3 and Grumpy

My baby, Calvin, turned 3 on Friday!

Trying to show me how old he is

Frustrated with Mommy for taking pictures - how dare I?

Decorating cupcakes for his party

Treasure Shop Hop Day #4

Day #4 found Beth, my 2 boys and I taking a little road trip north, to the mountains!  Our first stop of the morning was at Stitch n' Snip in Garden Valley, ID, an approximate hour and a half drive.  This was a small shop packed full of goodness!

Another hour and 45 minute drive to McCall, ID and we visited Granny's Attic and Huckleberry Patches.  At Huckleberry Patches, I found this beautiful Yuletide Magic panel that I absolutely love - I cannot wait to turn into something wonderful (hopefully).  I decided I'm a sucker for Christmas fabric, I really could have purchased a fat quarter bundle (or more) of the coordinating fabrics in this line.  I haven't noticed this fabric at any of my local quilt shops, but I haven't actually looked, I just happened upon it while in McCall.  I'm either going to have to search down here or find an excuse to go visit this shop again.

Thanks for joining me on our Shop Hop journey.  Next year I'm thinking we'll get crazy with it, maybe have more interested members from our quilt group go with us, do all shops in a weekend and stay in a motel somewhere overnight, dress up - crazy hats, huge sunglasses, sequins...I'm not sure.  I just think it would be fun to get as crazy as we want with a large group of people.  Though, don't get me wrong, I really did love the quality time with Sara and Beth on day 1 (and Beth on day #2 and #4) - we've been friends awhile, but it has been a long time since we've spent so much time together and it was fabulous!

...and the Boys

I feel like I've really been blogging about quilting and knitting only lately and just wanted to get back to the "and the Boys" part of my blog because I'm not sure what you're here for, but it's fun to mix things up every now and then, right? So, here are a few pictures of the boys!

These Boys...

...are silly. They certainly make me laugh every day - love them for that!

Calvin Turned 2

My littlest baby turned 2 back in September. I can't believe how quickly children grow up, and it seems like once there is more than one it is even quicker!

Calvin hadn't taken a nap so he was definitely not in the partying mood. We lit the candles twice so he could blow them out - it was his favorite part and he had a meltdown when we told him he didn't need to do it again after the first time.

Wordless Wednesday

Funny enough, these were not taken on the same date.

Happy Halloween

Today when I was wrestling Calvin into his "smedium" Robin shirt, it ripped down the seam so I'm going to have to make some adjustments to it before tomorrow - the boys are going to be Trick-or-Treating at Grandma Records' place!

An Easy Challenge

Some of you may not need to make this type of change, but I do!

I just read a blog post here about how we rarely are in pictures with our own children for whatever reason - mine is usually just because I'm the one who always has the camera but other reasons might be "don't like myself in pictures," weight, no makeup, etc. Do you suppose our kids will ever care about any of those reasons? Do you care about those types of things when you think of your mother? Of course not!

I went back to see when the last pictures of me and my boys were:

Calvin and I on September 21st

(not too long ago)

Hunter and I on August 1st

(way too long ago)

The worst is when I look back at pictures of special occasions; Birthdays, holidays, fun outings/vacations and there is not a single picture of me with my boys. This also goes for pictures of them and my husband as there aren't too many of those either. You can't have those special moments back to snap a picture you may have forgotten about. It makes me sad sometimes when I miss the special ones. This past Mother's Day I made Travis take a few pictures of me and the kids because the year before I had not even thought of it and was upset by it later.

The challenge is to take a photograph with your kids each and every month. That shouldn't be too hard. While we're at it, I need to be sure to get one of the kids and Travis every month, as well as one of Travis and I together (very few of those). I'll plan to post them on the blog, so if you aren't seeing them, remind me to get with the program!!!

Sidekick

My Batman now has a sidekick. Well, he always does...now the little sidekick is dressed accordingly!

I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the details (hem the arms, etc) because he'll only wear it for a short while and I doubt it will get passed on to anyone else. I found the green turtleneck shirt at Walmart along with a remnant of red fabric and I already had some black and yellow so it was a cheap project (the way I like it). I just made the red part as a separate shirt, sleeveless. It's a bit snug! I've never made clothing before (as you can probably tell) and I was not thinking when I was sewing the red to the black (which is what the back is) so I had to work at it longer than probably necessary. All in all, I probably finished it in about an hour. Then I made a little cape that I just need to add some velcro to along with some to the shirt so it can just velcro on. I did get velcro today so Hunter's cape is complete, and we got him some black sweats...now he just really wants a belt.

I'll post pictures of the boys in their costumes after Halloween, don't want to ruin the surprise of cuteness for anyone (does that sound a bit conceited? Sorry, hopefully you get what I mean).

Wordless Wednesday - Bathtime

Happy Birthday, Calvin!

(Cake by Aunt Robin)

Calvin turned a year old yesterday, but I didn't get my post done in time.  I'll just share some pictures from his Birthday party that was on Sunday.  Of course, leading up to and since that day, the weather has been beautiful - but since I scheduled his party outside, at a park, it was pretty windy and chilly that day (because that's how things work in our life).  We still had a great time and thank all of our family and friends who came to help us celebrate!  I can't believe it's been a year - the first year with Calvin seems to have gone by twice as fast as Hunter's first year....I guess just because now I'm trying to keep up with 2!

Ashleigh and Matt were in town so they (along with Tanner) came over to see the boys.  

Calvin had just woken up from a nap and he was not sure what was going on:

On the way to the park:
Hunter and Calvin waiting for our guests to arrive:
The cupcakes I made: 

*Cherry Chip cake with Vanilla frosting (orange) and a cherry on top

*Chocolate Fudge cake with Peppermint frosting (green) and chocolate chips on top

Homemade frosting adapted from this yummy recipe
Calvin didn't dig into his cake too much so we had to help him a little.  

He liked the cake part much better than frosting (doesn't get that from me):
Hunter, Brooklyn and McKade enjoying their cupcakes:

Uncle Burbs helped Calvin open all his great gifts:
This looks like one all the kids would like:
At least when it's windy you can fly a kite: