The Blur that was January

January has absolutely flown by.  It's incredible how time is lately.  Woosh! and it's almost February.  We've had some fun times, including several sleepovers for the girls, an adult-night out with our friends, church events, birthday parties, dinner with friends, and more.

Here's some of the fun we had in January!

 Taylor's teacher's birthday!

Andy's 1st Birthday:

Feeding the Hungry at church- we made over 20,000 meals!

Musical chairs.

Poor Sydney had to get a bump frozen off of her lip.  She was so brave at the doctor's office, but the tears flowed once we got in the car.  We went to the Dollar Tree and this little tomboy picked out 2 footballs.  She slept with one and has the other in her bookbag. ;)

Mariella's Birthday:

Sydney and Mercer being cheerleaders at church.  Go God!

I got to babysit the cutest babies for a friend at church.  She has 3 of her own kids and is fostering 3 kids UNDER THE AGE OF ONE.  This is one of the twins, who turns one today.  The other child is 2 months old.  God bless that family.

Jordan's last basketball game!

As Parker says, he is snug as a bug.

"Snowball" fight with Taylor's class!

The game of life.

This made me laugh.

I got to see my friend Amanda, whom I've known since elementary school.

Chuck E Cheese birthday party! (shoot me...)

Dinner and s'mores with Monica, Tim, and Raegan:

Girls' night out!

100th Day of School

The girls reached their 100th day of school last week!  Here they are dressed as old ladies (with cowgirl boots and Nikes on, of course).

Latest House Project

We can't seem to go long without doing something to our house.  Do you recall me asking you not to let me paint again anytime soon!?  Yeah, thanks.  You didn't do your job, people.

But it's all good.  Because I love what we've recently done!  And with Stephen's help, it wasn't too bad.

We have a formal dining room in our house that we use proooobably once a year.  Heck, we used it so little that it used to be the kids' art room before we built the playroom.  Our beautiful table and chairs were now covered with markers and crayons.  We figured "one day" we'd recover the cushions or refinish the table.

Before, in a past life, before kids.  I can hardly remember what life was like then!  It was so shiny and clean!

But, we were looking at the dining room a few weeks ago, and were talking about what a waste this whole room is.  Why not make it into something we could actually utilize?  So, Project Ditch the Dining Room went into effect.

First, we listed all the furniture, the chandelier, wall hangings, curtains, and more on Craig's List to sell.  We had some people get most things quickly, which was nice.  Next up was a trip to IKEA.  (FUN)  Then was... painting.  (SIGH)  Thankfully, with Stephen, we finished it in about 8 hours (instead of 8 months like the garage!)  He hung the new light, we put together the furniture, and got it all in and organized.

It's now our random room.  Part homework area, part craft area, part extra pantry space, part storage.  I'm telling you, though- we have used this room daily since we re-did it!

Check it out:

My craft area.  I love the flexibility the pegboard gives me to organize things.  Plus, it was very inexpensive!

Homework station.

I also love the new wall color.  The lighter paint color makes a huge difference!

More pantry space (since our pantry is pathetically small!)

Ok, SERIOUSLY... this is it for a while.  Really.

INK

Oh yeah, we also went to INK (Interactive Neighborhood for Kids... something like that) in Gainesville over the break.  Parker was sooo excited to go to "Oink". ;)