Improving the House

So Todd and I are taking this

"improve"

thing seriously.

This weekend I made a list of home improvements

we wanted to make this year,

and broke those projects down by month.

 

On the list this month:

seal the tile

finish the trim on the doors/windows

 

Todd got started on the trim on Sunday.

It's already looking much better,

although he ran out of wood and was unable to finish

(We'll probably finish this weekend).

 

Cleaning things up around the door.

What a cute little construction guy.

Look at that beautiful work.

 

It will probably take a couple more hours to complete

this project and then we will get to cross that off our list.

 

As far as the tile goes, we'll probably seal that

at towards the end of the month,

so in a couple of weeks.

 

You do any home improvement projects lately?

And the Word Is...

Instead of making a New Year's resolution

that I will more than likely NEVER keep,

I decided to come up with a word for the 

year that exemplifies what I would like to accomplish.

After mulling things over, I decided on ...

I felt like I could implement this in several areas of my life

without getting too specific.

Areas I'm going to concentrate on are:

Health

Home

Attitude

There are so many areas people can improve.

What would you try to improve?

Did you make any resolutions or pick a word of the year?

Cuteness Explosion

It's been a little while since I've posted some cuteness,

and I'm feeling the need.

Besides, who doesn't like cute furry animals?

Via

 

This makes my heart smile!

Tahoe

I'm back to work, and already missing vacation

(it's only day 2 - yikes!).

 

I found myself thinking about the family Tahoe trip

today and thought I would share some pictures.

 

There was much less snow than last year,

and the temps were probably in the high 50's,

this was much different from last years trip.

 

We decided to drive around the lake and make stops

whenever the urge hit.

The first stop was Eagle Falls.

We were just there in October and took pictures,

but we wanted to see how much water

was spilling over, so we hiked through the

snow to go and get a glimpse.

It was pretty awesome.

The pictures don't do it justice,

but there was a layer of ice over the top and then

snow all the other places.

Very cool!

This was the top of the waterfall,

 

and this was looking down from the top of the waterfall.

 

After we were done looking at the falls,

and had frozen our rearends off because we weren't

dressed correctly, we decided to try

and take a family picture.

Yeah!  We did it.

 

Then we decided to go for a little walk on one

of the boardwalk that is directly across from the falls.

We encountered something that we had never seen before.

Be sure to watch this.

AND DON'T

cheat and look below the video!

 

 

Yep, we ran in to Mr. Bear.

Who would expect to see a bear in the middle of winter?

Apparently Mr. Bear thinks it's spring.

We didn't want to be Mr. Bear's dinner,

so we turned our fannies right back around and

headed for the car. 

It was at this point that we decided to just

continue driving around the lake

in the safety of our little car.

 

It was such a beautiful day,

and no picture can do it justice,

but I thought this was a fairly decent photo

of how perfect our day out was.

 

The kids couldn't hang with the real adults,

they fell asleep in the back,

so Todd and I took pictures while they slept.

At around 5 PM we ended up back at casinos,

and we were starving.

So we made a stop at the Hard Rock Café

and got some twisted mac n cheese.....

Yummmers!

 

Lexx had to show off her sweatshirt while

we waited for my dinner.

 

Everyone else wanted hamburgers,

so after we watched the 49ers win a football game,

and I finished eating, we headed over to

their favorite burger joint.

 

I have no picture, but just imagine

everyone except me stuffing their faces

with a huge hamburger and you get the idea.

 

We had so much fun and enjoyed spending

the day together, especially since we get to see

so little of each other during the rest of the year.

It's a fun family tradition that we plan on

continuing for as long as our schedules allow.

 

Did you do any quick trips during the holidays,

or have any fun family traditions?

Friday

via

 

I'm wrapping up my Christmas vacation.

It's been a glorious nine days off,

and I haven't got jack-diddly done.

It's actually probably one of the most relaxing

vacations I've had in a long time.

Got to spend some real quality time with the kids,

and got caught up on relaxing...

all good things.

 

So although I don't personally need to recuperate

from a long work week, I know some of my

blog readers do, so this is for you.

 

Have a great one my friends!

Celebrating the New Year

As most of you know, we are not big party animals.

So a night at home was how we celebrated the new year.

We find it stress free

(and much less dangerous than being on the roads).

 

Although the party was small, we managed to have

a good time and kept ourselves entertained.

First order of business was to have Lexx take a picture of

my New Years outfit.  For those of you who guessed

that I would wear the yellow necklace...

You were correct.

 

We then had to take pictures together before everything

became too difficult due to alcohol consumption.

Mother and son.

Isn't he a handsome guy!

 

After a couple of pictures were taken,

it was time to get our mimosa on,

and that we did.

Aust downed two in the time I took a couple

sips out of mine!

 

Lexx wanted to get in on the picture action,

so of course we took selfies.

What else are you going to do when you

have to stay up until midnight and there

are only five of you at the party?

I had to force Todd to take a picture because

he was tired and just wanted to go to sleep.

He's not a big party animal,

as you may already know.

The kids (Alexxa, Austin and Natan) watched movies

in the living room and ate snacks all night.

Todd and I watched Warehouse 13

and relaxed in our room.

 

I made it to 12:30 AM,

but unfortunately Todd didn't.

This is how he brought the new year in,

 

and this is how I celebrated.

By taking a picture of my husband sleeping

and posting it on my blog without him knowing - bwahahaha!

It's gonna be a great year,

don't you think?

Happy New Year

“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”  
~Brad Paisley