February

 In February we decided to finally update our bathrooms.  Everything in them was builder grade and blah.  Chris had already switched out the lighting in our master bath, but nothing else had been done.  We originally went to Home Depot and Lowes to get stuff for just our half bath that we were going to completely redecorate.  But Chris decided to go crazy and bought the updated fixtures for all bathrooms- toilet paper holders, towel racks, lights, and handles for the cabinets.  A lot of money later we headed home and went to work.  Later I found the mirrors for both of the smaller baths for $40 each, paint for the half bath, and the decor for the half bath.  Painting a half bath is a piece of cake, I wish picking a color was that easy (It's a light grey).  I did it all during one of Emilee's naps.  I didn't take any before pictures- just imagine a blah off white builder grade bathroom, but here are some after pictures.

For Christmas my mother-in-law got me a sewing machine.  As a teen my mom made me learn how to sew, but it was a battle.  I was very anti-homemaker stuff for most of my youth.  I was going to work and have a nanny and a housekeeper and cook.  Oh, how naive I was.  Since it had been a while since I sewed anything I thought I would start out easy with some curtains for our bedroom.  It wasn't completely smooth sailing and they could be a bit longer, but overall they turned out nicely.  

On February 20th my mom came into town for a 6 day visit.  We loved having her around.  We spent the time shopping for shoes for Emilee, doing some of our own shopping, eating yummy food, and watching girly shows (Chris was thrilled).  We were lucky to have her here the day we were asked to speak in church so she could watch Emilee during sacrament meeting.  On Monday my mom helped me make the inner lining of Emilee's new bean bag chair.  This helped me know how to do the outer lining on my own after she left.  

Emilee enjoying her new seat.

That night we left Emilee home with Chris and went out for a girls' night at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  When we got there we headed to the fried food stand to try some of Texas's traditional fried goodies.  We decided to try some fried cookie dough.  It was really good- like a warm gooey cookie.  We had pretty good seats that we got for a bargain (half price).  We enjoyed watching all of the cowboys and the amazing horses that are trained so well.  After the cowboys we got to watch the concert by Toby Keith.  He put on a great show, with Red Solo Cup being one of our favorites.  Sadly, the next day mom had to go back home.  We enjoyed her visit and Emilee loved spending time with her grandma.  We only had a few days of normal before Chris's parents came for a visit 4 days later.  More on that in the next post.