Lots of Updates

Lots of things to update everyone on...

1. The boys turn 3 this weekend. I went back and forth but ended up deciding to not have a party this year. We did a great party last year but it is hard to find a place for 3 year olds. I will not have it in my house...just too much work. We did Gymboree last year which was great but they are a little too old for that this year. They aren't ready for roller skating, bowling or anything else I could think of so we opted out. All of our friends are having parties so I feel sorta guilty but they won't remember. We will just have a family party with my parents and one of my sisters will be in town for it. I wish they had a summer birthday so we could have a cheap pool party or something at the park.

2. I guess 3 will be a tough age for us. The boys are really testing my limits. I've got to up my dicipline level...timeouts for 3 mins just aren't cutting it. They laugh through the whole thing. I wish they had a favorite toy that I could take away but they don't have anything like that. They are super great in public but are starting to put up a fight when we leave something or place or they get super wild at home.

3. Matt and I went on a date night 2 weeks ago. It was fantastic! We go out all the time but to parties or dinners with friends. It always happens that the girls go in one room to do girl talk and the guys watch a game on TV and hang out. We are never together when we are out socializing. We needed it bad...and it was fantastic! We need to do that more often!

4. I've done a few things to update the house a little bit. I painted 2 end tables black. And did some rearranging of some shelves in our living room. I hope they update the room a bit. I have more planned....

Weird??

 This is a coloring one of my 2 year olds did. The teachers and other parents acted like this was an amazing thing. I do think it is pretty good too. I don't know if this means he is talented artistically or if he just has my husbands tendency to being very detail oriented. Probably the later.... :-)



Resolutions For My House in 2011

I have some goals for 2011. I need to do a little updating to our home. We moved into this house in Sept 2009 from a home that we had custom built. This one was not built by us so it is more difficult than normal to make it feel like our own.

1. Have can lighting intalled in our family room. It is extremely dark in there with only one light from the ceiling fan.
2. At the same time have the electrician change our our ceiling fan. It is a 2 story ceiling so I'm going to have them do it since they will have tall enough ladders.
3. Built-ins or furniture pieces in our Master Bedroom. Somehow a coffee table has been "stored" in our room and my husband puts his laptop on it. We have lots of random boxes still in our room from moving in and we need a place for everything.
4. Have old dining room hutch painted. Decide where I want to use it. Either in the dining room or use the bottom half as game/toy storage in our loft/playroom.
5. New chandelier over our kitchen table.

I've probably forgotten a few things but these are at the top of my mind. I went and looked at ceiling fans yesterday. That is the first piece of the puzzle for the lighting changes.

What do you have planned?

Sickness

Thank goodness it isn't contagious anymore! I almost was going to be lynched by the school and babysitter. I just got back from the doctors office and Caden has Fifths Disease which is a fever followed by a rash. Once the rash is seen he is no longer contagious. Yea!! He can go to school tomorrow! That is very important...Ha Ha!

Harley

Well...our dog didn't make it. He died yesterday...I'm so glad my husband was home. It was his dog before I even met him so he is more attached than I am. Poor dog didn't even get to die in quiet. I didn't know it was happening...my husband was laying with him in our master closet. The boys were screaming for me and I was running back and forth in my bathroom on the tile floors in high heels because we were trying to leave for church. My husband had decided to stay home because Harley wasn't breathing well.  I checked in the closet to say goodbye to my husband and he was crying and saying...he's going now, oh his heart is stopping...oh..he's gone and in the mean time my boys are screaming and trying to open the door. It didn't make it very emotional for me since I had to deal with the kids. I feel bad for my husband and Harley...he was a good dog. He was 11 years old.

Here's a question...is it legal to bury your dog in the backyard?? I have a feeling the HOA wouldn't love it.

New Years Eve

We had a good New Years Eve. This was our 2nd year of having just 3 couples over and including the kids. We do a champagne/sparkling apple juice toast at 8pm and everyone left at about 10:30pm. It is so nice to not worry about babysitters and just have a nice potluck.

We are having a sad situation...our dog has cancer. I've never really been a big pet person. My husband had this dog before we met but I am sad for the dog and for the sadness my husband is feeling. We found out 2 weeks ago and he has quickly gone downhil. I think my husband has decided to have him put down on Monday. This ought to be interesting to see how my boys deal with it. I think I need to start telling them tomorrow about Harley going to Heaven so they can know what is happening. I wonder how much they will understand.