Christmas...

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already. We had a very lovely Christmas. We went to church in the morning and I have to say I kind of wish we had a church service every Christmas morning, it just fits. It was a very windy morning and at the end of the service the power went out but then came right back on. The power in our neighborhood is so sensitive that it goes out when someone sneezes. We pretty much expected it would be out when we got home and sure enough it was. We packed all the presents into the car and headed over to my parents'. Their power was still on and they have a wood stove which very much adds to the ambiance of Christmas. We opened presents and had Christmas dinner. Daniel, Daisy and I spent the night and Rue went home to sleep with the dog inside so she wouldn't have to spend the cold, windy night outside. The next morning was so nice. I woke up to Daniel's sweet little face staring at me. I got up and built a fire. Mom got up soon after and I made peppermint mochas for my dad and me. Mom made pancakes with her new Kitchenaide stand mixer (my dad surprised her with it for Christmas) and we just enjoyed a nice relaxing morning. I told mom that next year we needed to just plan on spending the night over there on Christmas whether the power goes out or not. She agreed with me. Our power had come back on some time in the middle of the night so Rue didn't freeze completely. :)


I think heading to Leavenworth at Christmas is becoming a tradition. We went up on Tuesday after Christmas. Leavenworth is a Bovarian Village nestled in the Cascades. It is always so nicely decorated for Christmas with Christmas music playing in the town square and of course there is SNOW! It was snowing when we got there and didn't stop the entire time we were there.



In the middle of town there is a little sledding hill. Rue sent Daniel down it. He was a little scared at first but by the time he reached me he had a huge smile on his face. Daisy went down a couple times too.

Rue pulled Daniel around on the sled. It was too cute!


We went to the Starbucks there and it was CROWDED! We heard someone say it was a 30 minute wait. We decided to find coffee somewhere else. We found a cute little bakery that had lattes and self-serve brewed coffee. It was quiet and cozy. I didn't get my Starbucks employee discount but that was okay. Daisy and Daniel shared a hot chocolate.



We looked around in the shops and then we ate dinner at the Munchen Haus. It's an outdoor grill that serves all kinds of kielbasas. They have outdoor fires and heating lamps. We found a nice dry table under a couple of heating lamps. Rue had been waiting all year to eat one of these kielbasas. Daniel was just as excited but he was more excited about the bun than the actual dog. In the picture of Daisy choosing her condiments you can see some steam. That is from a huge, steaming pot of SAUERKRAUT!! That's my favorite part of the meal. :) The Munchen Haus is such a great place to eat. The cold and the snow coming down with the heat from the heat lamps and the smell of woodsmoke from the fires and Christmas music playing just makes for some great atmosphere.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Pumpkin Patch...

My Gramma was up visiting from LA and on the 31st we headed up to a pumpkin patch in Buckley. The fall colors are beautiful up on the plateau this time of year.

The pumpkin patch we went to had a little petting farm with goats, a little cow, pigs, ducks, and turkeys. Daniel got to pick out his own little pumpkin.













Gramma, Mom, me and my little pumpkin. :)



It was pretty muddy. I'm glad I wore my Crocs. I love Daniel in his little goulashes.

Fall bike ride...

Yesterday was a beautiful October day. Rue and I both had the day off so we decided to go on a bike ride. The temperature was in the 60's and there was not a cloud in the sky! The fall colors were so lovely. Rue picked this bike ride because he knows how much I love riding in the country. He likes a good urban bike ride so it was very sweet of him to pick this one for me.


Daniel had the best seat in the house. He was a happy little camper just riding along looking at all the scenery.
We stopped and had a picnic at a small park in Rainier.

I love that you can see Daniel's little face peaking out the side of the trailer. :)
This is the view from a small bridge we crossed. So pretty! I love fall!

He eventually conked out. :)
Riding through the fall leaves. It was truly a lovely day.

My little Bubba...

Daniel loves to help me around the house. Recently he learned how to pick up the dirty clothes I put out in the hallway and take it to the dirty clothes hamper. He loves it! He also loves to help me put groceries away and my mom just taught him how help her with the dishes at her house. He is such a happy little helper. Here is a little video of him helping me with the laundry. It ends a little tragically when he stubs his toe on a pot he had been playing with, but he recovered quickly. :)


Here is a picture of him helping with the dishes when we were camping in Glacier. He did a very good job too. :)

This past week was potty training! He learned in 4 days! We are so happy to no longer have a diaper expense.

