Happy New Year!

Yes, I know, we're already a week in to February and I am saying Happy New Year.

I took a month off from blogging, posting on our family blog and reading other people's! The reading other people's and relatives and friend's to other people's (that I have never even met) was taking too much of my time!

So, it was a good break and I feel like I am going back in to it with a fresh start. Hopefully I won't slide.

A lot has happened in January!

We'll start with Justin turned 6 (January 5th)! Yes our boy is six years old! Wow!




We had a little party for him and for something different, rather than his friends bring birthday gifts, they all (5 in total, including J&A) brought a "hot wheels" car to exchange with each other.


Unfortunatly 2 days after his birthday, we all got sick! Guess some kind of flu bug was going around. Thankfully that is behind us ;0)

The day after Justin's birthday, the 6th, Justin and Ashleigh began swimming lessons. They had to miss 2, out of 10 because of being sick. I just couldn't take them to the pool knowing that they had diarrhea!! LOL! Wouldn't want them to shut down the pool for an "oops" ;0)



Justin and Ashleigh giving each other a hug (january 6th). So sweet...
They actually do play well together. They also fight well, but what brother and sister don't?

Shelby got a new bed (January 9th)! They were on sale at Jysk, so we thought it was time to upgrade from a card board "box" to an actual do bed.
Here is a cute picture of her watching the fish.


We celebrating "100 Day!" January 22nd, was our 100th day doing Home School. We started on September 9th, I think, and each day we did home school (most Saturday morning's too), we'd keep track. Here is a list of things we did on 100 Day:

-counted 100 pieces of lego
-counted 100 coins from Ashleigh's piggy bank
-placed 100 pieces in the "Lite Bright" (shown in picture above)
-Justin attempted to eat 100 raisins, but lost count because he was eating them as he counted


Ooh ooh ohh, Chris installed curtains in the living room! They look so much better than the ratty old green blinds!Well, they should have been down in the pics, but just imagine them with pieces missing and looking ratty.



These particular curtains are temporary until we find get ones that match our living room better. We made these a few years ago for our bedroom in a previous place. Chris stained the dowel a beautiful "gun stock oak" to match the living room floor and casings. Since the picture was taken, Chris trimmed the dowling as it was much too long and that is why you can't see the "finial" on the left.

That's about all for now.
I'll post pictures of Justin and Ashleigh at swimming lessons on the last day (February 5th).

Bye for now!

(added February 16/09)
Ashleigh floating on her back.



Justin in the "deep end" with his class. It's kind of hard to see him, so click on image to see it better.