A New Year

Well it's out with the old and in with the new; It's 2011 and we're already off to a good, new, fresh start. We've now resided in TX for an entire month! We still have boxes in the master bedroom and garage but everything else is unpacked. When you consider that we are juggling four kids [one of which was a newborn], B has started a new job, and we had to contend with Christmas...a month isn't too bad. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself! Here are some pics of the house now with furniture and belongings, quite the switch from our previous post of emptiness.

Here is the living room, play area and part of the kitchen (isn't my new point & shoot camera AWESOME?)

 The boys room is completely unpacked, we're just needing to get their posters hung up along with the curtains..

   

Sissy's room is also coming along nicely. I haven't hung up any of her wall hangings or shelves and I still need to get curtains. The plan is to move Peanut into her room as well. We're waiting until we get his "big boy" twin bed, then they will {hopefully} share the room. 

This is ideal because then the little kids can nap in one room, while I work on home school activities with the older boys in their room. However we all know that Peanut is his own person with his own ideas and if the transition is too rough, then we'll bunk the older boys beds and he'll stay in their room. This seems silly...3 kids in one room, one in the other but realistically, the boys have a freakishly strong bond and they don't seem to mind at all. The fact that they don't know any differently works in our favor as well.

The spot where the rocker/glider is now, will be where his bed will go. The taller white dresser is his and the pink dresser (which was an Ikea steal for $30!) is Sissy's. I really want to find just a plain simple white headboard/footboard for his bed. Nothing ornate and girly but I would like it to match. We're hoping to find and purchase him a bed by February...Sissy just started sleeping through the night and I'm hoping that in another month or two, we can revamp our bedtime routine to include her. As it is now, the boys all go to bed around 7:45, Sissy not until 9ish. Obviously if they are sharing a room and we're trying to make this fun and exciting for Peanut, I want them going to bed at the same time. Wish us luck!

As for a New Year's resolution? As a family, we have a few goals in mind for this year. It was part of B accepting this new job and relocating our family. We want to do better financially. While taking this job was already a step in the right direction, we need to save more and spend more wisely. I am not one to cut out fun activities; after all that's what makes life worth living but we do plan on sticking to a budget. We already made the decision to not have cable...seeing how we did have the Digital cable with DVR package, this was a big step! But we've learned the magic of hulu and netflix and the kids have been more than happy with PBS.

We're working on spending wisely by more aggressively looking for deals before making 'big' purchases, shopping smarter using lists and coupons to cut down on those 'quick trip to the store' runs that always cost $30+ and making sure that when we do cook at home, we actually make things that we will want to eat the leftovers. I've always been a clearance shopper, I love Target for this, but I'm working on less impulse buys for the kids and B is learning to pass up a ''great deal'' on deal a day site, especially onsomething that we may be able to live without. Will we still go out to eat? Sure! But instead of spending $3 on each kids' meal, we've been ordering them an adult entree and splitting it up...not only has this saved us money but it's amazing how much better they eat! It's not ''so and so got chicken strips and I don't want pasta, I want chicken too" it's ''hey, dis chicken is good!".

I'm hoping that this year we can grow stronger in our marriage and as a family. Obviously we don't have very many distractions down here; we don't know very many people! Rather than B doing things with his friends and me doing things with mine, we're forced  blessed to spend all of our time together. So we're working on spending our time together peacefully; nit-picking a little less and compromising a bit more.

We're using our weekends as mini-adventures with the kids. We've done Sea World, the riverwalk, and the Alamo but there are even more! So many little towns nearby, so much history and then of course there are the amusement parks, water parks, shopping. And it doesn't have to cost a ton...we spent an entire afternoon at Ikea and even the kids loved it! Our annual pass to Sea World has already paid for itself, that was a great decision. We went back to Sea World for New Years eve and only spent $4.85 between the six of us...on a giant churro and 2 hot chocolates. We still have plans to go to the zoo, the rock caverns and we can't wait for Nanaw and Papa to visit in March! It should be a really fun year ;)