Thursday, January 7, 2010

New Year's Resolutions

My friend Korby put her new year's resolution (or her resolution for the month) on her blog and I thought it would be fun to share what our kids came up with for resolutions for this year. We did it for family night and had a good time/laugh doing it. Our kids pretty much came up with these all on their own. We helped with the wording, but the ideas are theirs:

Nico’s Resolutions

1. I will try not to cry if I lose my video games
2. I will try to be a better brother
3. Help friends at school
4. I will be reverent in Class and Sacrament

Christian’s Resolutions

1. I will try to not be so bossy to Nico (be more patient).
2. I will not give Mom a hard time about piano
3. I will try to pay attention in class
4. I will be more reverent in church
5. I will try to be a better example
6. I will read for the scriptures for twenty minutes every Sunday

Obviously Christian has more because he has more issues. Then we also did some family goals that once again, the kids came up with. We gave them the topics and they set the goal and then they gave us ideas on things we could do to accomplish those goals. Overall I thought they did pretty well. Christian really wanted to use the word "perservere", so we went with it and this is what we came up with:

Townsend Family Goals for 2010

Church

1. We will try to help one family find the gospel this year

a. Invite friends to church
b. Invite friends to come over and hear the missionary discussion
c. We will pray to help us find a family to share the gospel with

Family

1. We will try to be more patient with each other and not yell at one another

a. Have more patience
b. Read the scriptures to have the spirit in our home
c. Use our manners saying “please” and “thank you”

Work/School

1. We will persevere

a. Work hard
b. Get better grades
c. Not give up
After reading this you may think our family has yelling issues along with bulling issues and just plain issues all over the place. We do. I went one day without yelling at my kids and realized that it's theraputic for me and that the yelling I do is actually releasing some kind of stress/tension. What am I going to do if I can't yell at them in the morning to "hurry up or I'm taking video games away for the weekend," "You have 5 minutes left and if you're not out of the shower you're going to have to skip breakfast" (ha! like that's ever going to happen-such empty threats) My personal favorite, "What were you thinking?" Wow! I got going and now I can't stop. Here are just a few of the things you hear being yeld around our house (before our new resolution that is):
" Do you really think Isabella likes it when you do that if she's cries the WHOLE time?"
"Quit killing your brother" (video games really turn you into bad people all together)
"If you tell on your brother one more time I'm going to spank you!"
"Don't tell me, tell your Dad" (this one is one of my favorites as well)
"Quit talking and eat your food!"
"Quit talking and get your shoes on, NOW!!!!"
"MOM, Christian hit me"
"MOM, Nico is telling on me!"
"NO Christian, it was my turn!"
"NO Nico, this is how you do it, you're doing it all wrong!!!!"
"DADAADAADAADADADA!" (even Isabella gets in on the action)
So may the new year erase all these old ways and bring new and exciting blunders to our home. I need to find a new outlet soon!

7 comments:

russ said...

you are so funny! I miss you!!! YOur kids are so cute! I can't believe Christian is 8 & baptized! That is so rad! You guys are super awesome parents!!! So... as soon as all that cold & snow starts settling in on your warm blood, come visit us!!! It's 70 stinkin degrees... I miss winter:)

BlondieBlueEyes said...

You have put a big grin on my face. All you said is WAY too Familiar. We have far too much yelling going on over here. I would love it to stop. That would be a dream come true. I should talk to Scott about setting making some resolutions with our kids. We could use a more peaceful home. I am so sick of video games. They are my favorite thing to take away.


I hope we will see you soon.

Elisa said...

Stop killing your brother!! ... still laughing! But I can totally see it! funny thing is we have the same resolution... go figure :)

~The Brown Family~ said...

LOVE this!! such a great Idea. Those were some cute answers and great answers!!!! You guys are awesome! Wishing you an Amazing Year!

Britt said...

Can I just cut and paste this? Too funny. I miss you guys. We need to get our girls together to see how two youngest girls with a lot of older brothers get along.

Ethan was mad at me tonight and came upstairs and wrote in his journal (funny, because he was mad at me because we were discussing how much he hates to write for school) and his first resolution was 1. Do things my way.
(Wow, you need a resolution for that?)
My resolution is to post on my own blog.

Hugh Family said...

You and Jamie are such good parents!!

Stoichkov said...

5 minutes of my life I'm never gonna get back.

And you're punching waaaayyyy above your weight mate.

Stoichkkov x
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