Chattanooga!

The kids had a whole week of in February, and Stephen had to be in California for most of the week... so I decided to take the kiddos to Chattanooga!  We spent 3 days and two nights there, which was a perfect amount of time to be away and get to do a good amount of activities.

Monday:

We drove up that morning and went downtown.  We hit up Cardboard Hill, grabbed lunch at a local deli, did a city scavenger hunt (through an app- it was really fun!), got some ice cream, checked into the hotel, went swimming, did Door Dash for dinner (Chili's to the hotel!), watched some tv, and called it a day!

Scavenger Hunt

We had to take pictures as "sculptures"

More scavenger hunt fun

Tuesday:

As beautiful of a day Monday was, Tuesday was the opposite!  Cold and rainy.  We hit up downtown again, but this time we did mostly indoor stuff: children's museum, IMAX theater, arcade and the mall.  We got Subway to go from the mall and headed back to the hotel to swim!

Writing letters to school children in Kenya!

Looking out to the river

Wednesday:

Today, we packed the car up, checked out of the hotel, and headed to Ruby Falls!  In all the times I've been to Chattanooga, I'm not sure if I have ever done Ruby Falls (unless I was just too young to remember).  I can't lie, my fear of being confined/claustrophobia has gotten worse as I've gotten older, and I wasn't sure how I'd like knowing we were so many stories underground!!  Thankfully, it wasn't too bad, minus the elevator ride down where I just tried not to think about it.  It was cool- the falls were beautiful!  The kids got a little antsy after awhile- the tour guides are great and funny, but they drag the .5 mile walk to the falls out for over 30 minutes by stopping and talking.  A lot! ;)  But the falls were worth it, I thought.  We then headed home- it was a really nice little getaway!

January!

Is it just me, or is January the longest month ever??  January is back to reality- packing up the holidays, starting a new semester at school, sports starting back up, etc.  In our case, Stephen's travel schedule went from 0-100, since he wasn't able to travel for about 8 weeks from his back issues and surgery.  We battled strep, the flu, and the stomach bug.  Soccer began, basketball continued, and trying to keep up with my kids' social lives is a full time job in itself!

With that, here's a glimpse of our January:

Parker's (Sydney's friend) birthday party:

Random family fun:

Working on her Wax Museum paper

Taylor always makes me laugh when I check on her at night.

Another time!  This is like the scene in ET ;)

D&B

Doctor/Dentist/Sicknesses:

Fun with friends:

Walking with Ashley and Thea

Post-game lunch with Parker's basketball team

Lila came over

So did Parker's friend, Brody

Jump night for the kids' school

The middle school soccer team Sydney would've been on if she hadn't hurt her knee.  They gave her an honorary trophy for coming in 2nd place!

Pizza night with Mary and Chloe

Sydney and Bella

Sydney and Zac

Parker @ school:

Parker's grade

Dining Room Makeover

Ahh, I have finally finished up our dining room!  Only about 1.5 years in. ;)

Our dining room was driving me CRAZY because the colors just didn't go.  Our walls are a very light gray with white trim; the table legs, chairs, and serving piece were all a dark ivory/light tan.  The cushions are gray.  It just didn't flow.

I bought a piece of wall art that I LOVE that pulled in white, gray, and ivory- I was hoping that would help.  It didn't.  I figured I either needed to go with the ivory and paint the walls (and possibly the white wall panels) colors that would go together; or I could go with the white/gray (like the walls/trim) and paint all the furniture.

I opted for the second choice, and I am so happy with how it turned out!!!

I painted all the chairs and the bench white.  I painted the base of the table and the serving piece gray.  I replaced an old ivory wreath I made with a mirror.  I bought some sheer gray curtains that I hung.

This is how it was before:

And before I show you the after, here's the difference in the ivory/tan and bright white:

And here it is now!

Not sure if the pics do it justice but I am SO happy with it!!  Interior design is definitely not one of my strong suits, but I'm happy this room finally came together.