The Cabin 2013

This year's annual trip to The Cabin was quite an ordeal.  As our family gets bigger, schedules get more conflicted.  In years past, we have stayed 2 nights and have all been together.  But this year, not everyone could come at the same time, so we stayed 3 nights and people came and went as they could.  Hopefully we will be able to coordinate our schedules better in the future.

But we did end up going!  And as always, it was an absolute blast.  We ended up staying in a smaller cabin the first night with barely enough room for all the food we brought!

The kids shared a big bed in Grandma and Grandpa's room upstairs.

Everyone was a little squished that night, but we made it through and moved into a larger cabin the next day.  So much more room!

Aaahhh!  Much better!

 

And the snowmobiles!  Of course we rode snowmobiles!  A2 couldn't wait to get started.

Grandpa happily obliged this cute little guy in his goal to be a speed demon.

Last year, A2 cried when we drove faster than 5 mph.  This year he begged us to go faster and faster.

 

And why don't I have any pictures of A1 on her snowmobile?  She was WAY too excited to hang around for photography.  Just like A2, she begged to go faster and faster.  And this year was the first time in 3 years that I got to go snowmobiling (pregnancy and breastfeeding really put a damper on fun, you know).

 

However, the best part of the whole trip was playing games with family.  Erin stayed inside for most of the trip because she had to take care of her new little one, Molly.  Isn't she a doll?

So I stayed inside quite a bit and played games with Erin and Molly and Grandpa (after he was done driving A1 and A2 faster and faster).  We also got some serious movie-watching in.

 

And what about L2?  What did he do at his first cabin trip?  Well, he mostly just hung around with the adults.

How we love the cabin!  I sure hope everyone's schedule works out so we can all get together next year too.

Winter Wonderland

A couple weeks ago we visited friends and family in Utah.  They have been hit by some major snowstorms, receiving 2-3 feet of snow with each storm.  We haven't received any snow at our house, so the kids were ecstatic to enjoy the mounds of snow left in Grandma J's yard.

A1, stuck in the snow (look at the pure joy the snow brings)

A2 decided to help out with the shoveling (the driveway was clear, so he tried to uncover the grass)

What an amazing snowman!  These kids are talented!

I am so glad that we were able to enjoy the snow without having to do much driving in it and that we don't have to deal with it at our house!  Snow is nice to visit, but not to live in.

AC Gilbert House

As a Christmas gift to ourselves, we bought an annual pass to the local children's museum, the AC Gilbert House.  It is a series of buildings, each with a different theme.  Each room within the building is a different theme within the theme of the building.  The outside playground was huge!  There were so many things to do: A1 loved climbing the rope nets, A2 loved sliding down the 3-story tall slide, and L2 enjoyed banging on the xylophones made out of wood and steel pipes.  The kids had quite a good time exploring the place.  We will be visiting quite often, I think.

the Asian room in the Animal House

the African safari room in the Animal House

Watch out, L2!  A wild animal approaches!

the over-sized porch leading into the Dinosaur House

A1 and A2 are so silly!

the outside playground

Christmas 2012

Christmas was so fun this year.  We decided to stay in Oregon and let the party come to us.

My parents brought my youngest sister (yay for Aunt Meggie!) and spent the weekend before Christmas at our house.  The kids were so happy to see Grandma and Grandpa!

When A1 heard that we would have visitors for Christmas, she made a gift: she wrote her own version of "12 Days of Christmas" and presented it to each of them.

A2 was especially glad to see Aunt Meggie (she's his favorite person, and the feeling is quite mutual - I feel a little bad for Megan's boyfriend that he has to compete with such a cute little guy for her heart).

On Christmas Eve we skyped with R's family and opened a few presents with them.  It was so nice to see them and share some time even though we are so far away.

Can you see Grandma and Grandpa J?

opening presents while skyping

And Christmas was wonderful with just us.  We took our time, we tried to focus on what was really important, we even took a break in the middle of opening presents to share with others.

our Christmas (yes, that is a bike for A1)

L2 was completely adorable opening presents for the first time.  He seemed to instinctively know that wrapping paper is for tearing!

Hoping that you had a merry Christmas and were able to focus on Christ's birth and find joy in the season.

Homemade gifts

This year the kids and I decided to make presents for the grandparents.  My kids beg to "do crafting" (as they call it) almost everyday, so turning their new passion into presents was the greatest thing they could think of.

My parents have game night at least once a week.  All of my siblings (we join too if we are in town) gather in my parents' basement around the game table and play game after game after game late into the night.  Snacks and sodas are heavily involved, and I have often heard both my parents complain about water spots left on the table from cans and glasses.  So we "did crafting" to make some coasters to protect the game table.  A1 and A2 drew pictures and I decoupaged pictures of each of the grandchildren onto tiles (wouldn't you know, I forgot to take pictures of my coasters), glued some cork on the back, and (ta da) coasters!

