2015

We rang in the New Year all together, all awake :). We had a great time with 3 other families from our school playing games, eating wonderful Mexican food, telling stories and watching movies. The kids threw the pop fireworks, chowed down and stayed up until midnight....and then there were several meltdowns :). They slept until 7:15 this morning and then took looooonnnggg naps today :).

Adams parents came up late last night and we had our Christmas today. The kids were once again spoiled but I did see a huge change in Baby Boy from our first present extravaganza of the season. He actually handed out other presents, helped other unwrap their presents and never once asked "where is more for me?".

The rest of the day consisted of football for the guys, cooking and workouts for me and Goober and playing with all of the new loot while it continually rained outside.

I have been thinking a lot about our accomplishments over the past year and our goals for the upcoming year. Its really super hard for me to not set a whole bunch of new goals for this year as I have seen myself accomplish so much in personal wellness this past year. I have a planner devoted to my career and another one (thanks mom) devoted to my personal goals and my daily fitness.

Accomplishments of 2015

-I am down 20 lbs from June 2nd, almost 6 full pant sizes and honestly pretty stinkin proud of myself. I can lift weights with the best of them, handle pull ups and run 12-13 miles on any given day. I no longer stand in the mirror wishing for more self control. I no longer look at fit people and think "it must be genetics"..i now think "they have learned self control and discipline". I have learned how to listen to my body and know what days it can handle a good hard drench and what days it needs light cardio and stretching. 

- We have paid off of ALL of our student loans and continue to be debt free besides our mortgage. Adam continues to slowly renovate our home himself which is so rewarding as we are 1)saving boocoos of money and 2)allowing us to customize every inch of our home. I love how our home reflects us entirely.

-We have decided to eat out only 1x a month as a family so that we can increase our giving. Giving has always been something I have personally struggled with as I want to see exactly what our money is going towards. However, after serving in our nursery more I am able to see how much we need a new childrens building at our church and God has softened my heart towards giving blindly and trusting Him to use it.

-We are spending more time in God's word, having consistent devotionals at dinner, with lots of interruptions for children wanting dessert and not knowing yet how to sit still. However, we are constantly amazed at what God is able to teach them through these short sessions. It will show up in their attitudes or responses days later but we can see God speaking through his word to our kiddos.

Goals for the New Year
-Personally I am looking for balance. I want to have as much self discipline in my spiritual life as I do in my physical life. I normally listen to worship music and think through scripture or sermons when I run but its not as focused as I would like. I need to plan out my times with the Lord just as much as I plan out every single workout the night before. I want to balance out my time with my kids with my time I spend cleaning up after my kids :). I want to balance my need for constantly serving others (i can't say no) to developing the relationships I already have. I have a handful of people that I really need to pour into but I spread myself thin among several other organizations and service opps (all of which are great) but investing in people is the start to leading them to the Lord. As goofy as this sounds I want to balance my reading time with my TV time...for our kids too. I want to read to them as much as they watch TV which is less than 30 minutes a day so its totally do able. I want to balance my impulses to buy things with impulses to show gratitude and thankfulness to the Lord.

Christmas Eve service with my whole family :)

They both love Baby Boy's new motorcycle. They will spend hours riding on it and pushing each other through the house.

Annual gingerbread house contest. Goober and Uncle Chris were on a team, they made a storm shelter :)

Daddy and Baby Boy made Batmans house, car and a melted Riddler. They definitely deserved to win for creativity!

Mommy and Ribbit made Queen Elsa's Imagination Island...we won for our name and that cute little girl :)

Putting out cookies and milk for Santa by the fireplace ;)

Showing off our annual reindeer cookies for Santa!

This picture needs lots of explaining. I always make handprint ornaments or gifts for the couples in our families. This year I used the kids hands as the camels for the 3 wiseman. Since Uncle Chris and Aunt Micah are getting married in June we figured next Christmas they will need some Harvell handprints hanging up for Christmas :). This is honestly my favorite thing to do with the kids each year and I LOVE looking at all of their prints every year when I pull out our Christmas decor. Also, Adam finished the built ins that are bare in the background of this picture, they are beautiful! And, we have new lighting and white trim ;). Anyways, to all the great grandparents, aunts and uncles reading this we sent your handprint gifts with our parents so when they get back to Alabama make sure you get them :)

Another perk of staying at home for Christmas is that we got to start our own family traditions. I have always wanted to celebrate Jesus' birthday before opening the gifts, really just to remind ourselves of what is important and to give Him honor. So I woke up super early and in Adam's words " as quiet as a ninja" and made a huge batch of birthday sprinkle pancakes for Jesus!! We hung up tablecloths to block off the tree so the kids wouldn't see it before breakfast. We stacked it with birthday boy candles and sang to him! We also went around and said one thing we would all give Jesus as a gift this year. Goober said he would help his friends and parents more. Ribbit and Baby Boy said they would both try to obey the first time more. Mommy and Daddy said we were going to only eat out 1x a month to give more money to the church. CC said she was going to work on taming her tongue and Papa said he was going to give up smoking. Uncle Chris was still asleep :). I love this tradition and want to do it every year. It definitely got me in a more grateful mood and I hope it did for my kids as well.