Oh, January...you're such a boring month.

I haven't been taking very many pictures lately. Isn't that so weird for me?!?!

It's because it's January. I'm not kidding. If you look at all my pictures on my computer you'll see that January and February of every year are the folders with the least amount of pictures. (I am a super duper dorky organizational freak when it comes to my pictures. One of the only things I'm super OCD about.) I think it's because January and February are such slow, ridiculously cold months that we don't do anything and I don't document the nothing we are doing.

I guess maybe that's why I haven't been blogging much either.

I will tell you that we're still working on Elisabeth and giving her as many cleaning tools as we can. When Kyle was here, she helped Elisabeth clean her room and put up some hooks to help get things off of Elisabeth's floor. She then sent me an email with a bunch of brainstorming ideas to help Ebeth feel less overwhelmed with her room. It was nice to have someone from the outside see the problem and give advice. It's hard when you're the parent staring at your child's disastrous room and trying to think of how to help them without shaking the child till her head comes off.

The first thing we did was to move the furniture around. Elisabeth was so freaking excited that she did a lot of the cleaning to make room to move things. We took out a piece of furniture that wasn't really being used and simplified what actually goes into her room. She is so proud of her room now!

We've also set some small goals for Ebeth that we're hoping turn into habits. For January, we are working on keeping the floor clean (including the closet floor) and her dresser clutter free. If she can do that, then she'll have earned the bean bag chair she's been asking for so she can have a reading corner in her room. So far, she's been doing a fantastic job!!! She's even been making her bed daily. There is hope for her yet!

So, when my parents visited in September, my dad bought Ebeth some Barbie toys. You know how the toys always have those codes inside to use online to win a grand prize? Well, Elisabeth stinking LOVES those kind of sweepstakes and is always asking to type in the codes. She had 3 of them for the Barbie thing and she won a Princess Prize Pack. Not the grand prize (which was a trip to LA and to have a Barbie made to look like you) but she was still excited. It didn't say what the prize pack was, but I figured it was probably a doll, a book, some stickers, etc. etc.

Well, a giant box came to our house last week addressed to Elisabeth. As soon as I saw the pink filler paper sticking out, I new it was her prize pack. Here is what she won:
Yep. That's a house. A Barbie house. She also got a doll, a movie and a gift card. Dude, I had no idea she'd be winning a house. She was pretty excited. Julia might have been even more excited. She super likes the elevator.
That's about all that's been going on around here. A lot of playing and reading and crocheting and movie watching. Trips to the Y and having friends over for dinner. A little bit of de-cluttering and organizing. Still trying to keep in mind some of my goals for this year.
I will try to take more pictures with my real camera (instead of these lovely pictures from my phone). Maybe that can be my "goal" for January and February--take pictures of the every day. I think that's a great idea, don't you?
I'll be back tomorrow for Virtual Coffee, though. So, be ready!