Few More House Updates

Was able to find something to go on the wall above my fireplace. I really love it.
While nick was gone last week in TN, I painted the upstairs bathroom. It was plain white and I painted it two shades of green. Finished it this past saturday. In this picture you can see the two shades near the recessed lighting.

Here the angled wall on the right is different from the far wall on the right and left. The angled wall is the same shade as the dark color on the recessed lighting area.

Thanks to Tami for taking our family pictures. Here are the boys hanging up in our stairwell going upstairs. LOVE IT TAMI!!!

You Should Listen

This afternoon while Liam was napping and nick was busy hanging some picture frames on our walls...the boys were running around like crazy kids. I told them to be quiet as I didn't want Liam awake just yet. However they continued to be loud. The boys were running around thru the living room, the kitchen, the dinning room and then the entry way...around and around they kept running. Nick told them once again...."BOYS, stop running around like that and please dont' be so loud". The next thing I hear as I am working from the kitchen is a loud thud. I walk around the corner and this is what I discover!!!! "Are you kidding me.....boys, this is exactly why we DO NOT run around the house like crazy kids out of control". Needless to say they had a lesson on listening the first time and not the third:).





*oh and yes....Liam woke up too!!*

Christmas Decorations 2009

We were able to put up our Christmas decorations yesterday. The boys had alot of fun decorating the tree as usual. It was pretty funny when they were all done, because all the ones that Caden hung were clumped together near the bottom and all the rest that Elijah hung were at his eye level. To cute...however not cute enough for me to rearrange them when they were in bed that night:). They didn't seem to mind the next morning when the tree looked a little different to them.

Our fireplace mantel this year was tough because everything looks so small on it with this huge wall that has nothing on it yet.

Nick decorated the loft with icicle lights and garland with lights in it. Looks really neat...just hard to see from this picture.

Of course we had to hang lights outside too. We did this the weekend before thanksgiving(just didn't turn them on then) because it was so nice outside. Now we can enjoy them all lite up.

Please Meet....

**RECENT UPDATE POSTED AT END**

the two newest members of our family!!! Elijah is holding Bullseye and Caden is holding Arrow. Yeah I know, me with not just one, but TWO dogs at my house. Pretty crazy for someone who is NOT a dog/animal lover. The boys are thrilled though so that makes me happy.

After Elijah and Caden got done playing with them today, you could tell the dogs had never worked so hard....they dropped to their tummies and fell fast asleep:)

P.S. Yes we still have fluffy face(the yorkie dog) I posted about who happened to show up at our doorstep. Anyone interested in him?? We plan to take him to the pound. (I just can't have 3 dogs!!)

**Fluffy Face has found a NEW home...some friends came and got him today**(thankful someone can properly take care of him now:))**

2nd attempt

Well this is what I ended up doing to the guest bedroom walls. I went a dark gray and I really like it. I think the painting is done now in this room. I eventually want to get different shades and an orange throw for the end of the bed and orange candles for the wall hangings, but I will do that when I find sales. Thanks for any help given girls.

Wash Machine

This past Thursday I began to attempt my large amount of laundry only to find out that on the first load the washer not only did it not drain it would not spin either. So thankfully I called my mom and asked to bring over my 5 loads. She was so kind to let me do them all at her house. Friday nick got home from work and said he would attempt to fix it. Now mind you, he has never fixed a wash machine let alone know what exactly needs fixed. I was a bit annoyed at the fact that he had the entire machine cover off, and was "fixing" it. I thought, this was a joke.

I mean, we only paid 300$ for the machine to begin with as we had bought a floor model 6 years ago and to have a repair man come out was 120$ then plus the parts he would need to fix it. Was it really worth it, or should I just call my TN friend who works for whirlpool and have her ship me a new machine, since I could get it 40%-50% off thru her anyways??? (and I could get a front loader:)).

Well, nick was able to find this helpful link online where they give you a youtube video to watch on how to repair your wash machine and what they think might be the culprit for a machine that does NOT drain water and spins VERY slow. Two things he was told to check...the motor and the drain pump line for a clog. He checked the drain pump and well....stuck up inside of it was Liam's missing sock from last weeks wash. I have always told nick that my wash machine and sometimes my dryer eats socks. I mean isn't it frustrating when you know you put two pairs of socks in the wash and come out with only one!!!???

Needless to say, I am SO THANKFUL my dear husband has the ability to attemp to fix things on his own before spending money that wasn't nessesary. I HAVE A WORKING WASH MACHINE and I DIDN'T SPEND A PENNY!!! Thanks babe for doing what you do, even when your wife thinks its pointless at times and doesn't give you enough credit to "fix" something.

I LOVE YOU!!!

Chicago Vacation

*warning...long post ahead*
Waiting in Rensselear for the Amtrak that we took to chicago. Love this picture...just wish little Liam was in it as well.

Boys were super excited to ride the train. However it would happen on the day we take the train that 4 rail cars derailed at Union Station in Chicago putting us 2 hours behind our arrival time. It was well past lunch and the boys were TIRED of the train ride by the time we actually got off the train. Can you see how the excitment they had soon turned to misery!!

The boys even got to experience first time a cab ride. It was Elijah, Caden and his booster seat, Liam in his car seat and I all in the back of the cab. Let me tell you...this driver was CRAZY!! No time to buckle up kids or get them sitting correctly in the seat. I mean, Liam was at an angle with part of his seat on my leg. And this driver honked at everyone and anyone who got in his way. Even went around someone to get thru an orange light (yep, I said orange because it was just about red), but we made it thru and alive:). Fun times!

We went to the lego store and the boys each had 20$ from us to pick themselves out a lego toy. Elijah picked out a garbage truck and Caden picked out a back-ho type of truck. They love playing with lego's and thought it was so cool to see this city and dinosour(behind them in the picture) all built out of lego's.

It was extremely cold but we walked to Navy Pier to check it out and had some fun at these "fun mirrors". (pictures below)

Navy Pier in the wind and rain!! Was pretty none the less.

I laughed and laughed at all the different ways the boys ended up looking. To funny.

Take note to little Liam sticking his legs out at the bottom of nick's coat and then his head way up at the top of Nick's coat.

Nice legs there Caden!! Such talent you have.

Elijah took this picture of us. He did a pretty good job getting it centered and the beautiful buildings in the back.

We went to the Children's Museum one day as well and the kids had a great time. On Thursday nights from 5-8pm its Family Free Night, so it was great because we didn't have to pay a penny to have fun.

Liam even getting in on the water fun.

Elijah crawled in here and said "I have been eaten by a dinosour". Pretty funny at the time.

Eating at Bubba Gump Shrimp. Very good food and fun to eat someplace we have never eaten before. Boys enjoyed the good ol' cheese burger. (as always)

Liam even enjoyed his good ol' baby jar food at Bubba Gump Shrimp.

Waiting patiently for the Dolphin show at the Shedd Aquarium

Checking out the many fish and sharks at the aquarium. Lots to see...we were there about 4 hours.

Just had to walk to see the bean. Boys thought it was pretty cool. We tried to get a picture of our family by taking it ourselves (to use as a christmas card picture), but we couldn't get it to make us look our normal heights. We ended up looking like tiny people. Oh well.
We even rented a car the last day and drove up to Gurnee to visit my sister Joy and her family. It was nice spending the day with them.

We really had an awesome time on our mini vacation to Chicago. However we were really ready to come home....I am not one to vacation with an infant. We could have had better weather and not rain the entire time, but we endured the sprinkles and were thankful it never down poured on us.