Happiness Is Contagious

I have a confession to make: I hate receiving forwarded mass e-mails. Typically, I delete them on the spot. Maybe this roots from my work days of 100 e-mails per hour where you are forced to prioritize. For some reason, though, I decided to give one a chance this week... and I'm so glad I did because it hit a chord. Here it is:

Healthy Lifestyle Tip: Happiness Is Contagious Do you ever wonder whether happy people have something that keeps them cheerful, chipper and able to see the good in everything? It turns out they do, they have happy friends. New research from Harvard Medical School and the University of California suggests that happiness is influenced not only by the people you know, but by the people they know. The study shows that happiness spreads through social networks, sort of like a virus, meaning that your happiness could influence the happiness of someone you've never even met. "We have known for a long time that there is a direct relationship between one person's happiness and another's," says study co-author James H. Fowler, PhD, University of California. "But this study shows that indirect relationships also affect happiness. We found a statistical relationship not just between your happiness and your friends' happiness, but between your happiness and your friends' friends' happiness." They concluded that the happiness of an immediate social contact increases an individual's chances of becoming happy by 15 percent. The happiness of a second-degree contact, such as the spouse of a friend, increases the likeliness of becoming happy by 10 percent, and the happiness of a third-degree contact, or the friend of a friend of a friend, increases the likelihood of becoming happy by 6 percent. Surround yourself with happy people, because happy friends can make you happy. Source: webmd.com

I can completely relate to this right now because I've begun to find inspiration in other blogs written by complete strangers... well, 'third degree contacts' per the message above. I know this might sound odd... but I somehow feel happier when I see that there are other decent, Christian people who can't seem to write enough about their own families or take enough pictures of their own family moments. Not only does it make me feel like I'm not the only family-obsessed, picture-happy mommy out there, but it's refreshing to see good news and high spirits amidst such bad economic times.

Also, I'm fortunate to have met and reconnected with friends in 2008 who carry that same quality and I am definitely happier in their presence whether in person or messaging online.

So, thank YOU for making me happier. I just hope I can carry the same role at some point in your lives! And if I can't, I'm sure my sweet little girls will put a smile on your face if you continue to keep up with the blog.

Thanks, Paris, for the forward!

If a Picture Could Talk...

This one would say:

• Adelyn's new Christmas present was a good investment.
• Adelyn likes to put band-aids on her fingers for no reason.
• Adelyn totes 3 purses with her at all times.
• Adelyn likes to find and wear mommy's lip gloss and then wipe it on her shirt sleeve (typically her right sleeve).
• Adelyn doesn't like to wear socks.
• Adelyn would rather not smile for the camera.
• Adelyn has been watching mommy on her laptop too much lately.... scary!

Holiday Memories

Here's a slideshow of pictures from this holiday season. We had wonderful visits with family and we made sure Ella's 1st Christmas was a memorable one. We hope you all had a great holiday, too!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Keepin' It Real in 2009

I was just thinking about the mixed reviews I've gotten about this family blog since originating it this year. For instance, here are some of the not-so-positive remarks I've received:

"Wow... you must have a lot of time on your hands to write so much on your blog. I'm just too busy to do something like that."
"I don't really read your blog; I just like to look at the pictures... sometimes."
"Do you, like, have your camera permanently stuck to your hand at all times or what?"

You've gotta appreciate candid feedback like that.

For the most part, though, I've received very positive comments about it and I definitely keep it going thanks to all of the very sweet remarks I've gotten such as:

"You are such a good mommy for making a blog like that!"
"I've gotten such good ideas from your blog... thanks!"
"Jenny.... are you o.k.? You haven't posted on your blog in like 2 days." (O.k... this one can be viewed as both positive and negative.)
"You have a great writing style and I love to read your blog."
"You really have it together, Jenny."

First, I want to thank those who are kind enough to give me sweet feedback despite my corniness and dorkiness that shows through the posts. :) Seriously, though, it really does make me feel good to hear such nice things! Also, in response to a couple of these positive comments, I will have to make a confession: I really don't have it all together and most of my ideas come from somewhere else. What I don't include in these posts are the tiny details like Adelyn telling me to put my camera away or the time I spend on the internet when I could be doing laundry or dishes. While I do like to think that I have it together 80% of the time, the other 20% is SO NOT together. :) I'm usually rushing around like an idiot preparing for our little day trips and it's inevitable that I will forget something. I'm working on that. (But my learning curve is quickly depleting!)

