Great Wolf Lodge...3 months later

My life has been crazy...(see previous post).  So, I'm gonna do some quick posts, with mostly pictures to get caught up...and hopefully stay caught up!  We went to Great Wolf Lodge at the very end of January--and kept it a total surprise until we were on the interstate heading to Dallas.  Liv had a basketball game that morning, and we had the car packed ahead of time so we could leave straight from the gym.  Check out the reveal:

If there are two video links, sorry I can't get one to delete--I'm not sure why the video was posted twice.  Anyway, Liv was crazy excited.  From there I took almost zero pictures.  Mostly because having an electronic device near that much water seemed like a bad plan but here's what I got:

Anniversary

Celebrated my one year work anniversary at ReachLocal on March 22nd.  Nothing else would have commemorated that event quite like these cupcakes.

Blogging Delay Explained

So, you all (all 5 of my faithful readers) may have noticed that I totally missed the month of February in BlogLand.  It wasn't my fault.  A pipe burst in my kitchen.  Here's what the house looked like shortly after:

The floor for the entire house had to come out, which made the place inhabitable.  This means we had a POD put in our driveway to hold all of belongings that touch the floor and I got to move my family to a hotel.  Mini vacay, right?  Wrong.  I did not anticipate a SIX WEEK long stint in the hotel, so it was a real downer that I only packed clothes for about 4 days.  That's a lot of quarters spend in the coin operated machines at The Palace (what Josie calls all hotels).  I also did not anticipate the asbestos removal that had to happen at my house.  Here's where my family lived for 6 weeks:

Don't get me wrong--this was a nice place that came equipped with 3 TVs, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom the same size as the home we vacated.  It just wasn't as conveniently located and we didn't have all of our stuff.  I really like my stuff, as it turns out.  Next up in the list of things I did not anticipate is my cabinets still being 'saturated' (fancy insurance word) after a month of dry time.  That meant that this happened next:

That's right--total kitchen gutting.  Like down to the studs.  Outside of the huge hassle this is, the ktichen is going to be about 10,000 times more awesome than it was.  Rest in peace, paneling, poorly textured walls, and butcher block laminate countertops.  Kevin and I designed a kitchen and got cabinets from IKEA:

We have been back in the house for a week now, and the majority of the house is fixed, complete with new baseboards (upgrade!)  The kitchen has new sheetrock that has been painted.  The cabinets are ready to be installed, and Monday our tile guy is scheduled to come in to do the backsplash and floor.  That means that this time next week, my appliances can come back inside and I don't have to walk to my detached garage to get the kids a Capri Sun.  Winning!  The new floor, baseboard and current state of the kitchen:

So, that;s my update for now.  Super excited to post completed kitchen pics!

Growing Into a Beautiful Young Lady

Grandma's Princess Birthday Party

My mom's birthday was January 9th (yes, my blog is that far behind).  I took the girls to pick out a cake for their Grandma, and we left with the beautiful princess you see below.  We had cake and a hot chocolate party, which is officially a tradition now that we've done it for 2 consecutive years.

Aliens are Great Savers

My girls got this awesome Paint Your Own Alien Piggy Bank kit for Christmas--and I love our new savers!  Trying to catch up the blog, now that we've moved back into The Denler Estate and are only lacking a kitchen.

Hoops

We just wrapped up Liv's second basketball season...not the undefeated record of last year, but a respectable 5-3.  Liv got to be a point guard for part of the season and she really likes all the extra time with the ball.  One of my favorite parts of the games was when Josie would run across the court at half time to give her sister a high five.  Adorable.  Liv really could be a baller if she decided she loved it and was willing to invest some time in perfecting her skills.  She is also a miser and saves every dollar she ever gets...so I've pitched the whole pursue basketball thing with this angle:  If you get great at basketball a couple of things will happen 1. you won't have to touch your savings account to go to college and 2. you can play for the WNBA and add even more money to that savings account.  Basketball for the win!!