Warm Wintering

Although I dearly miss my cold winters.... it's nice to have days in the 60's in January. Perfect weather to play outside for hours!

Yes. Andrew has scrapes all over his nose... and chalk on his chin. 100% boy right here!!

Crafty Funnies.

These Ryan Gossling photos have been popping up online latey. I think they are too funny!! (there's a whole blog filled with them...  http://handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com/)

Seriously... I like owls before they were popular ;-)

Haha, isn't that the truth!

This one is sadly too true in my house!!

Lets play a game.

Lets play a game. I'm going to show you some pictures. I'm curious after how many pictures you view, you'll see how they are all connected.

Okay? Lets begin.

(what an unsuspecting little boy!)

Yep. You guessed it. Tomorrow begins... Potty Training! (I'm using the 3-day method). Any extra prayers, happy thoughts, you name it.... send them our way!

Need some explaination for some of the pictures? 

-We're going to color the potty water with food coloring before we flush the goods down (my mom did this, said we all loved it)

-Andrew LOVES Skittles and will do pretty much anything for them. 

-He also LOVES those little pop-its you throw at the 4th of July. I'm pulling out all the stops when we have successes during this process!!

p.s. Little boy undies are too cute. Mickey Mouse, Buzz, and Woody.... can't beat that. 

Welcome Home.

When we got to the airport in Bangor, we had a big treat waiting for us. Many people don't know, but nearly all the planes that come from the middle east that are bringing troops home will stop in little ol' Bangor to go through Customs and to refuel. No matter the time of day, there is ALWAYS a greeting crew there, mostly Veterans themselves. Some times there are Marching Bands, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, you name it. Morgan remembers going several times while he was little.

Let me tell you - it totally brought tears to my eyes (no worries, I wasn't the only one - there were several moist eyes in that little airport!) to see all those valiant Soldiers get back onto American soil. Andrew hopped right in line, giving nearly all of them high-fives or hand shakes. I just kept thinking how excited all those Soldiers must be to get home to their own kids.  Within minutes the little airport was filled with soldiers. The greeters handed out snacks and cell phones so they could call their families. I got a chance to talk to a few of the soldiers, to find out that most of them had been gone over a year. What a sacrifice. A sacrifice I am SO grateful for.

PBS made a documentary about these great greeters. You should go check it out. http://www.pbs.org/pov/waywegetby/

Christmas Crafting

Now that Christmas is over and all the presents have been opened, I get to share all the goodies I made this year.

For my dad (who LOVES peanut M&M's) I made this jar....

And for my mom (who LOVES Tootsie Pops) I made this jar....

For my siblings, a long time Christmas tradition we had growing up was a Santa Christmas Countdown. You tie peppermints to it and eat one every day. (oh, the memories!) Over the summer I found the pattern at my parent's house and knew it would be perfect to make them.

My sisters, sister-in-law and their families also received Hot Cocoa Kits. Complete with peppermint marshmallows, chocolate dipped spoons, chocolate covered peppermint sticks, and of course, cocoa!

(look close, I also etched the glass on the front)

My favorite by far, was the Snowman Kit that I made for my niece and nephew in Utah. Sadly, I don't think they've had much snow this year. Hopefully they'll get some soon so they can use it!

Things that I made, but don't have pictures of... PJ's for a niece and nephew, a crocheted hat for a niece and a family calendar for each set of grandparents.


This year was definitely a homemade Christmas!