Happy New Year!
We are ready for a party! Let the movies, games, pizza and junk food (just eat a couple of baby carrots please…) begin!
Hogwarts Dormitory
When we moved into our new place, Emma was able to have her own room for the first time. She loves the Harry Potter series and wanted to make her room like the Gryffindor dormitories. So when Nana came to visit she helped me and Emma make some draperies to dress up her room. She had a pillow with the Marauder’s Map and we used that as our inspiration for picking out fabric. These pictures don’t really do it justice, and it’s still a work in progress, but she loves it so far. I don’t have a picture of it, but she has also put a picture of the “fat lady” on her bedroom door and has a list of rotating passwords. It’s awesome.
A Piano for Christmas
Since we have put off having our kids take piano lessons for way too long, and Rob and I both play a little piano and would like to play more, and since we have the floor space now, Rob and I combined our Christmas gifts this year and got a piano! We’ve heard that the Japanese pianos have the best sound, and would have loved to have a baby grand but they also cost twice as much. So to stay on budget we decided to get the best bang for the buck and rent this upright Kawai for 6 months to see how much it gets used before we commit to such a major piece of furniture with such a big price tag. It has been so much fun, and we plan to sign the kids up for lessons as soon as possible. The girls have all spent some time playing around on it. Hunter thinks playing the violin is enough, but we’ll see… 
Rob and I have been playing too, and I have been surprised at how much has come back to me after not playing for years. I still can’t play a church hymn at singing speed, so don’t get any ideas church leaders ;). Our living room now has one piece of beautiful furniture, and eventually we’ll fill in with some places to sit, but for now I am content with hearing the sounds of music ringing through the house.
By the way, I just got a new calling as the Relief Society Meeting Coordinator. It used to be called the Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment Leader, but the name has recently changed. I haven’t had this calling since I was living in a married student ward, so I’m nervous. But I had some great examples in my friends Heidi and Michelle from our last ward, so I may need to call them for some pointers.
Read MoreSanta Claus is Coming
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2vYqGdkFd8
Has anyone else been singing this a lot in order to get their kids to behave? This is from Andrea Bocelli’s Christmas Concert. If you haven’t seen it, it’s fantastic and I promise it will get you in the Christmas spirit!
Read MoreBackyard Tour
Welcome to our backyard! I’m slowly getting around to showing pictures of our new place, so eventually you’ll see it all.This is one of the two banana trees in the yard. I cannot tell you how excited the girls were when they discovered little bananas growing on the tree. I have no idea when they become ripe, so we’ll just watch and wait.
This is the part of the yard I like to call Snow White’s wishing well. It just reminds me of the scene from the movie where she’s singing the wishing song. And of course the statues of the deer add to the whole feeling as well. Each of these deer have names that are different according to which of the girls you ask, but they all agree that the lady statue is named Genevieve. I told the girls one time how much I love this name, and they really remembered it.
Here is the grassy/weedy area. Maybe after the winter it will perk up a bit? The park lamp post is very pretty, but we haven’t been able to find any way to turn it on. Just one of several features of the backyard that seem to be just for looks. The others being the built-in BBQ that isn’t set up right, and the built-in sink that has no pipes leading out of it. Our theory is that this was a model home for the development and it was more about form than function.
There are half a dozen citrus trees, but this is the only one that is making fruit right now. We can’t wait to see what kind of citrus it will be.
This owl, which has been named Hedwig, also came with the yard and keeps guard over the gazebo. All of the animal statues crack me up and definitely add personality to the backyard.
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