The Hillsteads

I have lots of things on my mind as we are about to start a new year. I cannot wait for the year 2011! 2010 was a great year for us, but with some hard times. We learned a lot through the experiences we had, and I feel really grateful for even the hard times. Zach has a great job, we have a home that is perfect for us, wonderful family and friends, two ADORABLE kids, and we are healthy. I don't think we could be more grateful.

2011 will be a little different for us than 2010. Zach will be starting school at BYU again next week. He will be a full-time student and working full-time. I am so proud of him for taking on this challenge to finish up his bachelor's degree. He is so close. Only two more semesters:) I am secretly kind of jealous that he gets to go to school. Sadly, I have a lot of fun registering for his classes and making him a schedule. Pathetic, I know.

I have been thinking a lot about the goals I want to set for myself for 2011. They are a lot different than what I am usually thinking about. I always have the regulars of exercising more, eating better, reading my scriptures and praying more diligently, etc. Something that has been on my mind a lot is that I want to SLOW DOWN. This past year I have found myself trying to perfect in every way. It's sick. I try to pack in a million activities and do a million projects, and then I feel so unsatisfied when I have to rush through something or am constantly running from one thing to another. This year I want to not schedule as many things. Put more time into my kids or the small things I want to do around my house. I want to have days when I don't even leave the house and I just enjoy being home. That may seem normal to some of you, but honestly I never have days like that. I am excited about this "new pace of life" that I am going to try and achieve this year.

Along with my New Year's resolutions comes THE BLOG. As you can tell I have majorly been neglecting my blog. In fact I have been in an "I hate blogging" mood for about five months now. Honestly, it's because life has been so busy! I always feel like I am about ten posts behind so I don't want to play catch-up. But, as you can see, I have tried to give my blog a little face-life to motivate myself to reconnect with blogging. I want my friends and family to know what we are up to, and I know some of them might kill me if I quit blogging (for example....my parents who live on another continent for the time being). So, here I am declaring to the world, that I will blog in 2011....even if it kills me:)

Good night!