A new year, a new house..

I'm loving it! Our friend, Steve, of Pearcy Photography, came to take pictures of our house. He brought his wide angle lens, and "stitched" the pictures together, so you can see the whole room in one shot. So, here you go: This is looking down into the entry way. We haven't laid the hardwood stairs yet, so for now we have a slide on the stairs. We've had a lot of fun with it. Next is the kitchen. I love it. And the dining room.
Next are the three bedrooms: Angel's w/ a unicorn and butterflies, (thanks Mom and Megan!)
Damian's cool dude motorcycle room: (thanks Megan and Marcus!)
And the master bedroom. At the end of the hall is the kids' bathroom. We had a lot of fun decorating and painting in there. Thanks, Mom! So - that's what we've got so far. The rest will come together in time. On to more January fun. We started the year off w/ a few snow days. Unfortunately, it was also soooooo cold, that we really didn't go out to play in it very much. We had fun indoors, though. The kids (and Frank) had fun having burnout contests in their socks on the hardwood floors. And we did some baking. The kids had fun decorating these "monster cookies" with various toppings. Then we ate them with the "snow cream" I made.
The snow has finally melted, though, and we're getting warmer weather, so life is getting back to normal. The kids are happy to be able to play outside again. We're looking forward to a fun 4 day weekend since the kids are out of school today and Monday. We were trying to plan a trip out of town, but so many things came up, that we're staying put. So - if any local friends have some wonderful ideas on things to do this weekend, let me know!

2010 is starting out great..

But let's finish off 2009, first, ok? My biggest and best surprise of '09 was on Dec. 19, when Hubby woke me up at 6 am and asked me to please move off the bed and go sleep on the couch so he could load the bed into the moving truck. That's right! We finally moved in to the "new" house! It's been a looooong 4 1/2 year wait, and I'm so happy to finally get to call this my home. :) We had to hurry and unload the truck, though, because my sister's family was coming to celebrate Christmas at Dad's that evening! What a busy day. :) It was a very Wii Christmas this year. Everyone pitched in to get our family a Wii, and Chelle's family got a Wii fit. Both families were very excited.

On Christmas Eve, before the expected snow, we headed up to the in-law's to have our next 2 Christmas celebrations. My MIL got me a very appropriate ornament. It says "Our first Christmas in our new home 2009" One of Frank's gifts was a Saints hat. He's always been a fan, and has been very excited to have a reason to cheer this year. After Christmas morning at the in-law's, we headed over to my mom's for more wonderful food and some more gift exchanges. This is what we were driving on... That's right, we had a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!!!! That's very unusual for us in this part of the country. The kids had a blast, though. I had fun photographing the birds on the deck. I love this one with a cardinal AND a bluejay. And this one, where I was able to capture two bluejays in flight. On the way back home, there was a beautiful sunset over the lake. This picture does not do it justice.

And last, but not least, Frank decided to end the year off with a bang, and shaved his face. AND HIS HEAD! Who is this guy? I can't wait to see what 2010 brings.