Resolutions or just a few goals!!

So I have never been one to set a New Years Resolution, mostly because I knew that I would never stick to it.  This year is no different, I do not have a New Years Resolution for 2013 but I have decided to set my Top 10 Goals for 2013!   I am hoping that at the end of the year I can look back and say that I was able to accomplish at least a couple of the goals I set for myself!  So here my list.

Top 10 Goals for 2013
1.  Finally lose this last 18 pounds to be back at my wedding day weight - I have really stalled out over the past couple months but time to get back to it and shed these love handles what seem to think that we are the best of friends!
2.  Continue to take as many photography classes as I can so that I can fully understand my camera and how to capture the "perfect shot".  Also would like to do more photo shoots in 2013. I already have a Senior Portrait Session and a Family Session scheduled for next summer and I just had someone approach me about doing some pregnancy photos (very nervous about that one)!  I also want to purchase and figure how in the world to use Photoshop.  Yes, maybe goals for my photography obsession.
3.  Go Camping More.  We spend many weekends each summer at the lake with my parents or my mother in law but I would like to try to get in a camping trip or two this summer to some Minnesota State Park that we haven't explored yet, you know tent camping, hot dogs over the fire and more mosquito bites than I could ever tolerate - yup, true camping!
4.  Get Organized!  We have several closets in our house that are the kind that you cannot open without covering your head because you don't know what might come flying out at you.  Yup, time to get organized and purge some of the crap we have accumulated over the past 9 years in this house.
5.  Finish household projects.  We need to finish our kitchen - we put in new cupboards in half our kitchen almost 5 years ago, time to finally finish the other side and put in new floors in the kitchen which we have been talking about doing since we purchased the house back in 2003.  Seriously 10 years of home remodeling projects and we still are not done, how sad is that!  We also need to finish off the second bathroom we put in the basement 6 years ago.  We need to finish painting it and install a linen closet!
6.  Disconnect more!  This one will be very difficult for me as I am always checking my phone for Facebook updates, new Instagram Posts, Scramble with Friends moves or blog updates!  I am going to do my best to just disconnect, especially when hanging with my boys - I have caught myself playing on my phone and not fully listening to Colton or paying attention to Mace when he is trying to show me a new toy and that just isn't okay - time to focus on what is going on right in front of me instead of in some virtual world!
7.  Update the photos in our house!  I take so many pictures of the boys yet there are only about 4 pictures of Mason in our entire house!  Everything is still just Colton, Colton and more Colton as I haven't taken the time to print new pictures. I don't want Mason to grow up thinking that Colton is the favorite and by the looks of our house right now that is what anyone would think!  And while we are on that subject, I need to get get making Mason's yearly photo books as well.  Colton has a giant scrap book for his 1st year and then a giant 12x12 Shutterfly photo book for each year after that!  Mason has nothing.  I really need to get on that as I am 2 years behind already, eeek!
8.  Get Potty Training!  I would really love Mason to be potty trained before Summer.  I am done with diapers and wasting all that money every week and having to haul a giant diaper bag everywhere we go! We have been working on it already but not as consistently as we need to be, time to get focused.  He is a smart boy and can totally do this.
9.  Stop Eating out so much!  We have gotten a lot better than we used to be, mostly because Mason hit a stage where he only lasted about 90 seconds in a high chair before wanting to get down and destroy the place.  None the less, I would like to really focus on more home cooked family time meals around our kitchen table (which I would also like to replace). And of course more meals at home means more grocery shopping and even more chances for me to use my coupons!  Yes I fully intend to master the art of coupon clipping this year as well!
10.  Biggest goal of 2013 - set a budget and stick to it!  I would really like to get some bills paid off this year - the medical bills are seriously never ending.  Frankie and I need to get some of these bills taken care of so that maybe, just maybe, we can start to think about building our dream home in 2014.  We knew when we bought our current home back in 2003 that it was just a starter home and I believe at that time we said we will stay here for 5 years and then move on to bigger and better things.  Well here we are almost 10 years later and we are still living in our starter home.  We have started a family in this home and while we fit just fine in this house and have made it the home we want there are some things that we would really like to upgrade... like a bigger yard, an attached garage and a HUGE kitchen so we can entertain more.  The only way for us to build our dream home is to eliminate debt so a budget it is... now to figure out how to make us stick to that budget will be the challenging thing but I know we can do it being as the reward is totally worth it.

Okay there they are, my Goals for 2013.  I know I may not accomplish them all but I am hoping to do my best to at least give each one an honest attempt!  Looking forward to a great year and many good times.