Tara's Christmas Gift

Tara asked me to paint the orange room for her Christmas present, to which I agreed. But like on Extreme Makeover Home Edition, I made it my secret room. I took a door handle from the office that had a lock on it, and Tara didn't get to see it until Christmas morning. She had no idea what was in store, only that I had a $50 budget which of course I didn't stick to. The grand finale wasn't done until a week later since it took two coats of primer-included paint to hide forever the orangeness, but here are the before and afters...

BEFORE - This picture (originally from the listing advertisement) doesn't really do justice for how bad the pumpkin Halloween orange room looked in person, at least to our tastes. In fact, when we were moving in I called Glenn and asked him how to say pumpkin in Spanish so I could direct the movers to get the right boxes to this room... it's calabasa if you were wondering...

AFTER - Someone asked when I told them I picked blue... "Is that Tara's favorite color?" And I said, "No actually, it's my favorite color." Who else would paint a baby girl's room blue but me? Well, it will only be her room for a little while, so the color scheme was intended to be a craft room. Tara actually painted on all of the stencils, and we love how it turned out.

Christmas Morning 2010

Christmas morning, and the break, were great fun this year. Gma and Gpa Hart were visiting, and the kids had fun. We played tennis, wiffle ball, and spent some time by the fire - it was a cold rainy week.

Tyler sitting by the fire, working on his Legos wrapped up in a blanked from Gma Whicker

Audrie with her doll

Kaylee with her doll

Dad helped me get some bagpipes that Gene gave me years ago mostly operational... be glad this is a still shot...

A few more

Does anyone else see ME in this picture? I swear I see myself as a child somewhere in him here. If anyone ever wonders this picture somehow captures how I SEE Tyler...his sweetness, his compassion, his innocence and his wise soul.

Another family shot. Not sure what Kaylee is doing :) And Audrie inherited the chin tuck from my side of the family...I have MANY photos of me doing that as a child. Fortunately Audrie looks pretty even when she does it, I wasn't so lucky.

And one of my favorites, obviously because I put it as our main pic! This just makes me SMILE. Pure happiness.

Family Pictures

Well after printing off our Christmas cards and sending them off (yesterday) we decided to try out some family shots after church. This was the end result. Some are cuter than others, but all in all for a 20 minute session by us amateurs, I don't think they turned out too shabby :) Not exactly the best timing for my bodily figure, but whatever, it's a family photo to document! In a few weeks we'll need another one!

Laser Beam

Kaylee came up to me, put her hand next to my ear and whispered, "Mom, you've got to come and see my laser beam." She then grabbed my hand and took me to the shoe bench. Where does she get that kind of imagination from?

Anyone know what it actually is?? One of those silly bands streched across the knobs. Pretty creative for a 3 year old...especially when I had no idea she even knew what a laser beam was.

Christmas and Projects

This year we quickly realized we made a terrible mistake when we moved...we left our only Christmas tree in the garage of our old house! We thought well, it may be time to graduate from our "Charlie Brown" tree and get a nicer one anyway. So the Sat after Thanksgiving I ventured out trying to find the perfect artificial tree. Little did I know that every artificial tree was going to be sold out from here to kingdom come...seriously, I couldn't find a tree...a fake tree. It was a bit frustrating and ridiculous at the same time. The last time I got a REAL tree I got some serious headaches, so I really didn't go that route. But that route we went and got a Douglas noble fir Christmas tree. Gorgeous tree and hasn't caused any headaches yet!

I even tried to decorate it this year with an actual "theme." Andy thought it turned out really pretty and I was very pleased with it. Kaylee was adamant about putting the start on, so here she is reaching with all her might!

Hopefully my sister in law won't look that this blog until after Christmas, but if she does I'm sorry I had to document and if I didn't do it now it wouldn't get done. I always like to make gifts for Christmas, I think it's something my mother instilled in me. I feel like I get to put a little of my love in each project and then hope that the love is felt when they receive it. Whether or not that is the case it's still fun for me to do :) Anyway, this year I made some pillowcases out of remnant pieces of fabric I found at the craft store. Then I monogrammed them and thought they turned out SUPER cute! Wish I took the time to make my kids these, but haven't found the time yet :) I'll have to see if there are any more remnants left at the store.

Also WAY back in October I made curtains for the kitchen. They were quite the project, despite their simplicity. I believe 22 yards of fabric was involved...LOTS of material, heavy, decorative material. This weekend we finally found time to put them up. I love the way they turned out and think they finish the kitchen quite nicely. So I had to share my accomplishment :)

Sickies, Geniuses and Bellies

I think we have earned the title of the unhealthy Hart's here in Katy. I think Kaylee has attended 60% of her Sunday nursery classes due to illness in our home. Last week was strep and ear infection week and Kaylee started off Saturday night with throwing up. We are praying no one else gets it :) But take a look at what the dishwasher looks like with 3 kids on Tylenol and antibiotics! Now we're trying to figure out what to do when your kid is on antibiotics, but is throwing up...never had that happen before. Despite the continual health issues we seem to have here, we are enjoying our new lives here. Andy has been home more and I think it has made everyone much happier. He has passes 3 of his CPA exams and has one more left!! YAY! Can't wait for those to be done. Good job babe.

Random picture, but awfully cute. Tyler reads, reads and READS some more...all the time, but especially at nighttime. He has books all over his bed, floor and dresser CONSTANTLY (no matter how many times I ask him to pic them up!), but I try not to be too harsh as I LOVE that he reads so much. Audrie wants to read SO bad just like her brother, but hasn't quite got the hang of it yet. She CAN read, but still struggles a lot. In fact one of her teachers suggested she be tested for dyslexia. I haven't really seen the typical signs when we work together, but then again I don't know everything (as much as I'd like too). So we had her tested through the school and I have been very impressed with the early intervention programs they have here. Last Friday we sat down with the committee of teachers, education specialists, asst principal and discussed the findings from her testing. To quickly sum it all up Audrie scored too high in all the areas to be considered dyslexic, in fact her IQ test score was SOOO high they couldn't believe it. She scored a 146 and a 133, both of which are in the BRILLIANT category. So it was decided she just hasn't quite developmentally "hit" the milestone of being able to read at the level she should yet. Andy got a bit teary when I told him that and someday Audrie will understand what a smart cookie she is. Until then, I have PROOF :)

Belly shot. I have been SO LAX about this pregnancy...poor baby hasn't gotten the attention the other ones have (granted she's still in the womb but still). We haven't decided on a name for sure, don't know where her room is going to be and haven't even started pulling out the baby clothes. I think I'm just tired! There is something to having babies when your younger because this has been a "less than comfortable" pregnancy. I know I've gained more weight this time than the last couple of times, but maybe that's a good thing and this baby will cook longer!