We've got 2 bedrooms painted! Yeah for us! Ellie's room is finished, as well as the spare bedroom. Well...technically the trim isn't done around the doors, but we're not counting that for now. We spent most of the 2 weeks of vacation painting and patching...there were quite a bit of patch work to be done. Brant is now a master patcher - he got lots of tips from the nice people at Lowe's and has successfully tried his hand at all sorts of things in the house. Next up...our bedroom - which is at least twice as big, so we'll keep you posted!

We also bought a new vacuum, and I'm super excited about it. I know that sounds bizarre, but honestly, I LOVE using it. It's a canister vacuum specifically for hardwood floors, and it does an amazing job. The best part is that it is quiet. Super quiet - I could even talk on the phone while I'm using it - theoretically. I haven't tried that yet.



We babysat Ada on Saturday night while her parents went to dinner, and the girls had fun playing with all of Ellie's new Christmas presents. She did a great job of sharing, after a few reminders. Ellie reminds me so much of myself (in general), but especially when she has a friend over. She just gets so excited that she can hardly contain herself...

No pictures of the new rooms yet, but they're coming. We ordered the blinds and they'll be arriving sometime in the next couple of weeks. That's motivation to get the rest of the house done!!!

Ellie is obsessed with people's whole names...she knows that her name is Ellie Joanne Boren, daddy is Brant Clayton Boren, mommy is Danielle Marie Boren...but she wants to know everyone's whole name. Tonight on the way home she declared that Big Bird's whole name was "Big Bird Clayton Boren", just like daddy because he's a boy...