Happy New Year!!!! 2015

I hope you all had a very safe and fun New Year's Eve ringing in the new year. I have never been one to make a big deal about this holiday. The biggest reason I have never made such a BIG deal about it is because I am usually still recovering from all of the details I put into the Christmas season. It literally takes me two or three weeks to recover from late nights, fulfilling traditions, shopping, etc.... New Year's Eve also seems to be the holiday for the out of control drinkers. There's nothing appealing to me about being on the road with a bunch of careless partiers and to "join them" goes completely again my faith. In the past, going out with a group of friends, to a really nice dinner, getting knee deep into a fun/funny board game, or spending it in the comfort of my own home, with my family, is much more appealing, not to mention much SAFER.  Is that a word?

Once I knew we didn't have "plans" to celebrate, KRISTIN woke up from her deep sleep and started planning some fun ideas for the kids. THEN, the day got in the way. I took the kids to "Pump It Up". Running myself ragged for all of the supplies I would have needed didn't HAPPEN. I am glad I didn't put myself up against the crowds of people ALL while dragging the three kids with me. Instead, we ordered Frank's, had it delivered, and just created a little party, out of some supplies I already had tucked away, from my party stash.

Ty chose to spend the night out.  We truly did miss him, however, had he been home, Darren and I wouldn't have been able to have a little adult time together.  

We started off our night with a dance party!!!  I don't know what got into Lilah and Jax. I think they were so excited to have Darren and I to ourselves that they were so wild.  Jax really let loose as you will see in this video.  We upgraded our dance party to a glow-in-the-dark glow stick dance party!!! We hope your New Year's Eve party was as wild as ours, haha!

 

I hung some tinsel garland on the fireplace and kind of created our own little photo booth.  My two cuties had a blast posing, especially Lilah.  LOL!

She covered herself from head to toe in sparkled garland.  Such a girly girl!!! You can never have enough sparkle in your life!

I am still unaware of how to capture glow sticks with my camera.  It's so frustrating.

We rang in the "new year" with an early "ball drop" that Darren heard about on the news for kids.  I "quote" new year because it was NOT 2015 yet, but Lilah and Jax didn't have to know that.  Netflix created a video that allowed you to ring in the New Year with your children whenever you wanted. It was 10:30 p.m. and Darren and I wanted to spend some time together before the real ball dropped. The twins fell for it. Lilah had a two hour, accidental nap, so she was still wired.  Jax was slowly fading.

And here is the actual video if you want to see the entire thing!

New Year's Resolutions?  NOPE!  I feel the same way about New Year's Resolutions as I did last year.  The resolutions need to be lifestyle changes.  Here were my lifestyle change goals for last year and let's just say, I could EASILY make those lifestyle changes the same for 2015 because I still have MOUNDS of work to do in those categories.  

One crazy thing that is happening in 2015 is that our first born son will be turning a decade old. It's so hard to believe!!!!!!  

Darren and I did make it to about 12:30 a.m., but I thought this quote was funny and so true:

"Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve.  MIDDLE age is when you're forced too!"

Well, that's a "wrap".  Maybe if I feel inclined, I will enhance the "meat" of this post later this week. Maybe I will come up with new "lifestyle change goals" or maybe I will recap our 2014 year by sharing some of the highlights, but unlike yesterday, our family DOES have plans today. We are hanging out with one of our favorite families... The Shaffers (our Pastor's family):  loads of pigging out and football watching to be done. I gotta get baking/cooking and showered. 

Oh...GOOGLE did put together an "end of the year" slideshow, using the photosI I have uploaded to Picasa throughout 2014 year.  Pretty cool, but there were so many OTHER great photos I would have chosen. It's free, so I can't complain.  Enjoy looking at a few of our moments in 2014.