Living Room Reno & Other Things...

My children are playing really nicely on this Monday morning and so I'll update you with some pictures of our living room. And then I think you're all caught up with house reno's! Until the next one :) We just put the finishing touches on it on Saturday, ie we hung pictures and other things on the wall. This was a fairly easy project. We only had one wall of wallpaper to take down and I already knew what color I wanted - grey with yellow accents. I chose a darker grey for the actual living room and then a lighter grey for the front entrance wall and hallway. The hallway took us a long time because there was a lot of wallpaper and for some reason it did not come off as easy as all the previous stuff. We still need baseboards yet on the whole upstairs but we are waiting until we do the bathroom for that. I would also like to get new blinds on the big front window and then yellow sheer curtains as decorative side panels.

Here is Lyra helping with some wallpaper removal...

The finished living room! Seating area...

I found this buffet on Kijiji and totally fell in love with it! I think it turned out to be a perfect fit for this space...

We moved the piano to this wall because it is now completely on an inside wall and having it on this wall makes it much easier for me to sit beside my piano students. We had it on the wall that the buffet is on now, but then I was also sitting right in front of the big window when I was teaching, so I like this a lot better.

I created this subway art for our family recently because I love the idea of having our "family rules" posted somewhere in our house. It was a fun project because it made me (and hunky husband) have to think about what our family rules were going to be. I'm not completely happy with this yet because I just printed it on to paper that I already had at home and it looks quite amateur. Ideally I would like to have it printed a little bigger and on a canvas, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Any suggestions? I made it on Microsoft Word.

Here is an updated picture of our bedroom. We need a frame around the picture above our bed yet, but we are talking about building ourselves a new bed and getting a new headboard, so we will see what happens with that picture yet...

The girls enjoying a popcorn snack the other day...

Sad puppy because she doesn't get any popcorn...

So in my last post of what we did last summer I neglected to include pictures of one very important trip we made in September. Since the girls had been so good on the trip to B.C. and since we hadn't visited enough provinces for one summer, we decided to head east to Thunder Bay for the September long weekend. Our dear friends had moved there for a year and we wanted to see them and their new place! They also have a little girl and boy the same age as our girls! We had so much fun!

Here are some pics...

Picnic supper overlooking the lake. Very beautiful...

Teaching the little girls how to roll down the hill...

The men...

Morning...

We painted the girls nails while they ate their lunch...

We all went to this cute little amusement park that was so perfect for the 2 year old's! There was hardly anyone there so the girls got to ride a lot. Waiting in line for the carousel...

Playing at the park...

Out for dinner...

Out for a Sunday afternoon walk....

And then we took them home with us! Well, we left their dad behind, but he joined them later...

We had a sermon on this Bible verse on Sunday morning and I really loved how the minister instructed us on it. It was Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun - all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."

At first when you read this you think of the phrase "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die." But no, God is telling us that he is in control, that he has planned our days, that he has given each day to us as a gift, and that in the end we all face the same fate - death. And this does not have to be a sad thing for us, but something good, so that we can realize that no matter how wise we are, or schooled and knowledgeable, what matters to God is how we take each day and use it to his glory. Because all men are heading to the same place even if you have tons of money, or are very smart. So we must live happy lives, enjoy the food gifts that he gives us, we must not be downtrodden or sad. We should be happy and have joyful hearts. And whatever job the Lord has given to us, whether is be architect, businessman, plumber, or housewife, we must work at it hard. This is going to be my goal over the next little while. To be happy, joyful, and whatever my hand finds to do, I'm going to work at it with all my might.

The Last [almost] Year!

WOW! I can’t believe it’s almost been a year! And what a year it’s been. Busy, busy, and busy! We moved into our new house, did some renovations, went on vacation, did some more reno’s/updates, spent time with family, and did some more reno’s/ updates! Did I forget to mention that I’m a mom of two amazing rugrats! Yup, that’s probably what keeps me the most busy.  Especially #2 – Princess Pea. I think we are going to have to re-name her. J Even as I type this she is crawling all over me, and hitting me in the face, saying “ow”. It’s her newest word and she definitely knows what it means. Her favorite thing to do at the supper is to hit herself in the head and say “ow”.

Isn’t she cute tho? Booger’s and all?

 The girls and I have been keeping busy during the day with coffee visits, outings, groceries & errands, and cleaning. It sure takes a lot longer to clean this house than the last one, and it seems as if I am constantly organizing something. I don’t really mind, because I sure do appreciate the extra space and I actually have spaces to put everything. Hunky Husband has been busy with men’s society, evangelism committee meetings, and work. Mostly work. His company has been fairly busy this year (which is a blessing) but this means he is often home late and is tired.  Meetings started up in the fall, and I joined a Zumba class on Monday evenings. I've really been enjoying that. I also started teaching piano lessons and have 4 students. I teach on Thursday`s and have really loved it so far. So, how do I summarize the last year in 1 blog post? I’ll try, and hopefully you can bear with me, because this might be long…

First we did our Master Bedroom renovation. We did this at the end of January/Febuary. It is still not completely finished as we are waiting on nightstands that we ordered online. Also, I’ve already changed out the bedspread and curtains, so these pictures aren’t entirely accurate. Once we get our nightstands I will try and post a better picture.

