It's coming together....

We just have the finishing touches left to do on the room in the basement we've been working on. My inlaws will be here for Christmas and we are going to try our best to have it done (except for the crown molding....have to replenish the funds!) before they arrive. Once Christmas is over, we'll work on moving the school stuff down there and it will be our new school room! I'm super excited! Right now we just use the dining room. I have a large cabinet in Logan's room and a small cabinet in the dining room, but I hate running between the two places all the time. Anyway, go to the post here for pictures of the basement before and how it was up until recently. And here are a few pictures of the way it is now! :-) I know it is not perfect, but I love looking at this room and knowing that we did it ourselves!!

The proof is in the picture....

It's that time of year again! You know, the time of year to start thinking about Christmas cards. Yes, I still send out Christmas cards, though my list is a lot smaller than it used to be. These days, my list mostly includes only family. Looking back at our Christmas pictures is always a fun way to see just how much our boys have grown. Check it out for yourself!!

Here is our 2007 card...
our 2008 card...
and here is our 2009 card!Getting that perfect shot is always a challenge when kids are involved. For the 2007 picture, getting the boys in the shot with the whole tree in the frame and no strangers in there, too....yeah, not an easy task. I was practically laying on the ground while my husband tried to hurry me along because I was in the way. In 2008, I just pulled some shots of the boys that I loved and in 2009 I went for that perfect family shot. I won't even begin to tell you how many shots it took for me to get just one that I was happy with! :-)

So, this year I'm not real sure what we will do, but I have certainly been thinking...and looking! Shutterfly has tons of cute cards to choose from! There are sooo many choices out there, but I'm really liking this one! Or maybe this one, or this one, or this one! So many cute choices, for sure!! Next up, calendars!! This will be the 3rd year that I will put a calendar together with pictures of the boys for my husband to have at work. :-)

Full disclosure: Shutterfly will be compensating me for this post by providing me with 50 free holiday cards!

Tonight, I'm sleeping in the "closet"...

Tonight the boys were put to bed a bit early and I went to get dinner at Wegmans from their $6 meal options for myself and my husband. We had just finished our meal and I was refilling my drink when something in me decided to look up the stairs. We have a cabinet at the top that we keep extra blankets and towels in, essentially our linen closet. Well, I noticed the door was open on the cabinet so I turned the light on to get a better look. The following is what I found.....

Hmmm. I don't recall having a camouflaged blanket with planes on it.

Wait....could that be a boy sticking out of the cabinet??




By golly it is a boy! And when we tried to wake him, he just found another "comfortable" (??) position. :-)


Also note, upon looking at these pictures on my laptop instead of the little screen on the camera, I discovered that Lucas not only likes to use the cabinet for sleeping purposes, but also to store empty paper towel rolls!

Ramblings....

Sorry I've been MIA. We were super busy working on projects around the house preparing for a friend and her family to stay with us. They were here for almost two weeks and have now headed to visit family for a few weeks before heading back to this area to settle into their first home! We've been friends since 8th grade when we both lived in TX. It is amazing to me that both of our husbands joined the military (different branches), yet here we are both settling down in VA.

Speaking of the projects around the house, I will be sharing pics soon. I just haven't taken the time to take pictures. We finally got the drawers in the kitchen painted and we have just about finished the room in the basement! Super excited about that because it will be our homeschool room!

While our friends were staying with us, we went to Mt. Vernon for their Fall Harvest Festival. The boys really enjoy going and the weather was perfect! The boys enjoyed running through the hay bale maze, playing corn cob darts, hay rides, and more!







Lucas especially loved spinning in circles in the barn, riding the shuttle bus, and saying "cheese" for the camera!



And most recently, they enjoyed dressing up as Luigi and Robbie Rotten while scouring the neighborhood for candy! :-)