In The Bleak Midwinter

When it gets cold and I have to stay inside, I get all crafty :)

My YW group started making these pillow case dresses for the charity organization 'Little Dresses for Africa', and we ran out of time so I finished them....we mailed them in January and they were SO happy to get them....39 dresses in all :)

I made new curtains for the boys room...Jack and James aren't as into Chinese culture as Calvin is ;)

I've been saving old tshirts for 2 years, and this year I finally had enough for the project I wanted to do.....it took me 2 weeks to cut over 50 tshirts into long strips that I wound into these 'yarn' balls....

Then the braiding commenced......

I also started cutting out the squares I need to make James quilt....

Boys Night Out And Other Adventures

Tom took Jack to the shooting range a few weeks ago when he went with the guys....Jack had so much fun :)

Milkshakes afterwards :)

Cotton candy mustache :)

Jack makes the cutest snowmen lol!

This one is my favorite :)

The Last Calvin Post....For A While Anyway...

Since Calvin moved out, and he's not great at documenting his life, I'm getting all my info from Facebook like everyone else.....these 2 items are the last of my random Calvin posts....

Calvin with his service group...this pic made the news :)

This is a video Calvin made of himself speaking Chinese....I think it was a school project from last year or the year before...

The Daily Grind

Jack participated in his first ever Klondike Derby....they won freeze dried ice cream sandwiches for being 'Best Packed'

Busted in Mom's room lol

James likes to chill in the car

First school pic :)

Just chillin' in the car...again lol

Riding the roller coasters at 6 Flags

Jack planned me a surprise Three Quarters Birthday Party.....He planned the whole thing and then delegated it all to Tom, one assignment at a time hehehe.....this is a rice crispy treat cake with 3 quarters in it. That's right, 75 cents LOL!!

We've been to the dentist 3 times in the last 6 weeks and this is what the aftermath looks like....the sticker was completely voluntary. 

Thanksgiving we went to my cousins in Virginia. This is the only picture I got, James pushing Buzz around in the stroller lol!

I cut James hair myself and it didn't look horrible. I win!

A boy and his blanket....

He loves the flannel and the Snoopy's....

Needed some Mommy time so I went to visit my friend in OC....it wasn't warmer, but the sky was bluer and the sun was out :)

Got a pedi while I was there cuz it's so much cheaper than it is here....my feet are funny looking lol

Our annual Burns supper...cullen skink and mince pie with brown sauce and irn bru :)

Can't believe I forgot to post these back in September...first day of school pics :)

He was so excited!

Birthdays!

As usual, I am behind on my blog, so I haven't posted any pics of anybody's 2014 birthday... 

It's shameful the way I never seem to have pics of Rayzels birthday....but this one was taken Near her birthday :)  She's 14 now....hard to believe, I know.....

This fabulous picture of Rayzel was taken at Nana's birthday :)

Jack turned 10.....we celebrated by having family over to spend the night and ditching church to play board games and eat with them all day.....Fun!!!

Nana turned sweet 16 this year.....

We celebrated with a formal tea party, Jane Austin style. TOTALLY HER IDEA. We spent 2 months before the party watching all the movies and all the different versions of all the movies....Rayzel thought it was lame lol!

Savannah with my mom :)

James turned 6 this year :)

He still likes the bubble wrap better than the presents, but once that 'disappeared' he loved the books :)

This is the first year he's been into the whole unwrapping presents thing.....in fact, I think he liked unwrapping better than bubble wrap lol!

He loves cake but is still not sure what to do with candles....

These are the beautiful organic GF CF cupcakes I sent to school...see, sometimes I am supermom ;)

Calvin turned 18. That's right. 18! We celebrated by taking a weekend trip to Sleepy Hollow NY with the family.

My girls :)

The birthday boy loves his asian food lol! Luckily Sleepy Hollow has a kickin' Japanese restaurant and Calvin got to eat his fill of sushi :)

Toms parents came with us on our trip. I'll post the trip part later :)