Are you thinking about how tired you are? How it might be nice to sleep for another hour? How you are not really looking forward to work? Thinking about the 10 fires you are going to have to put out in the up coming day?

Those first five minutes set the stage for the remainder of the day. If you allow thoughts like that to creep in, and dominate your mindset in the morning then you will see those things come to pass.

You’ll drag around, tired, low energy and not be nearly as productive as you could be if you start the day out with bad though patterns.

But your saying… "that’s hard," or "I am so tired in the morning," or "I just have so much to do."

Here’s the solution…

Before you go to bed at night spend a couple minutes visualizing your day. Tell yourself that you are going to wake up full of energy. Visualize how your day is going to go. When you wake up, don’t drag out of bed. Hop out of bed. Take control of your thoughts, don’t leave room for unproductive thoughts to enter you mind.

Do it… every single day. You will discover that your days are more productive. Your happier. And you’ll have more energy.

5 minutes spent planning and visualizing the next day and morning, and 5 minutes in the morning without dragging around, thinking of all the good things the day holds can make all the difference in the world.

And of course doing THE thing that can literally take you from the dumps… to a very emotional healthy state. You know what it is right?

The things kids say never cease to amaze and amuse me. This morning Ella started the day with a statement that made me chuckle inside.

As we were laying in bed, trying to pretend that 3 out of our 4 kids had not climbed in with us… and it’s only 6:30 AM mind you, not 10 AM or something crazy like that… Ella asks Elizabeth why she sleeps on that side of the bed now.

When Ryder was born 8 months ago we switched sides of the bed because it was easier to put his crib on the side of the bed I slept on. He has of course graduated to a crib in his own room but we never switched back to the original sides of the bed we had always had.

Well when Ella asked Elizabeth why daddy was on her side of the bed, Elizabeth made a silly comment along the lines of, "daddy won’t give it back."

And then came the comment from Ella, that in her 5 year innocence just cracked me up…

"Why Don’t You Just Wrestle Him?"

Implying that if she really wanted her original side of the bed back she should just take it. So funny. I hope that attitude will follow her into her adult life and she realizes that if she wants something she needs to just go after it and take it… as my dad repeatedly told me growing up, "Nobody in this world owes you anything, if you want something you better work at it and get it."

Maybe we should adopt that as a national policy and slogan… nobody owes you anything, stop feeling entitled, and make things happen, give value to others, and you will be rewarded.

Maybe I’m just over thinking the simplistic thinking of a 5 year old. I am grateful for her sweet spirit and the little lessons she teaches me, if I am smart enough to pay attention.

Well it’s been 10 days and Clayton, Ella, and even Cade, still love holding their baby brother. Sometimes it is a fight over who gets to hold him. I suppose there is worse things for them to argue over.

The only problem is that Ryder would probably rather just lay in his little chair and sleep. At least he will always know his brothers and sister love him. No matter what, they will always have each other.

It’s been a long time since I have seen my brother and there are some things I wish I can say and take back. I try to teach the kids the importance of family and how special it is that they have siblings.

You never know what tomorrow will bring so don’t waste today. How does the saying go….carpe diem… seize the day.

Oh, and yes Ella did get into moms lipstick. She was wearing over her entire upper lip until I wiped it off for the picture.

The kids still like holding him, even Cade.

Cade is even trying to say his baby brother’s name. You kind of need an interpreter to know what he is attempting to say but at least he is trying.

I am extremely grateful Ryder is healthy, mom seems to be recovering well, and we now have our complete family. In a way, every time you have a new baby it is like starting from scratch again.

We are only moving forward from here.  There is many exciting and fun things in store for our family.

We are now a family of 6

We are now a family of 6! The younger kids love their new baby brother. In fact they spent most of the day fighting over who gets to hold the baby. I am sure they will get over that soon  

Here is our newest family picture, that includes our new little guy, Ryder Cohen Boydston.

Here is a closeup of Ryder. The lighting wasn’t the greatest in the hospital nursery. It was the best I could do.

I told them that with our first son Clayton, who was born in Utah, that they let me watch the entire surgery. After I said that I got to stand up and watch the whole thing. It is definitely a strange experience watching your wife be cut open.

I took a one minute video of Ryder’s ceserean section. It is a little graphic, so you may not want to hit play if you get uneasy with this sort of thing.

So what did you think of the video? Post your comments. Let me know.