Early Christmas

Here is our Christmas card picture. I used some digital scrapbook stuff that I got for free awhile back (last year)(the name on them is CherieMask).

We went and had an early Christmas with my parents this weekend. We had a good time. We were contemplating if we should go or not because of the storm and it ended up not being too bad. The drive over was way easy and drive back had a little more snow, but was fine in our 4 wheel drive car.

Here's some pictures

We have been getting more snow off and on the last few days. Here is what our house looks like today. Really there isn't that much snow, but I'm happy because it's more than we got last year.


Since it's been so cold and with all the snow on the ground, kitty will not go outside. I have to force him out the sliding door and then he'll only stay out for like 10 mins before he's meowing like he's dying. So, he's been a little bored and stir crazy inside. He's been attacking the scratching post a lot lately.





Kaeli always yawns, but here she is in front of our tree.


We haven't decorated the tree yet. I'm thinking of waiting till Christmas Eve to do it.

I thought yesterday was cold

I just shoveled snow in -8! Today there is no wind, so shoveling was about the same as yesterday.

Baby it's cold outside

It snowed more last night and still is a little this morning. And it's COLD outside! Here is a copy of my weather this morning.

Finally snow and we got our Christmas tree!

Normally we see a first snow fall around October or November, not mid December! But it finally came. It snowed off and on yesterday and today. Here is Kaeli playing in it. She loves to eat it and push it around with her nose.

We also went to get our Christmas tree this weekend. We drove a little over an hour to the woods to cut one down. Our tree is a little smaller this year than before. It was great weather. Towards the end it started to snow a bit. There wasn't much snow on the ground. Before we've been hiking through snow that would go to our knees. (Don't forget, you can click the picture to see it a little larger.)

Here I am posing for the picture faking cutting the tree down.

A card, new shotgun, and almost crawling

I made a card! I cased this from a card on splitcoast, from StampinStrazny.

I went bird hunting with Dan the other month and had to borrow a gun. I had a lot of fun, so Dan got me my own shotgun. We went target shooting the other day, so I got to shoot it for the first time.

Wyatt is almost crawling. He gets up on all fours and then kind of lunges towards things and will do a sort of army crawl too.

Pumpkin Roll and ebay

I also made a Pumpkin Roll this Thanksgiving, but it was for Dan. Dan had to work at the fire station, so I took him some of it and saved the rest at home. It turned out really good and he liked it a lot, which is sometimes hard because he doesn't like sweet stuff much.

Only two days and ten hours left on some of my auctions for my stamps. I set all my auctions to start at $0.99 and some haven't been bid on yet! I'm a little worried, but it might be good for you to get great deals on the stamps! Check my Items for Sale here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you have a great day.

I made a pumpkin cheesecake yesterday, from scratch, using my own pumpkin puree of course. :-)

Hopefully it turns out good. I have never made a cheesecake before, so this is also (easily) another first. I found a recipe online using Ginger snaps in the crust and a little ground ginger in the cheesecake. I didn't have either, so when I was at one grocery store, oddly enough they also were out of both. Don't know if this recipe is popular or maybe they just don't keep much of them in stock. So I went to another grocery store, they only had ground ginger. So I got that there. I decided I really wanted the ginger snaps in the crust, so I tried one more grocery store. Luckily, this one had a bunch! So I really hope the ginger snaps in the crust make it worth all that.

occupation change

I am no longer a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I was officially done November 1st. It was by choice. It just wasn't right for me. It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot from it. I had fun being creative, both with the craft side and business side. The biggest part I didn't like was trying to sell the products. That just wasn't for me. So I just wanted to make it official to my blog, that I am a house wife and babysitter now, no longer a "SU demo".

sewing, puree, kitty napping

I can finally post this picture. I sewed these for a friend and just gave them to her at her baby shower this weekend. I forgot to take a picture of the matching soft cube and little baby security blanket that I also made. They were pretty cute too. It was fun to make it all, pretty easy too. The items shown in the picture are: 4 wipes, 2 bibs, 1 changing pad, 1 onesie, 1 pacifier holder, and 2 burp cloths.

