New babies are a gift from Heaven

Isn't she absolutely adorable? Considering I'm her aunt, I may be biased, but that is besides the point. Even though the first two weeks of the new year didn't go exactly as planned, I say a new baby trumps all of that anyway. 


Dena Marie Capehart was born at 2:18am on January 3, 2012. She was 7 lbs 7oz and 20.5 inches long. As her mother Dana says, she's practically perfect in every way. Dena joined this world slightly unexpected and slightly unplanned, but thankfully as healthy as anyone could ask for. Heavenly Father sure has blessed our family. Both Mom, Baby & Dad are doing well & settling into a new routine at home. Grandma has been helping out here and there. She truly is a blessing.


I love being an aunt. It is awesome to be able to spoil my nieces and nephews and to pretty much love them to pieces. How can you beat that?


So the new year started off a little crazy, but I'm glad. Crazy keeps me on my toes and makes me grateful for having wonderful people in my life.

New Years 2012

So New Year resolutions are for the birds, but I do feel like January is a good time to make a new start. 2012 needs to be better than 2011 for lots of reasons, so I decided to make some changes. I think it is important to write down my list and make it public. That way I'm being held accountable. So here goes my list of making life changes:

1. During tax season I'm going to stick to a schedule. In bed by 11, up at 5:30. Jazzercise Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. A routine is a good thing. After April,  modification will be needed, but still a routine.

2. I'm going to study, take, and pass at least 2 parts of the CPA exam.

3. I'm going to keep up with the Sunday school lessons by reading it during my nightly Scripture study. Then this year I will ha e read the Book of Mormon and fulfilled the Virtue requirement for personal progress.

4. I'm going to eat better and keep losing weight.

5. I'm going to say my personal prayers more consistently.

6. I'm going to blog more since I don't write in my journal very often.

7. I'm going to be thankful, for everything.

I know that seams like a lot, but I have been working on a plan for the past week. I know I can do this, and my life and marriage will be better for it.

Blogging

So I've known for a while that I should be better about blogging. I'd like to say I have a good excuse for not doing it very often, like no one reads it anyway, or that I scrapbook everything that I do, but those are just excuses. For me, blogging is a different way to express what is going on in my life. I love reading the blogs of my friends who I don't get to see very often. It's a way to know what is going on in their life. I've really enjoyed reading the insights that they share.

Our life has been busy, not bad, just busy. I'm studying for the CPA exam & Craig is back in school full-time. That leaves money tight & our time even tighter. Some days we hardly see each other. In the long run I know it will all be worth it, but in the short run it sure is hard.

We did take a great vacation to Colorado not long ago & it was wonderful. We say Craig's brother & his kids while we were out there. It was such a blast. I can't wait to go back. If it wasn't for the snow, I would be there now. It is such a beautiful part of the country.

So even though I feel like there are a million things going on in our life right now, I want to be better about sharing the important things. Some things are just too good to keep to myself. :)

A Brand New Day

For accoutants, making New Year's resolutions are futile. It is practically impossible to make life changes during tax season. Every year I try, and every year I fail. This year, my resolutions are coming in April, after tax season. A time when I can take the time to master my resolutions and not fail.
The year started out so rough for our family, I'm glad I didn't attempt major changes. Though I know there is no such thing as "normal," I do feel like we are getting back to some sense of it in our lives.
So, Friday nght I made lists; short-term, long-term, spiritual, temporal, very personal, and more family focused. Everything that I want to do in my life in 2011 is now in a list. It seems very overwhelming, yet very doable. I feel that I was aided by the Spirit in making this list, so I feel like I can accomplish it all. I know there will be falls and set-backs, but that is part of learning and growth.
How grateful I am for the chances we have to "make lists" time and time again to help us become better. I'm also grateful for the help from above in achieving my goals.

Happy New Year

 

So I had an interesting New Year Holiday. Craig & I had different activities we wanted to do, so we went our separate ways, met back up & then split up again. It actually worked out well for us.

