Happy Easter

Happy Easter from our family to yours.

So glad I insisted on getting a few pictures of them before they changed out of their church clothes.

Sisters.

I did a double take of this picture the first time I saw it.  Nora looks
so much older I barely recognized her.  She is a beautiful girl, inside and out.

Advent 2014 Highlights

For the past three years throughout the advent season I plan a different Christmas related activity for the kids  starting December 1.  Some activities are wintery/Christmasy type of crafts and others are more service based (I'd like to incorporate more of those as they get older).  After the first year of doing them I saw how much fun Nora, Myles and even I had doing them it's been something we've done ever since and will continue to do for years to come!

Here are some of t he highlights from this year's Advent Activity Calendar. 

Pick out the family Christmas tree.

{Sideways... sorry}
Christmas Bingo. They loved this and asked many times
to play again.  A nice, easy activity that's easy to do while
Greta was napping.

Shopped for each other at St. Paul's
Christmas Shoppe. 

About the above - they each had $5 to spend (items inside range from $1-$5 and have been donated by parishioners). I went in with Nora to shop for Myles and Greta while they waited in the  hallway. Then Myles went in with Dan.  I love how thoughtful they both are when picking out gifts for each other. Nora picked something for Myles then would find something else and put her first choice back then go back to that first choice.  Ultimately they both chose great gifts for each other.  

Myles got Greta Christmas tree shaped bubbles (he was very adamant those were for her and never changed his mind - and guess what.... she loved them) and Nora got a 5-pack Hello Kitty chapstick. Right up her alley.   Nora picked out a Spider-Man puzzle for Myles (they were both in a huge puzzle kick at the time and he does like Spider-Man) and a opposites board book for Greta.  

Decorate the Christmas tree.

Attend the Christmas events at Friendship Park (right behind
our house!) Met a reindeer, took "sleigh rides" around the park,
made ornaments and got their faces painted. 

Finding Jesus - a nativity hunt around the
neighborhood of our church that ultimately
ends with finding baby Jesus in his manger
on the alter of church. 

Put Christmas lights up in your room.

Make special gifts for grandparents and great-grandparents.

Make and decorate Christmas trees out of waffle cones
except I didn't get the right kind of cones so we had to eat
some of them to made the bottoms as even as we could.

A Gram original activity - make a holder to display the
Christmas cards we receive.

All aboard the Guenther Express!
Popcorn and hot chocolate as we go on a tour of
Candy Cane Lane.

Wrap the presents you bought for your siblings.

You've been socked!
Very cute -- you fill a stocking with goodies (cookies,
candy, etc.) and ding-dong-ditch it on someone's door step.
Mallory dropped it off at our house and we dropped in off at
Myles' friend Lucas' house.

Make a gingerbread house.
First time we've done this. Bought the pre-
made kit from Costco and worth every single penny.
Myles, who tends to abandon the activity well
before Nora, decorated for a solid 45 minutes.

Our third annual trip to the fire department
to deliver homemade cookies to thank them
for their service.

It's a personal favorite of theirs.

That's us on the right. Zoo Lights is another favorite. This
year Greg joined us which was extra special. Now they
want him to come every year.

And quite possibly my favorite picture. Classic.
Christmas Eve breakfast with Santa.  Never ever a line for
this one at a local restaurant.

Kids' Last Visit with Grandpa Grandpa

On August 10, the kids and I were in Wisconsin for a visit.  It was a beautiful day.  We headed over to see Grandpa.  He always loved seeing them.  He'd watch.  He'd laugh.  He'd ask questions.  He was thrilled when one of them would come sit by him.  

Greta usually wasn't a big fan of sitting on Grandpa Grandpa's lap but there was something about this day... she snuggled right in there and didn't mind one bit.

Nora and Myles always liked to visit.  My Uncle Greg would generally meet us over there.  He would take the kids on rides on Grandpa's motorized wheelchair and take them for walks around the halls where they'd pretend to use the fire extinguishers and put out the fires saving all the people. 

Feeding Cheetos to the turtles.
That's typical food for their diet, right?

There was something so wonderfully perfect about this day -- especially looking back on it. Grandpa was feeling extra energetic and took a ride with us out to the fountain.  

Greta got her toes wet in the fountain.

I snapped a selfie with Grandpa.
My absolute favorite and it warms my heart
just looking at it.

Greta with my Uncle Greg.

Grandpa taking Greta for a ride on the scooter.

Before we headed back inside I snapped a rare picture of all three kids with Grandpa.  And they're all looking! 

Grandpa with his three great grandchildren.
 He was always so proud to tell his friends about them.