As for R's parents, we turned our recent family photo shoot into wall art for them to hang.  I found a cheap way to turn regular pictures into canvas pictures (I love Pinterest), so we could provide them an entire gallery!

We loved making gifts.  I think this may become a new family tradition!

Santa Claus is coming to town!

I know I say this over and over, but life is going really well now that we have settled down into a job and a house and we aren't waiting to move on to the next part of our life (like we were during school and residency).  We can focus on the little things that lead to family traditions.

This Christmas started one such tradition: we were able to visit Santa Claus!  The kids wrote letters last year, and they have seen the TV specials, but this year they actually got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

A1 loved it!  She told Santa that she wanted a sewing machine, a flute with a case, and a movie.  She still believes in Santa, but is starting to question certain aspects (like how does he get to all the children in the world in one night and she noticed that the presents he left this year were in the exact same wrapping paper as the presents R and I gave the kids and his handwriting looks suspiciously like mine).  We may need to have a talk about him before next Christmas.

A2 also loved it!  He told Santa that he wanted a flute with a case (he has to be the same as his older sister), a movie, and a game.  He wholeheartedly believes in Santa, no questioning at all.  I think that may all change once A1 no longer believes, though.

 L2 would have nothing to do with Santa, which was okay.  He still has plenty of time left to join in the Santa tradition.

9 months old!

L2 hit the 9 month mark in December.  He is just the cutest little thing to ever live!

He dropped to the 50th percentile in height and weight, but his head circumference continues to be off the chart (gotta hold in all those brains!).  He finally perfected crawling forward (he could crawl backward for the longest time, but then would get stuck against a wall and cry until I turned him around - facing the wall - so he could get away), started pulling himself up to standing, and discovered his tongue (he now sticks his tongue out all day, twisting and feeling it, leaving pools of drool everywhere he goes).

We love you, sweet L2.  You are a wonderful addition to our family.

Gleaning

How I love working with Salem Harvest!  This time we gleaned apples, 15 different kinds!  And my kids, in my completely biased opinion, were the cutest kids out there picking apples.  That includes cute Callie, one of A1's friends who tagged along.  L2 even helped with the picking.

Now that I am a connoisseur of apples (based on my minutes and minutes of sampling 5 different kinds of apples), I will share what I have learned:

• Jonah Gold are by far the best apples in the entire world.
• Apple pies (and apple crisps) are best with 2, but preferably 3, different types of apples.
• My husband likes apple chutney (this was a shock to me).
• Granny Smith apples are good for pies, not so good for dehydrating into apple chips.
• It takes a lot longer to can apples than you would think.
• A1 will only eat apples if I peel and slice them, then force her to eat one.  A2, on the other hand, can take down 3 gigantic apples in one sitting.  L2 thinks applesauce is for babies and wants to eat tiny chunks of apples that have texture.  Who knew?!
• Apple pie is easier to make than you would think.
• I need to write down that apple crisp recipe that I have been tweaking into perfection for the past 10 years.  R thought I was still using the recipe in our little newlywed cookbook and tried to make it as a surprise for me while I was taking care of the kids.  I didn't realize how much I had changed it.
• Apples will keep for months in a cold area (like the garage or storage shed), but will turn mushy within a day once moved into the house.
• I am going to have to get a lot more organized if I am going to be dispatching 50 lbs of apples twice a year!

Lost: One Tooth

For about two weeks, A1 complained that all her friends were losing teeth, why wasn't she?  Then one of her teeth started to get wiggly.  She was so excited!

And I decided it was time to get off my duff and make her something to hold her teeth once they fall out.  So I looked around Pinterest (what did people do before Pinterest to find ideas?) and combined a few of the ideas out there to make a Tooth Fairy pillow.

It has a ribbon so she can hang it from her bed and a pocket to hold the tooth in the back.

This little pillow makes it easier for the Tooth Fairy to find the tooth and trade it for a prize.

And I couldn't have chosen a better time to make the pillow.  Within a day of receiving the finished pillow, A2 promptly lost her wiggly tooth!

She is such a big girl now!

Thanksgiving 2012

Our first Thanksgiving in our house!  Of course, I had to decorate.  I think these are my favorite decorations so far.  I wanted to just sit in this room and enjoy the feeling of the bright beautiful colors.

R was on call over Thanksgiving weekend, so I packed the kids into the van and took off for the grandparents' houses.  We all had a great time visiting for a few days.  Grandma Jensen gave A1 a bunch of fun educational papers (word searches and such) that she had collected over the years.  So she disappeared behind her pencils and crayons for the rest of the trip.

A2, on the other hand, wanted to be right in the action.  He helped Grandpa Blackburn prepare Thanksgiving dinner.

He made perfect mashed potatoes.

L2 kept Grandma busy teaching her how to play on her iPhone.  He had a great time with Grandma.

And then croup hit!  A1 and A2 were out of commission for the rest of the trip and a few days after we got back.  Luckily L2 didn't get sick.  But that drive home was not fun!  I don't think I want to do that alone again.  We'll just have to save up our pennies so we can fly next time we go on vacation, I think.