What I also would like to work on in 2009 is making my blog posts a little bit more 'raw.' Some of the best blogs I follow are those that have no shame and report things just as they are with no fluff.

For instance, here is a cute post that I consider to be 'raw humor' that a friend of mine posted recently on her blog.

These are the blogs that are most inspiring to me because they make me feel better about my own daily challenges as a SAHM (stay at home mom) since transitioning from my professional life to my much more rewarding personal life as a mommy.

So, there you have it... something else to add to the exponentially growing list of resolutions for 2009. Hopefully I won't let my VIP audience down! :)

P.S. Christmas pictures coming soon. (We've been super busy travelers lately!)

Privacy Setting Extended

Like the true procrastinator I am, I've been pushing off the whole privacy setting thing I've mentioned before. I thought, why not start fresh in 2009? It's only a couple weeks away anyway. So, there you go... another week to send me your e-mail addresses if I need to add you to the 'invited readers only' list. You can find me on facebook, too, where you can shoot me a message there.

In the meantime, strangers who like to look at my beautiful family almost as much as I do- feel free to lurk! But your lurking days will be over soon...

Sidenote: I already have TONS of photos to weed through from our Christmas weekend traveling to see family. Unfortunately, I just have too many other things to do (like present wrapping, cookie baking, etc.) so those will have to wait. Sorry!

Our Snow Princess is 11 Months!

Isn't she sweet checking out the snow today?

Here are a couple other pictures of our sweet little baby who isn't much of a baby anymore! BTW, she's been motoring around everywhere now that she has graduated from an army crawl to a full traditional crawl. She's been pulling up and cruisin', too. It won't be long before she takes her first steps!

The 'Corn' Within Me

If you know me well, you know that I've got an embarrassingly corny side that has been rearing its ugly head since becoming a mommy. I've done things as a mom that I thought I would never be guilty of. You know, like forcing my husband to wear something in the same color scheme as his matching wife and children's clothing to a social function. At the time, it seems like the best idea but in retrospect, I feel ashamed for making such corn-filled decisions that I'm sure have some people thinking, "Are you serious right now?"

So when I decided that it was our turn to take on the neighborhood kids' holiday party, it was no surprise (at least to my husband) that I would have the corn out full-force on Saturday night. I really wanted to make it a nice night for the children... so I planned Christmas activities like cookie decorating, had Christmas music going, had Christmas shaped jello, had a stock of Christmas print-outs for coloring, a visit from Santa after a poem sent to them in the mail, and even had a cute story-time activity where the kids would pass the Christmas bear everytime they heard the word 'bear' in the story until the last child left with the bear would win a prize... Elf droppings (runts) of course!

So I think the night was pretty successful but looking back on the pictures (I've included a few here), I think... "Geesh, Corny Mom Jenny... could you have gotten any more CHRISTMAS on these kids?" Oh well... I think the kids had a good time and I think I didn't annoy too many parents especially considering that I kept their drinks full. Spiked egg nog of course! :)

Breakfast with Santa

We made our annual trip to the zoo to have Breakfast with Santa as well as some holiday characters including Elmo, Frosty, Rudolph, Hippo, Frog, Teddy Bear, etc. This of course was Ella's first time and she loved it! Adelyn, on the other hand, was still a bit weary of all of the overgrown holiday characters since she is much more aware of her surroundings than her baby sister. And to be honest with you, I was a little scared of some of the holiday characters, too! :) We did see her sneak a few smiles as she held on tightly to an adult, though. Oh, and she LOVED "Ho Ho" and cheered upon his arrival (see pic). I can't believe we were able to get both girls on Santa's lap without a parent in the picture. I was definitely happy for that!

I also have pictures to share from our night hosting a kid's Christmas party but I'll have to do that later since one of the kiddos is awaking from naptime. We had a fun, holiday-packed weekend!

