The sun will still be shining...: The Last Week of Holidays

The stairs to our basement are almost done (just need some paint and finishing touches), so we are well on track to getting the bedroom done within the deadline (imposed so that Evelyn can move to her big girl room well before new baby arrives). Almost every spare moment for Josh (and me when Evelyn is asleep) was spent working hard and I think he's done a great job! I'm so excited to have part of the basement functional and to have the toys moved out of the living room :D.
Evelyn & I have spent some time playing outside (before it got all melty) and we went to the mall to take advantage of some Jan sales. Got a great haul from Old Navy (including a winter dress coat for next year for E for $7!) and also picked up a few things from HMV. We went to play over at Amalia's & Clara's on Thursday and Evelyn is always talking about them (She also talks a lot about Auntie Katie and her bird, Dzia-Dzia, and today was pointing to airplanes and saying Grandad); she's learning new words by the minute and likes to spend mealtimes pointing out all the things she know the name of (instead of actually eating). Yesterday, we made some cornstarch paint and she spent almost 2 hours working on her masterpiece and today she helped me bake bread for dinner. She can be quite focused when something interests her and she really likes art/colouring/stickers. We've also been learning some actions to new songs (She has Away in the Manger down pat thanks to Grammy Ann & Grandma) and we've been doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider and If You're Happy & You Know It.
We had Nic & Joanna and girls over for Fajitas and some board games on Wednesday. We had a great time and are looking forward to going to their place this week. We've also been watching lots of movies (since it was Josh's week off, we decided to rent a bunch of older ones and have been enjoying that in the evenings).
Hoping everyone else is enjoying a calm January to 'recover' from busy December.