie in... Ha ha, boy, were we fooled! That did NOT settle them down! If anything, I think it just got Aiden and Gavin more worked up! :) By 11:30, Connor and I were asleep... and the little boys were still going strong! Wow... Anyway, my family woke me up before 12:00 where we all said Happy New Years (as lively as we could for all being exhausted), and we rang in the New Year by drinking some Mormon bubbly and eating MORE of my mom's dessert! We then spent the night at my parent's house and none of us (not even Ty!) woke up until 10:00 the next morning. It was heavenly! I think the last time I did that was before Gavin was born...


As for my New Years resolutions, I feel like there is so much I need to change in my life right now that it was hard to narrow them down! But I think I have it down to 3 now, so here they are:

#1 - I am going to cook more! Fast food gets really old really fast, and my family is getting sick of frozen pizzas! :) Plus, there is the ever lingering 5 pounds on me, and maybe eating healthier will help that. (Or maybe I just need to get my enlarged behind on the treadmill again!)

#2 - I am going to FINISH getting organized. :) This was actually my New Years resolution last year, and I got about halfway through my house and stopped. So I need to finish! Especially because we will probably be moving this year and I refuse to throw random things in random boxes like I did with our last move. :)

#3 - Gavin is going to get potty trained! (And if I have it my way, it will be by spring.) I cannot even tell you my level of frustration with this child right now because he absolutely refuses to go potty in the toilet. I am feeling very out of ideas, but fortunately, I went to the Gavin's three-year check-up today and the doctor gave me some good ideas, so let's pray for a miracle!


As for what we've been up to since New Years, it's all a blur in my mind! All I remember is a lot of cars. :) Let me explain... Over the weekend, we decided to start looking for a commuter car since Greg starts his new job on the 14th. (And trust me, this car search was a whole new experience for us. We used to buy cars through our brother-in-law up in Idaho, but he and Greg's sister are getting dicorced now and we refuse to support his business. So this is the first time since we got married that we have bought a new car on our own.) Anyway, we just wanted to find a car and be done with it. The only problem is we were dead set on a 4-Door, automatic Honda Civic under 100,000 miles for a decent price. And after 4 days of straight searching, we came to the conclusion that this was seriously like searching for a needle in a haystack! We came across a lot of Civics that were exactly what we wanted, but since Hondas hold their value so well, they were always out of our price range. We seriously drove through car lot after car lot from Sunday until Wednesday, and I swear, if we have to talk to another car salesman again, I just might blow a gasket (wow, I'm even speaking in car lingo now, this is scary!). Well finally, Greg pulled up KSL's listings for the bazillionth time on Wednesday night and found one in Spanish Fork that was exactly what we wanted, even with leather! We really didn't want to waste gas driving all the way down to Utah County for the second time in one week if it wasn't the right car for us, but we both felt really good about it so we decided to head down there yesterday morning. And fortunately, it turned out to be great! No big problems to speak of and it was still in our price range. Plus, the guy selling it was a mechanic so that made us feel better since he had done an inspection on the whole thing. Anyway, there is a picture of it. And seriously, I am so happy to be done with it! I honestly think I may keep my Envoy for the next five years just so I don't have to deal with finding a car again... What a joke!

Well, that's all for now. Life is good, even somewhat boring now that the holidays and car search are over! But I'll take boring any day over driving through car lot after car lot after car lot......... Until next time! -Ash (I posted more pictures of New Years below...)

Tyler's excitement for the New Year (even though he went to bed at 9:30)! :)

What cute cousins! (Despite Gavin and Aiden's funny faces...)

Gavin and Aiden, still wide awake at 12:00! (While Connor sleeps in the background... smart kid!)