Home Renovation and Rodeo Run -- February 2015

In February, we ordered  boxes of engineered hardwood flooring and tore up the old carpeting in the living room/dining areas and old wood laminate in the hallway. We also said goodbye to the tile in the entry way.

The next step was painting all wall, ceilings, and moldings.

Carl used the 32 ft. Ladder for the very high entry way.

The next step was to level the concrete slab. This was a frustrating nightmare that took several weeks. We could make a U Tube video of what not to do. 

After doing many things, including laying

precise  wooden "tracks" to guide the leveling compound in the most uneven areas (learned this trick from a "This Old House" video), the floor was level and ready to install the waterproof  plastic and felt underlayment.

Row by row, it was exciting to see the new floor emerging.

Jeremy helped one Saturday, which helped speed up the work.

Anything is more fun than leveling a floor!

It was a nice break (yes we are crazy!) to run the Houston Livestock- Rodeo 5K Race. Jessica and her beau Cameron were our running buddies. (They left us behind in the dust!)

After the race, we met up with Elayna, who was there with her track team running buddies.

Carl and I didn't do too bad for two old fogies!

Early 2015 Birthday Celebrations & a Baptism!

On February 22, grandbaby Sweet Baby Rae turned 1 year old.

Baby Rae had fun celebrating with her cousins.

After the birthday dinner, we had fun playing at a park.

 Never too old to have fun on a playground!

The very next day, grandson  Evan celebrated his 6th birthday.

On March 2, Evan's sister Avery celebrated her 9th birthday.

She got a little help from baby brother Ben with opening her presents.

On March 7, sweet grandaughter Ava was baptized. 

Baptisms are always big family celebrations.

Aiden and Dario give thumbs up for the food.

These two cousins, Dahlia and Lorelei, had fun just walking around the church building, hand in hand.

January 2015

I am determined to catch up with the blog. Finally, I am into this year!

January 2015!

We had our New Year's Eve party at Lauren's house, playing "Minute to Win It".

We had a lot of laughs competing against each other.

Our grand champions were Dan, Cameron, and Dario!

On New Year's Day, we played the board game Jeremy and Nicole gave us for Christmas.

The girls and I snuck away during that holiday week for our annual ladies' luncheon .

At the end of January, the older grandkids, along with Jessica and Caneron, joined us to see the high school musical, "Mary Poppins".

We are looking forward to all that 2015 brings!

Still catching up on 2014 events!

Here are a few highlights from November and December 2014.

Lorelei and I enjoyed a few "dates" to the library for story time.

After story time, Lorelei enjoyed working on puzzles and playing with the stuffed animals.

Some times, we went out to eat after the library or worked on a craft in my office.

In November, we gathered for our usual Thanksgiving family dinner, which included someone new this year, Cameron, who is now Jessica's fiancé.

The grandkids enjoyed dining at their own table in the kitchen.

December found us finishing up our first year as service missionaries for BYU Idaho's Pathway program with this wonderful group.

We also had the opportunity of going to the temple with two of our students, Erin and Trisha, to support Trisha during her first time at the temple.

The year had flown by quickly, as we found ourselves enjoying our second Christmas home with family since returning from our New York mission.

The holidays started with the annual Ellis Siblings Christmas party, held at Pat's house.

Here are all of Carl's siblings, minus Beverly (in Utah) and Billy (in Pennsylvania). Brother Jerry had passed away many years ago.

(left to right) Sharon, Stuart, Donna, Pat, and Carl

The white elephant gift exchange always brings a lot of laughs. Bill is the lucky recipient of a pink bathrobe.

Our family made gingerbread houses for home evening during Christmas week.

Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas program was held at Lauren and Dan's new home.

There weren't too many of us gathered around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning this year at our home-- just the three of us.

Jeremy and Nicole and baby Rae spent Christmas with the Egans in Pennsylvania and the other kids stayed in Utah and Minnesota. 

Baby Rae is excited about her airplane trip to Pennsylvania. 

Lauren and Dan and kids joined us for Christmas dinner later on in the day.

Lorelei loved the Christmas gifts Santa brought her!