Frosty the Snowman!!!

Laurel and Haley slept over last night. Laurel made the cutest little snowmen on a stick with cake, icing, and a rolo hat! Not only were they adorable, but they tasted amazing too!!!

The Bush's brought the girls some Christmas gifts over...

They got Emma her favorite book, the latest version of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book, and Ellie her favorite movie, "Percy Jackson", and the Disney Infinity Wii game! The girls were squealing and going crazy and kept saying, "How did you know??? Are you like, Santa Clause???" The Bush's were thrilled with their reaction. It was awesome!!!

Christmas Lights...

Yesterday, our washing machine broke for the last time! Since Keith and I have been married, we've always had used washer and dryers. Keith is so handy, that whenever they break, he just gets a part and fixes them. This time the motor died in the washer. Our dryer has to run twice to get the clothes dry. We decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new washer and dryer. 

The girls were patient as we went from store to store today to compare deals. We finally settled on a floor model at Best Buy because it was 1/2 off. It was one of the top of the line washer and dryers, but because it was 1/2 off, it was one of least expensive sets we found all day! They even gave us the pedestals for them, so you don't have to bend over so far. Anyway, we are excited! They can't deliver them for a week though. Thankfully, our neighbors, Amy and Matt, are taking their kids to Disney World for Christmas and gave us the key so we could do our laundry at their house all week. We were surprised to find out that they had the exact ones we had just bought! Amy said she absolutely loves them!

So today, after dragging the kids all over town to find a washer and dryer on their Christmas Break, we ended the day by taking them out for pizza at Foxes Den and then let them do their annual tour of Christmas Lights. Every year it gets bigger. Tonight, cars were lined up parked on both sides of the street and kids were running around everywhere. The kids saw several of their friends from school there! Then we come home and sat by the fire, ate ice cream and watched a Christmas movie!

Butter-man

Buster can't help himself... every time Emma sets up something cozy, he thinks she does it just for him!

Emma's 2nd grade Christmas Party!

On Thursday, Emma's class had a Christmas Party. They played lots of games and even had a snowball fight with wads of paper. They also served up some yummy treats including hot fudge sundaes with lots of sprinkles and whip cream, and cheese nachos!

T-Naples... The Big Reveal!

Emily, my precious daughter-in-law, wanted to do something very special for Tyler for Christmas this year! She's been planning it in her mind for over a month. She wanted to surprise him with his very own man-cave. I was so excited when she asked me to help her!!! They live in a 4 bedroom house, 2 rooms and a bath upstairs, and 2 rooms and a bath downstairs. Last weekend, we moved the master bedroom downstairs and made the small room beside their bedroom an office. (I wish I took pictures of that room yesterday because Emily has done an amazing job in there!). Upstairs is now the guest bedroom and the man-cave! 

The theme Emily decided on was "T-Naples". The idea came from a picture I gave them a while back that was in my attic. It was a picture of sailboats sailing across the ocean with blue skies in the background. At the top of the picture it says, "Naples". Sometimes, when they have friends over, Tyler turns their keeping room into what he calls, "T-Naples".  He hangs up the Naples picture in the keeping room, then stacks the benches from their dining room table on top of each other and throws a sheet over them, and pretends to be a bartender at a tiki bar in Naples. He say's, "Welcome to T-Naples, what'll ya have?" Then he pours them water from a whiskey bottle. His friends just play along with it. hahaha. Tyler has always had quite the imagination! 

 We had to get super creative with this project because with both Emily and Tyler in school, they are on a super-tight budget! Not only were we limited with the budget, but since they are renting, we couldn't paint the walls. We went shopping at the thrift store and good will and found 2 tufted leather chairs (one was a recliner!) We also found a nice dartboard (missing darts) and a bunch of beverage glasses. We scavenged through my attic and found a rug, an old suitcase, another sailboat picture, some lamps and some burlap shades. I also gave them a t.v. and a dresser that was in my garage. We put the tall dresser, from my garage, in Ty and Emily's bedroom, and repurposed their long dresser, and used it as a t.v. stand with lamps on either side. Emily painted the two barstools that we had given them for a wedding present a beautiful teal color that we found at home depot. She also painted the mirror that goes with the dresser/t.v. stand with chalkboard paint. We made a cork board with an old picture we found at the goodwill. Emily painted it with chalkboard paint too, then we hot glued corks onto it and drew a picture of a  wineglass in the middle. Emily picked up some darts for the dartboard and some cute little nut bowls to put on the bar. We used an old drum they had in their garage for a table between the chairs and put 2 guitars on stands on either side of the t.v. stand. Tyler is into music and Emily wanted this room to reflect his personality!

Yesterday, Emily, her friend Meredith, Ellie, and I spent all day putting the room together. Tyler was at work all day and thankfully had to work late, because we didn't finish it until 6:30. Emily told him that she put his present up stairs, so he couldn't go up there. We've been storing the stuff in my garage and yesterday hauled it over to their house. Moving the furniture up those stairs was a booger! Especially the hutch. It was in the kitchen. We had to take it apart to get it up the stairs. We couldn't paint that either because it belongs to the home owner. We stocked it with the glasses that we got from the goodwill. 

The last thing we did was build the bar. We searched their garage for odds and ends. We thought we were going to use the wood in there to build it, but since none of us are carpenters, it was a bit overwhelming. There were some old golf cart windshields in the corner of the garage that Tyler had gotten from work back when he used to work at the golf coarse. We used hemp to hook them together and it turned out to be the perfect size and was amazingly sturdy! The old blinds I brought over from my attic were too small for the double windows, so we used them as a cover for the bar. It turned out so cute!!!

The big reveal will be tonight. Emily face booked their friends and they are all coming over to surprise him for the grand opening of T-Naples. I am so excited for Tyler and so very proud of my sweet and thoughtful daughter-in-law!!!

Ellie's 12th Pizza/Skate Birthday Party!

What began as a rainy day, ended in a fun filled night. Ellie's party wasn't until 5pm Saturday night. All day it poured and Emma and Ellie laid on the couch and read. At 5pm, a few of Ellie's friends from school came over and the girls played wii, and made rainbow bracelets with the kit that the brothers gave Ellie for her Birthday. Then we ordered pizza, had cake and ice cream, and opened presents. Afterwards we took the girls to the roller rink. On the ride over, the girls were all talking about the books they are reading. One of the girls just finished reading the Harry Potter series for the 7th time. Yep, you read it right. I still haven't read a book that thick, lol. All these girls, including Emma, are avid readers and they are all into mine craft. Didn't hear much talk of boys, most of the talk was about what they were learning in school... haha, hope it stays that way for a while:) They are all still very sweet and innocent!

Drew and Haley dropped by the skating rink to surprise Ellie. They hung out with us there for quite a while! What a sweet brother to drop by his little sister's Birthday Party on a Saturday night! Alex and Tyler were in Marietta recording some of their music that night, but this morning, on their way home from Marietta, they dropped by to wish Ellie a Happy Birthday. They are all such great big brothers!!!