New Years Resolutions...or are they???

In honor of this time of year, part of me is very excited. While I really hate change, I love new beginnings. Is that possible?

I am a list maker, and a planner. This year I have much I want to accomplish! I have set many goals for myself to work on. Call them New Years resolutions, or whatever you wish, but I am really planning on sticking with them!!

I am hoping that if I list them on my blog, I will be held more accountable for them. Since all of you who are reading this will "know" my goals, that somehow I may follow through better. Some of these may not be able to be accomplished right away, and a few of them will definately take the whole year. Some may just be developing the habit, and then it will be a lifetime effort. I do however want to be continually working on them until they are accomplished or set as a habit!!!

I may even give an update or two here and there, if I feel my progress is worthy of it!

Okay, here goes (not listed in any specific order)!!!

1. Lose at least 30 pounds

2. Read the Book of Mormon every day (personal study time, not just family)

3. Build my Usborne business

4. Get out of debt

5. Buy a house

6. Build our food storage

7. Become a better mother & wife

8. Accept the fact that I moved, and am not moving back

9. Work on my phone calling ability (those of you who really know me, know what I mean)

10. Be Happy!

Wow, I think I have my work cut out for me! What do you think? Do you out there have any goals for yourself that you'd like to share! Either way, good luck to all of us!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Christmas Countdown-Day 25

Christmas Day was very simple at our house this year. We enjoyed all the gifts we received, and being together as a family!!!

Preston loved his erector set and race track!

Jaida loved her Moon Sand and Littlest Pet Shop Set

Cade loved his little race track with cars!!

Alyssa was in disbelief in actually receiving the "real" make-up kit she asked Santa for!

Needless to say, we had a great day, and as you can see by the above photo a nice mess to clean up!!!

We also need to give a big shout out to all of our grandma's & grandpa's out there for their awesome gifts! Between their several grandparents they received: magnadoodles, sweats outfits, new gym shoes, snow bibs, a Noisy Animal book, pajamas, a paper airplane book, and some sticker/art books! Thank you! Thank you!

Christmas Countdown-Day 24

**End of Year Update**

Happy Holidays! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and will soon be enjoying the first days of our New Year! While we have had a few changes this year, many things remain the same. We are happy and plugging right along with life.
We still currently live in a tiny town in Central Utah. There really isn’t too much down here except for tumbleweeds & a bunch of turkeys. Ha Ha Just kidding. I’m still getting used to this small town. At times it’s really hard, but we definitely DON’T miss the traffic.
I quit working at the Snow College Daycare at the end of the school year in May. That was a wonderful feeling!! I was really struggling there, and very unhappy. Now I am trying to pursue Usborne as much as I can. I really love being a mom, so it has been important for me to do everything I can to be home, and only have to “work” a couple nights a week. It really is a fun job!
Eric is loving working for CentraCom, which is really laid back, and the benefits are amazing. They take really good care of their employees, and that has been a huge blessing! It truly is the best job he’s ever had.
We were finally able to sell our house in Pleasant Grove at the end of September, so that was a nice weight lifted off our shoulders. We will rent for a while until we decide exactly what we want to do. That was quite the trial in itself, but we lived through it.

Eric and I also recently got new callings in the ward, so we have been adjusting to those. Eric was made the 11 yr. old scout leader, and is still a little nervous! I know he will do well though, and he has a great assistant. I hope they can work well together. My calling is in primary, as the primary chorister! As scary as it is sometimes it truly is one of my favorite callings! There is nothing that teaches the gospel like a primary song. With every song you feel the spirit, and I love to see the kids faces as those realizations come about. It is wonderful to be able to serve and share our wonderful gospel with one another!
Josey and Trae are doing well. She is getting ready to go college, working on some final details about classes and such. They were able to visit for a few weeks this summer, so that was fun to be able to see them, and finally meet Trae!
Preston is 9 and will turn 10 in March. He is in 4th grade, and having a great year. He excels in math and reading, with many other interests to distract him along the way. He is a great kid and a wonderful helper and example to his sisters and brother.
Jaida is also doing really well in school. This year she is in 2nd grade. While she enjoys reading, and art, she is VERY social, so we have a hard time pulling her away from the social life of it all. I know, she’s only 7, but she already plans matching outfits, slumber parties (which I have yet to let her have any), and has to call her friends almost every day. I am sure we are really in for it as she gets older. Ha Ha
Alyssa is 5 and is really loving school. She started Kindergarten this year, and at first was going all day. After a month and a half, they moved her back to half day. I guess they saw she was doing better than they thought at first. She and Cade are very close, and have a lot of fun together. Sometimes she is a little too much for him, but not often!
Cade is growing so big, so fast. I’m really not ready for him to be getting so big. He turned 18 months at the end of November, and he is SO MUCH FUN! He is still only saying a few words, but we have fun playing, reading, and singing songs. He is also really liking the snow. He loves to get bundled up and go out and play.
We wish you a very happy holiday season, and a wonderful new year! Please keep in touch, or at least check in on our blog once in a while. We’d love to hear from you!

With Much Love, The McConahay’s

Christmas Countdown-Day 23

My Christmas card wall!!

Thanks so much to all of you for your Christmas cards!! It has been so much fun receiving them! I apologize for the delay of mine. I am trying to get a good family picture, so I have been procrastinating. I am shooting at this point for a Happy New Years card.

Wish me luck!!! I do hope all of you have the Merriest of Christmases!!

We love you all!

Christmas Countdown-Day 22

Sunday night was our annual Robison family Christmas Party!!

As usual it was fun, and crazy! There was tons of good food, and it was nice to be able to visit with family I don't get to see as often! We held the party at my sister Robin's, and the total count was 49 people. We were missing several, and hope they have a good Christmas!

