January part 1

This year I decided to bake a little more. I have decided to make a batch of cookies a month.  My  first batch was some sugar cookies.  It made a ton, so I divided it into thirds and cooked up a third and froze the other two doughs for later. Some of the family likes them frosted and some don't, so I did a little of both.

When we first moved in, we bought each of the kids paint to do their rooms.  Taz had been patiently waiting and decided during break to finally paint his room.  So, he and I spent a day painting.  He decided to do three out of four of his walls blue and leave one beige.  He is eventually going to put a vinyl saying on that wall.

He is a hard worker and he did all the ladder work.

We got some gift cards to Olive Garden and Outback during Christmas, so after NY's we decided to go to Olive Garden.  Just our luck, we got there and it was closed temporarily due to a fire that had broken out.  Luckily, Outback was across the street and so we decided to go there.  Apparently everyone else who had tried to go to OG had the same idea.  We ended up waiting 35 min. outside in the cold.  Taz didn't have a jacket, but the rest of us did.  I shared with him.  He'd brought his Kendama, so it was helping him stay warm.

Tanner decided on NY day to put together his raccoon puzzle he'd received for Christmas.  It is a hard one and we still aren't done with it.  (Today is Feb. 7th as I write this).

I had been eyeing some organizational bins at Sams and we decided to buy them over break.  We got three and put them in the family room.  We mixed some of the cubes with bins and some with decoration.  I love how it turned out and it goes well with our furniture and built in cabinets. 

Cynjyn went on her first YW retreat.  They got a cabin at Mt. Charleston and went up for the night.  She borrowed Taz's scout bag.

They had a great time and got to play in the snow on Saturday.  Apparently, they were bored on the car ride home and wrote on each other.

She got some on her face too.  But she did have a great time.

Garry has been taking advantage of the cool, nice weather and started some yard work in the back yard.  It was/is a little jungle, and he has been pruning and pulling like crazy.  He has to do a little at a time, enough to fill the garbages and then start again after garbage day. 

Over grown lantana!  Ugly and burdensome.

We found these cute little shrubs under it after we pulled it all out.

After we put the bins against the wall, Garry spray painted my ledges and put those up.  We are loving the decorating process and love it when things come together.