Wii inflatable cars

okay, these things are super cool until you use them for a bit - we got a small hole under the seat in one so we returned it for another and Santa got them a second one and BOTH of the new ones have holes in the same spot - bad reviews from me on their wear and tear factor!  Here they are before they bit the dust!

Christmas morning

 

Christmas Eve

We host Christmas Eve for my mom's side of the family each year.  So nice to get everyone together.  We had a fun time as always! The kids get pajamas each year on Christmas Eve to wear to bed too.

My brother, mom and me

the trick for keeping them all together in front of the tree is to put them on daddy's back!

We saw Santa!

Okay, so we cut it pretty close but last minute, my neighbor and I decided to take our kids to see Santa - her boys are very close in age to mine and they all did great.  No tears this year!  Here are a few of the shots.

   

Christmas with Humphrey's

Morgan has known Chloe since she was almost 2 so every year we have exchanged gifts and our families have gotten to be GREAT friends - we had a great day spending it with them sans hubbies!  Some people have to work....

Kids Christmas photo

Tried to get the stressful group shot of the kids for our Christmas card - after several attempts, got one that wasn't too bad.

1st Santa trip

We went out to dinner and planned to see Santa afterward and I was certain he was there from 6-9.  Our friends and step-sister and her family were all ready for him and I was wrong with the time!  Big oops!!  He was there from 5-8.  We got there about 8:03 and no sign of Santa - he bee-lined for the North Pole - his helper said we just missed him.  They did have their Christmas scenes set up so you could go in and get pictures so we worked with what we had.

Aaron,Tara and AJ

Josh and Sloane

trying to get all the kids together (missing Abram)

Here they all are - just not cooperating Jenny, Josh, Abram and Sloane

Our family

Zanesville Christmas

We went to celebrate Christmas with Kirk's family - we always have a great time - his step-brother, J.D and his wife, Jerra hosted it.  So much food, so many presents, and soooooo many kids!  I was so bad at getting pictures during it but you can see with all of the kids, we were in the midst of chaos most of the time.  After we had Ryan, all the other small children have come along - holy cow!  They  will have lots of memories to make together!

Primary Village South Musical

Bradley's school is divided into neighborhoods so his neighborhood did a musical at the Centerville High School.  It was so great!  The music teacher came to our house and took a video of him talking in front of our tree so he got to be in the main video they played before they sang their Christmas songs.  I didn't get pictures of him at the musical b/c I was using my camcorder but here are a few of him with my mom before we left (and Ryan had to jump in too!)  I need to be better at using both forms of media!  He even sang this year - he wouldn't even try at his preschoool graduation last year - big step!

Dinner with Good Friends

We went out with some great friends for great food!  We ended up going to Savona in Centerville and came back to our house for a gift exchange and game-playing - lots of fun!  Had to get a few pictures of the event, however, didn't have the camera at dinner - bummer!  It was a great time!  All the kids were out of the house - so nice to get a night like that once-in-awhile!

Daytona Beach 2010

We had a great vacation spending our Thanksgiving in Daytona Beach.  We have a timeshare so we stay in the same place every year.  It is right on the beach and so relaxing.  Kid LOVED the beach - all of them!

Master Bath Renovation

So proud of my husband and his handyman abilities! We were originally going to replace the vanity so we could have double sinks – the original bath had to be from 1978 when the house was built – scalloped, lime green marbled countertop, mint green toilet, carpet in the vanity area. Definitely needed some updating but weren’t quite ready to tackle all of it until we had a slight glitch- the new vanity cabinet and countertop was 3/4” too wide – they must’ve built the original in to fit b/c standard is 60” which is what we assumed we had until we did a very accurate measurement after we bought the new one. Needless, to say, this became a complete overhaul which was needed but not planned. Took about a month of sharing bathrooms with kids but not ONE professional called in for the job! Unless you consider our friend, Jim, another DIY’er who came to help wire the 2 lights above the mirrors. I did the grout in floor which I learned from watching a 5 minute video on the internet, and the painting of ceiling and walls, and I painted over an icky southwestern print canvas to make my own simple design-although I think Morgan could’ve done just as nice of a job being a 3rd grader but it fills up wall space for sure! It is a HUGE canvas that was going to go to the garbage until I tried to improve it. I also painted the brassy closet doors to brushed silver and used some glass frosting spray to update it a little. Not sure if you can tell from the pics of it b/c it reflects everything in our garage in the mirrors just so you know what you are looking at.

if you look below, you will see there was a partial wall dividing the toilet from vanity area-that is what we had to remove to fit new vanity in)

old/new(carpet vs tile)

OLDNEW

LOVE IT!

Mirrors before(brassy gold trim)

After the spray paint(see the frosted border I spray painted within the mirror?)

how I taped it off

final product (with some great wall decals I got off Etsy-bringing it forward 30 years!)

my artistic abilites-not much as you can see (used to have clay pots painted with all the southwestern designs – very icky!) with a natural light wood frame)-wish I could find a before picture of it!-Just painted right over it!