Wow!!! I have been such a slacker....

So, it has been over two months since I have posted anything to our family blog. I assure you that we have been busy. I will try to catch you up.

In February,

We celebrated Jim's 42nd birthday. He started the day by attending "Dads and Donuts" at the elementary school with John and Sarah.

Here they are ready to go to school with their daddy. Matthew HAD to get into the photo.

On February 15th, Sarah lost her top front tooth. She had been holding on to it for a very long time. She was quite scared of having it pulled. Doesn't she look great toothless.

Then on February 18th, we had a large hail storm at our house. It was amazing. We have never seen anything like this before. Hail is not at all normal in the state of Georgia. We all stood in the garage with the door opened and watched it fall.

The hail was quite large and imparted a lot of damage to most of the houses/cars in our neighborhood and surrounding area. There are only a small handful of homes that are not currently receiving new roofs. We happen to be one of them. We got a brand new roof on our house last spring and it held up well. We were lucky and have no damage to report.

This is the view from our front door. As you can see the ground is covered in pea sized hail.

Finally, on February 27th, the kid's school held it's first annual Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dance. We had a wonderful time. They served us a fine dinner of Zaxby's chicken, green salad, potato chips and chocolate pudding. Enjoy the picture of Jim and Sarah at the dance.

xoxo,
Debbie

Bathroom Remodel Part 3

Jim and our next door neighbor Derek worked very hard yesterday to lay the tile. Derek owns a tile saw and has experience in laying tile. He was very helpful in helping to get it done. A million thanks to Derek.... you rock.Next step is grout and wall tiles.....more to come soon.

The floor is already looking 100 times better than it did before. Yea!!!

Debbie

Matthew and his naps.....

Matthew is still struggling with nap time. This week, Jim was working from home on Monday and we decided that Matthew didn't need to take a nap. Matthew was playing in the playroom by Jim's desk. All of a sudden, Jim realized that it was very quiet in the room and he thought he heard snoring. Low and behold, this is what he found:Yes, he fell asleep with toys all around him. He reminds me so much of his sister. She used to do the exact same thing. :)

Debbie

Bathroom Remodel Part 2

The next step in the process was to level the floor. Jim purchased leveling concrete. We poured the concrete on the floor on Tuesday night. Here are pictures of the floor now:

I picked up our tile and grout etc. this week. We will spend our weekend getting ready to lay the tile. I also hope that we will get some of it laid on the floor. Will update shortly. I am anxious for the final results.

Debbie

Bathroom Remodel Part 1

Jim and I have finally decided that it is time to do some work in our house. Our house was built in the early 90's and some renovation is needed. In order to save money, we have decided to do most of the work ourselves. We have never tiled before, so we are starting with our kids bathroom that is upstairs. Currently every bathroom in our house as 4" shiny white tiles with what used to be "white" grout on the floor. This tile and grout is the worst. I cannot stand it any longer. We have ordered new tile...and we have ripped out the old tile. Here are some pictures of what the bathroom looks like today.

This is where our toilet is located. It has been dismantled and it is sitting in the bathtub.

The tile came up easily. We are now ready to lay the new tile. I will post new pictures soon. Wish us luck!!!

xoxo,

Debbie

Buy Handmade

I would like to encourage everyone to buy handmade goods. Support your local artisans. Nothing quite compares to the unique character that each handmade item has to offer. For more information on the handmade industry, please visit http://blog.buyhandmade.org/ and take the handmade pledge.

There are many sites that sell handmade:

Etsy.com
1000markets.com
lollishops.com


I took the pledge - shouldn't you?

What I learned today....

Suess Clan

After Christmas, all of Jim's family arrived for a visit. Here is a picture of the boys:Josh, Jim, T John, John and Jeff

Christmas Day

What a fun day!!! We all had so much fun opening up our presents this year.Look at the Loot!! You must have all been VERY good this year.John is ready to begin....Matthew is enjoying opening up his stocking. So much stuff.Sarah got her webkinz. She loves her new goldfish.Daddy got a new pair of shoes.

Christmas was a success!!! My parents and I were also there for Christmas morning. Somehow, there are no pictures of us. Later that day, Uncle John and Aunt DeAnn joined us for our traditional Christmas Day dinner or Prime Rib and Yorkshire Pudding. YUMMY!!!!!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we attended church services. This year, John was Joseph at the Christmas Eve service. The kids did a great job and appeared to have lots of fun.Sarah and Matthew were not in the pageant. Here they are sitting in their daddy's lap before church began.

After church services, we returned home and ate a nice Christmas Eve dinner. The kids got dressed in their jammies. Remember, Santa won't come unless everyone is asleep.
After cookies were set out for Santa and reindeer food was sprinkled on the lawn, the kids were tucked into their beds.