Halliday Family Blog

Today, I started a LONG overdue construction project…  We are remodeling our laundry room!  I pulled the washer and dryer out in the hall (we will be without them for a few days so I told the kids to be sparing on throwing the clothes down if they are clean) and also pulled everything off the walls.  I then ripped up the vinyl tile pieces on the floor and ripped up the sub-floor.  After ripping up the sub-floor, I had to pull out probably 2000 staples out the floor.  I don’t think I ever want to see another staple again!  😐

We are going to have a friend of ours who is a contractor come in and lay new porcelain tile (no more of this junk vinyl tile for us)!  🙂  We are going to paint the walls and trim, and I am designing a new laundry room with new cabinets and lockers for each of the kids to put their coats, shoes, etc. in.  We hope it turns out great!  We have a LOT of work to do, and my knees are aching right now!

Tonight we had a great New Year’s eve party at the Thompson’s.  We at a bunch of food, played Just Dance on the Wii, and had a great time talking and hanging out.  We like these kinds of parties because they are always pretty “low-key” and a lot of fun.  The boys did really well and ben didn’t break anything!  🙂

Happy New Year everyone!  We’re looking forward to a GREAT 2011!

Today we had “split family” day…  Angela went with Julie and Abby Thompson and our girls downtown to visit the Chicago Art Institute and to have fun walking around downtown.  They drove downtown and had a great time.  They first went to the Art Institute and “became cultured young women.”  🙂  It’s always fun to see the kids’ reaction to some of the art there.  As usual, there are some that receive “even I could do that” comments, and then there are some of the very bizarre ones.  They always like the masterpieces by masters like Degas, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso, etc.

After the Art Institute, they went shopping at Macy’s (Marshall Field’s) and on Michigan Avenue.  They bought a bunch of bath stuff from a store called Lush in side Macy’s.  They enjoyed the decorated windows before all the decorations came down.

Meanwhile, I took the boys and went sledding and  had a bunch of fun!  We got all bundled up and went to a nearby hill (one of the only hills in the county) and went sledding.  The boys just loved it and had a great time!

After sledding, we came back to the house, had hot chocolate, watched a movie, had nap time, and then waited for the girls to come back!  It was great lounging around not doing much!  🙂

Tonight we had a GREAT (but very cold) night!  We went with our friends, the Thompson family, out to dinner and then to Brookfield Zoo to see the Christmas decorations and light shows there before they took them down for the season.  It was freezing but we had a great time!  It was down in the single digits when we go there and we had to bundle up!

We first saw a guy doing ice sculptures and they were pretty amazing!  He had bare hands while doing it and we told him he was nuts!  His creations were cool though…

After that, we walked around the zoo, saw all the lights, and went in a bunch of the animal houses (when we were numb and needed to thaw out)!  🙂  When everyone went into one of the places, I took Ben over to the kids area, went inside, and painted his face.  He thought that was MUCH cooler than looking at animals!  🙂

Right before we left, we all went inside and got some hot chocolate to warm up our insides.  We were pretty cold but had a great time!  On our way out, we took a picture of all the kids by the Bookfield Zoo lion statue.

We’re pretty tired now and will sleep very well tonight, I think!

Merry Christmas everyone!  What a wonderful day!  This last year has gone so fast and it’s hard to believe it’s Christmas day again!

As usual, the kids got up early and woke us up.  They were so excited to go downstairs and were very temped to leave mom and dad behind!   They were very good, however, and just sat at the top of the stairs while we rolled out of bed, threw some water on our faces and got ready to celebrate!

The kids (and mom and dad) were very excited to see what Santa had brought and dropped off!  Ben was the most excited about his dump truck and loader, Zach screamed out loud when he saw his Indiana Jones had, bag, and other props, and the girls really liked their stuff: sleeping bags, books, shoes, movies, candy, etc.  Sarah even liked her ACT prep books!  🙂

After we played with the Santa presents, we had a little breakfast and then opened the presents under our tree.  We love opening gifts from family.  This year was great because the kids made things for  each other and it really meant a lot (especially for mom and dad)!  🙂

After cleaning up, we lounged around the rest of the day, eating junk food, watching movies, playing with toys, etc.!  We love relaxing when we get a chance!  🙂

Merry Christmas everyone!