One drizzly cold day this week I walked around the corner by the front door and found the boys like this.  I love the way kids see places in a house differently than adults.  What a great place to stand to see the rain fall.  It made me smile.

I love a little organization.  Funny thing happens when you move.  You have a huge challenge of unloading boxes.  Our new house has more storage than we need.  There are many empty cupboards/drawers and shelves.  When we were unloading boxes I was just putting things away, not necessarily taking the time to organize each space as I went.

I love the Martha Stewart website.  She has so much to look at and it inspires me to try new things or think about my home and set it up the way I want.  The other day I was drooling over this http://homedesign.marthastewart.com/page/3.  It is the closet of one of her employees.  Obviously a well dressed man.  I loved the organization, it inspired me to clean up my closet space.  1 before picture and 2 after I was done.  That is what a blog should do, it should inspire you to take ideas and, if you choose, apply them to your life.  It wasn’t a disaster before, but I am happy with the result.

I have been busy but nothing feels blog worthy.  Matthew is getting less and less demanding.  I am starting to feel my old self return.  Hence the pictures of my domestic abilities revealed.  Brad had a worn out dress shirt and watching Martha Stewart, as I always do, got an idea.  I cut up his shirt and made a felt tooth, or 3, and made my kiddos tooth fairy pillows.  The top of the tooth is open so you can put your tooth inside and the tooth fairy can in turn leave the money inside.  They turned out cute.  I one for each child.  Okay okay, I will admit I cut out a 4th pillow.  I am NOT planning on having a baby yet, nor anytime soon.  But the future Garrett family member will have one too.   I also bought a wok and have made a yummy stir fry with brown rice and doing lots of baking.  Hosting lots of fun things at my house and in general keeping busy and having fun.  Matthew now has a play date on Wednesdays and I am finding 2 hours to myself every other week is very fun.  Matthew and his little buddy are good playmates so it is fun for them too.   I can go anywhere I want and do whatever I want for 2 whole hours.  After spending the last 2 winters inside protecting my baby from germs, 2 hours to myself feels great!  This winter has been great.  Matthew’s first to be out and about without having to worry about germs or him getting sick.  And the crazy thing is, NONE of my kiddos have been sick.  A runny nose here and there but that is it.  No fevers, no missed school days, nothing.  Winter isn’t over yet but, so far so good.  I have had 2 bad colds though, poor mommy, needs to wash her hands better apparently.  I have been busy with my new calling in Activity Days and CTR 7 teacher.  I love teaching the class.  I have been with sunbeams for 1 1/2 years and I was over it.  7 year olds are awesome to teach and I enjoy them very much.  I am also excited to see them all get baptized this year.  I got Ali and Jackson signed up for spring T-ball and Soccer.  I am looking forward to Spring.  Even though is it 60 here in the winter, it gets old.  I need the warm weather.  I have lots of plans for my yard this summer like a garden and I want to start using the pool and eating on the back patio.  I guess I have my birthday coming up to look forward to.  Seriously can’t believe I am almost 31.  When did I get old?

Just life as usual.  A bit slower paced with the kids back in school.  The only pictures I have so far of January are Matthew enjoying a cupcake for dessert on Monday night.  Now that is exciting.

Well Jackson was showing signs of recovery so the day after Christmas we headed out to a fun train display in a mall down in Dallas.  It is an amazing display of trains and animatronic city scapes.  We haven’t been back since before Matthew was born so it was fun to take the kids.  Lunch after in the mall and then headed home.  Jackson was clearly exhausted and fell asleep on the way home.  A couple days later we headed out for a SMU womens basketball game.  It was a fun outing and inspired Ali to want to play on a YMCA team.  An EA from Brad’s office gave us the tickets because her daughter is on the team.  They ended up winning in the last seconds so it made for an exciting game.  Jackson was much better by this point.  Next we were able to attend a friends wedding.  She was a girl in our ward and was in young womens when I was first put in about 5 years ago.  We were lucky to be invited to the temple when they both went through for the first time and also attended the sealing and reception.  The reception was a blast and we danced the night away and didn’t get home til after 11pm.  It was wonderful to be apart of the celebration.  Then a crazy thing happened that same day, we had our 3rd snow storm of December.  I have never even seen 3 snow storms in one winter season let alone one month in Texas.  It has been fun mostly because it melt within hours and never requires shoveling.

New Year’s Eve brought a fun night and our neighbors.  I left my camera on my desk so I have no pictures from New Year’s Eve.  The LDS families on our street and one more from our ward and one who moved away but was visiting for the wedding.  Lots of talking and about 15 kids in the house playing.  We were up til past 1 am.  Luckily the kids slept til 11 this morning.  This afternoon brought an invitation from some other friends in the our ward to Avatar.  We got a sitter and enjoyed the afternoon.  I LOVED the movie.  Some of our friends who attended the movie just left and I am exhausted.  Oh and I painted another bathroom in my house today.  It is 11:22 at night and I must go to sleep now.   This year has brought blessings to our family that cannot be measured.  Matthew is a joy and the happiest kid on earth.  We are truly blessed and grateful.  I am happy to be settled in a house we plan on raising our family in.  I am happy about my new calling in primary as activity days leader and CTR 7 teacher. I am also grateful for wonderful friends and acquaintances.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!