We have been working on less screen time at our house. Here is one activity that I have seen floating around Pinterest. Sensory boxes. Our box has an ocean theme. I will change it up. I am thinking about doing space, dinosaurs, car/truck, etc. The boys are so excited. Almost everything is from the $ Store. Hopefully, this will fill up some of our day:)
*Grow Closer to the Lord I really want to focus on joy this year. I have so much to be joyful about, but often times I let my sin or circumstances rob me of joy. I look forward to growing in knowledge of God and His Will for my life. It really does amaze me that the Creator of the universe wants me to have a personal relationship with Him. Very basic, but AMAZING.
*Invest in my marriage I have been pregnant for about half of my marriage. Our kids have been the focus of our time and energy. In many ways, we have not put the time and the effort into our marriage that is necessary. Abe and I LOVE being together. He really is my best friend. I look forward to viewing him more in this light rather than my partner in parenting 
We hope to go on a few more dates and we are working on weight loss and fitness together.
*Run a Half Marathon Abe and I hope to run our 3rd half marathon this April. We are looking forward to training together. My goal is to run it under 2 hours. I will be happy with 1:59:59!
*Potty train Parker Our goal is to have Parker potty trained around the time he turns 3 in July.
*Plant our first garden Abe and I want to do a garden this year. We are eating a lot more veggies, and it would be nice to gather them out of our own garden.
*Stick to a budget and save money We started using a Envelope Method App to track our spending. We started in October. It has been super helpful and we have been successful. I hope to continue with this and be more financially responsible.
*Meet new people and be more hospitable Meeting new people is somewhat nerve-wracking to me. Kind of silly, but I get a little embarrassed for some reason. I want to get over myself and be more outgoing. We also want to work on having more people into our home especially those that we have never had over.
*Setting aside time to be in God’s Word and pray. I did better in this area this year. My day is always better when I begin the day praying and reading God’s Word.
*Keep our home clutter free and organized. This was somewhat accomplished. However, it doesn’t feel like it after the influx of new toys from Christmas.
*Adjust to life with THREE kiddos. I think I have adjusted to life with 3 kids. It went smoothly the first few months, but I hit a bump in the road at about 3 months. It was ROUGH! Dealing with 3 kids is my new normal, and I can hardly remember what it was like before Maggie came along. I am now cooking, cleaning, exercising, running errands, along with many other normal activities just like before. I didn’t go easier on myself with giving myself time to adjust. Oh well!
*Enjoy my kids and this time of life. I did try to enjoy my family more this year. It still a tough job being a mommy and I have bad days. However, I am trying to keep in mind that it will not be this intense forever. My mantra this year has been “the days on long, but the years are short.”
*Start Chase’s educational journey. Chase started pre-K at a local charter school. God very clearly led us in making the decision to enroll him in school. We both have peace about our decision, and Chase is thriving. Praise the Lord!
*Getting Parker potty trained and in a big boy bed. We moved Parker into the bunkbed in October. It was rough at the beginning, but it has worked out nicely. We tried potty training, but he really didn’t want to do it after about 2 weeks. I gave up and we will attempt it this next year.
*Get back into pre-pregnancy shape. I am pretty much back into shape. I have a goal of losing some more weight, but I fit into my clothes. I got rid of my maternity clothes already, and I have a big bag of “fat” clothes to donate. It feels good to be “normal” again.
Maggie-girl is 8 months old. She is pretty much crawling now. She will sometimes revert back to her inch worm scoot, but most of the time she crawls. She is attempting to sit up, but is very unstable.
Maggie celebrated her first Halloween by staying home with Grandma Berger in the nice warm house while the rest of us went trick or treating. She was definitely in a good place.
She is learning to like baby food. We had our first success with yellow squash and rice cereal. We have had success with carrots and peas as well. She has also learned to like apple sauce. Thankfully, feeding her is less of a battle. I am not sure how long she will tolerate baby food. She loves to have little bites of our food. At Chase’s birthday party she was getting tastes of chocolate cake. She was getting angry when I would take a bite and skip her. She thought it was all for her. LOL!
