January

Needless to say I was a total slacker in January and took very few pictures. It was a rather boring month.  The beginning of the month was cold and there was no snow so there wasn't much to do but sit around, play games, and watch movies. Later in the month it warmed up a little so Mia was able to ride her bike and play in the back yard some.  One big highlight of January is Monty's birthday.  He turned 34 this year.  Originally the plan was to go out to dinner on his birthday.  However his brother brought him lunch at work so he wasn't really hungry.  Instead we just had a light dinner of whatever before opening presents and having cake.  Mia had toast with jam and peaches for her dinner.  Super exciting right.

I did the traditional ice cream cake. Mia got to decide what we wrote on it.  She wanted an M for Daddy's name and a 34.  That was simple enough, however I didn't realize until we pulled the cake out that we had no candles.  I totally dropped the ball this year.  The funniest part of Monty's birthday was Mia's present for him.  She has wanted for awhile to get Dad's watch fixed for him.  About 5 days before his birthday we took it in and they were able to fix it.  We came home and wrapped up all his presents and I told Mia that she had to keep it a secret and she couldn't tell Daddy what his presents were.  I fully expected Monty to know by the end of the day what we had done.  However Mia managed to keep her mouth shut.  Finally it was Monty's birthday and we were just finishing up dinner and Mia looked up and said,  "Can Daddy open his watch NOW?"  So close...  Monty about died laughing.
Monty also got a loop to hang all his belts up.  That way they stop falling into my shoes!

 He also go movie theater popcorn tubs to use in his movie theater and a new movie.

 Mia and I made cookies one day.  They were super chocolaty and delicious!

 At the very end of the month I decided I wanted to redo the 2 bedrooms upstairs.  This meant painting everything starting from the ceiling and working my way down.  I decided to do bead board on the bottom part of the walls and then paint the top half.  The bead board has turned into a lot more work than anticipated so my project is still not done.

 Painting ceilings is the pits!

 Luckily the weather was nice enough I was able to take the cap rail for the bead board outside to paint.

Stay tuned for the finished project.  Also I've already taken more pictures this month than I did last month so my next post will be a little more exciting.