Two Week Round Up

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks around here.  As so often is the way it goes at the holidays.  I just packed up most of the Christmas decorations yesterday and need to get this post done before the New Year, so I feel on top of things.

I posted this on Facebook, but not here.  This is our bedroom before and after the "new" carpet my Dad and Suzy gave us.  We love it!

We've had a lot of this white stuff lately.  I think three snowfalls in the past 30 days.  Not a ton of snow, but enough to play in and that's all the kids care about. 

We sang, played piano and did some readings at the rest home. Emily came home from school that day and wasn't feeling great, so she stayed home.  

Here is Noah and Ben's reading.  It was awesome.  I even love the commotion about Oval (the 104 year old) lady almost spilling coffee on herself.   That's Oval right in front int he blue jacket.  She can't sit up really or hear or see.  It's rather sad.

We had our neighborhood Christmas party at the clubhouse.  Emily still didn't feel well enough to go.  The kids did a this fun right/left game with candy.  Always fun!



And more snow...

And somewhere in all this, Grammie came to visit from Florida.  She took us to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  Yum!

The kids put on a Grinch play.  They wrote the story and had music and a narrator and the whole nine yards.  It was awesome.

Aunt Pam came up too.  She came before Christmas since she wanted to do something wintery with the kids.  So, we went to the Gingerbread Village.  

Noah loved the train that went around.

She wanted wintery, and Prescott did not disappoint.

Later that day, Noah puked.  Then, we went down to my Dad and Suzy's for Christmas Adam.  That's Christmas Eve Eve.  Noah still wasn't feeling all that great.

The kids got spoiled with gifts.

My brother helping Noah with rollerskates.

My niece, Tiffany, doing Emily's skip it.

Then, Alisa and her kids showed up on Christmas Eve.  Not sure where Greg was in this picture.

'Twas the night before chaos.

And then, the morning of chaos.

We had several nice meals with everyone at the table.  

The girls in matching outfits.

And the boys, not sure where Ben was.

There was lots of playing outside.

And a final picture of Grammie with all 5 of her grandkids.

I love the holiday's and all that goes with it. The lights, the music, the merriment.  

But, I like to pack it all up and move on.

And New Years is the perfect way to do that.

Winter Concert and Dance

This week, we've been busy every night with different winter activities.  On Wednesday night, we went to Noah's Christmas concert at school.

Thursday night was Ben and Emily's.

Today, Emily had her first dance at school.  It's during school hours.  I asked her if she wanted me to chaperone.  She did not.  She was a little nervous about the dancing part, but said, I'm only going for the food.  That's my girl!

And here are the videos from their concerts:

I was more than ticked at the family behind us during Emily and Ben's night with the crying baby. Now, I had one of those crying babies. We left if the baby couldn't be quiet. But, the parents and kids they were with were all super rude and talking the whole time. These kids have worked on these songs for 3 months and they can't shut up for 6 minutes to listen to them, even when their own son was singing. Rude, rude, rude. I would have told them so, but in this town, they probably have a weapon in their hip pocket. Sad.

But, we still enjoyed their performances and they all did a great job.

A Snow Delay and Spelling Bee

We woke up to a winter wonderland. It was only a few inches, but it fell in the early morning hours and they don't like to have kids standing at a bus stop in the snow. So, we got a two hour delay! The kids were more than happy to play outside for that two hours!

Then, Emily and Ben were both in the school Spelling Bee.  It was the top 2 or 3 kids from each class in third - sixth grades.  48 kids total.

Emily was pretty mad at herself that she got out on round one.  But, dojo is a hard word.  She still did great, and I'm proud of her for even getting up there.  One of the little third graders actually peed their pants on stage, so that should tell you how nervous they are.  Poor thing.  All of those grades come in to watch.  So, they are on stage in front of about 400 peers and lots of adults and teachers.  Talk about scary!

When Ben did his first word, cranny, he didn't realize that he was supposed to pick up the microphone.  He bent over to talk into it.  Hysterical.  That's just Ben. Never mind that 15 kids went before him.  He didn't even notice that they were picking it up.  He made it to round 5 this year and went out on the word modular.  His words were cranny, marlin, worrywart, smidge and modular.  He was the last kid up there for the their and fourth grade.  He was the top 6.  Him and five 6th graders.  That's pretty impressive.


We are super proud of both of them!

Grammie flies in tomorrow for a two week visit.  We have school concerts several nights with a performance at the rest home on Friday.  Then, we are out for two weeks.  It's going to be a very busy week!

Emily's Piano Concert

Today was Emily's winter piano recital. She's been playing for three and a half years and I'm so so proud of her. She looked so grown up when she got ready.

Here are some of the girls before the performance.

Here's Em playing her songs.  She played Carol of the Bells, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, What Child is This? and Skater's Waltz.

Here are the girls after the performance and with their awesome piano teacher, Stacy.

After the girls got some nice awards and gifts from Stacy.

These performances are always such a treat and so neat to see all the girls play.

Here's Emily's video.

We are so proud of all of her hard work.  I loved just setting up the tripod and hitting record and then sitting back and watching her without looking through a lens.  She did such a wonderful job.

Home Improvements

We got someone lined up to come Tuesday to lay down our new carpet.  We spent all day Saturday clearing out our bedroom, closet and guest bedroom.  We have furniture in the garage, in the bath tub, in the living room, in the entry ways.  It's crazy.  It'll be nice to get it done.  You can see in the pic where the sofa has been for 5 years and how clean that area is.  In the meantime, our rooms looks like this.



The crazy thing is, I kind of like the simplicity. I feel like I could not move all that stuff back in, and I'd be okay with that. Except, I'm not loving going out to the garage to get clean underwear. But, you get the point.

After pictures to come....

So, we got a new laptop and a new computer on Black Friday.  We decided that we needed to do away with our old "craft table".  That's what we've always called it.  It is a folding table that the kids did crafts on and it held our laptop.  It typically looks pretty awful.



But, now we have another laptop.  I wanted a long, 8 foot, wooden desk.  But, the prices online were outrageous and I couldn't find anything I really liked.

I've always wanted to do wood work stuff.  One day, I want to find that nasty dresser on the side of the road with a "free" sign and transform it.  I looked around on pinterest and found something that was pretty much what I wanted.  I showed David.  He watched a few youtube videos and we adapted it a little.

We went to Home Depot last weekend and got all the supplies.  It cost $78 and we still have a $20 piece of pine to do another project from that and a half can of stain.  So, basically about $50.  David measured and cut and sanded.  Thank goodness my Dad brought us all the tools.  We basically have some screwdrivers and a hammer.  Anyway, today, David and I stained it.


We got it all in place tonight and I love, love, love it!  We have to get one more board to go across the front to make sure it doesn't bow.  The back is secured to the wall with brackets.  I think I'm going to put a satin gloss finish on the top, just for a little sheen.  And we need to get three stools to go with it, but WOW, I'm super happy with how it turned out. 




It was exactly what I wanted.  I'm so proud of David for just jumping in with my wild idea and tackling this project.   David even drilled holes in the top for the cords to go through.  We officially put the folding table away!  Hallelujah! 

Now, the stools are more expensive than I hoped.  Hmmm...maybe we can make some!  :)