Winter

Here we do not expect a white Christmas.  In fact our Christmas weather is probably much more traditional to the birth of Christ than the making of snowmen.  That doesn't mean we don't miss the snow, at least a little. But we do have cold weather, for us, and our winter sometimes even comes with rain, which then feels bone chilly!

One day it was raining. It had rained all night and was still raining, but not a hard rain, more like a heavy sprinkle.  I told the kids they needed to get dressed warm to be able to play outside. They were excited to wear their new mittens.

So, once they were all dressed and proclaimed ready to go out and play, I couldn't help but take a picture.

Let's start at the top, both are wearing stocking caps.

One chose to wear sunglasses on one of the least sunny days we have had.

Both are wearing their new mittens.

Both have coats on and they are zipped.

One is wearing a light weight skirt, one corduroy pants.

And we can end with the flip flops vs socks and tennis shoes.

At least she's got style, right?

How do YOU do winter?

Our project part 51,132

Are we done yet????

Well actually we are, sort of. I just haven't gotten the final product shown to you.  And I don't have any of those pictures yet for you.  But look at how it is going!

 First, we started in the hallway knowing FULL WELL that it would be the most challenging of the flooring. Something about 7 door ways, narrow room to work in.  This corner/closet area actually got done 3 times before we could continue down the length.  A big shout out to our neighbor who was very very very extremely helpful. In many ways, including settling discussions, that turned out in my favor, not to boast or anything.

 Kid tested, they couldn't wait for us to move to the living room!

 Look how warm and inviting it is!

The big room. The hallway took 11hrs, and still needs some serious attention and the 7 door way transitions were not done.  The big room took 12 hours and that included me running to buy a tool, 3 stores and 3 hours later we were back in business. A big thank you to our help that very long day! Again the transitions weren't done, and I think to avoid one transition Eric decided we should do the kitchen as well.

If you give a mouse a cookie. . . . .

 So onto the kitchen. . . .

And again we are grateful for the extra hands of help we had! We ended up taking one board out of the last box, so close!  Just to balance the project out, we ended with another tight closet area.

Still working on getting all the trim painted and back up, but this piece is up and it looks great!

This is a project we have been talking and dreaming about for nearly 3 years.  When we first bought the house we looked into putting in this flooring, and just priced out the living room.  Wanting to search all our options and make sure we loved what we put in, we took the time to keep looking and saving our pennies.  While our 2 week time line did not last, we did get the floor done within a month of buying our first set of boxes and within 2 weeks of beginning to lay the floor.  I am happy to tell you that we came in about 25% UNDER budget and that budget was just for the living room, we also did the hallway AND the kitchen -basically double the floor we had priced out!  Since we knew what we wanted, we just kept looking and looking.  We found this flooring at a third of the cost we originally had found and priced.  Since we were patient we were able to spot a great deal.

A couple of new area rugs to protect high traffic areas and the place is looking like home!

Being smart and patient has made this project even sweeter! To be able to do so much and still come in under budget is a huge blessing!  We had a separate dream about a new fridge.  Again we knew what we wanted and we had a price point we didn't want to go over.  For a couple of years I had been searching ads and craigslist in search of a new or used fridge that met our criteria.  Black Friday I needed to pick up more flooring and unbelievably the fridge we wanted was on sale, $300 BELOW our target price!  We also got a great deal on a new dishwasher and a bundled deal for purchasing both.

 Looks at home with papers and notes already!

Look at that beautiful floor!

And that concludes our remodeling tour.  Between holiday events, work, school and life, we are getting things back into place, trim back up and transitions done.  Thanks for joining us on this adventure!

Mock deployment

CJ and Daddy had the opportunity to see all the things that Daddy has to do before deploying.

 She got her own MRE...which she tells us every day has 3000 calories. She hasn't eaten it, but wants to.  We will see if we can find a time for her to try it out. (yuck)

 It is important to know first aid

 The "fancy" accommodations for flying out

 Protective gear

 Weapons training

Arts and crafts?  Daddy said he doesn't get that stop before leaving, but he does keep any pictures or projects we send him.

Advent

Part of advent is preparing.

Preparing our hearts to receive Jesus. Preparing our homes for the Christ child.  Preparing for Christmas celebrations.

The kids were a big help this year in decorating the tree.

This year has been so busy we have not been consistent in our Advent tradition of opening a different winter/Christmas book each night. Today, our schedule slows down a bit and we'll get on track.  Since we have been working on the floor, many of our decorations are not even out yet, but we are getting there.  In addition to programs, recitals, practices and caroling, I have been volunteering at school.

Wednesday was Polar Express day and siblings were invited.

 It was also pajama day.  Making our own trains.

It hasn't been all fun and games. We have been having serious talks with the kids about remembering and helping those who are struggling.  We began the season by filling special holiday meal bags for the food bank ran out of our church.  We purchased and gave toys for a local toys for tots program to ensure that more kids receive something special and fun this season.  Caroling was an opportunity to brighten the day of others. While we can be as guilty as anyone else rushing through each day, we do make an effort to spend time as a family and as a family reaching out to others, doing our best to instill in our children that the world is a large place and we each have a place in it.  That Jesus came to this earth as a tiny infant baby and above all, loves each and every one of us and therefore we must also extend that love to others.

I hope your Advent has been a blessing to you.

Our project part 4

 The prep work.  Not always fun, but clearly if a new floor is going to be put in place the old one has to go!  Add Christmas and I think our recycling will look like this till the new year!

This was Eric's least favorite part, pulling up the carpet tacks all around the edges.  Look at the lovely wall colors!  Notice the ugly cement floor, not going to leave that bare!

