New Years Resolution!

...so apparently my last post was on May 8th, 2010 :( ...today is January 9th...what better day to pick back up again than 8 months later. My Thirty-One business has become insanely successful...and we are so thankful, but I want to be better about focusing on Brooklyn. I'm so blessed to be able to stay at home with her...and I want to be better about cherishing these times and moments!

Some of my goals for 2011 are:
-better work/life balance
-more one on one time with Brooklyn
-post a short snippet on the blog of something we did for the week
-more time with Brooks in the evening (back to work/life balance)

I have never been good at this "blogging" stuff, but want to try! I have so much that I want to get caught up on (the last pictures that I uploaded were from her 1st birthday!!!)...need to upload pics from Christmas 2009, Easter and other events...AND tell everyone about our fabulous family vacation to Wyoming, Brooklyn, Mother's Day Out, Christmas 2010 and so much more!! ...but for now, we'll start with this...

PAINTING!

Sometimes I feel like a dud and that I don't do enough fun things with Brooklyn...or any of artsy craftsy stuff...mainly because of my patience (it's lacking). However, today I loaded her up and we went to Wal-Mart to buy new crayons, markers and yes...watercolors. She has crayons...but they are OLD...they are colors that I took from Mame's house during the estate sale...I think some of them are older than I am. Needless to say, they aren't the best and I began to wonder if they are even non-toxic. We got her some new twisty crayons and pip squeak markers...she was excited!I opted for watercolors over the little pots of paint because a cup of dirty water spilled seemed safer than little fingers digging around in small cups of paint.

"Nonnie, do this"
(Nonnie painted her nails yesterday, so she thought she would give them a 2nd coat)

She had a blast and I tried to be patient. Apparently black was her favorite colors and she DID NOT grasp washing the brush off between colors (this is where I struggled with staying calm...haha). I was very glad I bought the simple pack of 8 colors vs the package that had 24 different colors.Ta-Da!!! Brooklyn's final masterpiece!! ....classic Brooklyn smile in bottom picture :)
Ok, this wasn't too bad...and wasn't overwhelming since it was just short and sweet. Make sure I stay with it and keep this up!