Monkey Business

Andrew has been diligently working on the girls' new playroom. In just a couple weeks, he's managed to frame the room, complete the electrical work, put up drywall (which he says he will NEVER do again), paint, put a drop ceiling up, put the closet doors on, and put up/paint trim. He even created a little nook for a workspace/computer area in the corner. You might be able to notice it in one of the pictures. Then I found someone through my favorite website (Etsy) to do some custom painting with PBK-inspired trees and birds. I had the painter camouflage the girls' names into the artwork so they can call one of the trees their own. Adelyn has a big tree and Ella has a little tree of course! (I'm sure this is something they will appreciate more when they are much older.) Anyway, I LOVE how it turned out!! And yes, I AM lucky to have such a handy husband who would never leave a project uncompleted. :)

The only thing outstanding is carpet which is scheduled to be delivered on Thursday. That means that we will have to move everything from the old playroom into the new one to make room for our new bedroom furniture scheduled to be delivered on Friday. Our old bedroom furniture is going into the new guest bedroom/old playroom. Follow that? Plainly speaking, we'll be busy Thursday and Friday. Then we are hosting a small holiday party for the neighborhood kids on Saturday after we have breakfast with Santa at the zoo that morning. Oh, speaking of that... check out the letter Adelyn and Ella got today in the mail from the North Pole:

Nice poetry, huh? I think 'Santa' better not quit his day- um, er... night job!

Now, for the 'Monkey Business' title. Here are a few pictures of the girls at Monkey Joe's today with their friends, Jackson & Caroline. Adelyn is still a little hesitant to do the big stuff but managed to get through some of the bounce houses with some assistance. It was a fun but LONG day.

Cute Cousins

Just wanted to share a couple pictures of the girls feelin' the love from their cousins during Thanksgiving Day weekend. They were THANKFUL to share the holiday with most of their cousins including Gracen, Makenna, Malyssa, Austin, Maggie, Timmy, Erin, Kyle, Doug, and Ben.

Christmas Came Early!

I've been singing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!" to Ella over the last week and low and behold- they both sprouted up within 24 hours of each other. I'm not surprised that she got them early because she has been a very good girl this year!

Now Ella has five teeth- three on the top and two on the bottom. Further, here are a few other things our little sister is doing lately: she loves to say 'uh-oh' and 'ki ca'; she likes to mimic hand movements like clapping, 'how big?', playing indian (hand back and forth over open mouth), etc.; she's a dancer-- she loves music and also sings to it especially at church; she still LOVES bath time and isn't intimidated by the water at all; she loves food and her latest favorites are Yo Baby Yogurt and bananas processed in the Magic Bullet; she is still semi-crawling (1/2 crawling on knees; 1/2 army scoot/crawl) and she does attempt to pull up but hasn't mastered solo standing in order to cruise; she is down to two day naps and sleeps well through the night in her crib with a taggie blanket in grasp while sucking her left thumb; and she likes to play the dropping game where she'll purposely drop something so that I'll pick it up for her. Oh, and she got the biggest belly laugh the other day when I spit a food toy out of my mouth. (For the record, I didn't mistake toy food for real food; Adelyn placed it there when we were playing kitchen.)

I'm sure there are many other fun things to report that I'm leaving out. What's important is that she is doing very well developmentally and even though she's a bit of a lazy daisy when it comes to crawling/walking/cruising/standing, I'm pretty sure we'll have her walking sometime in the near future. Maybe not by her 1 yr birthday like big sister but that's o.k.! I can't believe she will be the big 1 on January 17th. That's just around the corner. I would consider working on birthday invitations but I haven't even gotten my Christmas cards out yet.

That reminds me- I mentioned in this post that my blog will be converting over to a private setting. Not only will this serve as a friendly reminder that it will go into effect in less than a couple weeks, but I also wanted to include my e-mail address as a way for you to contact me if you'd like to continue reading the family blog but don't have a way to let me know. In light of the 'privacy invasion' feelings I've been having lately, I will be disclosing only my 'junk e-mail address'- an old addy I keep active for non-personal e-mail reasons. I still check it, though, so feel free to shoot me a message! And for those solicitors out there, don't feel free to use it. Really. It's remarkable how fast I can throw you to my junk mail folder. And don't think I won't report you to the MSN police! :) Anyway, it's jenoldham at msn dot com if you'd like to join the very exclusive VIP list- ha!

Adelynisms

Mom: "Adelyn, would you like Mommy to blow your nose for you?"
Adelyn: "No, mommy... my nose is cwying."
Mom: "Why is your nose crying? Is it sad?"
Adelyn: "Yes." (head bowing)
Mom: "Awww... why is your nose sad?"
Adelyn: "Cause it is cwying, mommy. You didn't bwow it."


Enough said.