A bonus to prep work, we unrolled half of the living room carpet and the kids think it is fantastic! Gymnastics outside now!

Christmas Early

 CJ had her First Grade Christmas program. It was cute and about the over worked elves at the north pole. Here she is with her friend. They both had speaking parts and did great!

 Grandma and Grandpa were able to take part, and that meant that Sweetness and Kjetil got the best seats in the house!

 We even went caroling with Grandma and Grandpa.

The little boys found the big fish tank more interesting than the caroling

 We even had Christmas, new jammies and fun gifts!

Thanks for visiting! We had a lot of fun and can't wait to see you again!

Our project part 3

Where are the kids?

Huh? We have kids?

One of the fun of home improvement while everyone is around is how to engage the kids.  While they helped with painting, washed outlet covers, after they took them off the walls and then they also put them back up. Pulling tape off the wall is fun too, but at some point kids are, um, less helpful.

Now we did have 3 saws going and I thought why not have each kid man one, since we conveniently have 3 kids.  Eric seemed to think that a miter saw, a table saw, and a jig saw in the hands of a 6, 4, or 2 year old would be viewed as irresponsible and perhaps even reckless.  I thought, well it's a good time for them to learn how to wear protective gear and to be careful, and of course we could supervise.

He won that one.

I found this picture. Apparently someone climbed up into the sink and took several shots of his feet, the counters, and the ceiling.

And I have proof that he is not IN this bag headed out to the garbage.

Actually, on our big days we had extra kids here. I know it SOUNDS crazy.  But I bet anyone who has more than 1 child has learned that sometimes having extra friends around occupies all the children and for much longer times!  So at any time there were 5 - 6 kids running around, although we did "force" them to play and eat outside all morning we did let them in for some popcorn and a movie later in the day.

With all the furniture on the patio -I didn't get a picture of that- the kids thought it was  great fun to play "fort" outside.  I think our long work days ended up being pretty fun for the kids, even if they didn't get to run the miter saw.  I'm so glad I talked Eric out of his crazy idea of matching the kids up with the saws.  ;)

Butternut squash

The fall brings us so many wonderful harvests and an assortment of squash being one of them!

I had 2 large butternut squashes and decided to do them both up at the same time. I made a big batch of soup.  When the pot is this big and full, one hopes that it passes the family test!

Look at that gorgeous color!

Not only did it pass, we have more in the freezer for a future meal!  YEA!!!  Even the left overs that weren't frozen were gobbled up (a rarity around here) and the bonus they added left over rice and chicken which really helped to clean out the fridge and fill their bellies!

A cold winter day, soup always warms, to the soul!

Our project part 2

After we committed to this project I needed to get in gear to get the walls painted. Lucky for me, I had already picked out the colors!  I had even bought the dark color about 18 months earlier.  So I had it shook up again and it was a family affair to paint!

 Our messy painter. She could not remember to NOT touch the wet paint she just painted! She bumped into it, put her hand directly on it and if anyone dripped or spilled it was her.

He was our un painter. He painted so hard he was really just taking the paint off and leaving streaks. It's okay, I just painted over top with the roller.

Don't you just LOVE that color? It is called Rocky Mountain. Once it was up I loved it so much I decided to put it in the hallway too!

The lighter color was suppose to be classic oat. I had not purchased that color ahead of time. I picked up a quart to do some testing and I am glad I did!  Once on the walls it had a slight peach to it and the semi gloss just shined shined shined shined shined! I tried satin finish. Still no good. 

By now it was Friday and I only had a short window to figure out my color and get the walls painted before Eric wanted to start on the floors! He already had the hall carpet up and out of here!  So I went to a new paint store and found a lovely color called poco and I love it!  Also went with an eggshell finish and they promised me I would be able to clean it. Having 2 of the kids with me while discussing it helped them realize the importance of that! I took home a sample, l.o.v.e.d. it and called them Saturday morning ordering 2 gallons and headed to town to pick them up.  By Saturday night I had it done.

 Sweetness making sure that the newly painted walls can assist with handstands...or maybe she wanted to be the first toe prints on the newly painted walls.  (This is Poco)

Now, there is some touch ups that need to be done.  AND the cupboard doors in the hallway have to be taken down and painted. But those are projects I can do in small batches and not worry about interruptions or making a big mess!

So, once I got the walls painted I turned to Eric and told him how much I LOVE the colors and how much better the room already felt and how I didn't even mind the carpet any more.

 Pictures do NOT do it justice. Really the colors are so lovely!

And if you don't believe me, I invite you over for a meal, a round of games, and a personal viewing of it all. 

He reminded me that the carpet was gone from the hallway and pulled up all around the room and that we were committed.

He may have wanted to commit me at times during this process.  Just to reassure everyone, we're still speaking and getting along just fine.

Field Trip

First grade field trip ended up being a family event.  Eric had that pesky job thing and didn't attend, but the rest of us had a great time and since I drove separately, we stayed longer!

Personally my favorite each time we go, Big horn sheep!

Kjetil was selected to feed the porcupine.  Apparently they are very common in this area, up in the mountains.  Did you know they are one of a very select few animals that eat bark and wood?

Interesting tid bit. Skunks are found all over North America -and I'm sure other places too.  However, Tucson is the lucky home to 4 different varieties. FOUR! The most any other place has is two.  Making this region the skunk capital...eeewwww!

The state mammal, the ring tail.

Bet you didn't know that!

I did not get my camera out enough!  And we will have to return again, and next time not wait 2.5yrs between visits!