Red

I love old stuff. 

Came across this picture with the door on a blog (bloomininalaska) and had to share it. The colors are wonderful and it's, well, old!

The little tricycle, it's here in Oregon (picture is mine) and the kids make good use of it. Kids bikes are so adorable and little metal ones are the best. 

Both are red. I guess I like red too.

To build a fire...

Andrew's parents have about 20 acres of land here and with that comes the ability for roaming and riding. The kids love it and I love seeing them play. I'm not even kidding when I say I think my husband has more fun than they do. He took the kids out on the 4-wheeler the other day and his dad built a bonfire yesterday out in the back of the property. For lunch the guys roasted hot dogs over the coals and we enjoyed a visit from Great Grandpa Ralph out there. The weather is great for playing out, no snow and fairly warm. "Fairly" means, above freezing.

John yelled, "whooooooooooooooooooah!" the whole time he was on the ride, but with a smile.

Ella has loved this since she was little and Peter liked it until "Daddy went way too fast." Peter is the less adventurous of the three when it comes to machinery.

Gifts

Before we left for vacation, I was intending to post about our Christmas decorations, but that didn't happen amidst all the scramble to get ready to travel for the week. Now that we are across the continent, I will show a few pictures of the kids opening their gifts. They were so excited about all the wonderful things they were given back home and since we've been in Oregon. The hubby and I were given everything from our lists, which was awesome. Thank you to everyone.

We have enjoyed watching the kids open their gifts this year, since it's the first year they are all very into it. John has been a crack up saying, "Oh wow!" about almost everything he opened. Peter was beyond thrilled to get the boat he asked for and Ella loves her tea set. John flies his "spy plane" around the house saying, "Fly Fly to you!" They also got very neat letter ornaments, puzzles, books, dinosaurs, crafts, clothes and my sister made crayon and pencil rolls for them to travel with. It has been a blessed time and we are most thankful for the best gift of all, God's son sent to us, the reason for everything.

It's cold and I'm feeling crafty

I made a comment last week about how we went to an art show and it put a little want in my being to make something. Well I did. It's not anything amazing, but it took up a small portion of one evening while my kids cut up shreds of paper next to me and were happy the whole time. I found the idea in a holiday craft magazine that I read while back in Plymouth. Here's my little paper tree. In the magazine it had the tree with old sheet music, which would have been great, but I already had this scrapbook paper on hand. Maybe next time.

Cut out 1x4in strips of paper. I just added as I went along, not sure how many I actually used.

Get a foam cone and some straight pins. Well maybe this should be step one. Yes, probably. Do this first.

Start folding the strips in half, but don't actually crease the paper, then pin them around in rows until you're done.

When you are done, use hot glue to put fabric or paper on the top and use any kind of topper you want. They suggested a bell, I don't have a bell, so I used this ball from my vase. 

Then, it snowed and got even colder...

So I sewed...

My friend asked me to make these for her kids. I love these towels because they are bigger than a baby towel and can be used until they're too cool for hoodie towels. But really, who is too cool for a hooded towel? 

Pressin' Cider

"The older I get, the more I become an apple pie, sparkling cider kind of guy."

Scott Foley

Wish Peter was a little happier in this picture, he just wanted to keep playing with the toys inside. Oh well.

"People came from miles around for their cider." ~ Jayne Berger

Back over Thanksgiving weekend, some friends of ours invited us back out to their farm for their son's 5th birthday party. It was one fun day. We got to do something we've never done before. I'm pretty sure Andrew has done it, but I know the rest of us haven't. Use a Cider Press! We saw how you pick the apples out, put them in the top, wind the crank, crush the apples and out comes the juice into a pot. It was really a neat time. And the best cider we've ever had for sure. Before we left the house, I thought it would be cute for all the kids to wear their plaid shirts. Then I remembered I had one too and decided we could ALL wear them. I brought Andrew's down after he saw the kids and his response was, "Are you serious??" Good thing he loves me so much. He put his shirt on and we were all Clad in Plaid. I will only be able to get away with this for a few more years before my kids start ganging up with their dad against me in my efforts to do silly stuff like this.

Thank you to the Reitz's for having us to their party!

Ready...lots of pictures...

They have a huge dog that John was just enamored with.

Peter was in tractor heaven. 

John loves to be up on Andrew's shoulders so he can see everything.

The birthday boy and his dad started us off.

Each kids took a turn with the crank. 

Helping John put in his apple that he so carefully picked himself.

John's cup of cider.

They stared spotting deer in the fields.  

We all got a ride! The kids who live there
were telling us about how they ride in there and
push the cows back to their pastures and bring the babies back to the barns. So fun!