35 Things To Do In 2012

I never set New Year’s resolutions.
I’ve tried in the past and have always failed…
so why bother.
Last year, my darling friend Katie compiled a list of “Things To Do” in lieu of writing Resolutions.
I find this idea to be genius and am therefore copying her.

Some of my “things” are long term or recurring projects.
other “things” are short term, one time deals.
but everything on my list is totally do-able
and I WILL do everything on my list in 2012.

1. make eggs benedict
2. no sweets for one month
3. go on a hike
4. make and print 50 recipe cards
5. try one new recipe a week
6. write one blog post a day for a month
7. send 10 thank you cards for no real reason
8. read 30 books
9. complete an act of service every month
10. sew an article of clothing
11. fit into “those jeans” again
12. have family pictures taken
13. send out Christmas Cards
14. take a spinning class
15. Find a chocolate chip cookie recipe TJ actually likes
16. go on a picnic
17. go to the temple once a week for one month
18. Find a name to take to the temple
19. read the whole book of mormon
20. save up to buy something I want
21. create a grocery budget
22. never go to bed with a dirty kitchen for a month
23. Make my bed every day for a month
24. get a hair cut
25. one day a month with no internet
26. Throw a party
27. Try a new restaurant
28. floss daily for 21 days
29. Print pictures to finish Riker’s clock
30. hang a picture of Christ in home
31. donate old clothes to goodwill
32. Make homemade baby food
33. make something with my cricut
34. Create something to display in home
35. move to arizona

Happy 2012!

2011: A Look Back

January: TJ turned 27 and Riker turned 1!

February: Annual Super Bowl Party

March: Warmer weather = lots of trips to the park

April: Neighborhood Easter egg hunt

May: The beginning of our summer in AZ

June: Riker was stung by not one but TWO bees!

July: My sister Summer got married!

August: Lisa turned 26

September: Riker’s first trip to the ER

October: Halloween party

November: Playing in the fall leaves daily

December: Olivia was born!

2011 was full of fun activities.
Choosing just one picture for each month was difficult…there were just so many memories!

2012 promises to be a year of change for our family.
a few things that I’m definitely looking forward to include:
TJ graduating from law school and our little family moving back to Az.

I can’t wait to see what else 2012 brings!

Toot Sweet

Olivia is four weeks old today.
Four weeks!
I know, I can hardly believe it myself.
She continues to be the prettiest little girl ever…
even when she toots.
And since Olivia seems to be the gassiest baby ever,
we see her cute toot faces quite often.

if only we all looked this cute when we were tooting!

Christmas Day 2011

Riker is still too young to wake up crazy early on Christmas morning.
However, after being up all night with a newborn, 7:30am feels way too early!
Riker woke up asking for cookies
(he was very distraught the night before when we left the cookies out for Santa…Riker really didn’t want to share his cookies!).
We finally convinced him that presents were better than cookies, so we headed downstairs to open our gifts.

  

Riker’s reaction to opening presents was perfect.
Each time he was handed a new gift, he would loudly exclaim “what is it!?” over and over.
And once the present was opened, he wanted to play with it right away and didn’t care that there were more gifts to open!

Thanks to our parents, TJ and I both received very generous gifts.

  

And we can’t forget about Miss Olivia.
She scored some sweet gifts too, even though she might not seem to care.

The rest of our day was spent lounging around in our new pajamas, playing with new toys, and eating the candy from Riker’s stocking while he napped.

We missed all our family, but enjoyed spending a quiet Christmas with our little family.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is my favorite.
I think I love Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day.
My family has a fiesta every Christmas Eve, complete with a pinata.
since TJ and I decided to stay in Columbus this year, I wanted to recreate some of my family’s traditions.
I bought all the groceries to make a delicious Mexican dinner…
and around noon on Christmas eve, I realized that I forgot to start cooking it.
Since it takes about 12 hours to cook, we needed a plan b.

And that’s how we ended up eating Christmas Eve dinner at Macaroni Grill.
I had no idea so many people ate out on Christmas Eve.

My mom decided to start a new tradition for Christmas Eve this year…
ugly Christmas sweaters.
We participated via Skype.

TJ’s is a ladies turtleneck sweater.
be jealous.
Unfortunately, none of our ugly sweaters won…
Mike’s sweater had a leg lamp on it, so you know he had to win.

When we were tired of wearing our ugly sweaters, it was time to open our pajamas from Mrs. Claus.
Riker was not so excited about his gift
(I guess pajamas aren’t that exciting to an almost two year old)
but he loved ripping the paper.

Robot pajamas for Riker…

and OSU pajamas for TJ and Lisa!

Olivia got pajamas too
(but her’s are from Grandma lewis…not Mrs. Claus)

Her jammies were a tad bit too big for her
but she looked adorable nonetheless!

 

Oh, and check our Riker’s sweet Rudolph slippers
(courtesy of Grandma Lewis!)
He thought he was so cool walking around in them!

Merry Christmas from the Griers!

Cookies For Santa

Riker hasn’t fully grasped the concept of Christmas yet.
He knows what a Christmas tree is and will point out all the Christmas lights…
but ask him about Santa and he’ll give you a blank stare.
So in an effort to help Riker understand who Santa is, we decided to bake cookies to leave out on Christmas Eve.

Fun fact: the Grier’s do not own cookie cutters so we used a Halloween cup to cut out our Christmas cookies

Fun fact: Riker refused to pick up the cookie himself because it was “messy”…yet he didn’t care when his face was messy!

And where was Olivia during all this cookie baking?
Chillin’ on the couch.
Looking adorable.

Fun fact: when we put out a plate of cookies and glass of milk for Santa before bed tonight, Riker had a major meltdown…
he was not happy that he didn’t get to eat the cookies himself.
I don’t think he’s a fan of Santa.

Hooray for Visitors!

My baby sister Jessica came to visit for a few days.
She wanted to come hang out with me…
and play with Riker…
and check out baby Olivia.

She definitely got some quality time with Olivia,
helping to snuggle and feed and change her stinky diapers.

The timing of Jessica’s visit was perfect.
Since Christmas is just a few days away, I desperately needed to do some shopping…
and since I’m terrified of even attempting to leave the house with both kids by myself, Jessica was my special little helper.

We made a stop in Macys to write letters to Santa.
Jessica’s letter was extra special…

Thanks for coming to visit, Caca!
We miss you already!

The Year We Stole Christmas

There has been a serious lack of Christmas spirit in the Grier household this year.
No decorations. No holiday music. Nothing.
All of this changed, however, when our neighbors went to visit family for Christmas.
Our neighbors had all sorts of Christmas spirit.
Even though they weren’t planning to stay in Ohio for Christmas, their house was fully decorated.
They even had a TREE!

TJ drove these neighbors to the airport on Saturday…
and on Sunday, we stole their Christmas tree!

My baby sister Jessica was in town visiting
so I made her decorate our newly acquired tree.

In addition to our tree, we hung lights and ornaments in the window and a wreath on the door.
We are so festive, I know!

Riker is starting to grasp the concept of Christmas and gets excited when he sees Christmas trees, lights, and snowmen.
he is already anxious to open all the presents.
Hopefully we can keep them wrapped until Christmas day!