It is FINISHED!

Well...almost. But for the most part the floor is complete! My husband is amazing and has been working on this since September project. We thank the family members and friends that have helped. Not only have we torn out a one and half walls plus built a counter top, we have put in hard wood flooring. I LOVE IT!!! It has totally changed the look of our house. 

This weekend, my sweet husband stayed home while the kiddos and I hopped in the car and went to my parents house. He finished up the hallway...the last room. There is the still the quarter round that needs to be put in as well as the doorways need fixed, but the big stuff is done. Plus we got to return 7 boxes of wood back to Lowes. We ended up using 30 boxes. See below...

A few things from the kiddos...

John's massive tower he built (with a little help) in the bathtub tonight. 

Sophia's mess. This girl can play for hours at a time but you guess there will be a mess following her! Don't you love that it is right in our entry way!! 

Oh by the way...the entry way will be the next project. New tile will be added. But we are going to take a rest for now. 

Last day of Christmas Break

Today was my last day of Christmas break. I have been off work since December 21st and it has been a truly restful and relaxing break. Whenever I go on break, I am always a little nervous at the beginning because I think "What if I don't want to go back?" But once again, I am ready. I am ready for routine. I am ready to see my staff. I am ready to see my students...all of them :) This is one of the things that keeps me going...lets me know that I am where I am suppose to be. I will miss my kiddos but John's bedtime conversation sums it up for me:

Me: I go back to work tomorrow. I will miss you but I will pick you up from Jewell's house. 

John: Mom, I won't miss you. 

Me: Well that isn't very nice. 

John: What I mean mom is that I don't have to miss you because you know that you don't have to worry about Sophia and me because Mrs. Jewell takes care of us. 

He is exactly right. We are so blessed with the caregivers in our children's lives. I don't have to give it a second thought when I have to drop them off. 

Here are a couple pictures from the last few days. 

Today was a rough day but I am thankful that I came across this at Hy-Vee last week...

I know tomorrow will be better...or at least I hope. 

To help me get out of the funk tonight, I am thinking back to our time at Silver Dollar City. Even though my kids came down with croup while we were there...it was a lot of fun. I didn't look at my phone, answer emails or check my calendar while we were in Branson. 

John and Sophia saw Santa while we were there. John was hesitant but Sophia hopped right up on his lap!

I also think about one of our Christmas Calendar events - The Lighting of the Mayor's Christmas Tree. The weather was a beautiful and the music was wonderful. 

I also think about taking my kids to my school's Santa Breakfast. It was funny because John hopped right up on his lap and Sophia wouldn't go near him. Totally opposite than Silver Dollar City. 

And then I think about another Christmas Calendar activity - Decorating Gingerbread Men. 

Tonight's activity was an indoor picnic. Unfortunately, I had meetings tonight but John and Sophia assure me it was a blast. 

Like I said before..tomorrow will be better. I am blessed by my family, my job and my friends. 

Christmas Calendar Day 3

Day 3 of our Christmas Calendar was Christmas Movie Night. This was suppose to be spent with friends, but since our kiddos have been sick, we just had our family attend. We watched Veggie Tales Christmas Star and had hot chocolate and popcorn. 

Luckily the kids seem to be feeling better. Tonight was the first night in 4 days that we have went to bed fever free. Hopefully, we stay fever free all night long. 

A few new things: 

John loves using the word "compromise"

Sophia loves say "Christmas is coming!"

Christmas Calendar Day 1 and 2

Day 1: Make Christmas cards and mail them.

(There are a couple that ended up not being Christmas...but the kids loved doing it!)

Day 2: Have a dance party with Christmas music. 

We danced to Chipmunks and songs from Elf on our new wood floor in the kitchen. 

Unfortunately, both kids have croup. So they are both feeling a little under the weather...but we still danced our hearts out tonight. 

We also did our first night of Advent. The theme was Hope. The question tonight was "What are you hoping for?" 

John: Bayblades

Sophia: Trees

Matt: Everyone to be healthy at Christmas time.

Jodi: To have the whole family together at Christmas time. 

The Christmas Season

The Christmas Season has begun!!! These next few weeks are my absolute favorite time of  year. I love Thanksgiving, Black Friday (only on Friday), and the holiday traditions that we leading up to Christmas. See what we have done so far already this season...

The event that we are still working on is putting in hard wood floors throughout pretty much the whole house. It is a slow process but Matt is doing a wonderful job. This isn't the most current picture, but it gives you an idea of what the hard wood looks like. The kitchen is pretty much finished, so on to the hallway now. 

After shopping on Black Friday, we bundled the kiddos up and went down to see the Plaza lights. We stopped at Latte Land, which is now Kaldi's to enjoy some hot chocolate and cookies. Below are the children blowing kisses. 

Saturday night we had some dear friends over and they helped us decorate our Christmas tree. Please excuse the sub flooring...we haven't gotten to the living room yet!

 Monday night was a continuation of a tradition that was started a few years back with friends...Christmas Movie Night! We meet up every Monday between Thanksgiving and Christmas to enjoy a meal together and a Christmas movie. There are 9 kids age 8 and under. So it is completely crazy but such a good time. This past Monday we watched Elf and had Chicken Noodle Soup. I didn't take any pictures...so hopefully next Monday I will remember to take some. 

Below is what I have been working on for a new family tradition. It is a Countdown Christmas Calendar or an Advent Calendar. I couldn't find one I liked to buy so I just made one! Gotta love Pintrest! Each ornament has a pocket that contains a slip of paper for a family activity. These range from looking at lights, Christmas movie night, coloring Christmas pages, to setting up our nativity scene. There are some more detailed activities and others that take no prep time or very little time. I arranged the slips of paper according to our calendar so if we have something going on one evening, the activity is smaller. 

I am hoping it is a hit this Christmas season! 

I hope everyone has a very special holiday and gets lots of family time to enjoy. 

I went to the eye doctor today. 

Eyes look good and my astigmatism has gotten smaller. 

However, after my eye doctor asked me a bijillion questions of "does 1 or 2 look better?" "how about 3 or 4?" "does 5 look better or worse?" she states: 

"It seems that your eyes are working very hard when you are looking at things up close. I think a +1 would be helpful to you."
I am puzzled by this +1 thing and then I say "Is that like bifocals?" (in a disgusted voice)

Calmly, the doctor says "You could just pick up a pair of reading glasses and have them on hand when you are working on a computer for a long period of time or reading for a long period of time."

Great...I love getting older. 

I come home to tell my husband how my appointment went. I simply state that a pair of reading glasses would help my eyes from being so tired (I am trying to be positive). 

He laughs and says...so you need bifocals?

Thanks honey...

So I am going to embrace this and find a cute pair to carry around with me. I might even get a super cute, sassy case for them...heck I might even go with a chain! (Actually probably not a chain.)

Have a good night!