January

I'm trying to post about the whole month of January, so I'm just hitting the highlights.  

Jan. 3rd

 Paige and Bella went to another dance camp that one of our neighbor's daughter puts on.  They have such a fun time learning a new dance and doing crafts and such.  In each of these pictures, my girls are demonstrating their favorite dance move.  I can't remember what they were.  

Later that day, Jim and Georgia took our kids and had them spend the night and hang out with them all the next day.  So Nice!!  For dinner, they made little home made pizzas.  

I had a few hours to myself until Garrett came home from work, and then we went out.  We had dinner at Vivi's and then went to see "Saving Mr. Banks".  

 Yummy!

They played games and watched some movie.  

Jan. 4th

Playing on their exercise machine that morning. 

 Playing outside.  

It was so nice to have some alone time with Garrett.  We ran errands and went out to eat.  Later in the evening, he went over to hang out for awhile and I stayed at home and had some more time to myself.  Pure heaven!  :)

Jan. 6th

The kids went back to school--first time back since before Christmas.  I knew Noah was going to be completely bored, so we had his friend Cooper come over.  They love playing play-doh.  

Jan. 7th--Paige's birthday

 We had Grandma and Grandpa meet us over at the Old Spaghetti Factory (Paige's choice) for her birthday dinner.  Then we came back to our house for presents and cake.  We made them get pajamas on first since it was getting late.  Since she had a friend party last year, we just had a little family get together this year. 

 She got a spirograph, more legos, some vinyl flower stickers to decorate her room with and the 2 'Frozen' sister barbie dolls--Elsa and Anna.  She loved those!

 And for her birthday cake, she requested cheesecake.  With strawberry topping.  Easy enough!  Happy 9th birthday!

Jan. 8th

Maggie started her basketball season.  Unfortunately, her teammates chose the name Blazettes for their team.  Maggie hates it and tried to offer other choices, but everyone else loved the name.  She has practices/games every Wed. night and Sat. morning.  She really loves it and has improved a ton since last year.  

Paige and Bella were both sick of going to their dance classes, so I let them quit.  Paige quit in November I think and Bella called it quits in January.  I'm torn--happy that I don't have to go out there twice a week, but sad that we won't get to participate in the recital.  I may still go watch it though since we know kids that are in it.  

Jan 10th and 11th

Both nights this weekend, Maggie wanted to watch Jane Austen movies to see what they were all about.  We started with 'Pride and Prejudice'.  We watched the version with Kiera Knightly and the guy that looks like John Cusack.  She loved it!  Lydia and Garrett watched them with us too.  Lydia liked them, but she really liked making fun of them with Garrett.  The next night we watched 'Emma', and the following weekend we watched 'Sense and Sensibility'.  I've really loved watching these with my girls and I'm so glad they like them.  Those are just the ones I own, so we'll have to watch the others some time.  It's been fun.  

Jan. 13th

 Playing outside one day when it wasn't raining.  

Jan. 14th

Maggie's been wanting to get her hair layered "professionally" for awhile.  The lady that cut my hair is in our ward and so I finally got an appointment with her to get it done.  It turned out cute.  She has such pretty hair. The next day, she went to the orthodontist to get her bottom braces on.  

Jan. 19th

Garrett got the stomach flu right before church, so I went to sub for his class.  He had it for about 24 hrs. and then he was fine--but it was pretty bad.  Paige and Maggie got it in the middle of the night and it lasted about the same amount of time.  It got it the next morning and had it all day and Lydia started to get it that evening.  I'm so glad that Garrett and I didn't get it at the same time because we were able to help each other out and help with the kids.  He stayed home from work that day to help out.  

Jan. 20th

All of us sickies laying around moaning.  Bella and Noah didn't get it thankfully.  

Jan. 23rd

Finally--the wood for our new floor was delivered on Thursday and then it had to sit in the house to climatize for a couple of days.  

Jan. 24th

The movie about the 2 missionaries that were serving in Russia and who were kidnapped, called 'The Saratov Approach' came to one of our Hillsboro theaters.  It was only here for a week, so we took Jim and Georgia to see it on it's first night.  It was such a powerful movie.  We all really liked it.  At the beginning of the movie, I thought I saw one of the actors there in the audience, and I thought, Naw, it couldn't be him.  But then the manager came in and said that right after the movie, one of the stars of the movie, Corbin Allred, would be there for a Q&A.  It turns out that he lives in Beaverton and is going to school here with his young family.  I was so glad that we could be a part of the Q&A.  It was really interesting. 