This perfect visit would turn out to be their last visit. A short nine days later Grandpa met his creator. Looking back on this visit is something so special to me.  Normally, Grandpa would pass on coming out with us ("oh that's ok... you just go") and Greta would cry if you tried to set her down on his lap.  But none of that happened.  God knew what was going to happen, as He always does, and He gave this visit as a gift to us. For this and many reasons, I thank you Lord. 

We love you and miss you, Grandpa.  The kids still pray for you at night adding, "even though we don't have to pray for you because you're  in heaven with Jesus."  

Thank you for all the Monday pick-ups from the babysitters when I was a kid.  I'm still amazed at your timeliness -- always pulling up at exactly 4:00.  Sometimes 3:59 but never 4:01. And thank you for doing your Saturday morning rounds. We could always count on you at 9am and we count on the bottom of your car scraping the driveway as you backed out.  I feel lucky to have had those times with you.

I hope you're enjoying hearing the birds chirp again... 

Our Snowball of a Project

Back in September we finally decided to bite the bullet and get our floors refinished (professionally - not DIY). We have a lot of hardwood in our house so it was basically like moving but only for four days.

Everything had to be moved out of the rooms, even the clothes in the closets - in our case that meant all three bedrooms, our hallway linen closet and the living room. Yes, 3 beds, a crib, two couches, a television, the list goes on and on.

A before look of the floors in Nora and Myles' bedroom.

 And naturally when we start one project it snowballs into other projects as well.  It only made sense to freshen up the paint on the walls in our living room.  It was time for a change anyway. We went with Wythe Blue by Benjamin Moore.  We also figured we would take off the baseboards and replace them ourselves as well.  

Before in the living room.

This is the view from the doorway of our basement. The only room that
remained on the floor was for the door to swing open.  The couches and
kitchen table were in the garage.  Our mattress was standing on end in the bathroom!

Then we were both starting at our dated fireplace and figured now would be the perfect time to rip up the tiles on the floor in front of the fireplace and get rid of that lovely blue faux marble we have.  Maybe even get a new cover for the fireplace to modernize the gold.

So off everything came! 

After Dan got most of the tile off and the mantle safely down
the kids moved in to help with their worker gloves (garden gloves).

Our living room before.

A view of some of the most worn areas on the floor.

After a visit to the fireplace store, we got a quote for a new cover for the fireplace.  Because it's an old model they only have one choice... for $700! No thanks! I was actually recommended by the employee to skip that (like it was even a question) and use the Rust-oleum heat resistant spray paint to give it an update. Sold.

And naturally, redoing the fireplace leads into yet another idea.  Dan gets a major itch to buy a giant tv and mount it above the fireplace.  I'm all for it because who doesn't want a bigger tv and getting rid of the tv stand to the right of the fireplace makes the room feel much larger. 

This is how the fireplace was for a long while until
Dan had enough time to fill the hole.  It's where the
blue tile was which we decided we didn't need at all.

Once everything was said and done -- here are the final products! 

The old mantle with a new shade of paint and shorter legs
along with new 5.5" baseboards painted the same color
as the mantle with a 55" television mounted above.  

And look at those floors!
No stain just a clear coat of polyurethane.
It really lightens the room up. 

This is the area where the really worn spots were.  It looks
absolutely amazing. 

One last thing - I took this chance to redo my gallery wall too.  I was looking at it one day and finally realized the reason I didn't love it before was because I had too small of frames for the space. I bought a few new frames, the key and the clock then chose some of my favorite pictures of the kids to display and viola!

Plus Dan rearranged the furniture just a tad and it really opens things up.

We literally just finished painting the baseboards and doing some touch ups on the fireplace on Valentine's Day.  So while this snowball of a project took five months - almost to the day - to complete we are extremely happy with the results.  I have never loved our living room more! 

DIY: Time Out Chair

Our chair. Our sad chair, which we  refer to as "the time out chair", was in need of a little TLC.  As you can see it's gotten a lot of use during the past couple of years. It was more of an accent chair but we wanted to to stand out more and as we were getting ready to refinish the floors and paint the walls in the living room what better time to get it done. 

Before.

Dan often jokes that I am really good at starting projects.  Finishing them is not necessarily my strong suit.  Sadly, he's right but I'm glad to say that I showed him! Started AND finished in the same day.

After taking the cushion off I scuffed up the bones of the
chair and started spray painting. I chose a golden yellow as an accent
to the new color on our living room walls.

Then I went to JoAnn fabrics to find the perfect fabric for the seat cover and bought remnants of high density foam.  I used Dan's jigsaw a cut a new base for the seat cushion and everything.  Guys, I'm really proud of myself for that one! 

And... the final product!!

It's done and I love love love it! It looks great in the space
and it's pretty comfy too!