Weekend Reflecting

What a great weekend we Lowes had!  I don't feel like it was relaxing, but it was a lot of fun!!!  Here's the Lowedown, as it were:

• Woodland Junior High dance clinic - Saturday morning Alli had a dance clinic at Woodland Junior High with one of our favorite dancers, Sydnee!  She had a blast and learned a dance to "Baby" by Justin Bieber that she's performing on Thursday.  
• Hog basketball game - we went to the sold out Michigan game this weekend, and watched our Hogs upset the #19 team.  Alli is a basketball nut, so this was an awesome game for her.  I hope we get to go to more - it's really fun for all of us.  Especially Ryan, who loves the gatling gun-style t-shirt dispenser.

• Riding lessons - Alli rode a new pony this week, one named Dice.  He's so sweet and cute and she had a really great lesson on him.

• Beauty and the Beast 3D and Cherry Berry - After lessons, we went out with our adorable little twin 7 year old neighbors and their mom to see Beauty and the Beast 3D and get some ice cream at Cherry Berry.  It was so awesome to see the movie I saw at the age of 9 or so in the theater with Alli.

So there it is, add in church and some kitchen cabinet cleaning and organizing (I actually threw out food that expired in 2008.  No joke.), and you've got yourself a serious weekend.  Now off to watch a special epi of American Idol with my man - not Ryan, he's at the store.  You know, my man.

Resolved and Ready to Rock

It's been a while since I've blogged, my friends.  What a whirlwind year 2011 was - good and bad, and I'm ready to put it behind me and see what 2012 has in store.

One of my many resolutions for 2012 is to (yes, lose weight but also...) get back to doing the things I love in my personal life.  Including slowing down to savor special moments with my little one, taking more pictures, and blogging about it so I remember it all.  Here are a few shots of Alli at a swimming party she had today.  Yes, a swimming party in January.  She was pumped.

Another resolution Ryan and I made together was to declutter our home (and therefore our lives? We can only hope).  We're tackling one room per weekend, and this weekend just happened to be the most daunting of all - Alli's room.  YIKES!!  Our little lady has a lot of people who love her, and she's pretty convincing, so girl got toys.  It was time, post-Christmas and 7th birthday, to box up several and give away some.

On our Cotton Bowl vacation, we got a chance to go to Ikea.  Wow.  I'll save that blog for another time, but I was thrilled and overwhelmed all at once!  While there, we picked up some additional storage and a new desk for Alli.  I had been scouring Craigslist for a desk I could update, to no avail, so the quick and cheap fix of an Ikea desk seemed perfect.

The storage options were amazing.  We couldn't help but stock up on some extras there.  And the cheap frames and shelves?  Oh how I wish we had one closer!

She now has her own little artist corner.  And check out that creative, space saving solution for stuffed animals.  I think my stress level has dropped significantly.  Thanks, Ikea!!

And thanks to swimming in January as well.  Someone is worn out.