Sorry for the interruption but I was out of town for most of the holiday (we left the 26th for Chicago, but thats a whole post on its own!). I did however, want to brag about some of the Christmas Gifts that blessed our house this season though.

Amy’s big gift this year is to have the Master Bath and Bedroom repainted. When we bought the house from her parents, we inherited the DEEP red color of the bath and bed room. Its a dark red (think maroon) that is hard to match colors with. Now we’re going for a lighter, beachier look and are painting them Beachnut (its a lowes color). The master bath is done (Amy found some Votive candle holders at a store in Nashville), next on to the bedroom!

Grace had a very Hannah Montanna Christmas. She got a Hannah Montanna Guitar Game (like Guitar Hero) that plugs in to the tv, a Hannah Costume, and doll. Its pretty cool and she likes pretending to be a rockstar. Maybe someday. I like playing her game (since I haven’t bought Guitar HEro World Tour yet) and she’s getting better at it.

Mose got a Trampoline. One of her favorite things to do is jump. We’d wake on Saturday mornings to the heavy thud of emma jumping up and down in our door way. Now she can do it all she wants and it doesn’t make the house shake. Its pretty cool and Grace and Emma take turns on it. Amy wanted to try it out, but its for people under 80 pounds (and neither of us meet that requirement!

The girls also got some tinkertoys, and some other little odds and ends that they like to play with, but the coolest by far is my Ultimate Wall-E Robot.

We saw the movie in the theaters and we’re big fans (mose loves him). We had seen the Ultimate Wall-e at the Disney Store but we weren’t going to get him because of the price tag. Needless to say, Santa found him on Sale and he was wrapped and under the tree for me on Christmas morning. He has fun dancing, chasing the dogs around and just exploring on his own. If you haven’t seen one yet, I’ll work on some video and see if I can get anything posted. Its pretty cool though and the way he can respond to voice commands or find his own way around the room is fairly smooth.

Was there one gift that you prized more than the others??

Having kids is a lot like being a member of the mafia. When you think you’re done, you’re pulled back in. Grace is 5, Emma is 2.5. I was looking forward to being done with diapers, when we learned in September that we’re expecting number three. For those that wonder, yes, I am pulling for a boy this time, just to offset some of the pink and princesses we have ALL OVER the freaking house. Its a little overwhelming at times. BUT, if its another girl, things will be good as well, after all, I already know how to raise girls (at least to the age of five…).

One of the things this added blessing has done is thrown a wrench in our plans for the upcoming year. We were going to work on saving up and paying down some debts. Possibly working on redoing the basement (I found some cool home theater seating that would have been perfect for a movie/game room) and relandscaping the front and back yards (something that will probably be slowly done anyways). Now we’re looking at repainting one (if not two) of the rooms upstairs, moving the two older girls in to one room and relocating the guest room. We would have left it at one room per child, but with Amy’s parents living in Chicago we need a room where they can stay when in town.

So, the work is going to be refocused. When Grace came home, we were living in the townhouse, and the plumbing decided to flood, so we were displaced for a week with a new born. Emma came home to having the flooring done upstairs in her room and the rest of the upstairs. For this one, we are aiming to have everything done before the arrival, but that means a ton of painting on my part…. Anyone want to help? (I pay in beer and pizza!)