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