Faith enjoying the playroom swing

She would swing in this ALL DAY if she could!

A new playroom!!

About 3 weeks ago, Jennifer had the idea to turn my office into a playroom... I am never in there and it had just become the "catch all" room of the house. The kids have always loved to play in the living room so why not give them their own space over there to play in!

As you can see from the first couple of pics, we had our work cut out for us! After many late nights, Jennifer and I were able to get my entire office cleared out. It was bittersweet for me because I was confronted with the reality that I am not preaching or studying anymore... and I don't need a bunch of my seminary books, and I don't need all of my folders full of my studies for old sermons, and I don't need my A+ Hebrew tests from 1999 - I think somehow I was still holding on to these things to validate me... But it was good. I am not in that season right now, I am a mom. A phenomenal stay-at-home mom. And I am blessed.

This was even after some clean up!

After clearing it out we had to sell my beautiful desk, and move bookcases, etc. Then let the painting begin! Unfortunately, the lady at Lowe's was particularly grumpy and mixed up a color quite a bit more neon than I had envisioned... Thanks to my dad's help, we were able to knock out two walls of white and two of this crazy green in just a few hours. We later returned to Lowe's to complain and received the correct color that just needed one coat to make everything right again.

You can see the subtle difference in greens. This pic was after Darren had hung the light in the center of the room and had hung up this amazing painting we bought by a worship artist at Bethel church many years ago. I love it and it fit my underwater theme perfectly!

I (heart) Ikea!

Typical Ikea. You see a cool lamp and then pick it up in a skinny box only to realize that it's "some assembly required" :)

Installing the awesome chair that the kids want to spin in ALL DAY.

New carpet is in! Shelving is up! Toys are in!

All the tubs even have a small picture of what's inside so there's no guesswork.

Underwater wall put up, cool decals in place! Ikea mattress ready to be jumped on! Darren even repurposed a white board into a cool chalkboard!

Just add some kids and let the fun begin!

Thanks dad, Jenny and Darren for helping to make this room happen!!

Domestic Diva

Hemming my third pair of pants for Noah... Home Ec from 7th grade is paying off!

boy vs. girl

boy sees rat.

girl sees... dolphin.

This is how Faith carried it around, saying "dolphin! dolphin!"

At least until the rat's cheek popped and the water shot out.

Pics with Santa :)

Thanks to my beautiful sister Pam, I have these great pictures taken when Santa came to my mom and dad's house! He visits every year before the presents are opened and it's a tradition I hope doesn't end for a loooong time :) Thank you Pam!!!

Angel...

Christmas with the Rogers

Christmas day was a day of travel! We started off the day opening gifts with the kiddos, but by 1:00 we were headed to the airport on our way to Vancouver to spend the week with Darren's family :) The kids did GREAT with the flight and the 3 hour drive. The week involved a train ride, trips to a nearby indoor play place, rides in the packard, and it SNOWED! The kids were so excited with the snow. They ran right out to make snow angels.

Noah was super excited that the pilot let him hang out in the cockpit for awhile - he even had him welcome everyone aboard and announce the flight!

We were able to stay in the apartment beneath the main house, which was GREAT for us. Noah especially loved sleeping on his bed in the hall right outside our bedroom door :)

Presents!

My super duper cute nephew, Lucas :) He's going to have a little sister soon!

Noah loves riding in Papa's Packard

Darren and I had the opportunity to go up to Grouse Mountain on a date while we were there. The best thing was, it was on December 28th, the 8 year anniversary of the night Darren proposed :) We sat almost at the same table at the amazing restaurant up there and the view was breathtaking. It was a great night!

The last night there we had a big crabfeed with huge lobster - yummmm

I'm realizing with these last couple of posts that I am terrible at taken pictures of PEOPLE! I will have to work on that...

Christmas with the Jensons

We had a great time spending the entire day of Christmas Eve with my family - everyone was there and it was awesome! For whatever reason I don't really have pics of the kids opening their gifts, and Noah's experience with Santa giving him his much desired transformer was captured on video... but I'll post what I got. The food was great, there were lots of laughs, the kids ran around and played nonstop, and it was an overall very relaxed and fun atmosphere :)

All of the cousins :) They are SO great with my little ones!

And a pic for grandma and grandpa's wall

Faithy dancing in her second outfit of the day

This is me wearing the "fur" coat my mom got at Christmas when she was my age

Faith's first outfit, she refused to wear the skirt for a long time and the top was dirty within 30 minutes of course :)

I'm going to have to look for more pics!!!

How do I say goodbye??

Every time I try to get rid of this biker jacket from my college days, I just can't go through with it... Here I am, again, wanting to put it in the donate bag and I find myself wanting to keep it! For what? I don't know. Just because, I guess. A costume? Posterity? Riding a motorcycle? I'll just set it aside and think about it... for the next few years.