Thanksgiving...

We spent Thanksgiving this year nice and cozy next to my parents' wood stove. The plan was to have Thanksgiving dinner at our house since we have a lot more room but on Monday night a big wind and snowstorm blew in and knocked out our power. Daisy, Daniel, Starbuck (the dog) and I went and stayed at my parents' since they had power still and a wood stove. They also have a generator if their power goes out. Ruh wanted to stay at the house to keep an eye on things. The temperature at one point got down into the teens so we were really happy to have that wood stove. My brother, his wife and their 2 month old Charlie live at my parents but they sleep in the little cabin down by the pond so there were plenty of places for us to sleep in the house. Daniel and I took the spare room and Daisy crashed on the couch. We really had a fun time. I loved waking up in the morning and having breakfast with everyone. One morning I had to work at 5:30am and my dad drove me because the roads were so bad. Dad and I got all bundled up and headed to my Starbucks. When we got there my shift supervisor told me that they had been trying to call me all day the day before to tell me my shift had been canceled because all the ice had slowed business down quite a bit so they didn't need me. So Dad and I got some coffee, Dad an Americano and me an Eggnog Latte, and we headed back home. I spent the morning cleaning my parents' house to keep me busy so I wouldn't get bored.

Our power finally came back on Thanksgiving morning but it just wasn't enough time for me to get home, get the house cleaned and do all the cooking so we decided to stay. My in-laws and my brother-in-law Rahmat joined us and we all had a wonderful time. Daniel and little Charlie were the entertainment.







I made Martha Stewart's Turkey 101 like I did last year. I highly recommend it! (My sister-in-law Mai made the pretty roses from tomatoes!) It comes out moist and tender, even the white meat! I also made her Parker House Rolls, I highly recommend these as well.
















This is a picture of some of the damage from the storm. The wind knocked a tree down over my parents' neighbor's driveway. A tree also fell on their house! They are an elderly couple and they are both okay and the house didn't have too much damage. Even our house sustained a little bit of damage. Ruh climbed up oin the roof yesterday to clear off fallen branches and found one had punched a fist sized hole in the roof! There is now a tarp covering the hole and it will be fixed sometime next week. That sure was some crazy weather but it was also very exciting too! Our plans sure did change for the week but they were fun changes. I am very thankful for my wonderful family. :)

Cute, but also very true right now...

Snow!!...and cranberry sauce...

Yesterday it started snowing and this morning I woke up to more snow coming down. At the moment it is still snowing and we have about 4 inches. I am so glad I have the Christmas decorations up. Everything is so pretty and cozy. Ruh has the day off and we pulled out Daniel's hiking backpack and we went on a little walk before lunch with the dog. I bundled Daniel up and he really enjoyed being out in the snow.

This morning I decided to go ahead and make the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and put it in some canning jars. It made 5 jars of sauce so I think I am going to have to send a jar home with my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and my mom. It was so nice cooking up the sauce while there was snow falling outside my kitchen window. I have a pot roast in the crockpot for a meal tomorrow and I am making a chili for this evening. I am just amazed that it has not stopped snowing all day! If it keeps this up we will have 6 or more inches by the time we go to bed.

It's that time of year again!

I know I jumped the gun a little bit but my husband requested that I decorate for Christmas early this year. He didn't have to try very hard to talk me into it. My sister-in-law Mai is from Vietnam and they do not celebrate Christmas like we do here in the States so she has really been looking forward to the holidays. She asked if she could come over and help me decorate. And of course she brought over little Charlie! In the picture she is hanging up the little bird ornaments I sewed last week. Here are a couple hanging on the Christmas tree.













This is a little video of a couple of very cute boys!


I can't believe Thanksgiving is this Thursday! I am very excited to be hosting again this year. I will be making Martha Stewart's Turkey 101 like I did last year. It got rave reviews and everyone keeps telling me how excited they are to have it again this year. I already got all of my grocery shopping done. There is no way I want to fight those crowds at the grocery store! Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow and Monday. It's not suppose to be a lot but it will still be fun. It would be really fun if there is snow on Thanksgiving but so far the forecast isn't calling for it. It is going to be COLD though!

Happy Thanksgiving!

He's walking!

Time flies by so fast! My little guy is now walking! For a while he was just standing up on his own without holding onto anything but he wouldn't try to take any steps. Then this past week he finally took a couple steps towards Daddy but didn't try to take anymore steps after that. Yesterday I took Daniel with me to my friend Hannah's house and she and I visited while Daniel played with his buddy Billy. Billy is 3 months older than Daniel and has been walking for quite a while now. While we were in her kitchen Daniel stood up and we cheered him on and he proceeded to walk across her kitchen! We cheered and praised him. Hannah said it must have been peer pressure from Billy that finally got him walking! :) Here is a little video of him walking at home. I would have gotten more but my camera batteries died. I will make sure to get more video soon for all my SoCal family!



Here is a picture for my mother-in-law Bonita! She bought Daniel some cute little bath toys so I took a picture for her. He really has a lot of fun with them Bonita and I am trying to teach him how to squeeze them under water and then bring them up and squirt the water out.



And here are a couple pictures for my Gramma, Daniel's Great-Gramma! When she visited this summer she brought Daniel this little cup with a fun straw. He loves having his afternoon cup of water/juice in it. :)

From old capris to a cute skirt...