I went to Disney World with my family. At first I wasn’t going to buy a ticket and go to a park, but honestly, it’s pretty hard to go to Disney World and not go to a park. So I bought a one day, one park ticket and went to Hollywood Studios with Dana & Jamie. It has been a long time since I’ve spent an entire day in a park, so it was quite an interesting experience. Plus it was New Year’s Eve, so there were more people in the park than I had seen EVER. It was nuts. It was one of the coolest ringing in of the New Year I’ve had, but I don’t have to do that every year. I would rather ring in the New Year with close family instead of thousands of my “closest friends.” I say closest, because I got WAY to close to some people. It was pretty fun to ring in the New Year at Disney, but I don’t have to do it again. It was NUTS. The fireworks were spectacular, but that was just too many people in one place. New Years in Times Square is something I’ll probably never do. As soon as Dana posts pictures, I’ll share them. We took some fun ones.

Meanwhile, Craig went to Will’s and played D&D. They didn’t even “ring” in the new year. They just played and played. It made him happy, and that’s what counts.

New Years Day, my family went to Trails End for breakfast. Craig met us & so did Chelsea. Her family was at Disney as well, so it was way fun to meet up with her that morning. We had such a good time catching up. We really need to hang out more.

The rest of the day, Mom, Dad, Hailey & me went pin trading at Downtown Disney and Wilderness Lodge. It was good fun.

Home today to “rest” before getting back to the real world. Tax season is coming all too quickly, so I’m trying to enjoy my “quiet” time before it all gets started.

Here’s to a new year & all that it holds.

School is.....

Hard. At least it is when you work full-time & take 2 classes in 6 weeks. I must be desperate to graduate soon, or crazy. Maybe I'm actually a little bit of both. Thankfully the classes I'm taking are relative to what I do in "real life," but it's still a lot to keep up with. For the next 4 1/2 weeks, my schedule Monday - Thursday is:

6:30(ish) - wake-up & get ready for the day

8:30 - 5 - Make the big bucks (well at least make the bucks to help pay the bills)

6 - 9:40 - Corporate Taxation followed by International Tax

10 - midnight(ish) - dinner & homework, hopefully followed by a little time with my husband

Bed comes as quickly after that as possible.

Wow, seeing it writing make me think I am crazy. But, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Graduation will be in December & then I'll look back and laugh on these 6 weeks. But until then, I'll just keep trying to survive.

I think I can, I think I can......

Too Long

It's been way to long since I've even thought about blogging. Sad, I know. I read my friends' blogs and try to keep up with them, but when it comes to taking the time to blog myself, I just haven't done it.

I'd like to say that tax season was my excuse first, then my Sister had a baby & now I'm in school, but really, I just haven't made the time to do it. Hopefully I'll be better from now on.

I don't even know where to start, so I'm just going to give some major highlights:

• Started a new job in September. Still an accounting firm, & still in Orange Park, but a higher position & better salary. Not the best move I've made, but it's hard to argue with a better salary & more opportunities. The boss lady is just a little crazy......
• In October, my parents took their family on a cruise (me, Melissa, Dana & our respective husbands). Mema & Ooh-hoo & Grandpa & Nana, & Alice & Ross also went. It was a good time had by all. Craig played in a "gameshow" one night on board and won a "ship on a stick." It was so funny, we bought the DVD so we could watch it over & over
• The Holidays came & went with lots of family time. Craig got a Droid & I got a GPS for my car. My parents got the boys tools & the girls Sony readers. I really love min.
• Tax season started up in January. The most least stressful tax season I've ever had, until the 13th of April. Then all the craziness of tax season came full force. Not really enjoyable, but that's the life of an accountant.
• During all of this time, my sister was pregnant. Her & Bryan told us about it on the cruise. It was very cool. So in May (just last week), little Hailey Ann Farnsworth was born. She was beautiful. At 8.3 lbs and 21 1/4 inches long, she was not little baby, but she was perfect. Melissa had a couple of rough times during her 16 hour labor, but all-in-all she survived. I got to be there with her the whole time. The gift of life is amazing. It was an amazing experience for me.
• School started back up for me this week. 3 classes this semester: 2 the first 6 weeks then 1 the last 6 weeks. It's going to be intense. It already has been & its only been 3 days. We'll see how that goes. Craig also start back to school this summer. He's working towards his bachelors in Physics.

So as you can see, we have been busy. We even had our 1 year anniversary during of all this. We spent the Friday night at the Ritz in Amelia Island. It was fantastic. Then we went to the temple that Saturday & had our cake with family on Sunday. It was a good weekend & a nice break during tax season.

So now that I've caught up quickly, I'll try to post more often. Pictures of some activities listed above to follow soon.