Day 362

Paul and I made a run to the grocery store for one last thing for dinner tonight. When we got home, he exclaimed that he forgot to give me his Christmas present from his Pre-K class. Apparently, it was left in daddy's car and no one remembered to put it under the tree. Of course, it was a cute picture of my little cowboy. ;)

Day 359

This boy was so happy to receive a banana in his stocking that it just had to make the picture of the day.

Merry Christmas to all!! I hope you are having a very happy and blessed day.

Day 358

Just a picture of our tree tonight before I head off to bed. All the presents are wrapped and waiting for some excited little boys in the morning.

Day 352

It's become an annual tradition to get the boys' handprints on plates for the grandparents for Christmas. When I was looking around the store for the right pieces tonight, this snowman was just begging to be made for my parents. My mom collects snowmen, so it's perfect. Fortunately, I brought dad along for the activity because the snowman required a bit of actual painting. I'm hoping he fires up well.

Day 349

One of Paul's gifts from mom and dad this year was an evening out to go Lego shopping. We left little brother with grandma and grandpa, and started the adventure with dinner at the mall. After dinner we took him down to the Lego store, and he was very excited to get to pick out his own Lego set.

Then we let him fill up one of the small buckets of Legos. If you haven't been to a Lego store before, they have an entire wall full of individual Lego pieces, and you can mix and match to your heart's content. Paul had all sorts of fun picking pieces out. We think he really enjoyed his special birthday treat.

Day 348

I adapted the technique I learned in a class last month to make this pair of earrings as a gift. I have found so many uses for these quick little flowers. I have them all packaged up and ready to mail today.

Day 263

Today we were able to give the gift I finished up a couple of days ago. I'll have to say that the birthday girl was pretty surprised and happy with her gift.

Happy Birthday!!

Day 260

I spent some time today working on a special project for my mother-in-law's upcoming milestone birthday. All of the pieces came together this morning, but the funniest part was that I had never figured out the right program to make it into one cohesive gift. So I spent some time installing a program I'd bought but never used, figuring it out, and then uploading the finished product.

I was thrilled to pick it up this afternoon. Now to get it framed and wrapped.

Day 191

Today I did something I've never done before. I bought a pattern and yarn for a sweater, and it's not even for me!

My mom has been doing so much for us the last couple of weeks from lending us her washer, to running us to the airport at all hours of the night, to sitting at my house for hours on end waiting for repair people who never show up. I wanted to find a way to thank her, and I was a little bit stumped as to how to do it.

The boys and I went to a small town this morning and did some shopping. One of our stops was a yarn and embroidery shop. I was a little bit nervous about taking the boys in because a lot of yarn shops around here are quite cranky about kids, but this gal was super nice and helpful.

I was browsing around and not really sure what I was looking for when I happened upon this pattern book of fair isle sweaters. The cool thing was they had a yarn that's dyed to give the effect of a fair isle sweater without the ten different colors. I worked really hard trying to figure out how much yarn to get, but eventually settled on an amount that looked like it should work for at least three or four different patterns.

Now I hope my mom likes it.

Day 175

One of the gifts that the boys gave dad for Father's Day was a mug with their little pictures on it. We did this last year, but this year I did it a little differently. I bought "A" and "D" letters for the boys and had each of them pose separately with a D and both of them pose with the A.

At the time of the "photo shoot", it was just this side of disaster. The little one was certain he should be allowed to go splashing in the murky, slimy water (ask me, I managed to step back into it), and the big one does all he can to never look at the camera.

When I got the pictures home, I managed to work though them enough to get basically what I wanted. It worked out and D A D really liked his mug this year.

Day 166

My mom found this really cute construction quilt pattern several weeks ago and immediately thought of my oldest. This morning she surprised me with not only the completed quilt, but a smaller version for my little guy as well. They're both really nice with lots of great details like hubcaps and tire treads.

Paul insisted on sleeping with his right away, and I actually had to steal it off his bed while he was sleeping to get a picture of it. I did replace it after I was done.

Day 101

Before going to bed tonight, I put together the boys' Easter baskets. We've never done them in the past, but I thought with dad out of town, it would be a fun treat. Nothing very exciting for either of the boys, just a few odds and ends I picked up mainly at Target. I got the baskets free from a co-worker years ago and for now they are the perfect Easter baskets.

Day 82

We moved six months ago this week, so imagine our surprise when we received a welcome-to-the-city care package last week. It's a great idea, but I think someone on the planning committee might need to come up with something a bit more timely.

Anyway, I was going through the bag, and there is all sorts of swag! Our favorite has been the real estate ads - "because moving once just wasn't quite fun enough, if you want to do it again, then we're here for you". There are also all sorts of coupons for free classes, a new toothbrush, a cute little Halloween teddy (so maybe they just couldn't find our house), a directory of the city, and a dry erase board just to name a few.

It's been fun checking out all the stuff to do in town and I look forward to taking advantage of some of the coupons. Oh, and I could use a new toothbrush. ;)

Day 70

Today I did something I rarely do. I bought myself some music. My sweet sister gave me a fantastic gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, which was just awesome because no one ever thinks I'd like something like books or music.

I tend to be kind of picky about making sure I use my gift certificates on just the perfect thing, so it's taken me nearly three months to figure out what to buy. Now I'm anxiously waiting for my new tunes.

Day 63

I was having a hard time figuring out what to take a picture of today until I remembered that I hadn't changed my desk calendar to March yet. I still think this is about the cutest homemade preschool gift I've ever seen. It's so cleverly colored with his little fingerprints. I'll enjoy this all year long!

Day 46

Valentine's Day was a big bust around here, so I disappointed my little preschooler by not being able to open my gift until just before bed last night. He was so very excited to give it to me though. It's a pin that he made in preschool, and he was so adorable because he told me that I could put it in my drawer with my jewelry.

No one ever could have told me how much these simple little gifts would mean the world to me. It's nice to know that my parents probably really did appreciate those silly little things we made growing up.