A Great Thrift Store Find

A few days ago, a friend and I took our little girls to a neighboring town to do some thrift store shopping.

One we went to was a "Goodwill Outlet". That's right, an outlet thrift store! Hilarious. So what does an outlet thrift store look like? A large room full of giant bins filled with stuff. The bins are at least organized by clothes, shoes, bags, books, and toys - but beyond that, not much. No size, gender, or age catagories. So pretty much you stand around the bins and dig through other people's junk until you find something worthwhile. Awesome.

The best part? Pricing. You pay...get this... by the pound!!! Yes, clothes are $1.50 A Pound! How funny is that?!

While my friend was unable to dig up something of value, Caroline and I unearthed this gem:

It's shiney, poofy, has lace, flowers, and a hoop skirt. Needless to say, she loves it! I have no idea what it might have been used before (quincenera flower girl?) but now it's the best dress-up dress ever.

We brought it home, washed it, and she's been wearing it every chance she gets and has probably gotten married to an invisible prince named "Joe" about 7 times in the last 3 days.

Oh, girls are fun!

A Productive New Year's

We spent our New Year's weekend painting. We've been wanting to paint our living room since we moved in. We hate the flat paint they use around here - it doesn't clean well at all. And the color we had was the same color that they use in all the houses Dave works in - so it doesn't exactly give him warm fuzzies!

So we took the 3-day weekend as an opportunity to roll up our sleeves and work!

Caroline wanted to help, so we let her do a little. It took half a day to prep, and two full days to paint, but we did it!
For weeks, we'd been buying paint samples and trying to decide on a color.

And we love the result!

The pictures aren't the best quality, but you get the idea.

A few weeks ago we also cleared out our spare room and painted it. We're on a roll! We set a goal to try and do some sort of home improvement project every month. We've got a long list, so it's just a matter of motivation (and funds. but we've got another resolution to work on that one!) Our goals range from small and cheap (organize the shed) to moderate (tile a backsplash in the kitchen). Wish us luck!

Happy New Year!

Christmas '09

Our Christmas was Great!
Really, we all agreed it was the best Christmas yet.
We all seemed to have caught the spirit of things this year. We stayed home, just the 3 of us and had a fun, relaxing, enjoyable time together. We made a Christmas Eve feast (and are still eating leftovers!) and have spent the last few days playing together. I hate to have Dave go back to work tomorrow!

Well, on Christmas morning Dave and I woke up before 6am and decided to wake Caroline at 6:30! We were too excited!

We called this "Mt. Caroline" Between us, Santa, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins Caroline scored!




Chistmas afternoon we headed over to David's brother's house for a family Christmas party. It was so fun and it was nice to have the festivities continue - otherwise, Christmas is pretty much done by 10am!

My brother and sis-in-law got us a microphone for Guitar Hero (which we've been wanting since we got GH last year for Christmas) and we've had a lot of fun playing with it - especially Caroline. She doesn't know any of the words, and yet she's SO into it! It's so funny!

So the last few days we've played lots of games together, taken long naps, eaten lots of ham and cinammon rolls, and stayed in our pjs! What a great Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Buddies

Up until recently I thought Gus was just being nice with Caroline. One of those pets that somehow knows to tolerate children's handling because they're just a kid.

He lets her push him around in the baby doll stroller. All the time.

He even entertained Morgan one morning while Caroline was at a friend's house. They played with this pop-up tent for at least 20 minutes!

Caroline is ALWAYS holding him. The moment we walk in the door, she finds him. She holds him while watching TV or playing. We have to tell her to put him down when it's time to eat! So I always figured he was just putting up with it. Dave said he might actually like it, but I didn't believe him until last night.

That's when Dave went upstairs to check on Caroline before going to bed and told me to come look at her.

There they were - he was snuggled against her even without her knowing! (on the floor of course. what does this girl have against beds?!) He was there not because she made him, but because he wanted to!

So I guess he does actually love her. Good thing, because I don't think she was ever about to let up!

Gingerbread Housing

For Family Home Evening we decided to make gingerbread houses. But since I'm a cheat, we bought a prefabricated kit.

Starting:



After 15 Minutes...



AND... 2 minutes after that:


AND ... a few seconds after that:

Therefore:

'Tis the Season!