Happy New Year

 We are having a great time with Grandpa Val and Grandma Blanche!!! Doug made them his special Lemon Meringue Pie for our New Year's Eve Celebration tonight.

For the rest of the evening we played Rummikub...

...and had a Dance party.

Doug was the DJ and everyone took turns showing off their moves.  Here's Max with the Canopener.

Jack and Luke were a funny pair.

At Mer's request Doug jumped in.

Meredith thinks her dad is HYSTERICAL when he dances, and it is HILARIOUS to watch her laugh at him.

Of course Grandma and Grandpa cheered along.




After that we had a countdown and broke open party poppers to find treasure inside.

We promptly sent everyone off to bed at 9pm.  I'm not sure how much longer we can hold off having the kids stay up till midnight.We'll see.


Happy New Year!!

The Rest of Christmas!

 Here are a few pictures of how we spent the rest of Christmas. 



Everyone got Lego to put together.
 
 Jack loved his color wonder light up coloring board

We put together and did some serious jumping on our new trampoline!!! Wow! Thanks Mike and Sher.

Santa gave Luke the Woody Choo Choo he was wanting.

Mer spent most of her day practicing her skills on Super Mario Galaxy 2.

And this is what Doug has been doing with his spare time this Holiday break. We can finally leave a puzzle out without it getting totally demolished by a young one.

And now Doug's mom and dad are here for a fun visit... but I'll save that for another post.

Christmas Morning

Christmas is Here!

This morning, everyone hung out in Mer's room until it was time for presents I'm not sure what time everyone woke up. I've heard different stories...Jack was up at 3 going through his stocking. Max had to tell help him put everything back in, and then he woke up Meredith to tell her about it. Max was up at 5 "getting a drink". 

When it was time to open presents they lined up in order for a quick pic.

And then ran out to the living room to see this...

And This...

They walked out into the living room and this is what they did.

Follow the link and catch a glimpse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQm426UhK_4

another video ...

video 2

Gingerbread Houses and more

Last night we got together with the Tougas family to make Gingerbread houses!  See this hat max is wearing. He has been wearing it practically every second of the day since last week.  He even wears it to sleep.  It's cold here now.  Highs in the 50's.  Here are the masterpieces...

Thank you Tougas family, so fun to have you here!

 Since the last few entries have only been kitchen focused, I feel as though I owe you some pictures of our ramblings around town over the last few weeks.

Luke and friend Ryan riding an alligator.

Jack found a pine cone and wanted to turn it into an elf.

 

We attempted a family photo shoot, but must have had the camera set funny, cause none of them turned out well.  Here are our little vampires, they make a nice set of stair steps don't they?

Max was ill with brochitis that gave him a fever for 6 days and kept him out of school for a week. He got a little game playing in though.

We put our tree up, and Doug used his new tripod to snap this beautiful shot.

Jack performed in his preschool Holiday program, which was of course super cute.  You should ask him to sing "What did the Cow in the Manger say?" for you.

 And on thanksgiving weekend we hit the beach and found a florida snowman...

 made sand sculptures....

and practiced water bending.

 

And that's what we did when we weren't choosing granite, getting quotes, driving all over town looking for handles, and ordering appliances. Phew!

The Countertops

Here they are! Our kitchen is fully functional again.

The Plumber came today and hooked up the faucet and rebuilt the pipes for our now single drain sink.

Here's an up close of the new cooktop.

Of course this is all much prettier in real life. 
Now we have to figure out what to do with the back splash, install the range hood, and choose a new color for that red wall, but finishing getting ready for Christmas has to come first.

The Point of No Return

 I'm back...let's just say I've been a little busy and leave it at that.

The Cabinets are DONE!! The color is about the same, and they added crown molding.  They were officially finished last night, the rest of the handles were put on today.

I'll try to get better pictures in daylight.

 Tonight it was  COUNTER DEMOLITION TIME.  Started at about 9pm, after basketball practice and scouts. We were by about 11pm.

Goodbye old sink, I will not miss you!

And this is what it currently looks like in our kitchen, we are waiting for the granite counter tops.  We chose Peacock Green. You'll see them tomorrow.