we had a very mellow new year's eve spent up at nick's parents' house. our friends kerry (how cute does she look with her little bump?!) and austin just moved home from spain, so they came to hang out and spend the night up there with us. we spent the night chatting, snacking and catching up. it was really fun, but definitely different than past new year's eves. ha, it was quite the struggle to stay up until midnight and nicolaus actually fell asleep with niels at about 11:30. but i made sure to wake nicolaus up at 12:59 to ring in the new year with me! i felt so calm and content snuggling my two favorite boys and there was no other place i would have rather been :)
the next morning we drove out to antelope island because kerry/austin/cedar had never been before. we were pretty disappointed about the lack of buffalo buuut the pretty scenery made up for it! the rest of the day was spent lounging, watching a lot of portlandia, taking a nap with niels while nicolaus and his family went shooting, puzzling, hot tubbing and making homemade pizzas. it was an excellent way to start the fresh, new year!
i have high hopes for 2016 and have a number of goals that i would like to accomplish. but my main mantra for the year is to soak in every moment. i want to be productive and live a balanced life, but i need to make an extra effort to slow down. life with niels is already going too quickly and i want to stay present and enjoy the good moments and learn from the bad.
here are the specific goals i would like to achieve this year:
+ read more. i want to start reading at least one book a month again. i used to be really good about this, but the last book i read was gone with the wind while i was pregnant, and after sobbing through the entire thing, i decided i wasn't emotionally stable enough to read anything halfway dramatic...ha, but i'm feeling a bit less hormonal now and like i could handle a good story.
+ write more. again, i used to be really good about this, but for whatever reason i haven't been lately. and i feel a lot like my writing/grammar has suffered since i graduated, so i'd like to get back into it. plus i have a very real fear of forgetting memories and writing helps ease that fear. plus it's very therapeutic. so the goal is to write either on my blog or in my journal at least twice a week.
+ attend our own ward. nicolaus and i spend a lot of weekends away from home and only sporadically attend our own ward, because when we are here we usually head up to his parent's house for the day. but i'd like to make a better effort to be more involved and go to all 3 hours of our own ward, whenever we are in town.
+ weekly portraits. i've been doing this since niels was born and i already cherish those photos, so i would love to continue this one throughout 2016.
+ take less photos, but better photos. i want to slow down and really think about the shot that i want before i just start snapping away. this will make me a much happier person when i'm editing/saving photos and it will make for a much happier hard drive...
+ get/stay fit. i feel like my body really went through the ringer this last year, with the whole baby growing/birthing thing. and while i've really been appreciating the whole healing process and feeling much more like myself, i'd like to kick it up a notch. i want to consciously do something active at least twice a week. i want to feel fit and healthy and fuel my body with (mostly) nutritious foods.
+ learn to cook. this has been a longtime goal of mine and i really think this will be the year that i actually accomplish it. i figure i have no excuse now that i'm a stay-at-home mama and freelancer! i'm going to start small and say i'll try at least one new recipe every week. it seems a lot less intimidating that way, and i figure before i know it, i'll actually start to feel comfortable around a kitchen.
cheers to 2016!