Oh door...

We moved into our home almost 9 years ago.  The people who lived here before us had the last name "Lee".  It was on their door.  And then, it was on ours.  Now, nearly nine years later, our door is finally our own.

Some "before"s and "after"s...

The "Lee" knocker was not the only problem with the old door. It appeared to have been kicked in at least once before, resulting in some damage to the door jam that made it hard to close the door. And the seal had worn so bad that you could see daylight through it, making it very drafty in the winter.

We had wanted to replace it as soon as we moved in, but it was just always "on the list" of things we wanted to fix up, and was never the most important. Just prior to Christmas, we asked a friend who is in the construction business and was out of work if he would install it for us. We got a new, non-Lee, non-kicked in, non-drafty door that closes nice and soft and has pretty door knobs. He got a few bucks to help with Christmas. Win-win. :)

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, we woke the kids up early - yes, WE woke the kids up!  It was Sunday and we had church at 9am, but we knew it would be easiest to let the kids enjoy their stockings before church than to expect them to get ready with the stockings sitting there exposed and waiting. ;)  We had fun seeing what Santa had brought, then got dressed in our Christmas Sunday finest and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas centered Sacrament meeting. 

After church, we came home, changed into our comfy Christmas jammies and opened gifts.  We spent some time on Skype with some of our family, too.  Then, when it was time for dinner, we went to the Hills to spend the rest of the day/evening with them.  We had a delicious dinner, exchanged a few gifts, played some games, and had a lot of fun!

Chad played with this cool setting on his camera...

Chad also went around making sure he was in a picture with EVERYONE.  Well, almost everyone. :)

I do not know how it started, but at some point, we began having fun with magazines.  It was so great to have some of these celebrities come to our Christmas dinner/party.  We had fun interviewing them. ;)

Even Rori got in on the fun. lol

Christmas Hair

I'm almost 2 months behind, but I'm fixin' to do some catching up.  Are you ready?  Get set...  Let's go!

I contemplated for weeks about what to do for Rori's hair on Christmas.  Being on a Sunday morning, I wanted it to be gorgeous, but easy.  I was looking for that "WOW" hairdo, I admit it.  I decided to try a new way of curling her hair, using nylons.  We've used the sponge curlers in the past but they are not comfy to sleep in.  Using the nylons was much more comfortable, easy to take out, and gave us the same cute curls.  I took pics of the girls with Rori in her nylon curlers and them both in their Christmas jammies.  Rori got a little crazy... lol. 

Acadia rarely lets me do her hair.  She usually just likes it down and straight, and it is beautiful that way, so that's okay.  But after we took the pics above, she decided to let me put the nylons in her hair, too.  Her hair is very thick and heavy, so it didn't hold the curl quite as well as Rori's but it still gave her a nice, soft curl that she pulled up and I think she looked beautiful!  (While we were taking the pics, she kept blinking - every time!  It had us laughing as we tried to get just one decent pic of her with her eyes open. lol)

For Rori, we did something a little more fancy and I LOVED how it turned out!!!

The pictures don't quite do it justice, and I definitely did get the "wow"s that we were going for. ;)

Here are a couple of the girls together right before we headed to church...

Piano Recital

Today was Acadia's winter piano recital.  This was a hard one.  She chose two very difficult songs for her.  And even earlier this morning, she was still really struggling with one of them.  I knew she would do okay, but when it was time for her to perform, I think she did way more than just okay.  She really did great!  There are a few mistakes but nothing huge and she pushed through ... I think she was awesome! 

Here is the video, what do you think?

Acadia's Extreme Room MakeOver

I have searched and searched and cannot find any photos or blogs about the last time we made over Acadia's room.  I can't even remember exactly when it was.  It was after Rori was born, but it was before Rori moved into a "big girl bed" because Rori inherited Acadia's old bedroom theme.  Cadi's room had been "princess" for quite some time and she had outgrown it.  Her new love was horses so we redid her room in blues and browns and lots of horses.  But now that she's preparing to enter her teenage years, she's ready to move on to even more grown up stuff.

For Christmas, we gave her new bedding and a few accessories with the promise that a new room was coming.  This weekend, we delivered.

Here are some before shots.  The room was really messy, in part because she didn't have the right storage, but also in part to the million (give or take) stuffed animals she owns... well, and that she hates to clean her room. ;)  She has had to let some of her stuffed animals go, but she still managed to keep a lot. lol  When I took these pics, she had already been clearing off her shelves, they were usually stuffed full of things.  She had already given a lot of the horse decorations to her friend who loves horses, so you can't even tell it used to be a horse room. :S

Cadi and I did most of the work and she used this as one of her Young Women Personal Progress value projects.  It definitely took her more than 10 hours!  But we did ask Ryan to help with a couple of things, particularly in regards to demo.  He can't pass up a chance to break things take things apart, nor an opportunity to use his power tools.  If he knew the pics were going to go on the blog he might have dressed better. lol

After everything was taken down and cleared out, we prepped and painted.  Then we had a ton of furniture to put together!  3 tall bookcases, a headboard, captain's bed, and the cool cube shelving that would go over her bed.  We also installed the curtain rods.  We used Ryan's power tools more than he did!

The room looked nice with a fresh coat of paint, but we knew it would look even better once we got her furniture moved in...

It was turning out just as we dreamed it would!  Today, we started putting everything back in.  She is still rearranging some things, but this is pretty much how it looks now...

Our goal was to give her a more efficient space that better reflected who she is and who she wants to grow to be.  She now has a really, really cool room that totally matches her style and personality.  She loves it and so do I. 

If I were Ty Pennington, I'd say, "Welcome Home Cadi, Welcome Home!"

Funks

So, I've been in this blog funk.  I haven't posted a "real" post since Dec. 23rd.  I have a lot to post about!  Christmas, a trip to Idaho, the new year, etc.

But I've also been in a funk in real life, too.

No motivation.  I've done laundry and dishes and I've straightened here and there, but I haven't really had a good cleaning day for a couple of weeks.

I haven't worked out at all in more than a couple of weeks.

I'm just not motivated. 

So, last night I prayed to get that motivation back. 

I like my life.  I like being a stay-at-home mom.  I don't like cleaning, but I like the way the house looks and feels when I'm doing my job right. 

I like being healthy.  I don't like the actual workouts, but I like the feeling afterwards knowing that I'm doing something to make my body healthier.  And I like the results, too!

I know my motivation will start picking up again.  I know because whenever I pray for help, I get it.  This is not the first funk I've been in.  I always wonder why I wait so long to make the request.  But now that I've made  it, I know things will be better. 

So, stay tuned. :)

Hmmmm...

I seem to be in a blog funk.

I really do love keeping a blog and I really do have a lot of great things to blog about.  But I just haven't been feeling it lately.  So, bare with me.  I'll be back soon...