Day 352

Today I made a cake for Ryan's school Christmas lunch tomorrow. It's vanilla cake with a raspberry filling. I had the idea for this cake in my head for a few weeks and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Day 351

Just a snap of the boys getting along and smiling. These are my favourite kinds of pics :)

Day 350

The moon out tonight had a really funky rainbow halo around it. The kids loved it. I tried to take a picture of it, but after I did my batteries died. Once I changed them and got back out, some cloud had already moved in, so all I have is this slightly blurry pic.

Day 349

Today I decided to finally give Maggie a haircut. She had all kinds of burrs stuck in her fur from the fall and her ears were totally in knots. I hate grooming them but it has to be done. I don't like having them so short in the winter because I'm always afraid they will be so cold, but I had no choice, she just looked terrible. Afterwards she had a bath and went running around the backyard like a maniac.

Check out the difference in her legs in this pic. I think when her fur grows out, she doubles in size.

Day 348

Today I finished building and painting a Santa sleigh out of a cardboard box for Ryan's school play. Now it just needs a few reindeer to pull it...Ryan will be playing a reindeer in the play, so he's really excited to try it out.

Wally wrote all over the box so that nobody would throw it out at work. Right on the back it said "Wally's box" and the paint wouldn't cover it up, so I had the idea to print Santa out his own personalized license plate to help cover it up a bit.

Day 347

Newman insisted on going outside today, this is how I found him a few hours later. Silly cat.

I did some secret Christmas baking for Wally today. My presents for him suck this year so I figured I'd make him something he likes. This is Orange Crunch White Chocolate Bark. It's white chocolate, vanilla rice crispies, orange extract, and candied orange peel all mixed up, spread on a parchement lined cookie sheet and then broken up into pieces. the secret ingredient of course is love :)

Day 346

This is why I love my husband. I had to do some groceries and asked him to move his car. So he did, and then he cleaned off my car and started it/warmed it up for me. Awww! Thanks babe! ♥

Day 345

Tonight Wally brought home four panda corydoras for our new tank. Here is one of them resting on a rock. They are schooling fish and it's so cute to see them swimming around together.

Day 344

I had found matching Christmas PJ's for the boys so I tried to get some pictures of them together in them. Ryan is great for pictures. Alex....not so much. I took 48 pictures and these are the only 2 that look decent.

Here they are doing what I also loved doing as a kid...lying under the tree and looking up at the lights.

Day 343

Ryan has been teaching Alex how to play some video games on the computer. Here is a rare moment of them actually getting along and enjoying each other instead of fighting.

Day 342

Today I defrosted and cooked some freezer burnt meat, threw it in the food processor with some water and garlic powder, and then fed it to the cats.Here aer Chloe and Emma enjoying some of the hash. Yum!

Day 341

The Christmas baking has officially begun. Here are my mini pecan pie cupcakes. Any that fell apart ended up in Mine and Alex's bellies. Yum! 'Tis the season to gain 5 pounds!

Day 340

We finally put up all the Christmas decorations today. Alex loved it. I think this is the first year he really gets it. Every time I turned some lights on he exclaimed "Yay! Lights! You did it Mom!" he also kept telling us how beautiful everything was. He's too cute at this age.

We also finally threw out the halloween pumpkins much to Ryan's dismay. Wally wiped the snow off of this one and some of it stayed in the carved parts. I thought it looked neat so snapped a pic.

Day 339

This morning I made my first deposit as treasurer of my son's Home and School Association.

Day 338

We've upgraded to a new, and bigger aquarium, so today we set it all up and got it ready for the fish. Here are Ryan and Alex using team work to scoop in the freshly rinsed gravel.

Day 337

Yesterday I noticed that I had a tiny little dot/scab on my thumb. By the evening it started getting really itchy and burning. I thought the cat had nailed me with one of her claws yesterday, but this morning it was all swollen and achey, and it looks all red and yucky. Now I'm wondering if maybe a spider bit me or something. I had to take a pin and pop out some of the redder parts and a bunch of "juice" gushed out. Bleh. I put a poultice of bread and milk on it to draw out any infection and then put a bandaid over it. I've never done the poultice thing before so I hope it works. A trip to the hospital for cellulitis isn't on my agenda for the weekend.

Day 336

Tonight we're baby sitting again! Audrey and Rosalie were back tonight, much to the delight of the boys. Here are Ryan and Audrey playing on the computer and being goofy, and then the little love birds snuggled up in Ryan's room to watch an episode of Spongebob Square pants before bed.

Day 335

I made this little snowman today from a tutorial I found online. I'm either going to add a string to him to make him an ornament, a pin so he can be worn, or a magnet so he can hang on the fridge.

Day 334

"Let me in! It's cold out here!"

You shouldn't have escaped in the first place stupid cat!