We were even favored with my brother in law Rick playing our own personal Santa! We loved it Rick!

Thanks Robin & John for sharing your house!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Countdown-Day 21

More playing in the Snow!!!

All the other kids have snow stuff, but Cade didn't. I ended up getting him some snow bibs so he could really enjoy the snow with the others. There is a ton of it, and it has been still snowing all day.

I need to get pictures of the other kids. I don't think about it when they get home from school. I guess they played in it at school, and are tired of it for a while!

Christmas Countdown-Day 2o

Well, winter is officially here down in Sanpete County!!!

We have quite a large driveway, so it has taken us quite a bit of effort to keep it shoveled. Eric has been getting up at 5:30 just to have time to get it shoveled before he goes to work.

Just a few hours later, it was bad enough that I had to do it again!

Snow, snow, and more snow! Yeah, I am finally done. At least for now. :-)

I guess we don't have to keep wishing for a white Christmas!!

Christmas Countdown-Day 19

Last night our ward had a Relief Society Christmas Dinner.

They held it in the Moroni Opera house, a really beautiful older building here in town. The theme they chose for the night was Angels Among Us. It was really a fun night, and a cute idea.

Everyone was told to bring an "angel" from home. Anything you had that had a angel on it, was an angel, or something.

We had dinner, and then the relief society president read letters that anonymous people in the ward had written. They were about different "angels" that they had had in their lives. It was really neat.

Next, a girl in my ward that has a beautiful voice sang the original song by Alabama, Angels Among Us. It was really good!

After that we all sat in a circle and did the "left/right" story with all the angel gifts.

Here is my angel I received. Overall, a really great, simple, and fun night.

Christmas Countdown-Day 18

Count your many blessings!

Yesterday morning I went out to take the kids to school, and my van was dead. I was very distraught a week before Christmas to have this happen. Of course your mind thinks the worst. I called Eric, and he came home and took the kids to school.

He came back and checked on the van, and decided it was just the battery! Oh I was so relieved.

I mean not that I really wanted to spend almost a $100 on a battery at the moment, but so glad it wasn't anything worse.

We went and bought the battery, and then I took him back to work. I kept his car for the day, and as soon as he got time tonight, he put it in!


Sure enough this morning, perfect running vehicle! Gotta love those small miracles in times like these!

Christmas Countdown-Day 17

YEAH SNOW!!!

Cade has been dying to go outside. Well, this morning I bundled him all up so he could check out the snow! This is his first real winter to "play" in it, so he was so excited. He didn't want gloves on, and he wouldn't really go out in it, but maybe next time. He just loves being outside!!

Christmas Countdown-Day 16

All I want for Christmas is my bottom teeth.....

Last Thursday, Jaida came home from school with one of her bottom teeth missing. It has been loose for a while, but she has refused to let us pull it. I guess she was having such a hard time eating lunch that day that she let her teacher pull it.

Alyssa has also been working on getting one out. We tried one morning everything we could think of, string, pliers, toilet paper. Her tooth was so small that nothing could grip it. Then Friday morning she woke up and it was literally just hanging there. That was easy.

So, Eric put the girls together and got a picture. No cute hair-do's or anything, you get the straight bed-head version! :-)

The hard part was getting the tooth fairy to come....she must be very busy these days. I think she was like 2 days late. But the girls were patient, and happy with the dollar they finally received! Oops!

Christmas Countdown-Day 15

Jaida's 2nd Grade Christmas Program was so much fun!!

All the kids did fabulous! They had a theme with a forest of trees, and like a little town or village. The tree in the center of the forest eventually lost all of his leaves, and a child found him and brought him into town where they made him the special tree, and decorated him. They sang several songs I hadn't heard before. It was a cute little story.

Each of the kids had a part. Some did duets, or various things, but all the children participated. You can tell they put a lot of work into this! All the 2nd grade teachers were awesome!

Jaida also did perfect on her part. Not too loud, not too soft. She spoke plain, and clear, and said it perfectly. We're so proud of her. She also knew every word to every song, including It's A Small World in Spanish. It was really neat!

Christmas Countdown-Day 14

Another Family Movie Night!

Tonight we let the kids stay up a little late and watch Polar Express! No Christmas is complete without watching that movie at least once! And the end makes it all worth it just to hear Josh Groban sing. :-)
I actually really like the kids singing in the movie about as well. It is just a really awesome song!

We hope your family is having as much fun with the holiday as ours!

Christmas Countdown-Day 13

And yet another Christmas Party/Training! Ha Ha

If anything, me and Eric have had a couple much needed date nights this past weekend! :-)

My Usborne group had a training at a restaurant in Nephi. Since it was Christmas they invited spouses. We all ordered dinner, did the introductions, handed out awards, and learned some great ways to build our business! My supervisor is amazing, so it was pretty fun!

I got a duck charm for my new recruit, and this way cute book for attending!

Christmas Countdown-Day 12

Over the weekend Eric and I were able to go to another work party! Eric already had his big company work party, but his individual department had their own party last Friday night. We just went over to his bosses house, and barbecued steaks and chicken!

I didn't know too many there, but we had a great time just socializing and hanging out. They were all really nice, and it was really fun.

The biggest reason they had a "special" party is because it was Shelly's last day! She is moving to Washington and we're really going to miss her! She was a very nice lady, and a really good friend to Eric. Here is a picture of her and her husband.

After we ate, we all headed downstairs and some of the guys played pool, and the rest of us played "Scene It". That game is a blast!!! This was the video game version, but I know they have a regular board game as well, with a few different themed ones. I may have to look into getting that one day. :-)

Across the street from his bosses house, this guy has these lit up vehicles in his yard. I thought they were pretty cool, so I took a couple pictures. I'm not the best photographer, so they aren't perfect, but you get the idea.