Here's To Aunts!

This is a collective "Thank You" to my crazy sisters-in-law who are wack-O enough try to make presents for each of their nieces and nephews. In the above picture you can see my children sporting fabulous scarves boasting the initial of their first name from their Aunt Kelly. They are snuggling up with their flannel rice bags made to for keeping tootsies toasty by their cousin Atticus (with a tremendous amount of help from Aunt Kasey, no doubt), and you can't quite see them, but Meriel and Rheanna have their own handmade purses (one is yellow and plaid, while the other is pink) made by their Aunt Kathryn, while the boys are eagerly awaiting the return of their bottles of homemade Monster Puke Bubble Bath. Kathryn gave them then took them back so she could don a lab coat and huge goggles in order to "rework the formula." I'm not entirely sure what that entails, but late at night I've seen strange lights coming from inside their house and I think I've heard maniacal laughing and some shouting that sounds like "more bubbles, I need more bubbles!" I dunno. Personally, I think they all got together and said, "how can we make Irene feel like cheap dirt beneath your fingernails?" because, of course, from the beginning I looked at the potential for nieces and nephews coming just from my eleven brothers and sisters, and saw that it could very well number as the sands of the sea, so I shuddered and threw in the towel on presents right then and there.

Anyway, the kids love their presents. They remind us every night that their toes are very cold. Rheanna started using her bag to carry her scriptures, while Meriel stowed her most prized possession in it--her Christmas candy. The kids have flown out the door to school many times snuggly wrapped in their scarves and I even had to keep Ian from wearing to church. He was just wearing his suit and the scarf. I don't mind that he likes it, mind you, but the overall look was just a little too dapper for my liking.

On another note, our littlest monster turned two recently. Here, he sports the shirt Rheanna made him depicting a dead person? who was run over by a skateboarder with a big OOPS! on the bottom. I was not consulted on the design.










And the answer to the riddle from the previous post: what on earth did Irene end up doing to her bathroom cabintes?
is, of course,
I stained them--

EBONY!
Oh, I tried to do a mild-mannered regular brown stain, but it just wasn't right. "What's lacking?" I asked myself. Then I had a wild idea, and I thought, "Do I dare!" Heck, yes I do!

And the floor told me to do it. Fabulous floors made by your husbands can have very loud opinions.

Tune in next time when I'll have more Renovation Riddles