May all your wildest deams come true...

Christmas came and went. Guitar Hero made it to the basement and that saved my sanity for now. We have slowed down on working on the basement. It took a long time to get the house organized again. Who am I kidding?!? Is a house with 5 children ever organized?

Life is better than I thought with a 95% finished basement. But I haven't cleaned it all yet. It is still pretty clean from being new.

Happy Christmas Adam!

I don't remember how this started but my nephew, Brandon, decided that if we have a Christmas Eve, then the day before that (the 23rd) is Christmas Adam. I am not sure that he knows that every year I wish people a happy Christmas Adam all because of him.

Most of you know that I am the very youngest in my family, by 13 years. So I have nieces and nephews that are really close to my age. And my youngest nephew (on my side) is about a week younger than Rian. I love that I am an in-between age of my siblings and nieces and nephews. I love spending time with all of them.

This is a picture of my family party that we had on Sunday. Brandon is the one in the brown sweatshirt. His cute wife is below him. Brandon is the person who named my blog. He has an amazing talent for writing and I love to read his blog. One last thing about "Brenden", he named his son Cannon. Brandon's last name is Ball. Cannon Ball. You gotta love Brandon. (Brandon-Tacoma is a little out there. Really.)

Christmas?

I am glad that a small miracle happened and we were mostly ready early this year because all we eat, sleep and breath is basement. I was so happy that the carpet was being installed today because then I didn't have to go down there and walk around with a paintbrush trying to find touch up spots. :) Instead I tried to make some sense of the upstairs and laundry.

Here are some more pics. I am very proud of Rians Real room. I can't believe we even pulled it off! I would be happy to show anyone so stop by and see. Before a few weeks ago I didn't think I could paint a wall the same color and have it look good! Rians walls have 5 colors of paint (or primer). We are telling him he should rent out his "theme room" and provide breakfast int he morning. He makes killer french toast!

After some of the carpet was laid on Sat Brad and I climbed under the stairs in the play room and counted 12 different paints (or primer) that we used in the basement. Crazy! I actually liked doing it. Maybe Katherine Elliott will take me on as an apprentice.

The inspector comes on xmas eve morning. Cross you fingers-but really, what could be wrong? We (Brad) has passed all inspections with flying colors!

copy cat

Can you tell what we spend a little too much time doing at our house?

Our bass player

Not many people know that Rian plays the string bass. He played in 6th grade and stuck to it the whole year. I remember because I had to take him to school and pick him up about twice a week. What I really meant to say was I had to take him AND HIS BASS to school. He did take piano for a few years and did good at it but it wasn't his thing. I am amazed when I watch him play at how he knows where to put his fingers to make the right notes.

This picture is of a concert earlier this month. Tonight he had a concert and when I saw him he had a bow tie on instead of his black tie. It made me smile. Because of where he stands and the places to sit I can never get a good picture of him.

I hope he continues to play all through high school. It is a fun thing to see him do.

Snow Day

The first year we moved in (2003) we had enough snow to build our own sledding hill of our patio. Now every time it snows the kids go build a hill. This time it was down the rock stairs. Then Rian made one in the usual place (see the picnic table on the right? That was the top of his hill. And it went straight down from there.)

Sweet Sarah got the perfect spot to watch them.

Mouse House

Only 8 more days until......the basement will be done (I was just informed "mostly" done). You thought I was going to say Christmas. Well, at our house we are counting down the days until the basement is done and hopefully that will be the 24th at 9:10 when the inspector leaves! We have been frantically painting and doing all those little things to get it ready and we are tired.

This is an entrance to the under the stairs playroom. Our neighbor came over and called it the mouse hole and we thought it was a good name. This is the color of green we ended up with for the hall and family room. Hopefully we like it. It always looks so different than the 3 inch square you see in the store.

Party Girl!

We decided to take Sarah to the work party this year. She was the life of the party. I didn't know she could dance. It was pretty cute. She lasted longer than me that night. A lot of people passed her around and she danced with everyone. I put her in pj's before we left and she was asleep as soon as she hit the car seat.

warm and bright

This is a wall in Emily's new room. This is the color she chose (the real name of the paint is scooter). I am not sure what happened to pink, but this color fits her better. She has always liked orange. When she was 12 months old she loved a hunter orange fleece jacket we bought for her to wear on Halloween. I could not figure how a 12 month old could like a jacket so much,but she did. Since then we have noticed she has always favored orange. The room is all painted now and it is the color of yellow mustard with a hint of orange. It is really pretty and fits her perfectly. And if you look close you can still see her name under the painted wall.

Em's Baptism

Elmo was baptized today. This is the picture of her just after the baptism. It was such an exciting day for her. She has been looking forward to it for a long time. It was a beautiful day to be baptized.

Christmas Cards

I actually made my own cards this year in photo shop elements. It is the first thing I have done that has been printed. Maybe now I can work on the years and years of actual scrap booking and my wildest dreams of being "caught up" will come true. Doubtful.

hair

Making my girls or my hair look cute is something I don't like to spend time on. Sometimes I don't mind doing a french braid or curlers, maybe I might like it because they have to sit still in front of me and it makes me sit down and talk to them for a minute. But generally I don't do hair.
I ran into an old friend on "Black Friday" and she told me about a blog that I thought some of you might like. It is piggiesnponies.blogspot.com.
Have fun-some are actually pretty easy.

Yeah!

Every milestone must be documented with the last child. Sweet baby Sarah has figured out how to clap. It is pretty cute, of course. Now when you walk in a room she will wave then clap and smile at you.