Mmmmmm, bread...

I am gluten-free. I found out this past spring that I am intolerant to gluten, dairy and eggs. I have not eaten a slice of bread since then. I have been trying the different gluten free baking mixes and flours I have found at Fred Meyer. This week I tried Gluten Free Pantry's French Bread and Pizza Mix. I made the french bread according to the package directions, using my egg substitute instead of real eggs. It smelled so good cooking in the oven with the rain falling down outside. As soon as it was cooled I cut myself a slice. It tasted so good. It has been so long since I have enjoyed a slice of bread with some butter on it. It will only be an every once in a while treat since the slices of this bread have twice the calories of a healthy whole wheat or whole grain bread. But I am very happy that I will get to enjoy a nice slice of crusty bread with a hot bowl of soup.

Card making...

I am a sewer. I love to sew. But recently my sewing machine has been collecting some dust since I have rediscovered scrapbooking and discovered card making. I do plan on doing a lot of sewing this winter but I am having a lot of fun playing with paper right now. I bought some beautiful fall card stock paper from Joann's.
Here are some of the cards I have made.

On this one I left space on the front for a verse or a sentiment. I used a cute little leaf stamp and some pumpkin spice color chalk ink. I like to leave space on the inside for a nice little note.

I love this little owl stamp. I used brown chalk ink and used an orange marker for the highlighting.

On this one I used a fall border punch. I put a piece of orange card stock behind it so you can really see the the punch. I used a Happy Thanksgiving stamp and used brown chalk ink.

This one is the most simple but it is my favorite. I used a sweet little pumpkin stamp and used a pumpkin spice chalk ink on the pumpkins and then a pesto colored chalk ink on the vines. It is a little smaller than the other cards. I took a picture of it next to a larger card so you can see the difference. I think I am going to make more of this one.
More cards to come! I am really looking forward to making Christmas cards. :)

Back to blogging...

Happy fall everyone! It's that time of year when less and less time is spent outside and more and more time is spent in the coziness of the indoors. This summer was all too short but I am happy to feel the chill in the air and wake up to rain falling on the roof. It's time for making lots of hearty soups, stews and homemade bread. Believe it or not I am actually getting more out of my vegetable garden right now than I did in the summer. I have all kinds of broccoli, parsnips, carrots, onions, potatoes, collards, lettuce, cabbage and a few sugar pumpkins. My poor little rutabagas and turnips didn't do so good. They ended up long and skinny. Must have been the soil and I don't think I spaced them properly. I will work on that next year. And now it's time to start blogging again.

Unfortunately I didn't get as much hiking in this summer as I would have liked to due to a sprained ankle I received when walking across a small snowfield on a hike up near Mt. Rainier. I wasn't paying attention and walked right over a creek running under the snow, my leg broke through and down I went. This was back on August 15th and I am just now starting to feel like it is finally starting to heal. I keep hearing that by the end of it I will wish that I had just broken my ankle as bone breaks tend to heal much quicker than soft tissue damage. But we did go on a couple of camping trips, the most epic one being camping in Glacier National Park in Montana for a week, all before my sprained ankle thankfully. (My actual x-ray.)

I have started scrapbooking again. I stopped for several years but felt the itch return this fall. Fall is the perfect time to scrapbook all the past summer events. I have been having lots of fun cutting out my own little page decorations. I don't have the money for a big expensive Cricut machine that cuts all the pieces for you so I just cut them all out by hand. I discovered chalk ink which is perfect for putting around the edges of cutouts and picture mats. It gives an almost antique look while also highlighting the image. These are some of the pictures from our camping trip to Banks Lake in Eastern Washington.



I had fun making all the little cutouts. I made several of each so I can use them on my Glacier scrapbook pages too. I still have more ideas for others as well. I think the trees and the little campfires are my favorite pieces.

Uncle Dave's egg seperator...

My Uncle Dave enjoys cooking and baking. For his host gift I bought him this nifty little egg separator. Guess where the egg whites come out? Yes, it's the perfect gift for Uncle Dave. :)