It's finished!

We finished the new office! My dad and Dave worked on it the last couple days and it's finally all done. It's such a great room and the boys took no time to break it in. Colin walked past it yesterday and said, "Oh, I like those colors." Once the desk was set up he went in, found his paper and started to draw. Trevor couldn't wait for the computer to be set up. He'd been waiting to play a game all day long. Now it's on to the upstairs. We'll see how long it takes us to start that one. I can't tell if Dave is tired of working on the room or motivated to do more!

The boys enjoying the new room. We put crayons, paper, glue, scissors and pencils in the desk where Colin is drawing. It will be his new "drawing table" and the place where Trevor does homework. Trevor loves playing games with his dad!

The boys on Christmas morning opening gifts. They loved their gifts and had a great day playing with their new toys...the star wars figures were a big hit as well as their new pirate ship!Dave bought a big fluffy blanket for the family for Christmas. I think it's Colin's favorite new thing. He's always complaining he's cold but I think he'll be toasty warm from now on.

New Pictures

Just like everyone else we got snow on Wednesday. It snowed at the house but didn't really stick. We were a little sad on Thursday when we woke up and there was no snow. But as you can see we did get our chance to play in it.

This is Trevor on our "snow day". My mom called early that morning to let me know the park next to her school had snow (even though we had none at our house and her school is two minutes away). I called my friend Jean and we took our kids over to play at 8:30 in the morning before it all melted. They played for about a half hour and then got cold and wanted to go home. It was the first time Trevor and Colin have seen snow!

Colin playing in the snow. Before I could get his "globes" on he ran out and started picking up the snow. He came crying to me, "Mom! My hands are so cold." I got his gloves on and it was all good. He loved it and had a great time making his little snowman.I took Logan to get his first haircut on Wednesday. As you can see from this picture it was getting pretty long. It would fall in his eyes and the back was getting so long he always looked like a "ragga-muffin" (something my dad used to say to us when we were kids).

This is Logan after his haircut. He's all clean and in his pjs. Doesn't he look like such a little gentleman with his hair all nice and trimmed?

The new office is coming along. We've finished all of the painting (I LOVE the colors Dave picked) and tomorrow we're going to install the wood floors to match the flooring we have in the rest of the downstairs. I can't wait to get all of the furniture down there!

Santa

Our ward Christmas party was on Friday and afterwards we had a visit from Santa. I love the look on Colin's face in this picture. Colin told Santa he wanted a snowman for Christmas, Trevor said he wanted Hot Wheels and of course Logan started to cry as soon as Dave sat him on Santa's lap. But I'm glad my friend was there with her camera phone to capture the moment.

New baby!

My mom just called and my sister Belinda just had her baby. I won't give any of the details - I don't want to steal her thunder (it's a girl and I think it was her biggest baby). I'm going over to the hospital tonight to hang out with my sister after everyone else has come and gone. Hopefully I'll get some pictures. It will be fun to hold a newborn again - Logan is getting so big!

Here's Macy with her new baby sister Kinsley.

The Remodel

Earlier in November Dave and my dad and uncle started the remodel in our house. We're turning the downstairs bedroom into an open den for the computer and desk and we're going to make the loft (where the computer is now) into a new bedroom. The downstairs is going a little faster than I expected. Dave and his friend Kevin are going to work on it today. The flooring for the room is in and Dave is going to choose the paint color. I'm excited to see what it looks like and more excited to move all of the furniture down there so we can start on the new upstairs bedroom. Trevor and Colin are going to share the new room and we'll put Logan in their old room. I have so many ideas for their room so I hope I can make it look the way it does in my head. Here are a few pictures of what Dave and my dad and uncle worked on that first day...

They cut out a new door way and moved around some of the old outlets. We're going to keep this open to the hall and not put doors on.
They took off the closet doors and cut the wall back a little. This is where the corner part of the computer desk will sit. The old doorway to the left has been closed in and we're going to do some built in shelves. I can't wait to post the finished pictures!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

When we were growing up I always wanted lights on the house at Christmas. We had a huge pine tree in our front yard so one year we put lights on it, but the next day we discovered someone had come and taken all of the lights off. We never attempted it again. Last year, about a week before Christmas Dave went down to Home Depot for something and came back with Christmas lights and a big wreath for the door. This year, we're the first house on the street with our lights up. We have a pretty festive street and we were always the dark house amongst the ones all lit up for Christmas. The boys love it; they "helped" Dave get all of the lights up and then came in and helped me decorate the tree. Colin kept asking when Santa would be here and we had to tell him over and over again not for 25 more days. Then last night Dave and I actually went Christmas shopping for the boys and got all of their gifts in one trip. It's not even December 1st yet and we're done. Usually we're scrambling till the last minute to get their gifts only to discover our limited choices since things they want usually sell out (does anyone else with young boys have to buy Star Wars and Transformers again this year?). It was so fun getting the house all decorated, going out shopping and thinking of how excited the kids will be to open their gifts. But after it was all said and done, the one thing Trevor was really excited about was when I put up the page out of the December Friend where we read scriptures of Christ each night and color in a picture until you get to Christmas day. He has been waiting for December 1st so we can start that. I guess it really is the little ones who always seem to remind us what Christmas is really all about.

Not Freezing to Death

Since the weather has been so nice Dave and I decided to whisk the kids away to the beach for a few days. Here is Logan on the beach for the first time....just kidding. That's Colin from 2 years ago. I took some cute pictures of the boys yesterday in the backyard when we were all playing and for the life of me I can't get them from the camera to my computer. So I put this picture up to make my friend Tricia jealous because right now it's as warm as a summer day at the beach. Well, maybe not that warm but it sure is a heck of a nice day. On Sunday one of my friends said she was so sad because she was putting up her Christmas decorations and it was warm and sunny and she was getting hot. She misses the cold and the snow. I don't know how people can miss the cold and the snow when it's so beautiful. I will never understand the love of snow. I lived in it for three years in college and I can honestly say I don't miss it one little bit. Sure it's pretty to look at, but when you have to go out and walk to class and it's 20 degrees and you get all wet from it and your toes start to freeze...no thank you. I will take 78 degrees in the middle of November any day. So sorry Tricia that you're already freezing to death. I am going to go open another window to let in some of this nice, fall air.