2014...The Beginnings (Jordan's and Matthew's Birthdays)

What do you do when you want to combine a 3 year old girl's and a 1 year old boy's birthday?

Duh!

We weren't very good at taking pictures but here is what we have...Only one and a half months late!

Matthew cheesed it up for every single picture!  He did love the cake!

We did cake and ice cream technically on Matthew's birthday because Rob had class on Jordan's big day, but she didn't seem to mind!

Here's Jordan's actual day.  She wanted burgers...fine by me!!

Oh and she picked a special treat at the store!

Here's Tay showing off one of the two nerf guns that we got... Dad and Taylor enjoy them much more than the two birthday kids!

I had to include this.  I got a new washer and dryer and you would think it was better than TV.  The kids were mesmerized!

The Holidays

We thought that we were moving to warmer climates!  Well as our luck would have it, it has been unusually cold her in Kentucky!  We got record snowfall!!  One whole inch!  The whole city shut down.  Our neighbor was nice enough to let Rob use his snow blower to get our long driveway cleared!

 Jordan stuck to the garage...

 But Matthew and Taylor enjoyed the snow!

 We also did ginger bread houses with our friends the Weavers.  I was going to pass this year, but I'm glad that Marissa convinced us to do them!

 The girls enjoyed doing their own little houses!

 Here are the munchkins in their Christmas jammies!  

 The kids had a blast opening all their presents!

 Matthew even tried to investigate just how Santa got the presents into the house!!

The presents were really fun and especially Taylor enjoyed opening them this year, but the real present arrived Christmas night!  Grandpa and Grandma Smathers along with Uncle Tyler flew in Christmas night.  Tiffany and her family came the next day and we spent a few days together!  I can't believe that we don't have a single picture....I'll have to check with the others and see if they took some.  I am grateful to have good family and can't wait to see them all again...hopefully soon!

Projects...

Well, we've been keeping busy!  On Labor Day, we started finishing the basement; and when Mom and Dad called in October to tell us that they were coming for Christmas, the work went into overdrive so that we could get it done in time for them to come.  We are grateful that Tiff and Nick are so close because they made a few trips down to help us out.  Nick's expertise was especially helpful!

The girls loved getting in on the work!

 Matthew too...

 Rob by far put the most man hours into our little project!

Carpet went in the Wednesday before Christmas!  Just in time for Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle Tyler to come!!

We took a wall out of the girls' bathroom and had to replace some tile where the door was.  We decided to use a decorative pattern instead of trying to match the tile!

 I also had a couple of projects going on on the side!!  This table was given to us by a member of our ward.  It was originally the color of natural oak with a white glaze on it. (I can't find the before picture!)  I spent hours...and I mean hours sanding it down and then Rob helped me stain it a nice dark color.  We love it!  

Another woman in our ward gave us this china cabinet!  I painted it up and then Rob helped me distress it.  It is a great addition to the dining area...and now I can actually display Great Aunt Pat's china!!

Rob and I aren't sure what we're going to do with all of the time that we will have in the evenings now!!  I'm sure that we will figure something out!!  

Oh and I had to add these!  The girls got to do a project on one of our MANY trips to Home Depot and Lowes!