Looking Ahead to 2017

The first thing on my agenda this year is making Betsy's baby quilt for her birthday at the beginning of February. I've finally got all the fabric cut out, so now it's time to actually start sewing! 

In February, we plan to switch the girls' rooms around. Currently, Claire and Maggie sleep in two cribs-turned-toddler-beds in the nursery. Betsy sleeps in a pack-n-play in what we used to call the guest room because it has two twin beds. For a while, we would just move the pack-n-play into our room when we had guests, but for the last couple months Betsy has done terribly when sleeping with anyone else. We've just been limited to air mattresses in the living room or playroom when we have visitors and our bedroom situation doesn't make a lot of sense. 

Claire and Maggie will move into twin beds and Betsy will move into a crib. We'll just leave the other crib in the nursery, set up as a toddler bed. Mostly because we have nowhere else to store it and we'll probably need it again in the future. But also we're hoping that at some point Betsy will sleep much better with others and we can have Claire and Maggie bunk with her when we have guests. One could sleep in the spare toddler bed and one could sleep on an air mattress. 

Anyway, along with this room switch-up I want to hang some art on the blank wall in the big girls' room and hang some different art in the nursery. This will also mean changing some art in the playroom and redecorating the mantel. I realize that means nothing to anyone except me. 

Lent starts on March 1st. Two years ago, I spent Lent deep cleaning our house, tackling one room a week. And...it hasn't really been deep cleaned since. (I'm talking like dusting base boards, scrubbing out the fridge, washing the exterior windows, etc.) So I plan to tackle that again. Claire's fifth birthday is in March as well. She's decided she wants a "Little Mermaid singing party." 

During the Easter season, my sister will be visiting from her orphanage in Honduras! I'm ridiculously excited to see her. In May, we've got our big trip of the year planned. We're going to fly to Denver to visit some dear friends, drive to Tulsa for Adam's sister's college graduation, drive to Houston to visit his family there, and then fly home. I may also be ridiculously excited to visit the Pioneer Woman's new restaurant while we're in Tulsa. 

We have so many other trips we'd love to take over the summer. Too many! It would be really fun to be in Victoria, British Columbia for Canada Day, since this year is Canada's 150th anniversary. There's going to be a total solar eclipse visible from Salem, Oregon at the end of August. We should decide if we can attend either of those events really soon, because I'm sure accommodations will book up quickly. There are also a couple out-of-state weddings we'd love to attend. Most importantly, we want to visit my parents in Eastern Washington at least twice. Maybe for Claire's spring break in early April, Memorial Day, Independence Day, or Thanksgiving? We're committed to taking our kids camping at least once. We haven't been camping since we were small children, so we want to keep it very low-key to start with - just an overnight at a state park thirty minutes from home.

Project-wise, my next priority is making our yearly photo book and Betsy's baby album. We also have two half-finished projects in the garage that we really, really, really need to complete because our garage isn't that big! We've got the wood frames built and the batting/fabric cut out for some pelmet box window treatments for the main living areas - we just have to assemble and hang. We've also removed like 80% of the chipping paint from the kids' picnic table - next up is stain and poly. Other projects I'd love to tackle...

- Replacing the black IKEA dresser in the nursery with the white version
- Picking up another dining chair while at IKEA so we have an even number again
- Repainting our kitchen and bathroom stools
- Repainting our coffee table
- Repainting our end tables
- Planting more flower bulbs

Well, hopefully we'll get to at least of couple of those. I'd love to work on a few sewing projects too. I really enjoy making dresses for the girls and I have enough fabric leftover to make a dress like this for Claire in a larger size, so all three sisters could be matching. I also made these cute little dolls for Claire and Maggie when they were one. They were fun to make and turned out really cute...but the girls don't play with them much. Should I make one for Betsy?

I have a Pure Barre class pass that expires at the end of May. I need to go at least once a week until then to use it up. My local studio stopped offering 8:00 pm classes, which makes attending on weeknights challenging. I'm going to try the 8:30 class tomorrow morning instead. When Betsy transitions to one nap a day (which I hope isn't until preschool ends for the summer) I plan to join the Y again. Our location has two childcare rooms - one for babies and toddlers and one for children over three. I hope Betsy doesn't mind being separated from her big sisters! She is by far our most outgoing baby though and, honestly, her sisters spent most of their playtime trying to keep away from her admittedly destructive behavior.

Before I know it, September will be here and Claire will be starting kindergarten. (More on our schooling decision soon, once we've officially got everything figured out.) No matter what option we go with, our life will certainly be more scheduled than it is now. Maggie will turn four in October - she's already dreaming of an "Alice in Wonderland tea party." Her and Claire already have our family Halloween costumes figured out too - characters from Peter Pan. We shall see if they change their minds about either of those in the coming months. Sometime next winter (maybe over Christmas break?) we'd love to spend a couple days at Suncadia, a resort in the Cascades that has ice skating, snow tubing, sleigh rides, etc. Oh, and perhaps the most exciting event of the year will happen at the very end - Allison will be done with her two years of missionary service!