Today I'm Thankful For...

1. The "gym floor" in our apartment. 15 degrees was too cold to ride scooters outside so we rolled up the rug and let the girls ride down the hallway into the living room area. When Lillian saw the wood floor exposed she exclaimed, "It's gym time!" (also grateful to Uncle Alan and Aunt Aimee for getting Lil her scooter for Christmas, which prompted Mommy and Daddy to get a 3-wheelie scooter for Syd as well- they LOVE riding them!)

2. Good advice. And Thomas S. Monson, who is full of good advice like this: "be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly. Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family." More is here.

3. The 6 1/2 hours of [mostly] uninterrupted sleep that I got last night!!

A Good Book is a Girl's Best Friend...

A group of great ladies recently responded to one of my FB posts asking for good book suggestions. Now I have a lot of reading to do (the bold titles are ones I've already read)! If you have any more suggestions, fiction or non-fiction, please let me know!!

Book List

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

These is my words

Sarah's Quilt

The Star Garden

Rapunzel's Revenge by Hale

Calamity Jack by Hale

The Princess Academy

Ender's Game

The Maze Runner (trilogy)

The Giver, Gathering Blue, and The Messenger by Lois Lowry

Books of Bayern series (Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born)

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Help

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Bossypants by Tina Fey

The Forgotten Garden

Pillars of the Earth

Molokai

Last Lecture

The Girls from Ames

Phillippa Gregory

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Blind Your Ponies by Stanley West Gordon

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde,

In the Garden of Beasts

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Red Princess Series by Lisa See

River of times series by Lisa Bergren

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Pathfinder by Orson Scott card

Water for Elephants

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl who Played with Fire

The Girl who kicked the Hornets Nest
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich (18 books in the series)
My Sister's Keeper
Twilight Series
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Eat, Pray, Love
Bridgett Jones' Diary
Stones Into Schools
Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cuxin

Author List

Anne Perry

Emily Griffin

Jane green and Jennifer Werner

Nicholas sparks

Shannon Hale

Sharon Shinn

Dresden Files

Marr and Armstrong

Melissa Marr

Jim Butcher

Sharon Shinn

Kelley Armstrong

Karen White
Malcome Gladwell

Today I'm Thankful For...

1. Lillian's teacher asking how she's been doing. At our parent-teacher conference before Christmas I told her that Lillian has been having a hard time since Liam was born- more temper tantrums, emotional episodes, more clingy, being stubborn, disagreeable...all that fun stuff. Her behavior hasn't changed at school, but I'm grateful that her teacher cares about her enough to think about her outside of the classroom and to ask me how she's feeling.

2. Sydney's creative vocabulary. She calls blueberries boo-boo-blerries. I love hearing her say it so much that I try to get her to say it by holding a blueberry in front of her and asking, "Sydney, what's this??" She says, "Boo-boo-blerry!" then gives me her look that says, "duh, Mom."

3. Pretzels and Nutella. What a delicious combination!

4. Liam's chunkiness. He has fat rolls on his legs and he's already in some of his 3 month outfits! I tried to fit him into a cute 0-3 month church suit my mom bought him for Christmas and I couldn't stretch the shirt across his big belly to button it! After worrying so much about Lilly and Sydney's weight it's awesome to have a big kid!

5. My parents for enduring a hotdog and mac 'n cheese dinner with me and the girls tonight so they could help me while Bobby is on call; my dad for teaching Lillian about the stars, the planets, the sun, and the moon; my mom for washing and putting away all of my dishes so I can go to bed tonight not feeling stressed about waking up in the morning to a dirty kitchen.

6. Bobby who sang Lillian a lullaby over the phone and talked to her to calm her down and help her fall asleep. I know Lilly misses her daddy when he's on call, and I think that's often why she acts a bit on the difficult side. I'm grateful that Bobby is willing to take the time to give her the love and attention that she needs.

Gratitude Attitude

2012 is going to be tough. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, just realistic. The second half of Bobby's intern year is looking difficult with two months of general surgery and another month of ortho, both of which are very demanding. Then ortho PGY-2 starts this summer, which everyone says is harder than intern year. Bobby will have at least one two-month away rotation in the summer. He won't be too far away, but the program will be putting him up in a one bedroom apartment- not too sure how convenient that will be for a family of five. In 2012 we're also looking at another move. Thankfully it won't be far, just a mile or two across the county line (into a much better school district for Lillian who will be starting kindergarten in September!!) but it still means packing and hauling and trying to fit our stuff into another small apartment.

So to try and keep a positive outlook on the year I've decided to keep a "Gratitude Journal" in which I'll write three things I'm thankful for each day. Here's my first entry:

I'm thankful for...

1. All the things I have to look forward to in 2012- Bobby finishing intern year and starting ortho which he loves; Lillian starting kindergarten; my brother and sister-in-law's baby being born (can't wait to meet my niece!); and who knows what else the year will bring!

2. How excited Lillian and Sydney are to get out of bed and start their day in the morning. Too often I'm complaining about how early it is and how I wish they would just learn how to sleep in so I could sleep longer, but I should appreciate their energy and enthusiasm. As soon as their eyes pop open they get themselves out of bed and say "I'm ready for breakfast!" I wish I could do that.

3. The baked ziti I made three months ago and put in my freezer to save for a night when I needed a quick dinner. It came in handy tonight. :)

Mighty Man

Our little Mighty Man is here! He arrived on November 15th- his daddy's birthday! So not only do father and son share the month and day of their birth date, but also their first and last names are the same. I only hope their social security numbers aren't similar.

William Thomas Doran was 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 21 inches long. A big boy! He's almost up to 10 pounds now. At this rate he might surpass Sydney's size by the time he's one (she's only 23 pounds)! We're calling him Liam for short. No Billy, no Tommy, and please, PLEASE no Willy. :)

Big-Big Sister Lillian and Big Sister Sydney love their little brother. They always want to hold him and check on him when he's sleeping. Lillian keeps a close eye on his little hats to make sure they don't fall off or slip over his eyes, and when they get slightly askew she quickly rectifies the situation and returns his hat-wearing to a perfect state. Sydney is fascinated with his hands, toes, and hair. She is always trying to pull off his hat or his socks to inspect them. She informs me when he is awake or crying, and she likes to rush up to him and say, "Hey Buddy!!" This usually scares him and sends his arms flying up in the air by instinct response and his eyes get really big (then of course Sydney declares, 'He awake! See him eyes?!' They awake!') All in all we're adjusting well to having the little guy around. He's a champ at sleeping through temper tantrums, taking naps on the couch, and nursing while his big sister tries to climb into Mommy's lap. We're so happy to have him with us and to love him and cuddle him!!


Liam- Tell Aunt Aimee that Mommy made the shout out before you reached one month! :)