Friday I pureed two pumpkins for the first time! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be too. The two pumpkins made 19 cups of puree. I froze a bunch and kept some in the fridge to make a pie or bread with soon. I have already made some pumpkin muffins and they turned out great!

Kitty has found a new place to nap. He is on the changing table of Wyatt's pack 'n play. It's been pretty cold outside lately, so he has been staying inside more now.

Stamps for Sale!

Thank you to those that purchased some of my stamps! That helped a bunch.

I am now listing the following stamps on ebay. If interested in bidding on them, see my Items for Sale here.

All-Year Cheer II
Alphabits
Birthday Whimsy
Monogram E
Much Appreciated
Party Punch
Remembering You
Tags So Much

See pictures of these actual stamp sets and information about condition in my Flickr Photos.

More family pictures

Last weekend I took pictures of another friend's family. They turned out good. I went to the same park as the previous family. This time there were lots more leaves on the ground.


On Wednesday I finally made it to Trader Joes! However, I wasn't very impressed. It's a nice store, but it is pretty small. I like Whole Foods better. However, I did find Trader Joes brand Cereal Bites with Chocolate! They are soo good! I eat them as a treat and I'm completed addicted to them.

Here is a book I've been reading from the library. It's pretty interesting. I searched for this kind of book because I was curious what other books meant by saying use non-toxic cleaning products. Since I'm babysitting a lot, I want to use safe products around them and learn more about what is safe. From reading this and other books, I think companies have brainwashed us into believing we need harsh chemicals to clean so they will make money off of us.

Quick post

Just a quick post to say what I've been up to lately... Saturday I started babysitting 6 kids for the week (well 8 days, till Monday). They are good kids though, but they sure keep me busy. Their ages are almost 3 year old girl, 6 yo boy, 9 yo girl, 12, 14, 16 yo boys. So I've been staying at their house this week.

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we went to the local pumpkin patch. It was such a perfect day, gorgeous outside and not very cold. Dan and I picked out one pumpkin and we got two cinderella pumpkins to make pumpkin puree with (for pies, breads, soup, etc). Here is our group shot. I used my new wireless remote to take them, it was great! Click here to see last years girls only group picture.


I love that we have such a cool pumpkin patch so close (like 10 mins out of town). They have a huge corn maze (we didn't do that this year), pumpkin cannons that shoot pumpkins way far, petting zoo, food, music and of course pumpkins.


Couldn't go with out doing a little photo shoot with Wyatt. He was so interested in the pumpkins that he wouldn't look up. We put him on a hay bale too and he was super interested in the hay that we didn't get any great shots.

Two firsts

I made applesauce for the first time! This is the first time I've ever canned anything too. My mother in law let me borrow her canner (big pot to do the water bath in). I got 15 jars of applesauce. I still have apples left and I want to make pie filling next.

This weekend we went to Portland to visit family and go to a wedding. While up there, we went to Ikea for the first time. We had never been to one before. I've looked at their stuff online before. It's kind of weird though. In the front entrance, you go up an escalator first and then have to go through this maze of all the showrooms. There are some short cuts, but basically you have to go through the whole store to get out.

Also while up there, we went to a small pumpkin patch. We went with Dan's sisters and mom. The sisters bought pumpkins, but we didn't. We are planning on going to a local pumpkin patch this weekend. I want to get some pumpkins to cook with to make pumpkin puree for pies, soup and bread.

catch up with some pictures

So, this is what I've been up to. I babysit Wyatt about four days a week and another little girl, Cadence, 1-2 days a week. Here is feeding time for Wyatt. Wyatt just woke up from his nap, so while he was sleeping I fed Cadence. Otherwise Cadence would have wanted what Wyatt was getting and she wouldn't have been happy.


Here is Wyatt's 6 month picture. He is 19 pounds and 28 inches.


This is the last of my zucchini from my garden. I made some bread with it.


I have more pictures to go through still from today and yesterday, so maybe I'll get to them later today or tomorrow.

Did some sewing this morning

It is pretty much a yucky rainy fall day outside today, so I did some sewing.


