We have been staying busy. I think a little too busy. I always know I'm too busy when I start getting cranky about everyday things. So I'm hoping to slow down these next couple of weeks. Of course it's the hardest time of year to slow down. Christmas is only two weeks away. I still have a lot of shopping to do, and also our neighbors downstairs are moving out so we have a lot of activity surrounding that. On top of the regular busy schedule that has already almost filled our December.

Update on the kids. Ava now has 12 teeth. She doesn't open her mouth very wide so I don't always think to check. She also climbed out of her crib yesterday. She cried a little but was fine. Time to lower the mattress!

Jack learned how to button in the last week or two and is fitting into size 5. Both of them are growing and developing and are by turn making us either want to pull our hair out or die laughing. Jack is going through a clumsy phase. Someone told me that means he is growing. I don't know but pretty much every thing he holds, he spills or drops. Hence the pulling of the hair out! He still makes up words to get his point across. Ava's still jabbering. We've been trying to get that on video because I know I will want to hear it again when she's older and doesn't do it anymore.

That's a little snapshot into our lives this past week. Hope you are all on your way to a Merry Christmas!

The auditorium finished. Jack and Lexi posing. Ava's new Christmas dress courtesy of Grandma Hanks with hair bow courtesy of Aunt Nanny. Thank you both!

More pictures

Our bedroom and Jack's room updated. Decorating the church turned out nicely.

Merry Christmas!!!

DIY

I took on a couple of house projects this week that I had seen on tv. And I'm pretty happy with them. I haven't updated the blog with pictures from my phone before, so hopefully it's not too confusing to see what I'm talking about.

I had an old window I had bought at a garage sale for $4 that I didn't know what to do with. I saw this on a show on Friday and decided to do it. Just covered the back with burlap and hung it up and put my wreath on it. Now I need a table to go underneath it! I like this because it's a large piece of art on the wall. With art being so expensive, this is a good way to get around that and is maybe a little more interesting.

Here's a quilt hanger I found at goodwill and painted for Ava's room. This quilt was my inspiration for her room, and I've always wanted to display it.

We took the doors off the main upper cabinets and put fabric behind the shelves. I just cut up a table cloth that I had and used spray adhesive to attach it. But it really brightened up the space. Even though the kitchen is painted a bright green, it still tends to be on the dark side with the cabinets. So this helps draw the eye up and focus on the brightness. I also think its a nice contrast to dark wood.

Here are some random pictures of the house. Everything's a work in progress always evolving. I like to think of it as my playground. It is fun!

New Stuff

It's been a while since I've put anything on the blog so I'm just going to combine a couple of different happenings.
A couple weekends back there was a Christian Community Fair at the Minneapolis Convention Center and we decided to go and check it out. It was a lot of fun. There were a bunch of vendor booths from different schools and publishers and camps and other things. There were also a lot of inflatable playgrounds for Jack to play in. He was absolutely loving it!

It may be hard to tell, but that is Jack coming down the big slide.

Jack is playing some basketball.

Now that Ava is walking it is harder to keep her close by!

Jack liked meeting Bob and Larry.

They also had a little petting zoo that both Jack and Ava loved.

Another thing that's been happening recently is that we've had evangelistic meetings at our church with the Will Galkin evangelistic team. It was a great week! I was expecting great preaching and we got it, but I guess I didn't realize how good they were musically! Simply put, they were awesome! At the end of the week they put on an Irish music concert. It combined traditional Irish tunes in the first half and then Irish sacred music in the second half. Then there was a clear gospel presentation. It was great and there were a lot of visitors.




Two weekends ago we went downtown Minneapolis to go to the Macy's 8th floor display. They have a Christmas display every year. It used to change every year, but for the last 4 years or so it has been the same but we still go and enjoy it. Then we walk through the skyways and enjoy the scenery. We were able to meet up with Brent and Heidi and her nephew to have a fun time together.

Here is Jack working out in the gym at my office tower before we hit Macy's

Good form!

Ava checking out one of the displays

You can't really tell much from the picture but when we got home from downtown we found the light pole that usually is on the other side of our driveway on the ground and still shining. It had just snowed so I'm guessing someone lost control.

And finally, we just had Brent's birthday party this last weekend. It was fun getting together with family once again.

Anyone that has a birthday gets to have Jack help them blow their candles out.

And if you happen to get a toy for your birthday Jack also helps you play with it. This is a gun for a hunting game Brent got for his birthday.

Blessingdale's

I am the new organizer for Blessingdale's, the store at the Metro Women's Center (a crisis pregnancy center in our area). I love the name! It's so much fun organizing and for such a good cause. The girls who come can earn points and shop in our store. We had the director of MWC at our church to present the work. It really moved me to do something so we had it presented to our moms group at church. And then I visited and helped out one day and anyway one thing led to another and now I'm volunteering there. So I went twice this week and the 2nd day I took the kids since they were closed at that time and I wasn't planning to be there very long. It is in a building with other tenants, so when Jack heard other people moving around outside the door, he came running to me and said Mommy there's people out there. I said I know. Other people work in the building. It's ok. He said oh so they're not coming to get us? No. So they're good guys? Yep. So they're not gonna kill us? I was forced to stop and talk about the difference between real life and movies. It was kind of funny though. A little overactive imagination!