The other day I was browsing through the sewing blogs I like to look at and I came across this skirt tutorial on Homemade by Jill. She turned a pair of old pants into a maternity skirt! I wanted to try it. I had a bag of clothes waiting to be dropped off at the Goodwill so I dug through it and found an old pair of denim capris. She had taken the waist band out of her pants and sewn in an old t-shirt to make it a maternity skirt. (An idea I plan to try when I get pregnant again!) I left the waist band in. After I was done I tried the skirt on but it was like a pencil skirt and I could barely move my legs. So I decided to take some pretty fabric and add it to make the skirt more open. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. But I think all in all I am happy with how it looks. I had a lot of fun and I have pulled out a couple more pairs of pants to make some more. One pair is khaki capris.

I will never make that mistake again...

Yesterday I pulled out my sewing machine and got a little station all set up at the kitchen table to start sewing the little bird ornaments from the fabric my Gramma gave me. I started sewing and quickly realized that I had cut out the pieces WRONG! And I had used up ALL of the fabric so there isn't any extra for me to re-cut. I sat there just staring at the pieces I had in my hands on the verge of tears.



But all is not lost and I can still use the pieces I cut. I am thinking I will use them to make a little mini Christmas quilt that I can use on the coffee table or kitchen table. Or I could even hang it on the wall as a wall hanging at Christmas time. I am still very determined to make those little bird ornaments so I stopped by the quilting store in the harbor on my way home from work this morning and bought a few very pretty fat quarters that will make perfect Christmas birds. And this time I am going to make extra sure I cut each piece correctly. A good thing is I know I will never make that mistake again! :)

Family gathering...

My husband's brother Taraz flew in from Colorado this weekend and his sister Ruhiyyih and her husband Matt drove over from the east side of the mountains. We all gathered in Renton at my sister-in-law Laurel's house. We enjoyed good food, good company and Matt and Ruhiyyih's wedding video. Their first anniversary is November 7th. Taraz was his usual goofy self and had us all laughing. He even had himself in stitches! :) I know we all wish he lived closer.



On the drive over the boys were playing some techno music and Daniel really liked the beat. Here's a cute video of it.

Switching gears...

Fall has definitely arrived and with it fall weather. With the changing from summer to fall I find myself switching gears. It's time to hang up the hiking poles and pull out the sewing machine. I have all kinds of sewing projects waiting for me that I put aside when spring arrived. Once the sun comes out and the air warms up I tend to be outside either in the yard or hiking somewhere. Though I do still plan on doing things outside this winter. I hope to do some snowshoeing up at Mt. Rainier and I am sure my hubby and I will do some snowboarding.

Yesterday I pulled out a couple little projects I had put on hold and I finished cutting out all the fabric pieces. They are both from Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts. I am making a bunch of the little bird ornaments you can see on the front cover. My Gramma gave me a bunch of fat quarter fabric a couple years ago for my birthday and I just couldn't figure out what to do with it. Then when I saw those little birds I knew exactly what I was going to do. The fabrics are different shades of greens and reds. Each one on it's own doesn't look Christmasy but when you put them all together they do. I am working on making a flock of these little birds and I will string them up on a garland when the holidays arrive. They look like a country Christmas. I will post pictures when they are done. I am also making something else out of this book but I can't post about it yet since it is a present for my little nephew Charlie and I don't want his mama to see it yet. :)

I bought this Schoolhouse Tunic pattern from Sew Liberated last spring. I am very excited to try it! I already have the fabric for it. I want to make one that is lined with flannel to make it more cozy for winter time. One of the reviews I read about it said that is also makes a perfect maternity shirt since it has an empire waist. No, I'm not pregnant but when the time comes these will make very cute and comfy maternity shirts. I ordered a big roll of tracing paper so I can trace out the pattern onto a different sheet that way I don't cut into the original pattern. Then I can use it over and over without having to buy a new one.




I also plan on making some more pants for Daniel. I will line them with flannel to make them nice and warm for winter. I am also going to buy thicker elastic for the waist band since the thin 1/2 inch elastic doesn't hold the pants up very well especially on a very energetic little boy who is on the verge of walking.

These are some pictures of Daniel before he was one. I forgot how straight his hair was. It's full of curls now! Time flies by so fast!

Sweet baby...

A couple weeks ago I had a baby shower for my sister-in-law Mai and little Charlie.


Aunt Karin sent Mai some of Ben's old baby clothes for Charlie.

Charlie is now 1 month old and starting to really notice his surroundings and he has the cutest little smile. Mom did a little photo shoot yesterday.

Charlie with his Auntie Annie. I sure do love that little guy! :)The boys.

I love this mountain...

(My dad took the majority of these gorgeous pictures.)
Dad, Daniel and I did some more hiking up at Mt. Rainier this past week. We went up to Paradise and then we went to the other side of the mountain to Sunrise. At Paradise we hiked part of the Skyline Trail and the Golden Gate Trail. The fall colors were absolutely spectacular!

The fall colors were spectacular!


We also saw a total of NINE bears! It seemed that each ridge we came across there were bears on it eating berries! It was amazing. The only time I was ever nervous about it was when we were hiking through the woods and some brush for a little bit. I really didn't feel like startling a mama with her cubs. But they were beautiful to look at from a distance. We didn't get pictures of all of them and some of the pictures weren't the best.

We were blessed with another gorgeous fall day so we headed up to Sunrise on the other side of the mountain. Same mountain, different view! :)



Daniel was a happy little hiker as usual. Just the other morning I took him with me when I went to grab something out of the car and he got all excited and kept saying "ike", his word for hike. He thought we were leaving on a hike and got all excited! Too cute! I have a feeling these might be the last hikes for the season. You never know though, if the weather holds we might have to fit another one in!