I made a new bib with a pocket. I have never sewn on a pocket before, but I think it turned out ok. And matching wash cloth wipes.


I love some of the camera straps that are sold on etsy.com. One time when I was browsing I saw a camera strap cover instead of a whole new strap. So I made one myself! It was pretty easy, took me two tries though to get it perfect.


And from this book by Lotta Jansdotter...


...I made this draft snake. Our bedroom gets cold in the winter even though the rest of the house will be warm. We aren't sure why, but I made this to help and next on my list is to make heavy curtains for the windows and door to help more.

October

Last night I was reading some blogs and was catching up on c jane enjoy it. Her Oct 1st post was about her family watching Halloween movies. I thought that was a neat tradition and it made me realize it really is October already. Last year I remember thinking the winter holidays came too fast. So this year, I want to embrace them earlier. I'm not too sure how, but I do want to make pumpkin soup for the first time. And I want to remember to enjoy the moment more.

I'm also getting ready to sell a bunch of retired Stampin' Up! stamps. I have pictures of them all now, so I will be posting about that soon. I plan on trying to sell them here first and then what doesn't sell I will sell on ebay.

Injury prone Kitty

Silly Kitty is on antibiotics again for another wound. Sunday after being outside for the morning, he came home limping a little. At first I couldn't tell what foot it was, but then by the evening he wasn't putting hardly any weight on his front left foot. I checked it out and found this big scratch. I shaved it down to see it better. (This picture is two days later while on the pain meds, so that's why he's not limping on it anymore and wanting to go outside again.)



He totally lets me shave his injuries down, it's funny. There would be no way he would let the vet do it there, so I do it before we go. I figured it was starting to get infected, so I took him in Monday before it got any worse. They gave me antibiotics, pain meds, and an exam bill. I think the next time this happens, if a wound starts to get infected, I'm just going to buy antibiotics from either petmeds.com or see if a local feed barn would have it in the right dosage for a cat. It seems like such a waste of my money to pay an exam fee for something that I already know he needs. It's either that or Kitty might have to move out and go live on a farm. We can't pay for vet bills every time he gets in a fight with the neighbor orange kitty. I wonder if the orange kitty has ever gets any wounds. I've never talked to the neighbor about it, I hardly ever see her.

I just looked at all posts for Kitty to see when the last time I posted about his injuries. His first bad abscess was exactly one year ago from today. That is so odd that I posted them both on the same day. I think last time I was also a little late posting about it, so that's weird.

Pickleball pictures

Sunday, Dan and I were invited to go play pickle ball with some friends (Wyatt's mom and dad) at the high school gym (Wyatt's mom is a PE teacher at the school). I knew we'd be alone, so I brought my tripod and camera. Here is our best group shot. I had the timer set for 20 seconds too, so it was kind of funny because it seemed like we were posing for a long time. I kept it at 20 seconds though because I was trying to get some action shots of us playing, but none of those really turned out. It would have been a good time to have a wireless remote control... which one is coming in the mail very soon!! I'm so excited. I didn't realize that my camera is infrared ready for a wireless remote control to take pictures and that they aren't that expensive. I for some reason was expecting them to be $50+, but it was $14 and shipping, so not too bad!


And I got some cute shots of Wyatt there too.



Other things I'm up to right now: sewing curtains for our bedroom (it get's cold in there during the winter, we are wondering if the ceiling is insulated properly), still babysitting, dreaming of doing crafting but just haven't gotten the chance, and I can't think of anything else to add right now.

It's fall

I can't believe it's fall. Monday the leaves started changing. Last year I remember it happening so fast and I wanted to watch it closer this year. I think by accident I noticed the leaves on Sunday being all green and then I noticed them again on Monday and they were starting to change colors.

Yesterday I did some practice portraits with Kaeli at a local park. This first one was the best. The second one, she looks funny, but I did some photoshop editing just for fun.



The pracitce pictures of Kaeli were for taking some family pictures of some friends. Here is one of their shots.


I watched The Office last night. I didn't catch it all, so I'm going to watch it again online. You can watch the full episodes on NBC Video Rewind. And same with Grey's Anatomy at ABC.com & Survivor at CBS.com.

