Bookcases

I finally put some books in the bookcases and added the other furniture to the room. It makes way more sense in real life. :)

I still need hardware on the cabinets and a new light fixture but I love how it is looking so far. We finished re-doing the other chair that we got (for free!!!) and the little table in front of the chairs still needs a couple of coats of polyurethane but I wanted to get a picture. 

This table in the center of the house is WONDERFUL! The kids do all of their coloring, etc., on this table which leaves my kitchen table for meal time only. Just loving the way everything is turning out but I wish my pictures showed a more accurate depiction of how if "feels."

I Have the BEST Husband in the World!

Really, truly, the greatest husband ever!

We moved into our house pretty quickly this summer. Everything was unpacked within 2 weeks of moving in, except my books. There was just no place to put them. That was really the one and only thing this house was lacking; bookshelves. There is one bookshelf in the basement but that is only enough for my kids' books, so my books have been living in boxes. Poor books.

But, of course, I had a plan. We just had to wait until we had a week or so to complete the plan. (I hate starting a project if we don't have time to finish it because then it just goes on and on and on.) And since our play, The Ten Virgins, is now over, we have time again.

The way our house is set up we have 2 dining areas right next to each other. The people who owned the house previously, regularly had large family dinners so they needed the space. I wanted to turn one of the dining areas into a library space but still have enough space to put an extra table when we have a dinner party too. We have been in the planning stages for these bookshelves for about 4 months and the plans have changed a little over time but they are basically the same.

We bought unfinished wall cabinets from Home Depot and built the bookcases above. As you can see, we have a vent in the floor that we had to accomodate, so we just added some cute little legs to one of the cabinets.

Yes, honey, you deserve a tropy. Probably not the Heisman, but a trophy for sure. Oh wait, you already have a tropy wife, does that count? LOL!

The other thing we had to work around is the window. It is not centered in the wall but we still wanted to center the bookcase around it, so there is a little wall space remaining on the right side, but it just has to be that way.  

First coat of paint done, but this is a different kind of paint then I usually use. I wanted a hard finish so I used a Benjamin Moore Advance paint and the directions say that you have to wait 16 hours and sand between coats. Not as quick as I wanted it to be but hopefully the finish is worth it.

Here it is after 2 coats of paint. There is still a lot to do in this room. I need to paint the surrounding walls and figure out if I want knobs on the doors or not. I'm thinking yes, Aaron is thinking no. So we'll see. We are planning on replacing the chandelier at some point but, for now, it is staying. Now, I have to wait about a week for the finish to harden before I can add books and things. I don't know if I can wait that long!!! 

Viola

Ever since my friend, Melanie Hoggan, told me how much work goes in to playing the violin, I have maintained that my children would never play the violin. Ever!

So, Penelope is playing the viola. Ha Ha. As if that is even going to make the slightest difference in the amount of work we have to put in. I can't believe I caved!

She hasn't received her viola yet, so we have been practicing with a violin of Melanie's. Melanie says there are 25 things we have to accomplish before we can play the first note. This is our 4th week and Penelope can finally hold the bow and the violin at the same time (with me setting it in her hands and positioning her fingers.) Melanie is very particular about positions and turning muscles "off", etc, which I love since one of my main concerns was Penelope having chronic pain when she is an adult from playing the viola so much as a child. So here are a few pictures at our lesson last week.

 Oh yeah, we aren't to the point yet where fingers are on the strings. :)

 It doesn't look that complicated, but it is.

 Don't squeeze, keep the thumb tucked under, nice and soft grip; takes a lot of concentration.

Oh, the joy!!!!

Two!

Sullivan turned two on January 5th. I can't believe he is 2! He was so excited about his cake all day long. He kept saying, "cake, pesents, birthday!" So, here are a bunch of pictures from his day.

I can't remember what he was doing in this picture but it is adorable so I had to include it.

In this picture, he was trying to get Daddy with his chocolate fingers.

 This is the, "the ice cream is too cold," face.

We sure do love our little man!

Stage

Our branch is putting on a production of The Ten Virgins, the second weekend of February for the community and stake. Aaron and Heather Haight and I were in charge of the set. Aaron designed it and did all of the things that required real artistic talent and Heather and I were the grunts. :) These pictures are of the set set up in our shop. It BARELY fit in there. We have now transferred it over to the church and I need to get a picture of it there so I can get a picture of the whole thing. It took a very long time to paint it all but I think it turned out well.  

What is really great is that we were able to find enough women to fill all of the parts (11) just in our little branch. Each of us have to sing a solo and some of the women are really nervous about that but they all sound wonderful. We are practicing 4 nights a week right now, which is a lot, but we want it to be really good. Hopefully everyone stays healthy and hopefully people will come to see it.