How to Make Cake Platters

Those who know me know that I love to garage sale.  You just never know what treasure you may find for dirt cheap.  This project was perfect for that treasure-finding bone in my body.  I found some ugly plates that had stains on them for 10 cents a piece.  Then I found some little glasses for a quarter.  The cute old lady who sold them to me went on and on about how great they would be for a little tea party or birthday party.  I agreed with her that they would be perfect for this birthday party, but I don't think I'm using them in quite the way that she had in mind!

I cleaned all the plates and glassware really well, then wiped them all down with isopropanol (rubbing alcohol).  Then I put a small thread of E-6000 glue (found at the hardware store and will now last me for the rest of my life because you use so little of it each time you use it) around the edge of the drinking glass (if you squint really hard you can see the little bubbles of glue on the glass).

Then I flipped the glasses over and glued them to the bottom of the plates.  I placed books on top of the glasses to make sure they stayed put while the glue cured for 72 hours (actually I left it for more than a week to cure, but that is because I got caught up in other parts of my life, like doing the dishes).

Then I spray painted them pink.  I laid down some paper to protect the floor and surrounded the area where I was painting with cardboard boxes so the paint wouldn't get all over the garage floor.  However, I failed in that respect and my husband came home to a slight pink hue in his parking spot.  It's all cleaned up now, but from now on I'm required to do all spray painting on the grass where we can mow away my mistakes!  Oops!

I also failed to account for the fact that the paint would get close to me.  Brown and pink flip flops are totally the rage right now, right?!

After the paint had a couple days to dry and cure, I used Mod Podge to glue some cute cupcakes onto the top of the platters.

(The yellow one isn't glued down yet.  I was just trying to figure out what configuration I wanted and where the center of the plates were.)

I used five layers of Mod Podge over the entirety of the plates.  One of the workers at Michael's assured me that Mod Podge is food safe, but I couldn't find another source of confirmation on that.  So I placed the cakes on circles of parchment paper, rather than directly on the plates.

And there you have it!  Easy peasy, cheap cake platter, perfect for the girls to take home as a party favor!

A1's Cupcake Wars

We watch a lot of Food Network at our house.  I love to cook, but even more I L.O.V.E. to eat.  My kids have picked up on my love of food and prefer to watch Food Network over any other channel (including the Disney channel).  A2's favorite program is Good Eats and insists that we cook just like Alton tells us to.  A1, on the other hand, is a huge fan of Cupcake Wars.  Something about trying to bake and decorate the perfect little cake sets her heart a-flutter.

So Cupcake Wars was the perfect theme for her birthday party a few months ago.

(Yes, that little cupcake goes inside the little wrapper.  Yes, it kind of looks like an ice cream cone.  Yes, I cut them all out by hand.  Yes, it took me two full days to get the invitations ready.  No, my husband was NOT happy about that.  Yes, my mom has since given me a paper-cutting machine that will make this process so much easier.  Yes, both my husband and I are eternally grateful for that new machine.  Why do you ask?)

The girls started by making aprons to wear throughout the party.  I bought cheap white aprons and sewed velcro strips along the front.  Then I made ruffles with coordinating fabric and sewed the corresponding velcro strip to each of them.  I also made flower pins.  Then when the girls arrived they could put the ruffles in any order and place the pin wherever.  And thus they were ready for baking!

We started by cutting out sugar cookies.  I found a box of various shapes for really cheap and let the girls do what they wanted with the dough.

While those cooked and cooled, the girls decorated little cakes.  I made cake platters for each of them (a tutorial will be forthcoming), made mini cakes (I baked them in a small Pyrex bowl to get the right size and shape), and covered them with marshmallow fondant (I don't like the taste of real fondant, but one of my greatest friends, Jenna, gave me this recipe, which is both easy to work with and very tasty).

The girls each decorated a cake with small bags of frosting in various colors.

(Don't mind Alicia and me in the background gabbing while the girls made cute, cute, cute creations!  Also as part of this parenthetical, I would like to thank Alicia for helping out with the photography during the party.  She is amazing.  You can definitely tell which pictures she took (the ones that look professional) and which I took.)

A1 really enjoyed decorating with frosting.

I made A2 his own tiny little cake so he could be part of the action too.

Then the girls decorated their sugar cookies with those same bags of frosting.

Those girls did some amazing work.  We definitely have some very talented artists among us.

Time for the birthday cake.  I made a giant cupcake to go with the Cupcake Wars theme.

My husband insists that I include the total amount of sugar that went into this party: 7 boxes of cake (yes, I make my cake from boxes, not from scratch!) and 9 pounds of powdered sugar (the fondant gets its stability from powdered sugar).  This was not a diet party by any means, but it was SO. MUCH. FUN!  We were also going around our neighborhood for the next week trying to find people to help us eat so much cake! *smile*

Happy birthday to my sweet, smart, talented, beautiful girl.  We are so blessed to have you in this family.  We love you!