Today is my birthday

Angie asked when and today is the day. In the early morning 28 years ago I was born. Ten years ago I never would have guessed I'd be a housewife now, but I sure do love it. I love my life right now. I love being able to spend a ton of time with my husband. I love being at home. I love where we live.



On another note, I'm excited for Thursday night to come. Two of my favorite shows are premiering.


I didn't quite get into The Office until last summer. It was always on when like Survivor was on and we would never watch it. I started watching the old episodes online and now I love the show. It's soo funny. The other show I'm waiting for is Grey's Anatomy. And I believe these two are on at the same time, so I'm so glad I can watch them online the next day!

Oh and another show I'm excited for is Survivor. It also starts Thursday. I try not to watch too much tv, but these I love. We don't have cable tv, so luckily they come through our antenna. Soon, we need to get that conversion box for when the channels go digital though.

Have a good Saturday. We are driving 2 1/2 hours to go to a wedding. One of Dan's friends is getting married.

A project and a story

I printed some pictures to scrapbook, but my table is full of fabric and a serger. So, I did a sewing project instead. I made a little pacifier holder out of the green polka dot fabric and a muslin liner. Here is a shot of it in the making.



And a story I want to remember... Dan gave me my birthday presents early this last Sunday (bicycle pants, bike rack and a pannier bag - which I'm so excited about, they all will be great). After that I went to get a popsicle out of the freezer and I saw a present wrapped with Christmas paper in there! I was so excited, but didn't even touch it. I did tell Dan I saw a Christmas present in the freezer and asked if I had to wait till Christmas to open it. We then went to dinner (at his parent's house) and came back and he said I could open my present. I took it out of the freezer and there wasn't even paper all the way around it, so I could have figured out what it was before! He must have used a scrap of paper. The present was a box of soy chocolate ice cream bars from Trader Joes. Which is neat for me, since I haven't been to one yet. The closest Trader Joes around is about 20 mins away. They opened earlier this year, but I haven't been yet. I have told Dan I want to go, but we just haven't had the time yet. So it's cute that he went there and got me something from there. I totally should have gotten a picture of the Christmas present in the freezer, but didn't think of it till the next day.

Two posts in one day!

I had to post this picture I took of Wyatt today. I think the pic and him are pretty cute. Tomorrow I'm watching two 5 month olds. I started watching a little girl 1-2 days a week for another teacher. They do pretty well together and it sure is fun seeing a little girl. She makes little girl noises that are so cute and so different than Wyatt's little boy noises. This evening I have the house to myself, so I might make a card! ...or just organize some stuff, no guarantees.

All relaxed

I had a great weekend. I was at McKenzie Bridge for a women's retreat at the St Benedicts Lodge. It was great and just what I needed. The main lodge is right on the river with a huge back deck. It was beautiful weather too.

I am here

I am still here, but I just haven't been posting much. I want to post more, but just don't get to it as often as I'd like.

What I've been up to:

• Watching Wyatt during the week and loving it. He is 5 months old now and is pretty fun.
• Sewing and serging - my mother in-law let me borrow her serger. I've serged a couple baby wraps (to carry Wyatt around with, they are exactly like the Moby Wraps, but a ton cheaper!).
• Getting ready to go to a women's church retreat this weekend
• I finally got a basket for my bike. I'm excited since I ride to the library a lot and now can go to the store to get some groceries.

This past weekend Kaeli was a little hot from playing in the field. She cooled down by soaking in this tub. We had filled it with water just for her to drink from that day, but she decided it was her pool. This year we didn't ever get a kiddie pool for her. Last year's had a leak in it, so it went to the dump.

My parents stayed also this past weekend and they brought their new kitten, Traeger Phyllis. She is pretty cute. She loved to climb on our kitty house and run all around the house. Our kitty didn't like her at all. He stayed outside almost the whole time and was mad when he came in.


Yesterday I took some picures of Wyatt eating. He was loving his food. I got this high chair for $15 at a garage sale the other weekend. It works great.