Day 333

Tonight I got everything ready for the Elf's arrival. I also started a new blog chronicling the next 24 days with Elfie, which you can find here:
Project Elf 24

Day 332

This afternoon my parents came over for Ryan's birthday. He was really happy to see them when he got off the bus. We had his favourite pizza for supper and then left over cake for dessert. He got some great presents from Oma and Opa as well, but I think his 2 favourite were:

A book about bullet trains

And what every kid loves getting...money!

Day 331

More than 2 kids in the house 2 days in a row is just 2 much! lol Today I am watching a friends girls for a few hours and it's craziness all over again in the house! She watches kids for a living and I don't know how she does it without going nuts :P

Here they are during a quiet moment...lunch

Day 330

Today Ryan had his party with some of his friends from school. His cousins were supposed to come too but they cancelled, which is ok because it was total craziness here with just 6 kids, I can't imagine if there were more!

The party them was "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" so I had a few food games organized for the kids. Here they are playing "Pin the meatball on the spaghetti"

and a "what food am I" headbands game

and of course, blowing out the candles on the cake!

Day 329

I spent about 10 hours making and baking this cake for Ryan's birthday party tomorrow. He requested a "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" cake. The "meatball" is a chocolate covered rice krispie treat, the top layer is vanilla and the bottom is chocolate fudge, both filled with cream cheese icing.

Day 328

I found this car decoration at the dollar store. Rudolph the red nosed Sunfire. Hmmm...How embarassed will Wally be driving with me? :P

Day 327

I spotted this broach at the second hand store in their jewellery case and I had to have it. I was instantly drawn to the beautiful green colour. It's missing one or 2 gems, but nothing crucial. I'm not sure what to do with it yet. I'll definitely keep it as one piece because I think it's antique, but I'm thinking of maybe attaching it to a hair comb or something.

Day 326

While Wally and Ryan waited for the bus they heard a strange noise coming from the rock garden. I saw them going over to the side of the house and wondered what was going on, so when Wally came back in I asked him what was up. He told me that there is a strange animal in the rocks making a weird noise. So I went to go look with him, and there was nothing to see. I asked him if he was trying to fool me, and just as he tapped his foot on a rock, this thing popped his head out and screamed at us. Hello heart attack! I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures and a little video as well. I got out my North American Mamal Guide and was able to ID him as a mink. Isn't he cute?

Day 325

So the stairs and upstairs hallway now have their new carpets installed. I also peeled off the wall paper upstairs, which was the same ugly pattern that was in the kitchen, and tried out the same tea stain technique, but this time using food dye instead of coffee. It turned out very light and subtle. I'm not crazy about it, but anything is better than that ugly wallpaper.

Day 324

We're getting some stuff ready in the house for all the visitors we'll be getting on the weekend for Ryan's birthday party. I had the idea last night of switching my desk with Ryan's. Mine was one of those ones that had doors that closed. I bought it when Ryan was young to keep him off my computer because he kept screwing it up. I hadn't closed and locked the doors from him in ages, and Alex isn't interested in my computer at all so I decided it would be better in the living room where we could hide away the computer an all the junk when we had people over. It was also so small and squishy, I just never got used to it. It feels so much better having my big desk back.

Here are the boys playing in the desks in the kitchen while Wally and I vacuumed the spots where they were going to go.

Day 323

Today I needed to pick up some new carpeting for the stairs at a near by store. On Wednesday we got the flyers and the one from this store said that "Santa" was going to be there greeting kids and giving them a little toy today. So I packed up the kids and braved the crazy winds. Alex ran right up going "Santa! Santa!" and he gave Santa a big hug. Last years Santa was a bit scary and Ryan was apprehensive about seeing him again, but they got a new guy this year and Ryan was a lot more at ease with him. One of the employees took some pictures of the boys, and she will send them to me by email. This is the one I got before they wanted to open their present.

Day 322

We're doggy sitting my parents dog for the weekend. He's not allowed on the couch at his house, but our dogs are allowed on our house here because we have a blanket for them. So he was looking longingly at the couch so I patted the cushion and said "Come on up Barkey!" He rolled around like crazy, he loved it so much LOL

Day 321

I got some spiced pine cones at the dollar store and have them set out in the living room. Now the house is starting to smell a lot like Christmas. Only 44 days left!

Day 320

I made this construction sign and stuck it up on the window of the bathroom door. Ryan's party is next Saturday and we still have a bunch of stuff to do in order to make the house look descent by then. I should have just printed out another huge sign and stuck it on our front door. This house is always going under some fix-it or repair job.

Day 319

Her is a picture of the inside of my fridge...because I had nothing else to photograph today.

day 318

I found a new elf for my Elf on a Shelf project today. He has wire in him so I can pose him. I tried to pose the other one, but he just kept flopping over all the time, so he's not going to cut it.

 

Alex decided to decorate Julian...

Emma being a lap cat

Day 317

Shopping today, the kids were thrilled to get the rocket cart at Zellers.

Day 316

This morning I made us something for breakfast called a Dutch Baby pancake. It was so yummy. It puffed up like a yorkshire pudding, but was chewier than a pancake. I served it with maple syrup and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Here it is flipped out of the pan:

and all cut up ready to eat: