Feels like home!

Our home finally feels like us. After living with army brown/green walls for too long, we finally tackled the biggest painting job yet...the main level. The entire entryway, living room, kitchen dining room, and stairway have a new look. We replaced all the molding and painted all the walls a light taupe and the trim a bright white! We love it!

Living Room

The chair we got for Christmas!

Entryway


Kitchen

Dining Room

Stairs

My kids were completely neglected for two days straight! Thank Goodness for movies and Lego Star Wars! They just hung out in the family room, in pajamas, jumping on all the furniture with no supervision! They loved it!
Painting 20 foot ceilings was not fun. We were on very tall ladders for two days straight. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone! We only had a few minor injuries along the way. Michael gave us all the fright of our lives when he fell off the ladder. He was removing one of the recessed lights when the ladder slipped on wood floor. He came crashing down and luckily only received minor scraps and bruises. The wall wasn't so lucky. We are still patching the mess and hope to have the wall back to new soon!
We could have never got all of this done without help! Thanks to Seth, Melinda and Cliff for risking their lives on ladders and painting with us! Sorry for all the soreness and muscle strains! We owe you a big steak dinner!

2009 So Far....

I have had no motivation to do anything...blog...get my pictures off my camera to blog...bad way to start off the new year! So I'm kicking myself in the butt to get caught up! First off New Years Eve!
We had a bunch of family over and had a very laid back, eat a ton of food kind of party! The kids all played upstairs while the "grown ups" played a little Rock Band--okay a lot of Rock Band!

Michael's mad drum skills, Ian passed out on the floor--too much partying for him, Sarah tries her hand at the drums and John sings "Livin' on a Prayer" just like a rock star!

Check out Michael rocking out on the drums...look for the tongue!



Then it was out in the cold for fireworks, climbing our snow mountain and lots and lots of noise. It was freezing but fun!

Otis Family Christmas Dinner

Sunday Night we had the whole Otis clan (plus Seth and Melinda) for Christmas dinner. It was great family fun. I love doing dinner at my house. I love getting the house and table all decked out. I love cooking and baking for a crowd. I know most people dread it but I love it! So thanks for indulging me and driving "all the way up here" so I could do this dinner!



There are 10 grand kids now and they range from 9 to 1 in age, so it was a little crazy but my kids love their cousins! Cliff always has us do a Christmas program and then gives us some family goals to work on. It's hard to keep all the kids quiet for that long but it's worth it. Cliff always has some profound (and funny)things to share with us. We shared our favorite stories about Jesus and "sang"(if you've heard the Otis's sing, you know what I mean!) Christmas song classics, like Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer! Great fun! Great memories!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Nathan and Alissa!!! They had a baby boy at 6:25 am! 7 lbs 4 ounces and lots of black hair! Spencer Stone Madsen (not Simon Moroni Digby Barack Neufatchel Jack Ryan Cowperthwaite-Madsen, thank goodness!) I'm so excited to have a little nephew! I really wish they didn't love so far away--maybe we need to plan a trip to New York! Can't wait to see him! I will post pictures when I get them! Yay for babies!