ode to the yome

in 9 years it has been....

• home for our family (yome sweet yome)
• home for various friends and neighbors who came to visit or just needed a place to stay for a spell
• yoga space
• birthing space (Gita)
• home to Noah's drum kit
• storage building

and now, it is gone. goodbye yome.

making room for our new (soon to be built) 

yoga studio & outdoor kitchen

February, come and gone

well, that month just flew by ~

It feels like I feel asleep mid February and woke up in March. There has not been too much excitement around here. We have been blessed with some beautiful weather and made it all the way through the month with no ice storms. phew. In fact, if we are able to ride out the winter into spring with similar weather, we will have burnt less than a cord of wood this whole season.

here are some of our favorite pics to represent the last few weeks ~

this little reader is ready to go!

this valentines day is brought to you by valentine kitty. meow.

guard dog greeting the day

an abundance of fresh eggs

celebrating birthdays of beloved cousins

the older sister giving her younger sister her old  nintendo ds

so lucky to have a neighborhood full of good friends

last weekend we.....

lounged about the house, taking shelter from the sudden wintery weather

made our seed order (yay!)

watched movies

and made valentine treats for school friends

little renovation

Our mudroom has been driving us crazy for awhile now. It was so hard to keep it organized and you could see the mess from almost anywhere in the house. So we finally said enough is enough and made plans to change it up. After whipping up some initial drawings, David started the project last Monday first by removing all the shoes and coats and then tearing down a wall. With the blue wall gone, we could see just how the new mudroom should look. Over the next few days, David build some new walls which allowed us to totally rearrange the living room to accommodate our new tv and couch (yay!), and then following the designs I made for my ideal mudroom storage, he built the shelves. It looks amazing! And is 100 times more functional than the old room. We moved all the shoes and coats back in on Friday. It was a pretty minor change in relation to some of the past construction projects around here, but it is such a huge improvement ~ and one of the best parts is now we get to see the beautiful cordwood wall that has been hiding behind our crazy mountain of shoes and other belongings since we first moved in. SO happy ~

Nimuae's 11th Birthday

We celebrated Nimuae's birthday over the course of a few days. She invited 6 girls to "Nim's fun filled sleepover party." She made the invitations which told the girls they would enjoy some "wii, games, dinner, dessert, and, well, talking." (how cute is that?)

So Friday after school, the Carmona house was taken over by 7 11-13 year old girls. Phew. We did not get much sleep that night but everyone had a blast ~

Her actual birthday was Sunday and we had a super mellow day just hanging around the house, playing her new wii dance game, and opening presents.

David and Nim made a new shelf for Nim's room as a daddy/daughter project. It looks great next to her new full-length mirror, the presence of which reminds me that she is now officially  a tween ~

movin' slow in January

It just so happens that this January has been slow movin' for the Carmonas, which is totally working for me. April - December seem to move so quickly for us, between all the family activities, gardening, and our busy seasons at work. But January - March is just....mellow. We are catching our breaths, reading tons of books, and spending oodles of time snuggling, cuddling, and chillin'.

Gita in bed with her monkey farm. Can you guess what her favorite animal is?

Gita and Atticus

David and Gita soaking in some cat snuggle

Nimmy making invitations for her birthday slumber party coming up this weekend

sweet snuggley kitty

Noah on his half-pipe, enjoying the warm weather

Christmas in Utah 2012

Our 2012 holiday trip to Utah has come and gone. Although we were there for ten days, it went by way too fast. Now we are home and back in the daily rhythm of school, work, play, and homestead. It feels great to look at these pictures and remember some highlights ::

Highs

• flying into SLC in the daytime so we could see all the snow-covered mountain tops peaking through a sea of clouds
• taking full advantage of our proximity to movie theaters to see some really fun movies
• eating out at our favorite places for burgers, doughnuts, mexican food, pizza, spaghetti, etc
• celebrating my birthday with a big does of family and a side of the best birthday cake ever
• snowboarding x2 (for the boys)
• sleepovers 
• visiting old friends
• adventuring around the city via bus, light rail, and walking
• a morning for David and I without kids that we spent walking a few miles to eat at a breakfast diner then walking back home (sure can't do that where we live!)
• many hours spent at the library
• visiting the new natural history museum
• doing anything at all with our Utah family who we don't see often enough ~

Lows (just a few)

• no snow in the valley for the entire 10 days, even though we lugged all our snow stuff across the country. how rude.
• getting sick (tummy sick, yuck) on Christmas Eve 
• loosing a wallet full of Christmas money in a bouncy house at a fun center, and never finding it (Noah)
• loosing an ipod (Noah)

but then...

• because there was no snow, we were able to enjoy some warm and sunny days, visits to the park, and many many walks throughout the neighborhood
• feeling much better on Christmas, phew!
• Noah's cousin Austin mailing Noah $5 to help ease the blow of loosing his wallet. So sweet!
• then Austin finding the missing ipod and mailing back to NC. Yay!