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!!

Christmas Wrap Up....just a month belated

So, I have been procrastinating on Christmas posts because I did such a dismal job at photoing the events of the holiday.  But, I also like to blog in the order that events happen.  That means that my procrastination is now keeping me from blogging about a sweet roller derby, NYE, Liv playing basketball, and who knows what else.  So, here it is...a lame Christmas wrap up:   

What we have here is a gift opening thing at my mom's house, Liv and Grandma mid cookie baking with a 'party drink', Josie's new activity table from Santa and our completed cookies.  At least this blog got done before the lights came off the house....win.

Snowflake Is Here!!

Our elf finally arrived last week.  The girls named him Snowflake and have been very good about following the no touching rule.  Snowflake has also been a powerful motivator to get the girls out of bed in the morning.  It's a race to see who can find him first...I love that my girls are still caught up in the magic of Christmas!

Moving to Christmas...

The lights are up!

See Y'all...I have been busy (in this case, Painting With A Twist)

This is the best idea ever, and I hope the owners become billionaires.  Painting With A Twist posts a monthly calendar and you sign up to paint on whatever day blows your skirt up.  In this case, we did a funky Christmas tree.  You show up, go to your assigned seat where canvas, paint, and brushes await.  There's an instructor that leads everyone how to paint whatever it is your painting.  But here's the kicker gang--you can drink while you do this!  Zing!!  Most fun way to unwind with friends ever.  I had a super fun time and can't wait to go back.  I may be the next Van Gogh, except I'll probably keep both of my ears...

Cake War

There's a girl at my job (shout out Lizzie) who makes all of the birthday cakes in our office--and they are amazing.  So for her birthday we organized a secret Cake War.  It was super fun!  My team put a tone of time and dollars into our cake, and even though we only got 2nd place, I'll continue to think our cake was the best....

Wrapping Up Halloween

I didn't blog it in a timely manner, but we did do the actual trick or treating on time.  But, how funny would it be to be in costume, asking for candy while everyone else is putting lights on their house.  Nice. 

Too Belated To Be Acceptable Halloween Montage

Just a random smattering of Halloween...now that we're well into the Christmas season.  I am an awesome blogger!