Before & After...

it's been a while since I've blogged...no need to say it - LOTS OF STUFF GOING ON at the Barrios household in January! So, get ready for lots of updates! I want to start off with a new hobby I have - refurbishing furniture & other thrifty finds. I LOVE it!!!! I've been a follower of blogs that do the same thing for quite a while. But I never thought I could do it. But then my sweet friend Holly called me one Saturday and asked if I wanted to go to the flea market. And I jumped at the chance! I was SO excited!!! We looked around and all of a sudden - I found HER!!! My dream chair!! Although, I don't know that it looked much like a dream. This is what she looked like: So, is she calling your name too? I know she'll be calling your name when you see the after! In fact, she might be growling your name! Here's the after:

Okay, so here's all the details. It took me what felt like 3 years to take out 2 trillion rusty, old nails. It was actually about 3 hours to take out 200 rusty, old nails. My hands have still not forgiven me - I am in dire need of a manicure!

Once I had all the nails and old fabric off, I could trash the old straw that was used for the stuffing. How gross is that! No telling how much nastiness was in the straw!!

Then I did a little sanding, but not much since she was in such great shape. And finally it was time for my favorite thing in the world! SPRAY PAINT!!! Is there a such thing as being addicted to spray paint? Cause if so, I may need a support group! I used Heirloom White and it all down. Then I cut my fabric out and used a little batting as my cushion and she was ready to go.

I think I need a little more foam in the seat, but she'll do for now.

What do you think?

I'm linking to

Date Night...

As you married folks know, it's important to always take time out to date your spouse. No matter what's going on, you always need to take time away from everyday life and spend quality time with each other.

During Christmas break, Emily and Elaina spent lots of time with Grandparents. One of those nights, we decided to have a double date with Sam & Holly. It was even a "school" night and everything!

We met up at Chili's and ate dinner. Then the boys decided they wanted to go to Best Buy because they both had gift cards, and us girls went to Target to kill the time.

Then we went back to Sam & Holly's and hung out for a few minutes (actually only stayed long enough for Steve to open his new toy - it was really late for a school night).

It was so much fun to just get out and do something with the kids in tow! I think I'm going to make that a New Year's Resolution - to have more date nights with my husband!

Playing with our toys...

The funny thing is she wouldn't eat it! She wanted to wait and take it so Aunt Candy could have some with her! Too sweet!

You know how when you were a kid you couldn't wait to play with each and every one of your new toys...well Emily is no different. She just about went crazy because I made her wait a couple of days before she could play with the gift Aunt Candy had given her.

She was so excited to make/decorate a cake just like our friend Kenya has made for us before. I have to admit, it's one of those toys that is pretty annoying. But I will deal with my annoyance for Emily's happiness. Emily was REALLY excited (I don't think I can emphasize just how excited she was) and I was having to read the instructions with CONSTANT questions. So that's why it was annoying. But once we got it going, it was so much fun for her.

Relaxing Day...

The day after Christmas Steve was off, so we decided it would be a pajama day! We invited our friends Andrew, Kenya, and Kooper over to watch football with us. It was such a good day! We relaxed, no one cooked, no one cleaned...just total relaxation. The kids had a blast! I love seeing the kids all playing and getting along.

I will say, I know why God blessed us with girls. I don't know if I could keep up with 2 boys. Kooper never slowed down. As you can tell, I had a hard time getting a picture of him because he kept moving around on me!

Elaina, of course, was in all the cords in the bonus room. I've never seen a baby so obsessed with cords!

Then she just had to show off how good she is standing up on her own!

See - I told you he wouldn't stand still! Emily was playing music and he was doing his "booty shake". It was absolutely hilarious!!!

Christmas 2009 Wrap Up...

I can't believe it's already over! It seems every year it goes by quicker and quicker!

I've already blogged about the 1st Annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party, which was SO much fun. The next night we had the Singles Ministry over for their Christmas party. Sorry, I didn't get my camera out, so no pictures. It was a really good time. We had lots of food & fellowship. We played the traditional dirty Santa game. And then we finished the night off with a fun night of Mad Gab. That game is HARD! Especially if your spokesperson for your team has just had 1 cup of coffee & 3 Red Bulls in about a matter of 5 minutes! Yes, Kendall Bell is no longer allowed that much caffiene at one time.

Then it was time to get ready for Christmas Eve. This year we had Christmas Eve with Steve's family and we decided to do it at our house. I was so excited! We've never done anything during the holidays with our family at our house. So, I got off work early to get started, but of course God had a different plan! There was a horrendous wind storm & it knocked a power line down! Perfect! Just as I was getting started, our power went out. So, I did what I could, and we were going to pack everything up to go to his parent's instead. But then God smiled on us & the power came back on.

It was great having them here! It gave his mom a break and I think it was a nice change.

This was our table for the night. I think we need a bigger table! It was packed!!!!

The girls gave us a new camera for Christmas. I started realizing I wasn't taking as many pictures now that Elaina was around. I started thinking about it and realized it's because with 2 girls I don't want to lug a BIG camera around. And we have 2 pretty big trips planned for 2010 and I don't want to be lugging a big carry on bag around to have pictures.

Steve and I have never been good at waiting to give each other our gifts so we opened ours before his family came over. I had a hard time getting the camera to focus, so the pictures didn't turn out as good as I wanted. But I'm getting much better.

Once we finished with gifts, we pulled out the Wii and played a little bit. Then it was time for everyone to go home so we could get ready for Santa.

Emily helped me put out the reindeer food she had made at school and lay out the cookies for Santa. She was so excited!

Santa was really good to the girls! Emily got a dollhouse & some clothes. Elaina got some sort of keyboard toy thingy and some clothes.

They had so much playing with their new toys! Although I think Elaina had more fun playing with the tissue paper the gifts were wrapped in.

After we opened our gifts, we had some breakfast. Our sweet neighbors gave us Apple Barn pancake mix for Christmas, so I fixed those. They were AWESOME!!!

Once we ate, we headed to my parents for Christmas.

We hung out for a little while and had some snacks.

Then it was time to start unwrapping more gifts. This was Elaina's first gift she opened. It's a stuffed animal that turns into a pillow.

As soon as she saw it, she laid her head down. This picture is her in action!

My sister got Emily a Cake Bakery. It's kind of like Easy Bake Oven meets Ace of Cakes. I'll blog more about it later.

We took Sampson (our new puppy - I don't think I've mentioned him yet so more on him later). Here's him and Steve.

My dad told the grandkids how when he was their age his favorite thing he got was a goody bag from the church. It had fruit, mixed nuts, peppermint sticks, orange slices, and chocolate covered raisins. So, he had a bag for each of the kids. And I have to say, all us big kids were sneaking in the bags for the orange slices! Always a favorite around the Mckinney house!

I know I've lost most of you after all this. Thanks for sticking around if not. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!