Oh Happy Day!

Tonight I will be sleeping in my own room in my own bed!  Yay!!!  It's been almost a month now that Jeff and I have been residing in the guest bedroom.  Pretty fast considering everything that has been accomplished, but I'm still so happy to be done with it.  The bed in there is nice.  We slept in it for 7 years. But I have to say that I'm spoiled by my king size bed.  A queen just isn't the same.  It also didn't help matters that everything from the master was piled around us in the guest room.  My side of the bed was completely blocked off so in order to get into bed I had to crawl over my 6'5" husband.  Not ideal... especially first thing in the morning when I'm groggy and don't fully have my balance.

I didn't get my bed in time for Christmas, but it'll make a great anniversary gift!  9 years tomorrow! 

The painters finished this evening and I immediately put the sheets in the wash.  It took an insane amount of dusting to get everything back to its original condition, but it feels so nice to be "home"

Let me rewind a bit and show you what's been happening...

Getting walls put up made such a huge difference.  Then came texture and paint and all of a sudden it felt like a room!

The completed entry

Without those two doors this wall is suddenly huge!  I'm scheming on a painting project.  We'll see...

The bedroom got painted a slightly darker color although you can't really tell from the pictures.  We still have more improvements coming for this part of the room.  I hope to have a shelving / TV cabinet built for this wall...

The bathroom is now a dark chocolate brown!  I love it!  It looks a bit cave-like at the moment, but I think it's going to be so cool once everything is in there.  I'll post pictures soon when we get some lighting.  My husband, the electrician, is already on the job!

A Tacky Christmas

Our Small Group had our annual Tacky Christmas Party.  It was hilarious!  I didn't have a lot of time to shop so I made 2 t-shirts for me and Jeff saying "Bah Humbug."  We gave coal as our gift to go along with our Scrooge-ness.  Wow, I'm going to have to step up my game next year.  There were some awesome outfits.  It's hard to pick a favorite, but I think I might have to go with Lee Petty dressed up as Cousin Eddy from Christmas Vacation.

Tis the Season

We had a lot of fun this Christmas season.  The boys loved every minute of it and counted down the days to Christmas Day!  I'll have lots of Christmas celebration pictures coming soon.  But first here are some highlights from the past month.

They loved playing with the nativity and setting up the Christmas tree!  

We had two Christmas programs to attend this year.  The first was Hudson's preschool program.  It was so sweet!  Hudson was a wise man and did such a great job!  He sang and did all the motions and was just adorable in his costume!

The second program didn't go quite as well.  Hudson had a meltdown and didn't even go on the stage. Cooper went on stage but looked like he might cry at any moment.  You never know with that one.  He was such a ham at Jordan & Rachel's wedding but then was petrified for the Christmas program.  He loved singing all the songs at home and would sing them non-stop at the top of his lungs.  Oh well, maybe next year.

Hudson loved having hot chocolate on cold days!

LiLi and Mrs. Strickling took Hudson and Cooper to a kid's party at the Country Club.  They had a blast eating candy, opening a present and meeting Santa.

Look! I actually made something I pinned on Pinterest! :)

A button Christmas tree ornament

All dressed up and headed to the CrownQuest Christmas Party

Bathroom Progress

Things have been moving right along at our house!

First the plumbers came and dug to China ...

I actually took those pictures a little prematurely.  That was just their initial dig to find the existing plumbing.  By the time they had jackhammered everything to move it to its new location there was hardly any concrete left in the room.  There were small walkways in between holes and a giant pile of dirt in our driveway.

But thankfully, they got it all sorted out then it was Jeff's turn to do some hard work.  He and my dad poured cement over almost the whole room to level everything out.  Thanks, Dad! (I helped the first night - it wasn't fun)

Then Jeff got busy building walls!

The entry walls all framed out

Our future bathtub

Yay for a separate room for the toilet!

The huge new shower!

The wall where the DOUBLE vanity will go
Jeff and I have always shared a sink - this is momentous for us! :)

The view from our bedroom

After Jeff finished building, the eletricians came and ran all new wiring.  Then Jeff had a few more jobs to do.  Like fix a roof leak that we discovered.  Ugh!  Nothing like adding another project to the already long list.  But he got it fixed!!  And since we don't get rain here, he tested the fix by creating his own rain - aka - a hose on the roof.  

Up next was insulating the exterior walls.  

Tis the season for getting packages!  

Did any of your packages come bearing marks of Hazardous Materials?

Better yet ... did any of your packages come with a Hazmat suit???

TaDa! Spray Foam Insulation.  It will keep out ... well, everything!

Now, Jeff is getting a nice extended break while we have some guys hang sheetrock, texture and paint the room!

All I Want for Christmas...

is to sleep in my own bed!

It might actually be a reality!  The current timeline is paint on Friday!  I'm crossing my fingers!

Here's a 60 year old shopping list we found scribbled on one of the studs we removed

It's never a good sign when your kids can draw in the dust on your couch  : /
Hopefully things will stay cleaner after the sheetrock is installed!

Winter Wonderland

A couple of weeks ago we woke up to this ... 

We were all so excited!  I knew there was a chance of snow but wasn't expecting to have three inches on the ground!  Jeff opened the curtains to show the boys and I could hear shouts of "It SNOWED!!"  So fun! :)

I made Hudson and Cooper wait to go out until Garrett went down for his nap so that I could help them find warm clothes and they wanted me to help them make a snowman.  I think that was the longest 2 hours of their life ... poor guys! But we finally got out there and had a blast!

Thanksgiving

This is where we spent Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful!  Some friends graciously let us use their mountain cabin.  We went with my parents and had a great time!  The boys had such a fun time going on hikes, climbing boulders and finding snow!  We watched movies and played games.  We read books and took naps and drank hot chocolate by the fire.  It was perfect!

The boys brought their guns so that they could hunt bears and lions!

The boys loved having extra time playing games on our iPhones!

Garrett loved the extra attention and exploring the cabin

Preparing our Thanksgiving Feast

Hudson being a goof at the grocery store :)

 This video cracks me up.  Cooper was playing Yahtzee and did this every time he rolled ...

The only bad part about going to Colorado was the loooonnnngggg drive home.  Thankfully we survived 13 travel hours with a 7 month old.  Really they all did very well.  Here's Baby Rett during one of our many breaks ...

And Hudson all cozy in the back...