Jan. 27th

 This was supposedly the last week of our "remodeling".  Today they came to move the appliances out of the kitchen so that it would be ready for the floor guys to come and work.  So, from Monday until the following Monday I didn't have a dishwasher, stove/oven or fridge.  Well, I guess we still had the fridge, it was just plugged in in the living room.  Garrett went to California for Monday and Tuesday.  

 It was so funny to see our appliances in different rooms of the house.  

 My empty kitchen

 I actually tried to wash dishes by hand that night, but as I was rinsing some dishes off to get ready to fill up the sink, all of a sudden I felt warm water on my feet and I looked down and saw water running out from the cabinet under the sink.  The whole cabinet was soaked and everything that was in there.  Apparently when they took out the dishwasher, they didn't put a cap on the part that connects the dishwasher with the sink part (where the disposal is), so when that part filled up, it came out the hole.  Hope that makes sense.  Anyways, so I couldn't even wash my dishes by hand.  I was pretty fed up at that point--and that was just the first day.

They were supposed to come the next day to start tearing out the old floor, but they couldn't make it.  So, nothing was done on Tuesday.  On the 29th, they were there all day tearing it up and almost finishing the new floor.  At 6 pm, they noticed that our contractor hadn't ordered enough wood.  There was just one small part by the bathroom and office that wasn't done.  Luckily then found enough of the same wood around locally and was able to deliver it on Friday and then they came back on Monday to finish up.  

Jan. 30th

Since we were going to be without appliances all week and since people would be working here all week, we decided to go camping on Thursday and be gone for the whole weekend since the girls didn't have school on Thurs. or Friday.  Then we would be out of their way.  

This was the day we left to go camping.  Noah had preschool that morning.  In fact, it was pajama day at school which is why Noah and his friend Ethan were in their pjs.  We had Ethan come over and play for a little bit before we left.  I thought it would be a good way to keep Noah out of the way while we were packing.  They're eating lunch in the picture.  

Jan. 31st

 We just went out to Vernonia to camp.  We wanted to be close since Maggie had a basketball game on Saturday morning and we wanted to stay until Sunday.  This way, Garrett could take her to her game and then come back.  It was such a laid back weekend.  We read and played games and watched movies and played at the park.  It was really nice.  I didn't take hardly any pictures at all though.  

 Here are some at the playground.

Feb. 1st

On that Saturday (the 1st), Noah started getting sick.  He was so tired all day and was coughing.  He ended up having a fever.  I didn't have my thermometer, so I don't know what his temperature was, but he was pretty hot.  

Noah and Bella watching a movie before dinner.  Noah was so out of it.  

We sent him to bed right after dinner and he was out within a minute.  

Later that night he woke up coughing pretty bad and I thought it was croup.  He ended up throwing up a bunch of mucous and slept only so so that night.  

The next day (Sunday) we got back in time for the rest of the family to catch the last 2 meetings of church, but Noah and I stayed home.  He had fevers on and off for the next 3 days and had this awful cough.  He had diarrhea for a couple of days and then had an ear infection when I took him to the doctor on Wed. He missed a week of school, but I didn't want to spread it around to anyone else.  

Back to that Monday the 3rd--the floor guys came and finished the floor.  Yay!  Another guy came who put up the baseboards and repainted those.  

Our new floor!!  Not the best picture, but I really love it.  

Then on the 4th, they had cleaning ladies come in and clean up any dust or dirt from construction that they found.  They cleaned most of the kitchen, so that was nice.  

Then on Wed. they had a carpet cleaner come and clean the living room carpet and our black rug that we keep under our kitchen table.  And with that, we are completely back to normal!!  Yea!!

The end of 2013

Dec. 26th

 We pretty much hung out for most of the day playing with new toys.  Lydia and Garrett built her Playmobile Fort.

These two goofballs taking silly pictures of themselves in the car.  

Then we decided to head over to our theater and go see the movie "Frozen".  When we got there, we found out that it was sold out.  So we found a different movie theater to watch it at.  It was a great movie.  I ended up buying the soundtrack later and my girls listen to it NON STOP!!  I always have the music in my head, no matter when--even in the middle of the night because they play it over and over.   I love the music too, but sometimes enough is enough.  Good movie though.  I loved the ending.  

27th

The next day we hung out for most of the day and then in the early evening we drove out to Yamhill to meet the grandparents for dinner at a Mexican restaurant "downtown".  

