Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and more!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It has been a crazy, busy last month. I did get my Christmas shopping done early this year; I was done on the night of the 23rd as opposed to the afternoon of the 24th!! How does this happen?? My new year's resolution for 2010 is to have my Christmas shopping done at least 1 week prior to Christmas--let's see how I do with that one. Then of course there was the Christmas chaos. The kids were happy as pigs in mud! T. was a little traumatized because after all the presents were opened he did not get what he really, really, really wanted which was either a laptop (is he crazy--why does a 10 year old need a laptop??) or a lizard eeww! So, Scott sent him into our room to get the phone and he walked right past the lizard tank, no comment, finally I said "excuse me T., do you see anything unusual?" T., "well there's a tank" me "is there anything in the tank?" T.-- Huge SMILE and breaks down in tears "I didn't think I was gonna get a lizard!" Well he almost didn't phew, he may have never spoken to us again and this would have been his worst Christmas EVER!

The girls were consistent all season with their request for a cupcake maker aka an Easy bake oven. They got that and a little kitchen, new dishes and fake food which is all over the house constantly--oh well they LOVE it! Oh and of course lots of plastic jewlery! Little girls are so easy! I know, I know it's not going to last. And how could I forget the barbie cash registers which they think are the coolest. However, at this point I would not recommend them. It was all fun until poppi discovered how to work the microphone and showed the girls--need I say more?!!

Then there was the Merry Christmas hit and run driver who backed into Scott's car in front of our house on Christmas Eve--isn't that nice???

And of course it wouldn't be Christmas break at our house without a few home improvement projects. There was the exhaust fan replacement which should have been simple NO, it involved rewiring, ceiling repair and way too much time in the DUSTY attic, but it's a sweet fan! Then there was the new recessed lighting in our bedroom WOW we actually have light no more dark dugeon. Total closet rebuild which I'm super excited about. We had this place in our room that would have been a closet if we had a 4th bedroom but instead it had a desk (sort of) and a floating shelf which would be fine, but we need every square inch of useful space. So we made it into a closet which entailed demo, wall reair, new light, shelving and new doors--mirrored(not my first choice, but not too many choices with the not square walls and not wanting to look totally cheapo and by the way NOT cheap!) What will I use the closet space for??? Clothes--funny!!! Check it out


Before shelving, but after demo, clean-up and paint
After (yes, I will be painting the blue bedroom walls--it's on my very long LIST!!!The flag is a nice touch don't you think? The floor has buckets of wheat which by the way have been super cheap at Costco!




Yes, I do have a recent obsession with food storage, couponing etc. My pantry is full, so this is a welcome relief. I actually have another blog--money saving etc. If your interested drop me an e-mail and I'll give you the blog address. I don't want to post a link because I want to keep it separate from this blog, but If your curious, just let me know. I just got a wheat grinder which I'm super excited about--who knew a wheat grinder could be so exciting and an upright freezer...FINALLY! So, feel free to share any food storage tips with me. My next big purchase is a solar oven and My sister's friend is going to teach us how to bottle meat this summer--I know it sounds kind of gross, but my sis who I totally trust says it's delicious!

and then there was the unplanned valve replacement (not my heart, yet) under the kitchen sink. It was very nice of that valve to wait to become leaky until my dad was here to fix it. I do know where the good (contractor type) plumbing store is now and I know how to replace a valve, hopefully I won't have to use that particular knowledge in the near future!

All in all good times! My mom taught the girls to make rolls which they absoutely loved! I think we all (Scott and I and my awesome parents) need a vacation from our vacation!!



I'm seriously thinking about hiding the Hello Kitty shirt! (refer back to many pictures already posted)

Happy New Year!!!!