"It's beginning to look alot like Christmas..."

Today was an amazing day. Well, it actually started yesterday. Due to the massive snowstorm our church was canceled so Steve spent the entire day laying the floor in the new living room (yeah, no day of rest around here!!). Then today, my parents both had off work and came and we all slaved away. Dad and Steve put trim and baseboard up, Mom did random touch up painting and by late afternoon the living room was completely done!! (except for painting the patio door, but that needs to wait to spring so we can remove it.) Mom and I had so much fun dragging all my furniture and decor from the basement and finding a new home for it.

The was a shot intended to check the setting on my camera early this morning, but I thought it provided a nice "before" shot of the room.




Aaron got a few more b-day gifts today. Mom and dad and my brother's family gave him tractor stuff.




This cracks me up... I was laying on the floor trying to get a shot of Aaron with his tractor and 2 little polka dot legs were trying to steal the show!!


My older girls have been loving playing in the snow. Today they sledded across the street with a neighbor Amish boy. The joys of living in the country!!


I couldn't pick my favorite from the following series of photos. Disclaimer: my mother does not normally wear purple pants, only when painting.








Tonight, the moment my girls have been dying for, we were able to put up the Christmas tree in our completely finished living room. I got "mean mother of the year" award tonight. I was so exhausted by the time the tree was up and lights were on, I told the girls we would do the ornaments tomorrow. They were both crying, they were so excited to do it. Thankfully, I caved.












I can hardly believe that we are this far in our addition process. It was just a little under 3 months ago that this started and here we are. We still have a long way to go on the inside, lots of little details plus an upstairs bedroom to finish. And I don't even want to think about spring and all the outside work... But anyway, I am overwhelmed at the kindness of God to allow us to do this. I know it's just a house and someday it will all burn, but it is going to serve our family in such a great way to have this extra space.
More "after" photos when I have a chance to take some!!