New and Improved (We Think...)

I've got to say that I'm definitely a "less is more" kind of girl. Serving a mission in New York City cured me of ever wanting to buy knickknacks and trinkets to put all over the house. Some of you may already know I spent one afternoon SHOVELING junk off a woman's floor because she had THAT much junk. Anyway, I can't deal with that. So, to my mind, our home looks a little bit busy and cluttered right now, but I still feel peace here so it's functional.

Here are a few shots of our family room. My mom dislikes Greg Olsen paintings because so many LDS people have them, but ours were free and I like them. Even if other people don't, I like having a picture of the sacred grove and pictures of the Savior up in my home. I like that Isaac points to this picture of Jesus and says "Jesus Christ." It helps us remember what life is all about. I don't like the bunny ears or the fan and I know blinds would soften the room. I just don't know if I want to splurge on blinds that may only work in this basement for a year.

I LOVE our octagonal mirror and I'm glad it made it here safely from West Virginia.

And here's our kitchen. You can't see my NYC pictures (Thank you for those, Sara Johnson!) above the sink and our American flag cutting board also isn't visible, but this is kind of our American kitchen, chiefly red, white, and blue. I don't like the fan on the stove, but I'm cheerful about the little basket on the right, which I purchased to hold our planners, keys, etc. so I wouldn't have a cluttered counter.

Our bathroom underwent some changes this afternoon--2 more BYU posters and Doug bought a pendant that he REALLY wants to put up, but which cost $18 (so I've asked him to return it) so this is our BYU bathroom. This is the second time we've had a BYU bathroom, and I've grown accustomed to the tackiness of staring at BYU football players and coaches in the loo.

We are still working on our bedroom, Isaac's room and Lucy's room, but Lucy's room hasn't really even started yet and Isaac's at least has a few pictures. So I'll provide more updates later. Here's one shot of our room (I don't like what we have going on with pictures on the windowsill and my bridal picture, but if it stays that way, I guess it's fine.

And here's the cutest little Cougar on the blog:).

I've been sifting through my pregnancy medical records (again) and hoping that my next delivery will go WAY better than the last one did. I'm also hoping all the wrestling and dancing I do with Isaac will trigger a 2-week early delivery. One of our new favorite games is for Isaac to walk away from me a few feet and say, "Bye!" and then I say "Oh, you get back here!" and he cracks up and runs back to me for massive tickles... then he walks away a few feet and goes "Bye!" and then... We have a lot of fun.

Isaac is also having a hard time accepting my bulging belly. As he crawls into my lap for story time, he keeps pushing into my belly, thinking something is just in the way of our normal sitting and cuddling position. So he just keeps pushing against Lucy to make it "work." It's funny, and I don't think it's doing any harm to any of us. Perhaps it's just symbolic of our future together...

Isaac also did some really incredible dancing today, complete with high knees. Thanks, Mariah Carey, for your Christmas CD, which catalyzes such joy in the Bowen home.