Monster trucks, makeovers, and sickness

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind! Here are a few highlights:

We took Grayson and Emma Claire to the Monster Jam in Columbia with our sweet friends Erin and Eric and their two oldest kiddos, Wyatt and Caroline. My totally awesome friend, Laura, watched Whitt and E & E's youngest, Anna Kate, while we were at the Jam so we could enjoy ourselves sans babies.

I swear, they had more fun than it looks like they did...

The Grave Digger totally stole the show

Even though we were at the very top of the stadium (I'm talking the very last row there was), it was LOUD. We brought ear plugs but they didn't do much good. Grayson has a sensory disorder and is very sensitive to loud noises---we anticipated this, which is why we were seated at the top and brought ear plugs (I promise, I didn't plan to torture him--he loves monster trucks and I thought he would love it), but he was terrified for the first fifteen minutes or so until Ben went and purchased a $20 pair of headphones that they were selling. They were worth every bit of the $20 he paid---we will be taking them to every parade and loud event Grayson attends in the future! :)

Moving on to the makeover portion of this post....pictures of the kitchen floor! Pictures don't really do it justice, but you can kind of see in this one how ugly and old the previous tile floor was. The tiles in the middle of the floor hadn't been glued down very well and several were cracked and the grout was coming out every time I vacuumed or when Whitt picked at it...so lovely....

Now....much better!!! I love it! We are also in the process of painting the walls so I'll post pictures of that once it's complete.

Another little makeover was our shelves in the den. I should have taken the "before" picture with everything on the shelves, but I took this one after I had taken most of the things off and started to tape so I could paint. Anyway, you can see how boring and white it was...

Now, after!! I can't believe what a difference a little can of paint can do! I love the contrast of the dark behind the books---it totally warms up the room. I have a decorator helping me with some things around the house right now, so she put everything back on the shelves the "right" way, and I love, love, love how it turned out.

Lastly, and sadly, we've had some sickies in our house lately. Last week it was Grayson, yesterday it was Whitt, and today it's Emma Claire. Grayson and Whitt thankfully recovered quickly, but Emma Claire has strep throat (and no tonsils--they were removed last May) so she may have a little longer of a recovery, poor baby. I'm not feeling so hot myself, either. We are ready for this cold, rainy weather to go away and for Spring to hurry up and get here!