Dining Room Reno

Our dining room is finally complete.  This room has been ever evolving - almost since the first day we moved into the house.  The dining room was painted last April and the crown moulding installed then.  Matt finished the hutch for my anniversary gift last May.  My lovely table was made with love over Thanksgiving weekend by Matt and his dad.  The plates on the wall have been collected over time.  It's nice to finally have the room feel complete!

the before and after shot

I love this table!  I found the base of the table at a local thrift store last spring and then Matt and his dad put the top on it over Thanksgiving weekend.  We had four chairs from our old table that Matt painted for me and then I found two more chairs at the thrift store so that we can have 6 chairs around the table.  We daily put this table to good use and it's super nice to have a table that you can fit 10 people around if need be!

this little alcove was like a little treat to decorate!

Sully and I have spent our fair share of time at local thrift stores checking out their plate selection

our completed to do list..

- paint walls

- install crown moulding

- instal new baseboards and casing

- find a hutch or buffet to fit into wall alcove

- build table

- paint chairs

- decorate!

2013 Family Yearbook

We received our 2013 family yearbook in the mail yesterday!  Even though I made the book and know exactly what is on every page of it, I still find it very fun when the actual book comes in the mail and I get to hold it in my hands and flip through all the pages :)

the cover

the book follows our year's events chronilogically - at the start of each month I wrote a little recap of big events that happened in that month

I also included the before and after pictures from all our home renos that we have completed thus far

there are also pictures from our monthly dates that Matt and I went on 

and of course a few pages from our family photo shoot

and all the big events/holidays from the year - like Sully's 1st Birthday

 love this quote from Abraham Lincoln "And in the end, it's not the YEARS in your LIFE that count.  It's the LIFE in your YEARS."

There 112 pages in our yearbook - come visit and I will show you the rest of them :)

I am so grateful for these family yearbooks - I hope we continue to look through them for years to come - remembering all the great memories each year has held for our family!

First Days Away

Well the time has finally come for me to go back to work for real - I was so blessed with my almost 15 months off work to be at home with Sully.  I am back at work in a 0.7 part time position which is nice as it's a few less shifts every month and a few less shifts actually makes a big difference.  With me back at work Sully has started going to a babysitters.  This past Monday and Tuesday were his first days there and they went well!  We are so so thankful for our wonderful babysitter!!!  She is a friend of mine and has a little guy that is close to Sully's age - I think the two of them are going to become the best of friends!

Here are some iphone pictures of Sully's first day away...

getting ready in the morning

Matt is an amazing dad - he has embraced his extra duties full heartedly!  He is on his own to get Sully ready in the morning, dropped off at the babysitters, picked up, fed supper, and then tucked into bed AND he had supper cleaned up and the dishes done by the time I got home from work - he is a keeper!!!

 

Sully and Levi - let the fun times begin!

don't they look like they are enjoying themselves?!

2 Car Family

Matt and I have been married for just about 6 years.  During those years we have had one vehicle - which for the most part worked for us.  Ever Sunday night we would go through our calenders for the week and discuss who needed the car on what days and at what times - we had to plan, but we made it work.  We knew with buying a house on the East side and me going back to work we would need a second car and so have been casually looking for a cheap, well maintained, reliable car - we found all three of those things hard to find in one vehicle.  But...we did find it - in our, new to us, 2003 Mazda Protege 5 - it's a cute little car - very gutsy and fun to drive - we are very happy with our purchase.  And the freedom of having to cars...wow!!!

don't worry the Hawaiian decals have already been removed :)

Some Recent Randoms

January has been a month full of sickness...all three of us were taken out by the flu...it was terrible!  We are very happily on the mend though and ready to face the new year!  Here's to the rest of 2014!!!

Needless to say I haven't been doing very good at the picture taking - mostly the pictures would of been of snotty noses, lying on the couch, wearing PJs all day - it wasn't pretty.

Here are a few shots I did manage to get though over the past two weeks...

oranges and eggs - still eating classy while being sick

baking with Sully

we have been having beautiful weather which has been such a treat!

this guy didn't lose his appetite through his sickness

this past week we were feeling better and it felt like I hadn't done anything productive in weeks....sooooo I decided it was time to start another room reno - feeling better feels soooo good!

Didsbury Christmas/New Year's

After Christmas in Lloyd we headed down to Didsbury for Christmas/New Year's. 

We arrived to our 'Christmas' dinner - this picture is very traditional for our family - we have 100's of photos over the years of us sitting around the table about to eat :)

after supper dad read the Christmas story

and then came presents

mom made Sully a Raggedy-Andy

gifts for mom and dad

the next morning was a games in our PJ's kind of morning

that afternoon the boys installed a new microwave for mom

and then bowling - a request from Nathan to play Canadian 5 pin

we went to the Olds bowling alley

it was retro :)

the crew (Matt took the picture)

storytime with Papa

more games 

the game is called Quelf and it's HILARIOUS! (the next 6 pictures are all from the game)

a couple of mornings after we got to the Didsbury we woke up to full stockings

Sully got a little basketball from his Papa

our traditional "set" picture

there was more snow in Didsbury then we had ever seen there - a few of the days we had warmer weather to enjoy the snow in

the view from mom and dad's back porch

on New Year's Eve it was beautiful out - big white snowflakes and fairly nice weather so we decided to take a walk in the winter wonderland

New Year's day dad rigged up his old sled for Sully to take a ride in

enjoying the white stuff

we always enjoy our time in Didsbury - it is a great place for us to have time to relax as a family - and always a treat to be with family!!!