Good-bye to 2010

Hello Friends!

It seems that everyone in blogland is doing a 'year in review' post, so I thought it would be fun to look back on a few of the moments that the Mathews celebrated in 2010...

January-

I started Project Life for the first time

Alabama wins the National Championship

found out baby Mathews #3 is a GIRL

February-

it snows on the 12th AND I got a singing Valentine from the hubs

celebrated Oliver's 5th birthday, Transformers style

March-

stopped teaching private voice lessons from home

celebrated my birthday... I was 20-something I think

April-

I directed Tom Sawyer extrememly preggo

(E also makes her stage debut)

May-

Eliza's 1st birthday (Pinkalicious)

(here's E and me after the party. MM is also in my lap)

Clay's 26th birthday

Eliza is dedicated at church

Mary Martin is born

June-

Clay and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary

Oliver and I saw Toy Story 3 on opening day

Saddle Ridge Ranch VBS at church- hubs works rec, I'm in music

July-

went to see Eclipse with Mal

MM makes her first trip to church on the 4th

first outing to Sams with all 3 kiddos. we survived.

August-

O performs in the SaddleRidge Ranch musical at church and nursing home

Oliver enters Kindergarten

Clay starts a new job with Hunt

September-

we pulled the girls out of preschool

I played Velma VonTussle in the AL premiere of Hairspray

this month marks 2 years in our house

October-

O's first school field trip to the Pumpkin Patch

we took Ironman, a princess, and a banana trick-or-treating

November-

E turns 18 months, MM is 6 months

-there is 7 lbs difference in their weight at these visits

December-

1st Christmas as a family of 5

bought these babies

What an incredibly BLESSED year this has been! Can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2011-

Happy New Year, friends!

Praying blessings on you in the new year!

That's what she said...

Shot this video a few nights ago when E talked non-stop for about 30 minutes.

The girl has lots to say...

meet my new BFF's

so...

I have some new best friends.

They helped calm me down when my living room looked like this after Christmas...

(cue blood-curdling scream)

 (gasp)

(eek)

 (save us!)

 there was stuff everywhere

 (and yes, even MY stuff was a mess)

Since this is where we put the tree, it's also where we had Christmas at our house, which is where all of the toys wound up. We currently only had two, yes TWO storage baskets in this room for toys. One under the right end table for Oliver...

and one under the left end table for Eliza...

And that was it.

Two baskets.

That was all she wrote.

Enter my new BFF's, the storage ottomans.

We'll call them Ebony and Pepper...

 It was literally love at first sight when I spotted these lovelies on my (first) trip to Target yesterday. And to top it off, they were on sale.

Yep.

Only $59 buckaroos a piece and I just happened to have some Christmas money burning a hole in my wallet.

After some clever positioning in my truck, they came to live at the Mathews house.

In no time at all, I was in organizing heaven...

I used the same 'bag it up' method I used with O's puzzles to store some of his new games...

and after several changed diapers, a few tears, and lots of my sweat, the room looked like this...

(cue Hallelujah chorus, please)

One of the ottomans holds E's toys/tutus...

and one holds MM's...

(and yes, there are several sing-a-ma-jigs in there. Anyone else seen these things? I seriously love them. They sing songs, do scales, they even harmonize with each other.  I know...utter coolness.)

and, since my parents gifted us with a new tv cabinet, my scripts and craft supplies got to remain in the old one that moved to the dining room, giving me space to do this in the bottom cabinet...

can you feel my excitement?

Let's check out that 'before' pic once more...

(ghastly scream)

and now the 'after'

(angel chorus is singing)

and even after these two spent all day thwarting my best efforts to clean, everything had its own spot when they were done.

LOVE it.

So...there ya have it.

The story of my two new best friends.

Ebony and Pepper- the storage ottomans.

Oh, and did I mention they have safety hinges? Meaning they won't slam on little fingers? Well, they do. They're also faux leather, and wipe clean with a damp cloth. Meaning you can pee, spill, vomit and poo on them, and guess what? It just wipes off. Yep. You heard right.

Next up:

my desk/craft space

because it needs help

hope you had as lovely a day as we did here,

in our organized room,

with our new ottomans,

and our sing-a-ma-jigs.

This post is linked to the CSI projects organizational linky party.

check out all of the other organizational inspiration!

**also linked to Thrifty Decor Chick's Organize it party

weekend recap, Part II (more Christmas pics)

a few of my fave pics from our Christmas at home...

an immediate light saber dual



 Reebok toners!

 General Grievous!

(hope I spelled that right)

 Eliza's favorite item (besides her brother's light saber) was a pink cell phone from her stocking.

She had quite a lengthy conversation. Love that she's wearing the tutu.

 I gave the hubs the entire series of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It came in a box that looked like a six-pack.

Funny.

 Same conversation,

different location.

 The AT-AT Walker 'magically' appeared in his room. Wish I had captured his expression when he saw it.

Priceless.

 And...here's something the hubs gave me.

Aren't you glad?

Now you don't have to read my whining about breaking my point and shoot. This is the new, super-improved, more mega-pixeled, sleeker version of my broken one.

I feel like I should give her a name...but what??

 I put her to use immediately, as you can see...

 She's watching the hubs and O assemble the AT-AT.

On top of O's Star Wars table.

Wearing a tutu,

and holding her baby upside-down.

 And the following day with my Dad's side of the family-

 And that night with the hubs family-

 O trying on his new Optimus Prime costume at home

 And what our mantle looked like that night when we went to bed.

Festive, don't you think?

I've been working ALL DAY in the living room/playroom and finally have it looking decent again. This is where we had our Christmas and it was a complete and total mess in here.

Now it is better.

Much  better.

I'll share pics later today and introduce you to two new friends I picked up today.

Can't wait for you to meet them.

And, I almost forgot.

I made two trips to Target today and still managed to forget something I needed.

Anyone else out there make multiple trips to the same store in one day, or is it just me?

And it's not the first time I've done that.

Maybe it's because we're less than 5 minutes away.

Maybe it's because they carry pretty much anything we could need.

Maybe it's because Target's just plain awesome.

(Maybe I need a 12-step program?)