drum roll, please

my pictures are all hung up. mostly. the ones that aren't hung up have a very good excuse to be lying around un-hung because they are waiting for me to paint the bathroom that they go in. the painted-in-fake-wood-paneling bathroom. i'll tackle it next week. if i write it here, i might actually do it.

so, ANYWAY, all my pictures are hung, which is why i'm finally posting pictures of my house. i know you've been waiting. well, my mom's been waiting, even if you haven't. and my mom deserves to get whatever she wants, since she's the one who flew out here and hung most of the pictures.

i'm actually liking this house a lot. who knew? minus the faux wood bathroom, of course. i've been so busy being an unpacking-hanging-decorating-rearranging-project woman, i don't know what i used to do with myself. good thing i've got that bathroom left. i actually get a lot of crazy energy when i move and get to set up a new house. which is good, because i get to do it again in 18 months. should i cry now or save it for later?

enjoy.

oh brother. my iphoto is not working right. or maybe i'm not working it right. whatever. i'm going to have to do this in collages. sigh. this might be more stressful than actually moving.

okay.

here's the backyard:

my room:
madeline and gretchy's room; the playroom; liesel and gwyneth's room; and the entry-way
living room:
"library":
newly refinished table and kitchen:
family room:
office:
oh, here's one of the kitchen that actually worked with iphoto. i should have done a before/after photo of the kitchen. you would enjoy (mocking, laughing, and cringing at) the lovely paintings of fruit on the walls. one grouping seriously looked like cinderella's pumpkin coach. a before-picture of the table would be nice, too. in fact, the table-refinishing totally deserves its very own post. instead, let's just sum it up by saying that it took about a week too long to do and an intimate acquaintance with home depot that i could have done without. it would NEVER have gotten done if my mom hadn't been here to help me. i am pleased with the final results, though. phew.
and one of the family room, too.

general catch-up

have you ever had so much to post that you find you can't post any of it? that's what's been happening with me. more and more events and cute/interesting/fun things kept happening and blogging about it got more and more overwhelming. which is silly, of course, since first of all, i like blogging, and second of all, anything with a name like "blog" should obviously not be stressed over. anyway.......... i have learned a valuable lesson. blog about one event at a time. and don't move at christmas. AND i know i shouldn't start sentences with 'and'. but (or 'but')..............too bad.

here we go.

gretchen turned 6 dec. 21st. she had a "fancy nancy" party. it was splendiferously fabulous. occasionally, i find myself using some of fancy nancy's words. they are fun to say. gretchy had a great day--i'm glad i can still please my 6-year-old.

gretchen's birthday was a big day for pace, too. he finally figured out how to do "thumbs up". he also got to reenact the blowing out of the candles several times. i think we relit them 6 times. which was great, 'cause gretchy turned 6. totally fitting.
a couple of days before christmas a bunch of families in our ward went camping at a local campground (this was before the FREEZING COLD spell we are having right now). we opted out of an overnight stay, and just went for the evening. the campground is like 10 minutes from our house. perfect. the highlight of the evening was when a bird flew over pace and did its business on his head. he thought it was so cool. i guess he figured it added to the toughness of his camping adventure. don't worry, i took a couple of pictures and washed it off. there's a limit to the amount of coolness i can stand. the picture of the girls with their hands over their heads was taken after the bird incident. another flock of birds flew over as i was taking the picture. they were not taking any risks.
christmas was great. i loved every bit of it. pace got a guitar. he and loren jam on their guitars now. yes, pace even uses the word 'jam'. (real example: "i can't go to bed, mom. i jam with dad.") liesel and gwyneth got the percy jackson books. all 3 of us read all 5 of them in the next 5 days. i love fighting with my 10-year-olds about whether or not it's my turn for the book. i usually win, 'cause i'm the mom. loren stayed out of the fray and just started reading them today.
liesel and gwyneth did a photo shoot with some of their friends (who very sadly moved to missouri last week).
before the FREEZING COLD hit us, we spent a morning at a park in our neighborhood. the kids loved it. loren loved it, too. we played tag and did races through an obstacle course. great fun. i warned loren there would be pictures of him playing on my blog. he was okay with that.

other highlights/adventures:

1. doing fireworks on new years' eve. it's like we got 2 fourth of july celebrations.

2. riding my bike behind an old man on a bike. he was shirtless, had a beer gut, and was wearing bermuda shorts. only in florida. i passed him as quickly as i could.

3. watching the original star wars movies a billion times (loren bought them for the kids). pace LOVES to sing the theme song. his world is now filled with bad guys, light sabers, etc.

4. pace learning how to use scissors. nothing is safe.

5. pace learning how to whisper. finally! church is much, much better now.

6. the FREEZING COLD of the last week. the kids loved it. i did not. working out at 6 in the morning is way, way harder when you know it's going to be cold outside.