First Half of January... revised. :)

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I love Aaron's angelic face. Aaron was really sad in this photo. I don't remember why... the two photos below this one were the two photos I took right before this one...


If you look closely at the end of his nose, you can see a tear... then you can follow the path of the tear all the way up to his eye. I wish I could remember why he was sad... but I think he cheered up pretty quickly... he usually does.


We went to a little New Years gathering at the Harkness home at the beginning of the month. They had the kids decorate their own 'piggy banks' and 'car banks'. They had a blast painting them and putting stickers on them.


Aaron painting his 'car bank'.


Here are a few phases of the car painting. The bottom right photo is of Isaac.


The fun can't possibly get THIS fun until you get messy, right?


Ta Da ! The finished product. Not sure why he looks mad. Maybe he is trying to be GQ. ;)


And of course a party isn't a party without a big dog pile. Thanks to Nick for being the one the kids wanted to wrestle with. He was a good sport.


Okay, so I had the brilliant idea that while my parents were out of town at the beginning of the month, I would have my sisters come over to help me paint their laundry room. My parents want to paint some rooms in their house, but they can't quite agree on paint colors, so I thought if they came home to a room already done, they had to just love it. :) Anyhow, the morning we were going to do it came and two of my sisters ended up not being able to make it, so Lisa came and we started on it together.

Well, I went that morning to pick a paint color and I was on the phone with my sister Lori. My sister Karey had suggested doing a sage green color, so we were trying to figure out which color to go with. Lori was online looking at the paint colors there and I was at the store. Well, we decided to play it safe and got a REALLY pale color of green... well, what we thought was pale green. I believe it was called 'Plantation Moss'. Once Lisa and I started to paint the wall, it looked so ugly... it just made the wall look dirty. So, we have nicknamed this paint color... 'dirty wall'.

We decided to take the paint back and see if they could mix in a brighter color. Well, I got the paint into my car and headed down to the store. When I stopped at the first stop light, I realized I had not put the lid on tight enough and the paint can was tipped over just enough to spill a bunch of paint in the front passenger seat. I was on the phone with Lori and very calmly told her that I had to go because paint had just spilled in my car. Well, I realized I would not be able to do anything until I got to the store, so I lifted the paint can onto the floor and set it on a paper sack. Then I continued on my way. Well, I was a huge lame brain and didn't secure it good enough and at the next turn, the paint can tipped over on the floor and started spilling out on the floor of my car. I grabbed it while yelling at the top of my lungs 'NOOOOOOOOOO' and held that NO out until my breath was completely gone. I could not believe what I had just done. I was not as calm this time. There was still nothing I could do, but I was so frustrated. I was trying to figure out what to do the rest of the way to the store... YES, I was still on my way to the store. I figured I might as well just get to the store and get the paint and go back to the house and then I could try to clean it up there.

So, once I got to the store, I used every napkin I had in the car to try to clean up what I could. One of the floor mats in the car was rubber, so I took it out and turned it over in the parking lot to let it drip. So, in the photo, the white spots in this parking stall are the spots where I let the floor mat drip. There was only a half gallon of paint left in the can... so an entire half gallon of paint spilled in my car. And if you are wondering why the color in the parking lot looks white... it is because it really was just a lame color. It looked like it had more of a color to it when I was looking at swatches. They should call it 'DIRTY WALL'. If anyone wants any, I still have a perfectly ugly 1/2 gallon sitting around waiting to make someone's wall look dirty. :) The 1/2 gallon spilled in my car is a lost cause. :)

So, Lisa was on the phone with me and she was looking at paint colors online we decided on a color called 'Asparagus'. It was a bright green color. I kept telling Lisa that it looked a lot brighter in person than on the computer, but because of the hideous color I had picked out the first time, she was not trusting my judgment. And I was to the point where I didn't care what color went on the wall... we were just getting this done today. I was not going to go through all of that rubbish with spilling the paint and such and NOT get that project done. :)

Anyhow, I got the paint home and when she saw the color, she said 'NO'. And then we both laughed so hard. It was so bright. But... we went ahead with it knowing our parents love bright colors. We just hoped once it was done, it would look awesome. Well, once we got a wall done, we were completely in love with it. The color in the bottom right corner of this photo does not do the color justice at all. It looks so much better than in this photo... but it gives an idea.

My parents got home that evening ... and after an entire day and part of evening working on this project and all of the mishaps... we presented the laundry room to them ... and they LOVED it.


Here is Aaron helping me paint in the downstairs where we are living now.


The many faces of Lisa's baby, Henry... on an 11:00 pm run to Wal-Mart.


We went to see the Princess and the Frog with April and her daughter, and Sadie and Nick and their kids. Aaron enjoyed it. It was fun. We had to stop and get a photo with these three... Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. Aaron LOVES these guys. :)


Mom (Grandma) and Aaron. Mom and Dad got this puzzle for Christmas. We had fun putting it together one evening. Then Aaron decided it would be fun to sit on Uncle Robert ... he looks like a little monkey sitting there... like Curious George.


Christa and their new little one, Evan Aaron. There are more photos of Evan a couple of postings down. He is so sweet.


Me with Evan Aaron. I stole this photo from Christa's blog. Thanks Christa. I am glad to have this photo.


Caroline, my niece, was in the school spelling bee. There were about 24 students in this spelling bee from grades 2nd through 6th grade. Caroline is in 5th grade. We were all so nervous for her every time it was her turn to stand at the microphone. Then she would get it right and we would sigh with relief. I believe it went nearly 30 rounds. But in the end... Caroline WON !!! She took first place. I was SO impressed with her spelling abilities. She now goes on to the district spelling bee. I am really excited to go and watch her in that one as well.


Hannah, Caroline, Elise (OR... Elise, Caroline, Hannah) :)
Caroline's twin sisters posing for a photo with their celebrity sister. They got to be there for the whole spelling bee to watch their sister take home 1st place.

Congrats Caroline ! We love you !

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