Happy New Year! 2014

We were motivated and ready to start our year off with a massive upheaval in the house:  all the boys wanted to change rooms, and I even decided to move my violin studio room as well!  Here are the BEFORE Pics:

Will and Ry's old room, aka my new Violin Room

Old Violin room, aka Owen's new room

Georgie's old room, aka Tommy and Georgie's new room

Owen and Tommy's old room, aka Will and Ry's new room

 It was actually a great mental exercise for us to figure out the order of things.  First we had to clear room in George's room for Tommy.  THis was a bit emotional for me (I didn't cry, but felt like it) as I packed up all the last vestiges of "baby" things and put them in containers to store.  We basically took all of George's toys out of his room--he really doesn't play with them anyway--but we left a few that he and Tommy like to play with like the dinosaurs and blocks and little animals and figures.  We kept the bookshelf and rocking chair in there--I wasn't ready to let that go yet--and moved Tommy's bed in. Our original plan was to put G's bed under T's kind of like a trundle bed but I just didn't feel right about that at this point, so it does mean that there is less room than there would be otherwise.  That's okay though.  They also got the cd player from O and T's previous room and enjoy sitting on their beds listening to story tapes/cds.  While I was doing G's room, James was directing the packing up of the twins' room and taking apart beds.  We moved their stuff out and into O and T's room while O moved his stuff to the basement.  It was a bit confusing for a while, and reminded us of moving, but we got through it and all the rooms look "cuter" to use James' word, than they did before!  My new violin room is W and R's old room.  James pretty much single-handedly painted it for me this week, and it looks very cute.  Owen looks comfy in his room (the old violin room), and W and R LOVE the space in their new room.  Their floor is pretty much covered with LEGO creations.  We bought desks for the three oldest boys and they pretty much built them themselves.  They said it was kind of like building LEGO, only with tools!  We were a bit worried about Owen being scared on his own, but he's done really great and seems to really enjoy having his own space.  We brought the little table out of O and T's room down by the computer and made a "desk" for G and T when they want one, and we brought the old lamp out of the violin room (new one for me) and put it by the computer, so even the family room is "cozier." 
Here are the AFTER pics:

 Will and Ry's new room--and new desk.  You can see part of it--its a double desk.

 Tommy and Georgie's cozy new room.  I like that they don't have much room to get too messy.  I think they're going to be the tidiest of everyone.

 My new violin room--still needs some organizing.  Isn't the paint nice?  James did that for me.

 Another view--my students love the new lamp and brighter/nicer view out of the window.

Owen's new room.

For our 13th Anniversary, James and I went out for lunch and had some AMAZING Italian food. We shared a flatbread pizza and some delicious roasted-tomato sauce-covered pasta and finished off with an incredible pecan encrusted chocolatey dessert.  Mmmmmm...  Then we headed over to a nearby greenhouse (one of my favorite places on the planet) and found some houseplants to beautiful our home.  A plant is so symbolic and wonderful isn't it?  We felt like we were taking a big step.  So far in our married life, we have had only two other plants that I can remember:  a cactus, named Prickles, which James gave me in our first year of marriage and it lived for quite a while--about 10 year I think--and a plant that we inherited from a friend who was moving.  This plant only survived a matter of months.  So it is with hope and faith that we purchased these plants, and I am determined to keep them alive!!

This is not the real thing, just a replica, but it is the first of many replicas to come.  Who would have thought that hummus would be delicious on pizza??

 Our new friends:  the plant closest to us is called "Purple (sometimes Wandering) Jew."  The one closest to the window is "Birds Nest."  The ones on the piano are "Prayer Plants."  These are not the final locations for these plants--we're going to hang up the two big ones, and the prayer plants are all in the boys' rooms--to remind them to pray.

 Closer look at the prayer plant.  At night the leaves fold together in pairs, like folding hands.  Very neat.

This cute little plant is in my violin studio.  It's called a "Money Tree."  No subliminal messages here.  :-)  The trunk is twisted by people, not naturally.  It can grow to be 5 feet tall!  That's my goal--keep it alive that long at least.  
So yes, this is a big year for us--13 years of marriage.  We bought a tent trailer and we planted trees in our backyard.  We finished it off with houseplants.  Looking forward to a green new year in nature!

On New Year's Eve James went to chaperone a dance for the youth and the boys and I watched Night at the Museum and had popcorn.  George really got a kick out of the dinosaur skeleton that acts like a dog and they all keep quoting the statue on the wall that says "Hi Dum-Dum, give me Gum-Gum."  ;-)  James and I have listened to numerous TED talks and podcasts about making goals and setting resolutions.  Highly recommend Michael Hyatt for podcasts.  Also I loved Pres. Uchtdorf's message in the Ensign.  I was particularly struck by his open admittance that we're not really going to reach our goals, and says that that is not the point.  We grow as we try.  I found it a very frank, honest, and hopeful message about restarting and continuing to try.  James and I also have been discussing the importance of being intentional in things we do in our family and how we spend our time.  There are so many choices, its just important to remember that the activities we choose to pursue need to be choices and that means we may be choosing not to do other things with that time.  I chose, among other choices this year, to cut back on my teaching a bit.  I'm going to teach 3 weeks on, and take 1 week off.  I'm looking forward to the change, and I think my students will like it too!  I love the Church magazines.  James and I were talking about introducing the kids to meals from other countries and trying those meals for a week out of each month.  We'd like the kids to branch out and realize that we really have so many more food choices than most countries do.  (This started when we had tacos for three nights in a row before I went shopping and the fridge was bare).  Then I opened up the Friend and saw that they are going to focus on one country a month!  So we will do that for one of our FHEs each month--study the country, put a "stamp" in our "passports" and then I will try to make some meals from that country the week following.  Feel free to join in!  Otherwise, I do recommend tacos at least 2-3 times a week--it sure made my life simpler when I didn't have to think about what to cook!  :-)
We have 9:00 church this year, which is going to get us back on schedule for school starting this week.  It's a big year because George is going to be in Sunbeams!