Groundhog Day

Here's Brooke this morning telling me about Groundhog day. Or was it grasshopper day? Maybe he's a frog?

Furnishing the basement

We assembled the media center and hung the tv! The room is coming together.

Discover the Dinosaurs

This past weekend we took the girls and a friend of Paige's with us to an event this weekend at our convention center called Discover the Dinosaurs. The girls really enjoyed themselves. They had several dinosaur displays where the kids could push a button to hear the roar or make them move. In the downstairs they had several extra experiences (not included in the already high ticket price). Paige and her friend got their faces painted while Brooke mined for gems. Then Paige and her friend did a bouncy house while Brooke did a Dino dig and coloring.

Finished basement

Justin and I painted this weekend and replaced all the lights and outlets. Ignore the closet shelves on the floor. They are there keeping the rug from rolling back up.

Basement remodel

We started the remodel of our basement on January 2nd. When I say"we" I mean the contractors :)

At this point we're about halfway done. The new walls and ceiling are up, but they still need the mud at the seems and of course painted. We should be ready for the new floor in about a week.

The 2 pictures here show after their demo and where we are as of now.

Ava the Elf

Ava heads back to the North Pole tonight after Santa comes. Here are a few more pictures of what she has been up to this year:

My baby can read

I'm still in shock. On Sunday Brooke was playing with puzzles. She loves her puzzles. The one she was doing was an alphabet puzzle. I put together the letters c a t and asked her what that spelled. I couldn't believe my ears when she sounded out each letter and then put them together and said "cat". At first I thought she just got lucky and maybe had memorized it. But no, Paige and I repeatedly quizzed her with every 3 letter word you can think of and she nailed it!

Now she seems so old to me! When did she grow up?