Family Room - (post christmas)

This is mostly for my mom...I told her I'd take new pictures of our family room after our mini-remodel.  I didn't take very good pictures after we finished painting, so I waited until I had Christmas put away and the room back to "normal" to take more/better pictures.  And today was a good day, since we just hung our new painting and I just cleaned and vacuumed the room.

 View from the funny little angled wall where the wall clock is hung.

 View from the kitchen table.

 View from fireplace looking into the kitchen. Oops, I didn't fix the pillow very well.

View of the the funny angled wall.  I may not keep the blue vase there, but I like the bookcase there. (I think I'll look for a bench to go in the foyer where this used to be.) I need to get some picture frames and I'll add pictures of the kids. (This is where we put our Christmas tree this year.)

 The rest of these pictures are views of the yard and mountains looking out of the windows from the family room. We had no snow for Christmas, but then we got slammed this week. (Charl had to shovel like 3 times in one day.) The kids are sick again, so I didn't let them go out and play. (Lucky me, kind of...I don't like playing in the snow when it's 20 degrees...I'll consider it when it above 40 degrees.) Today looks pretty...see the nice blue sky.  We haven't seen the sun in a few days.

ChRisTmAs fUn

HOLIDAY RECAP

GINGERBREAD HOUSES - at cousin Hiedi's new house week prior to Christmas. Holly was a good little helper decorating it and Charl came to my rescue when actually trying to build the house. Perhaps I was trying to be too ambitious and it just kept collapsing. Nothing wrong with simple.

CHRISTMAS EVE AT LAYNE'S (...had a nice dinner, acted out the nativity, did a puzzle race ((Rich won)), and opened our Christmas PJ's...)

Tate's 1st Christmas PJ's

CHRISTMAS MORNING AT OUR HOUSE...

the coolest Buzz ever!!!

GRANNY & GRANDPA LOUW'S (more presents, yummy food and playing w/cousins.)

Teresa got Holly this cute outfit for her b-day.

Gwen & Holly with their "Tangled" dolls

more dressups - Rapunzel

Our "New" "Blue" Room

This fall we finally added windows to the wall that would give us a view of the mountains. Had we known this would have been the case when building, we would have done this from the start, but whatever. I didn't want to pay for it, but Charl really really really wanted the windows. (Now that I have the windows, I do really enjoy looking out into our yard and at the Mt. Timp.) Since we had to tear up the wall, I decided to re-paint the walls in blue. I thought I took better pictures of the room, but I must have been distracted (most likely by Tate). Anyway, here is one picture I took and then the others are of the painting we "got" for Christmas to go the wall between the new windows. (I'll take better pictures once I put away Christmas.)

The Birthday Cake

I did make Holly a birthday cake for the "extended family party". Hello Kitty was her choice...okay, I may have persuaded her a little bit because I knew I could the simplicity of Hello Kitty. Here are some pictures from that party.

Holly's 3rd Birthday!

Holly had a birthday, shout "HOORAY". Wow, how time flies. Charl took the day off and we took Anders and Holly to a movie...yes, we went to an actual movie theater...it's been a long while since we've done this. (Granny Louw came to the house to keep Tate entertained.) We saw Tangled. (There were only 5 other people in whole theater since it was the earliest matinee and school was still in session.) Charl and I really enjoyed the movie and I think the kids did too.






Holly is waiting for the movie to start. She is such a cutie and looked a year older, too.

Me, Andersen and Holly...still waiting for the movie to start.













After the movie, we came back home to get Tate and eat lunch. Then we headed back out the door and did a little bit of Christmas shopping. The kids all fell asleep in the car, so Charl and I were able to pick out a painting to go on our newly "windowed" wall without the kids going crazy in an art gallery. Then we went Target and shopped a little more. Afterwards, we went to JCW's (a hamburger joint) and had dinner. Holly said she wanted a hamburger for dinner. We came home and had ice cream...which is preferred over cake. Holly blew out her 3 candles!

Then she ripped into her present.
























She got her first princess doll...Cinderella. It came with 4 outfits. We'll see who does the "dressing" of the doll.

A picture with Granny Louw after their fun lunch/shopping date.