A look at Christmas

I never posted these from Christmas so I figured I'd post them now.

Family Photo Shoot-Franczyk Photography

Winter Cleaning

I had the day off today and we had scheduled a basement cleaning day with our friends Bryan and Manda. Luckily for us, Manda enjoys organizing and helping others throw things away. Jamie ended up with the stomach flu during the night last night so he was out of commission for today but they still came over and helped me for a couple hours during Ava's nap (which I may add was 3.5+ hours...poor girl has a cold again).

I didn't realize how many empty boxes I had actually saved until we started pulling them out and Bryan started breaking them down. I'm definitely a "saver" but I've been in a mood lately to want to purge and get rid of things. I have some "after" pictures (no before pictures, sorry) but if you had seen the space we cleared and organized before, you would be impressed. You really couldn't even walk into the space before we started.

The space we cleaned "after"

Organized stack of boxes

The only empty boxes left that I'm keeping...literally got rid of probably 30 boxes

Pile started to go to Goodwill

The basement is no where near finished but we definitely got a good start! Thanks to Bryan and Manda! 

Next project: The bedroom closet

Ava's Language

This is what Ava does all day...hence the chattering at daycare during naptime.

Ava's daycare

At Ava's daycare, they send home a daily sheet everyday saying what they ate that day, what they played with, nap times, etc. On yesterday's sheet it said, "Ava is hilarious during nap time! She is the only one who is awake today and she is just chatting away with us. We know she's supposed to be calming down but it's so cute and funny!" Who would have thought our daughter would be the chatterbox at daycare!

Happy New Year!

It's a new year and of course it's time for resolutions and writing 2010 for the next 2 months. I'm going to try to be more organized in the coming year and get a new planner that I can just refill every year. Also I want to de-clutter and simplify our life a little more by cleaning out closets and the basement and getting rid of some of the extra "stuff" in our life. I want to teach Ava more sign language so she can better communicate with us too. And of course the obligatory "I want to lose weight" resolution. I always want to do that...wish I had more time to work out, I really do enjoy it once I start getting back into the habit of exercising. We're hoping to get a treadmill sometime in the future but are looking for a deal on a used one (since they generally don't get much use we figure a used one is almost as good as a $500 new one).

I'm also hoping for some things in 2011, some of which include:
1. The townhouse selling
2. Getting our financial situation back on track
3. Figuring out where the Lord wants us and if my plans align with His for our future

Here's to 2011!