Extreme Room Makeover

Hannah's been wanting to redo her room for a while now. And slowly, the Disney Princesses have been disappearing from her walls, her mirrors, etc, etc. Evidence of a tween in the house!

This afternoon as we were out shopping with gift cards and money we'd gotten as Christmas presents, I suggested new bedding to Hannah as Steven and I had actually looked at some for her while Christmas shopping and couldn't agree on what Hannah might like. She loved that idea and one of our stops ended up being Bed, Bath, and Beyond where she found herself the most perfect (as far as her likes) "Room in a Bag".

The package consisted of window valances, a bed comforter, two sets of sheets, a bed skirt, a pillow sham, and two decorative pillows.

By the time we got home from shopping it was after 7:00, but that didn't stop us going into our own "Extreme Room Makeover".

I washed the sheets, took down the old valances, pressed the new, and soon, Hannah's room looked like a totally new room.

Before After
She loves purple. And I must say with all the other things in her room that were purple, it all tied together very nicely! Now hopefully we can ward off painting in there any time soon! LOL.

Christmas Eve

MIdday Christmas Eve, Grandpa Steve came and spent the afternoon with us. We spent a little time outside, after the six straight days of rain we'd had, it was nice to be outdoors for a while.
We went to our church's Christmas Eve service, and for that brief amount of time, Hannah wore her hair down! We're always telling her her hair is beautiful down, but she hates it down and always has it pulled back into a pony tail. I managed to get this great picture of her with my Mom. Following our church service, we went to my parents house for the evening along with my brother and sister in law and two nieces. The girls are always happy to be together and tonight was no exception!Following dinner, there were gifts for the girls to open. So after they changed into matching jammies, it was present time! Hannah's really into a clothes designing game on her DSi, so it was a great gift that received a bunch of Fashion Runway stuff. Now she can design clothes on paper. All four of the girls got cute Lil Mis Matched bags and water thermoses and are stylin'. Gramma and Papa gave the girls their big present tonight, a tetherball court!!! Hannah was really excited about it as she loves to play tetherball at school. They can't wait for Daddy to put it together and play with it. When we got home, the neighbor kids had received new bikes on Christmas Eve and were riding them out in our cul de sac at 10:30 at night. LOL. Hannah joined in the fun on her scooter while we chatted with the neighbors. It was a nice Christmas Eve and spending time with the family is always much enjoyed.

Hannah's Christmas in Pictures

Both of the girls got their own initial cups.
And now I can toss all the odds and ends cups. A new scooter! She loves to scooter around. She's such a "flake". :) Who needs a Red Ryder BB Gun when
your Great Uncle buys you all a Nerf Automatic Gun! Taking inventory of their Silly Bandz now that they both acquired more for Christmas!It was a great Christmas, and despite having spent almost 12 hours with their cousins, it wasn't enough for them! Those girls love to be together!

The Age of Technology

A few weeks back on my blog, I wrote about how Technology Rocks, this is another example of how technology rocks!

This past week, Steven was gone to San Francisco for four full days of a conferences. For those who don't know, he normally works from home and is gone from home for a few days at a time about once a year. Other than that, he's ALWAYS here, with us. Here for family breakfast, here for dinner, here when the girls get home from school to get a quick review of how their day was until dinner where their day will be retold in every minute detail. He's also here for homework.

I generally try to have the girls complete all their homework before dinner, that way the evening time can be spent doing something else. But there are those days that the afternoon can be rough, particularly with Hannah and her homework. Most times her homework is put aside and we wait until after dinner when Dad can lend a helping hand with a fresh dose of patience.

Thankfully, because of technology, and the tardiness of President Clinton, whom Steven was waiting to hear speak, I was able to scan Hannah's math workbook page in and then email it to Steven for his help. And over the internet, through instant messages back and forth, he was able to help Hannah with her homework, despite being over 700 miles away! Just another reason why I love the age of technology!

Celebrity Sighting at Disneyland!

Over the years of being annual passholders to Disneyland, we've seen a lot of celebrities, especially those that are affiliated with an ABC production (owned by Disney) or those from shows on The Disney Channel. This last Saturday when we made a trek to Disneyland for Candlelight Processional, we made our way over to Flynn's Arcade in California Adventure.

Upon entering the Arcade, Hannah spotted two familiar faces. They were the main actors from the hit Disney Channel show 'Good Luck Charlie'. They were filming a promo spot of some sort for the new Tron game for the Wii, Xbox, Playstation, etc. Needless to say, Hannah was pretty excited to see two people from a show she watches every week!