Room Arrangements

I've been spending a lot of time using Floor Plan 3D to figure out what to do with our existing room and the addition downstairs. It's really hard because the existing room is long and narrow. If we put up walls in the existing room it will cut off the family room from the rest of the house. I'm not sure that is a bad idea, but it seems like it might not work out so well. Any thoughts? Does anyone out there have ideas for arranging a very long narrow room that would be open to a larger family room? The long narrow room is the first one you see when you walk in through the front door. I can't seem to come up with something that Jay and I both like.

Here are some pictures of the Floor Plan stuff I've been doing.

The room we currently have on our first floor.

The room with the addition plain.

Office closet idea.

Closet only idea.

Happy Easter

Almost 2 Weeks- In Bullets

-Ben's party was fun.
-I need to get another extra battery (since my old one is useless) so I don't end up carrying a 3 pound brick around all day.
-It's spring! Woohoo
-It's April! Double WooHoo!
-Lily is saying some things that resemble words now. Today I swear she said "brother" for Ryan.
-Ryan has been really excited to have "Jacknjees" for breakfast this week. To the rest of us that is a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. I'll say it slowly for him and he repeats it, but then calls it "jack 'n' jees" again. It took me a few minutes to figure out what he meant when he was dancing around the kitchen singing, "Yay, jacknjees!" over and over when I got home from the grocery store.
-Ryan is "playing" the piano and singing right now and it is so cute.
-Lily had her first gymnastics class. She had a lot of fun, but I felt a bit aimless with little direction as to what to do with her. Mostly she just climbed around the equipment.
-I became a Creative Memories consultant. I'm excited, nervous, happy and unsure about it all at the same time. Does this make me a work at home mom? Hmm. I guess I'd rather think of myself as a stay at home mom with a little side stuff going on. At least I'll never have to get a babysitter since I can plan events for when Jay will be home and do all the other stuff at nap time.
-We decided to put an addition on our house. The contractor has already been here twice. This too is exciting, but a little scary. I have all sorts of plans for the addition rolling around in my head.
-Our whole family is sick...even Jay. It's just a cold, but it is still really annoying. It is especially annoying because it seems to be the reason Lily has been up half the night crying for the past 3 nights. No, we don't leave her to cry on her own, but she is often inconsolable. This means that at least one of the adults is severely sleep deprived the whole day. Usually both of us. This does not make me look forward to a whole day of holiday celebration. I really hope everyone is better by Sunday and we all manage to get a decent night's sleep before then.
-I am so taking a nap when Lily does today.
-I let Jay guess what his birthday present would be because I didn't think he would guess in a million years. He did. On the first try. So much for surprise. He seems to like it though, so I guess that makes it okay.

Weaning

The best thing about weaning is I can leave Lily with someone else for several hours.
The worst thing about weaning is leaving Lily with someone else for several hours :-(

Lily's Party

We had Lily's birthday party Saturday and all of Jay's and my family that were in the state came. Hugs and kisses to the uncles who couldn't make it. So here is Lily's birthday party in pictures.

Okay this picture was taken before the party, but I thought it was so cute how Ryan put his blanket over his little sister. They are watching Caillou together...see Caillou on the other side of Ryan?

Lily liked her balloons. Here she is dragging Clifford through the house. I love her little angel wings shirt. So cute!

Here she is about to devour the whole cake, but Daddy rescued it. I guess she thought it was pretty cool to get this whole big cupcake for her real party;-)

Here she is playing with her new ball. She really loves it.

Present time.

Snuggles for Grandma.

Fun with Daddy.
She is laughing her self silly playing with her balloons. She had a ball hitting them and kicking them and watching them come back. This picture in no way captures the joy.