Merry Christmas! (and happenings of late) :)

I have been so busy lately that I can hardly think straight! Regardless, we have been able to take some nice breaks as a family and do some fun things. For Thanksgiving, we went to visit hub's family and while we were there we went to Monterey for an afternoon. It was heaven! Perfect weather and clear skies. The kids had a blast playing in the sand and climbing around the rocks and investigating the tiny crabs and other sea life hiding about. 

My brother was able to join us and I think he enjoyed the get-away as well. :) Not sure what little boy is doing in this picture below. Being his little goofy self. ;)

Older brother is part of a preschool co-op group and he sure loves it. Every Wednesday the children come to our house and we enjoy having circle time, music time and doing crafts and occasionally science/nature study and experiments. Little brother loves that he gets to join in. I get Mondays off where we rotate through all the moms. 

Of course, I can't do a post without a little house progress update. ;)

I convinced hubs that board and batten would look nice in the entryway, so he lovingly helped

me put it up one Saturday evening and then I did all the finish work over the course of the next week. He liked it so much that he suggested doing the living room/dining room as well. I think we will stick with the entryway for now.

Before

 After

We also had to give back the couch in the above picture to hub's aunt and uncle, so we finally bought a real set. I love them!

Enjoy some Christmas photos!

Other things to fill our time these days: gymnastics, piano lessons, school, homework (I am surprised at how much more homework oldest has now that she is in 3rd grade, and I know it will only get worse. Ugh), volunteering for the girls' classes, babysitting swaps (so that I can volunteer :)),
 late work nights, being primary president, and of course, the endless projects on house and yard. ;) I think this next year we will do the counter tops in the kitchen and then really focus on the yard for the rest of the year, as we pretty much haven't done anything outside yet (other than ripping things out, which doesn't really count).

Merry Christmas!