What's New? (a really long story in a really long post...with pictures)

You know that question? The one you always ask people when you haven't seen them recently?

"What's new?"

Really you're just asking if anything interesting has happened since you last saw/spoke to them. You don't exactly care if they got an oil change or mowed their lawn. You don't really care if they watched a new documentary or ate a different kind of sandwich. Do you? Typically you care about substance, or in my case anything at all, because really, I care...I do.

We've had a fun month here in the middle of nowhere. Beyond listening to horrific radio and trying to stay warm in this unexpectedly frozen tundra, we've actually accomplished a few things. For reals...

(Umm, just a little disclaimer. There are a lot of pictures, and I didn't edit these photos and I didn't stage my house...k? M'kay...read on)

Like:

Birthdays -

Haircuts - because you can only take the shaggy look so far. I mean, really, when people can't tell your girl from your boy from the back it's finally time to get a haircut. Thank goodness for a grandma with patience and a license to cut hair.

Household re-arrangements - While Shane took his Christmas present (ie: ski trip to Utah), I upgraded Savannah's room from pink to beige and moved the babies in. I had to paint, right? Couldn't put Cael in a pink room, that just wouldn't be right. What with his hair being still shaggy and his affinity for sparkly things...could not put him in a pink room.

Then, because we moved the babies out of the nursery we decided to move Lincoln back upstairs with the rest of us. You know, ask him to be a real part of the family again. Yes, this meant giving up his custom painted room, and the prospect of early morning snacks and tv watching without anyone knowing, but he was happy to oblige. I mean, he got a reading nook out of it. And, I cleaned his room for him. Who would argue?

And, since we moved Lincoln out of his room on the main floor, we now had the opportunity to have a toy room. Remember this?

See the crap behind the couch...no longer in my front room. Now it's here in the custom painted, main floor toy room. Nice, eh? I know - I thought it up all by myself.

Yes, that is a giant Dora house which easily fits our entire family inside. I love it. Thanks, Mom! So now, the front room looks like this:

If you didn't notice there are now no big white gates for the front room. Seems as though they were just a way to slow down everyone in the house but Cael, so I removed them in order to keep up with him. The plastic doorknob covers seem to still baffle him...updates sure to come.

And, since we were rearranging everything, why not do a little to our room too? So we did.

Remember I told you the pictures weren't staged? Yeah, so imagine my room staged, with a fully made bed, no towel draped on the couch, the weight bench actually in the room, not still over at my in-law's house and me running fast on the treadmill. But we do have Bevo, hanging out right above where I sleep...he's an integral part of our lives...thanks Rhett and Missy.

Since we were moving everything around inside our house, the exterior was feeling a little neglected. We had an amazingly wet week, saturating the ground with a years' worth of rain. So, we decided to rid ourselves of an eyesore or two (or eight, actually). Here's the before/after shots. See if you can spot what's missing.

So, we've rearranged, ripped up, painted, cooked and cut. That's what's new. Plus we upgraded to Babysitter/sanity 2.0. She's gorgeous, and she arrived just in time for the big game...what more could we ask for?

Well, actually...how do you get crayon out of clothes and a dryer?