Before

 After

Then Tiny Tot got the chickenpox. Overall, she tolerated it quite well. She sure got a lot of spots!

Grandpa and Grandma L came over and did a small Easter egg hunt for the kids. We also had tiny tot’s cousins over, as a new addition had just been added to their family!

Since our baby Princess was growing out of her bassinet we decided to start on her room as well. Since I loved our baby room in our old house I decided to do the same colors and replicate the squares on one of the walls. Again, we had plenty of wallpaper to take down and some patching and taping, but in a couple of days we had it finished!

Before

After

Since we hadn't had enough of the renovations we decided to take out the carpet too! Well, that's not the entire reason... Hunky Husband had been having a really hard time with his allergies since we had moved in, and after a lot of cleaning and dusting we realized that every time he would vacuum on the weekends, he would be sneezing, his eyes would puff up, and he would feel terrible. We concluded that he must be allergic to the dust in the carpet. We pulled up one corner of the carpet to look at the flooring underneath. It looked pretty good, and that weekend we started pulling up the carpet!

Soon it was summer, and we tried to enjoy it to the fullest! We ate outside in the privacy of our own backyard every chance we got!

Tiny Tot's 1st Haircut!

Oops, I just realized that I skipped over Tiny Tot's second birthday! It was in May and she was spoiled as per usual.

Can you guess what it is?

Since we knew that we were making the long trip out West in a few months, we started looking for a Tent Trailer online in hopes of purchasing one to make things easier. I was going to be staying there while Hunky Husband headed back home for work. I really wanted my own space while I was out in B.C., but didn't really want to spend two weeks in a tent with two little ones. We found a small trailer in good shape just in time for the July long weekend. So we went camping! Also, Tiny Tot was in the middle of potty training :)

And then it was time to drive! All the way to Aldergrove, B.C. Auntie Eee decided that the trip with us last summer was so fun, she decided to come with us again! So we left around 11 at night (in hopes that the girls would sleep through the night - they did not...) and headed for St. Albert, AB...

We stopped in St. Albert at the wonderful Eldorado Inn, and continued on in the morning. We drove...

And ate...

And drove and slept...

And finally we arrived! We had so much fun!

The lovely Jillian on her wedding day...

We attended two lovely weddings within a week of each other. We wish both of these couples much happiness and many of God's blessings in the years to come.

And then it was time to head back! Hunky Husband flew in for the last weekend and then we left for home on the Monday. Since we hadn't spent much time together, or as a family, we decided to take our time on the way back and enjoy our vacation some more. We first drove to Shuswap Lake and camped there for two nights. It was so relaxing!

After that we drove to Calgary and spent a very chilly, stormy night in a private campground along side the highway. I was so tempted to pack up and head for home, but we made it through the night and in the morning headed off to the Calgary Zoo!

The next two days we just drove and camped at a KOA along side the highway. After many many hours of driving I still had happy little travellers! And that made this mommy very happy!

We arrived home on Saturday tired and exhausted, but we had plenty of amazing memories of the trip! It was so much fun, and made us realized just how blessed we were to have an amazing extended family, as well as the blessing of our own family! We also thank God for allowing us to have the opportunities to travel and visit family living far away.

We had a beautiful fall here in Winnipeg, and it stayed quite warm for a long time. Tiny Tot and I decided to carve a pumpkin one afternoon...

Tiny Tot was also getting really helpful around the house...

Sometimes a little too helpful...

She loves to do crafts...

And the girls were getting really good at playing together...

I also had a costume party for some of Tiny Tot and Princess Pea`s friends! We had fun dressing up...

And doing a craft...

Soon Fall was coming to an end and that means Princess Pea was nearly 1! I could not believe that it had been a year since she was born. I also could not believe that it had nearly been a year since we had moved out of our temporary home at my parents, and that it had nearly been a year since we moved into our new place! Why does time go so fast!
Princess Pea turned 1 at the end on November and was spoiled of course!

We had a wonderful Christmas season with our families. We did our gift exchange with the L side of the family the first weekend of December at our house. It was very fun although I wasn`t feeling very good. My niece and I played a piano duet. She is one of my students and we had been practising for weeks. We had our dinner downstairs. It was so nice to have that extra space! We did our gift exchange with the S side of the family two weeks later and had a fun evening of gift opening and games. We then had Christmas dinner in Carman on the 25th and in Winnipeg on the 26th! Again, we were feeling so thankful for family and for Christ`s death on the cross as a payment for our sins. So many rich blessings!

Since I have now reached the end of my uploaded pictures, I believe I am going to have to stop this post for today! I hope that this has updated things a little bit! I can make no promises (apparently) but I am going to try and blog more often again. I have finally figured out a better way to upload pictures onto the blog so it has made it much easier. Before it was so much work to write a post and post pictures along with it. I also had been so behind on stories that it was a huge thing in my mind to try and catch up. But now I`ve done it! Kind of... there are a couple more things that we have done with our house that I would love to show you.... but it will have to wait for now.

Now just in case some of you thought my kids were always good...

And to finish off I would like to post a video of Tiny Tot singing (her version) of ``My God is so Great``. The words go ``My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there`s nothing my God cannot do. The mountains are his, the rivers are his, the stars are his handiwork too. My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there`s nothing my God cannot do... for YOU!`` And yes, she always sings in this squeaky high pitched voice :)