Reviewing Our Goals

2010 is at its end.
Which means its time to see where we're at
with all those goals we set
at the beginning of the year.

Love Should Be Our Walk and Our Talk:
It really should be. We're not quite there yet, but its been really good for us to have this family theme. We used it as a reminder when someone needed redirection with their actions and words.  We talked about it at each Family Home Evening and shared ways we had shown love throughout the week. Most of our FHE lessons focused on showing love to ourselves, others, God, and each other. One of our most effective lessons we stretched over about 6 weeks and focused all about conversations.

Family Goals:
Study and memorize the Articles of Faith:
I was so hesitant when Eric suggested this goal. To have a 5 and 6 year old learn all 13 Articles of Faith! But the boys blew me away. Basically, each month we took on a different Article of Faith. I practiced with the boys for a few minutes each morning before Kyler went to school. Around the end of the month, they were ready to recite it by themselves to both me and Eric. We also talked about what the Articles of Faith meant during FHE lessons. Every 3rd Article of Faith they learned, we celebrated with a Book of Mormon figure for each of them. After they learned the 13th A of F, they had to recite all of them to us again. I video recorded them saying all 13. They did it mostly without help, but since some of them it had been a whole year since they learned, they needed some reminders. Here they are saying their favorites.

 We also did 3 service projects together, tried to speak more kindly to each other, visited 5 new places, and tried to attend the temple more often.

Kacin's Goals:
Learn how to cook 5 things:
I loved that Kacin set this goal for himself. It was so fun to have him next to me in the kitchen so much. He learned way more than 5 things. He says his favorite thing to cook is tortillas.

Kacin can also definitely read more than 6 books by himself and he has fun playing basketball and improving his skills. He is trying hard on his character goal.

Kyler's Goals:
Learn to play the piano:
When we first got our piano, he took lessons from me. But now he has started taking lessons from an awesome, real piano teacher who he thinks is an amazing pianist. He loves doing it and practices each day before school. His favorite song to play is "Jolly Ol St. Nick".

Kyler has also played baseball and reads lots of chapter books. He has improved so much on his character goal.

Laura's Goals:
Be able to touch my toes:
I could never, ever touch my toes without bending my knees before. And now I can. Its so satisfying to finally be able to do something you never could before. Even when it's something kinda silly like this.

I also tried at least 20 new recipes (even though most of them were new desserts) and I'm pretty close to finishing the Old Testament. I think I will have to continue my character goal next year, too.

Eric's Goals:
Read 6 books about temples:
Let's just say that Eric has become a well-read man this year. He's read books on temples, Teddy Roosevelt, and various other subjects. Way more than 6.

Eric has had an awesome exercise schedule to help him stay healthy and has almost met his goal of two woodworking projects. He is working on remembering Portuguese, too. This man doesn't need a character goal because he's just that good. Well, actually I just noticed that he somehow slipped by without one. Oh well, he's cute.

We feel like we have accomplished a lot
in both our written and unwritten goals this year.
2010 has been a fun, fulfilling year for us.