This was taken at the restaurant as we were about to leave.  We then went to their house to open their presents for the kids.  

 They each got a light up pillow that they love!  They are so nice and soft; and so pretty when they light up.

 Then she said she had a surprise present for them and they had to follow some string around the house to find the present.  

 going through the garage...

and coming back into the garage to stare at "their present".  It was a case of toilet paper.  I'm not kidding.  Garrett and I were laughing pretty hard because that really is a classic Georgia present.  Even funnier is that she tried to make it more exciting by making a game of it.  She's so funny--ya gotta love her.  

28th

I don't have any pictures, but today we had the Sister Missionaries over in the morning.  Then we took down our VERY dead tree and got rid of that.  Later that night, Garrett and I went to see "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."  That was a really good clean movie.  We enjoyed it!

29th

For FHE, we decided to play the Disney version of Headbands that one of our kids got for Christmas.  It's a fun game and we all like it.  

 Noah always has to be Lightning McQueen.  It's his favorite and he asks things like, 'do I have tires?" and 'am I red?'  Its really cute. 

 These two get along really well when they aren't fighting.  :)

30th

In the morning, Garrett went shooting with his good friend Tim.  Lydia and I started getting her room ready to paint.  I guess I should back up some.  Ever since we 'made-over' Maggie and Paige's room, Lydia wanted her room to be 'redone'.  She's also been wanting to have her own room for years.  So, this past summer, we talked about doing it, but never got around to it.  We were going to do it over Thanksgiving, but with our downstairs being torn apart, we thought we'd wait.  So, we decided to do it over Christmas Break.  We found some cute ideas on pinterest to do a turquoise/black/lime green room like this:

So this was our inspiration.  

We started by taking down the bunk beds and moving Bella into Noah's room.  She was a good sport about it and told her that we'd make her side of the room more girly.  (more on that to come).

This is what their room looked like before:

 These are really old pictures and the best I could find of their room.  I guess I don't take many pictures of their rooms.  

 Taking apart the beds. 

 Our kids always want the chance to paint, so we let them write their names on the wall before we start.  

Getting started with the turquoise.  Boy, when it was done, it was a LOT of turquoise--almost too much.  Which is why I thought it would be cool to paint one of the walls black.  Garrett was not on board with that idea, but I did it anyways and I really like how it turned out!  My friend Callie painted her whole bedroom black and it looked so cool.  I love the way it turned out--so I was really excited to paint one wall black.  

31st

I finished painting her room this day while Garrett went grocery shopping and made the food for our New Year's Eve get together.  

This is how we finished it that day.  It would take the next couple of weeks to get it set up and decorated the way we wanted.  

Jim and Georgia came over that night for dinner.  We had hoagies, 7 layer bean dip, veggies/dips and a cheese ball/crackers.  We didn't seem to have a lot of time to play games before we put the little kids to bed.  So, we played headbands again.  Georgia did not like the game at all and kept trying to get out of playing.  

 This is one excited crowd...

 We let the kids have a celebration early...kept wishing that I had cut up confetti...that's my favorite!

Jim and Georgia went home and we put Bella and Noah to bed.  The rest of us stayed up and played Monopoly.  My kids had never played it, so it was a must.  I don't think they liked it very much.  I couldn't believe it--we played it all the time as kids.  I had fun...we stayed up till midnight and tried to watch the ball drop, but those shows are so lame any more...they have awful people on performing...its not family oriented at all, so we kept turning it off and on.  Bella really wanted to watch the ball drop, so we recorded it for her and then let her watch the countdown the next day.  She was like, "That's it?"  I'm not sure what she was expecting.  :)

it was fun hanging out with these goofballs!  Happy New Year and welcome 2014!!

So, I thought I'd post the pictures of their rooms now, since I didn't finish talking about them.  

Here's Lydia's room.  I just took these pictures today.

 We were looking for a black and white bedspread, but she found this one with orange in it and really liked the added color to the room.  It's cute.  I like the orange better than the lime green.  

 Love the black accent wall

 This wall isn't quite finished.  We want to put up some white shelves, and then cover a big piece of canvas in some coordinating material.  So, we're not quite done yet.  

 And this is Bella's side of the room.  

 We found this cute tree vinyl with flowers and animals and she loved it.  

 So, she's happy with her room now.  

And Noah's side.  

Maybe now, we can decorate the master bedroom?  :)