We think this girl has a sense of humor. She loves to laugh and finds things to be hilarious. She is almost always happy even when she is very sick. She is loud and talkative. She seems to be taking after big brother Chase in her personality. We think we have another ham on our hands.
Appearance: She hasn’t changed much! We think she is cute as can be of course 
. Everyone thinks she looks like either Chase or Parker. We think she is a good mix and looks just like Maggie!
Sleep: She is still loving her crib. She wakes up about once a night around 1:00-3:00 AM to eat. She takes a morning, afternoon, and sometimes an evening nap. She seems to be dropping her evening nap and heading towards 2 naps a day.
Diaper Size: Still in size 3.
Clothing: She wears mostly 12 month clothes, but and some 18 months. She has small feet and wears 6-12 month shoes. We got her the most adorable, warm Robeez boots. CUTE!! She runs cold, so she wears a t-shirt and 2 pairs of jammies to bed.
Height: Not sure
Weight: We weighed her at home and she was about 18 pounds.
Head Circumference: Not sure
Eating Habits: She is still nursing well about every 3 hours. She also get one bottle of formula at night now. See the rest of the update above.
Development: Crawling, learning to sit up, laughing and talking LOUDLY, loves to chew on everything, loves toys and remotes, loves her brothers, and loves her mom and dad. She is beginning to have separation anxiety. We usually get called up to the nursery at church after about 30 minutes. She is fine for a little bit, but then gets very upset. We are going to keep working on it though. We need to hear a sermon every once in a while.
Here is Maggie’s 7 month update. She is really starting to move. She is trying to scoot and it resembles an inch worm. She is more proficient at going backwards. It is kind of funny to watch. She can definitely get places, and is on the move. She is also starting to do “rocky-rock” as we call it. She gets up on her knees and rocks back and forth. Parker did the same thing, and that is when we named it 
. It looks like she will scoot and crawl before she will sit up. She is very unstable on her bottom.
She loves her brothers! They can always get her to laugh and giggle. She loves to watch them play. She is starting to talk (growl and grunt at us). She is very curious about everything. Chase told me “we should just call her curious because she wants everything.”
She has had a really bad cold and cough. She sounds awful. One of the problems with being a younger sibling. You get everything the older kids get. 
Guess she will have a strong immune system.
Appearance: She is still very long with most of her length in her legs. She has very long legs. She must take after her Grandma Green. Her hair is growing very slowly, but looks to be reddish brown. She has very blue eyes. She is such a mix of her brothers in appearance, but you can definitely tell they are all related.
Sleep: She moved out of our room to her crib. She loves her crib! We put her pink blanket down and tied it to the crib slats. We left one corner undone so she can grab the fringe. She sleeps in that corner, on her side, holding onto the fringe, and sucks her thumb. Pretty much the cutest thing ever!! She wakes up once or twice a night to eat and then goes right back to sleep.
Diaper Size: Still in size 3.
Clothing: She wears some 9 month clothes, but mostly 12 months.
Height: Not sure
Weight: Not sure
Head Circumference: Not sure
Eating Habits: We tried solids with her. We have tried baby oatmeal, rice cereal with water, rice cereal with breast milk, rice cereal with formula, rice cereal with apple sauce, and plain apple sauce. She isn’t having any of it! She acts as if it is totally revolting. We are questioning if she is our kid. Food-revolting!?!? Just kidding, but it is kind of strange. We are just going to give her some time. I am sure she will come around. She is still nursing well about every 3 hours. She also get one bottle of formula at night now.
Development: I mentioned some of this above. She LOVES her thumb. She sucks it all the time now. We love it. She is just a joy, and we are so grateful for our sweet, happy little girl!
I have seen these floating around the Internet and loved the idea. It is such a helpful, simple tool to remind our family of the things that we believe, value, and strive to live out day in and day out.
I was thinking that this would be great to teach and instruct the kids. It has actually helped me in times of temptation when I think poorly of someone or worry about something. I need things like this around me to renew my mind and help me to do right. Simple but powerful!
