HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

December flew by. I guess it does every year. We had a great Christmas together and honestly the thought of writing about the whole month is a bit over-whelming... but I will attempt it.

Makenzie and her choir sang the National Anthem at a T-birds hockey game. This was technically November but whatever -

Tayler was Mary in our ward's Christmas Pageant and sang a duet with Joseph. They had to stand on a little box while singing and my friends told me they wanted Joseph to put his arm around Mary and Tayler said "no WAY is he doing that" Just what you picture Mary saying isn't it? : )

Matthew sang in a great concert and of course I didn't bring the camera... : ( But here's a pic of him in his October concert.

Kenzie sang a solo on a field trip I wasn't able to go to and another lovely mother filmed it. Kurt got me a MAC for Christmas and I can't figure out how to get it on here. Hopefully I can figure it out soon...

We made gingerbread houses -

We had a visit from Santa -
Here's some pics of Christmas morning -
Waiting to come downstairs
Tayler's gift to Kurt - a clay model of them working on wiring together
Kenzie refuses to admit she likes Twilight and had it on her "never get me" list so of course I had to get it for her.
Reece opening his box of skateboard wheels, he later opened a box of 5 boards. We're thinking they should last him a year. : )
We told Matthew he'll be opening legos after he's married.
Milly in the carnage.Our "project upstairs" was a new theater room for the kids Christmas. It started with the attic getting done and emptying the junk out from the playroom. Then Kurt started converting my old craft closet into an office. This is what the kids thought the whole project was - all the wiring Kurt and his friend Jared were doing was just getting the office ready : ) Luckily Kurt always has some kind of project going on so the kids didn't think anything of it.

This is my craft closet almost emptied This is just some of the wiring Kurt put into the office. All the wiring is run through the attic down the walls to the office and theater room. I have no idea what it all involves, I just know it took weeks and was really complicated.Kurt insulating
Here is the office after it was insulated, and sheet rocked and then I painted it "liberty blue" and Kurt laid carpet and put the molding inA week before Christmas we knew we'd have to "lock down" the playroom to keep the kids out for painting and installing the major theater stuff. So this is what we came up with - an infestation. Kurt found an old mud nest while working in the attic and kept it for proof. We told the kids it was old and probably nothing but we wanted to be safe so the playroom would be off limits for a week so we could bug-bomb it. hehehe They totally fell for it - it was beautiful. I had to cover my face to keep from laughing, but acted like I was grossed out. We then proceeded to tell them we needed their help to empty out the room so our stuff wouldn't get contaminated with poison. We actually had the kids preparing the room for painting without them knowing - I'm telling you, beautiful!

The room ready to paintAfter we painted Matthew asked if the fumes were from the bomb and if they were safe. hehehe The tricky part then was only working on it when the kids were in school because we shouldn't be allowed in the room either. This was impossible because Kurt had way too much to do so he lied again telling them the first bomb didn't work and he and Jared would have to cut into the wall. They had gas masks and had the kids stay downstairs while they worked on Saturday and after that pulled a couple all-nighters. They just kept believing us! (I don't know if they ever will again... : )

After painting it was still a mess, way too much work hooking up everything This is the cabinet Kurt put in the wall for all the components, receiver, xbox, dvd player, etc...
The screen's up - yay! it's getting closer...
Curtains are going up...
Kurt built a platform for the couches to sit on. The Tuesday before Christmas he and I got rid of the kids to friends houses (more lies) and covered it with carpet. This was our last night to get it done, we worked hard and finished it.
This is blurry, but can you see the platform? Can you see me physically unable to move out of the photo?
So after all the lies and deceit and hard work we got it done. It's an awesome room and they were so surprised Christmas morning. They each receieved a small box for their last gift with words from the sentences:

do we REALLY have an infestation?
welcome to CHT Clayson Home Theater.

It took them a while to put it together, then upstairs we went.


more pictures of the room -
So there you go. I think we're still recovering and Kurt's still putting together his office. Christmas is put away and we're ready for 2010!