Thursday, December 31, 2015

Be Our Guest

With Jeff moving the office out of the house we moved the school room into the old office.  With that then the kids toy room moved to the old school room area (game room).  Then we switched the old guest room to the old toy room and the old guest room is now a home office for Jeff in case he has a day working from home.  Wow, that was a lot of room moving!  Well, the new guest room was trashed.  Well, the walls and carpet sure took a beating from having the kids in it.  It was pretty disgusting.  I knew that Jeff's parents and my mom were planning on coming at the end of December for Mhari's baptism and Grant's ordination.  I didn't want the room to look like this when our guests came.  

Somehow I always end up having lots to do ... all of the time.  From school stuff, to 4-H stuff, we really do keep pretty busy.  Well, we had made it to the Christmas break and I still had not done anything with the guest room.  I scheduled the week after Christmas to put the guest room together.  

The time came and I had made a plan of what I wanted to do.  I just needed paint colors.  Oh, paint, how we hate trying to choose you!  Jeff said to just pick something we already had... and I agreed I didn't want to hunt down a new color right now.  The colors I ended up with were the blue from the bathroom and the neutral gray from Jeff's office.  The other thing is the whole house has it's baseboards and doors all in a cream color.  I'm so tired of that cream color.  I really wanted nice crisp white finishes.  That meant I got to paint the baseboards and doors.  Fun fun.  Still, the room isn't that huge and I knew I could do it in a couple of days.  I also decided I would decorate the room.  I really want it to feel like that room is ready for a guest at an moment, not that I just cleaned my junk out of an extra room so they can sleep there.  

Well, after 3 days of hard work the room was finally ready!  Just in time for my mom to arrive that night ;)

I didn't bother with before photos... kind of wish I had.  

Here is the after of the beautiful new room!


We bought new lamp shades for the lamps since the old shades were cream.  They really go well now.  I loved the painting I found and the bedding that ties it all together so nicely!

This is looking from the far corner back across the bed.  The closet door and then the nice mirror and cabinet area.  

I painted the closet blue ... I had more blue paint left over and I also really liked the contrast!  The white shelves really pop now!

I love seeing a room all finished beautifully.  I really want to do my master and master bath.  I know the boys room really needs to be done... and the girls... well, every other room practically :).  Jeff suggested hiring someone to come in and get all of the trim repainted.  After the hassle of priming and painting that sounds amazing to me.  I could probably still do another coat of white on the doors and closet.  

It was nice to have our first guest and have her get to stay in our pretty room!  We are ready for guests any time now!

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

12 Years of awesome!

Grant is 12 years old!  I can't believe how fast time has gone!  He is an awesome kid and was the very last from his primary class to get to move up to the youth group.  He really is a good sport about it though :).  

We celebrated on his birthday with presents and cake.  Grandma Whitmer will come to town this weekend to help celebrate Mhari's baptism and Grant's ordination.  It has been a very eventful December!

Grant opening presents:  Boomerang, chocolate bar, hot wheels car, books, money (from grandparents), a fox and a watch










Grant wanted an ice cream cake, like he had last year.  They are so yummy :). 

Grant trying to light the match.  It was sure stubborn!

 Daddy helping ;)

Make a wish


Happy Birthday Grant!  We love you!  Grant loves foxes, jokes, climbing, pokemon, and many other things!  He is a great big brother and really has a fun personality!  

Friday, December 25, 2015

Play Time!

After all of the presents were done and open it was time to put the basketball game together!  The kids were more than happy to help!  Jeff was a good sport to get it set up :)



Lots of little helpers!

Cute bug

New Christmas dresses!
Mhari

Sandra

Lorna

Clark and Lorna making their own basketball game

boxes are amazing toys

Getting closer!

Clark turned the box into his little bed ;).  

Game Time!







Bug writing in her journal ;)

Mommy and Daddy competition!




Daddy cuddling his little bug


Sandra made me homemade clam chowder as my Christmas present.  She did great and with no help.  It would have been better if she measured the salt correctly ... in tsp instead of tablespoons.  Also she didn't let it simmer long enough so the potatoes were still crunchy.  After some more time on the stove I ate it... salty and all :)

Clark was exhausted from the fun day :)

Jeff picked me up some peanut M&M's...  so good!  

Lorna really wanted her nails painted, but I was busy making dinner.  Good thing Daddy is available!  I love watching him with her!  

So adorable!

We love playing and the kids had a great time with all of the new things to enjoy!  

Happy Merry Christmas!

Clark was so cute this year.  He started wishing everyone a Happy Merry Christmas!  He told me his teacher told him it and I thought it was super cute!  Well, the older kids decided he wasn't saying it correctly, because the correct way is Merry Christmas.  They really didn't even know he was doing it on purpose.  After talking to the kids and explaining that he knew what he was saying they stopped trying to correct him (the problems when one of the kids can't speak well anyways).  It was our fun phrase for the season :).  

Anyway... we had a nice quiet Christmas at home.  

Talmage planned a nice breakfast and woke Jeff and I up with breakfast in bed!  Homemade waffles... YUM!  Seriously, they were delicious!  This was his first time making waffles, and they were from scratch!  I think this is a tradition worth keeping!


After breakfast we went out to enjoy opening presents with the kids.  They had already enjoyed opening their stockings and finding their fun treasures :)

Here is the gift exchange that we do:

Clark gave to Lorna


Talmage made Clark snakes

Daddy gave Mhari a triceratops. 

I made Sandra Rock Penguins

Mhari gave Grant some coins

Grant gave Daddy a star fish 



Talmage made the girls a necklace hanger.

He gave Grant some encyclopedias

Clark gave Daddy his coloring ;)

I got lots of papers from the kids ;)

Yay for new blankets!




Family games

Daddy's present - socks and a tie :)

The big gift to the kids:  They got a basketball game to put in the game room!  Clark was so happy!

Present pictures:
Lorna

Talmage

Grant

Mhari

Clark

Sandra's ended up super blurry :(.  

Presents are always fun.  Getting to enjoy them all day in beautiful spring like weather was even better ;).  
Merry Christmas everyone!