Oh Pinterest

Dear Pinterest,

It's 9:47 pm.  Thanks to Pinterest:
-I'm hungry for pizza and blueberry cheesecake.
-I want a bigger porch
-I know how to bake Callie's birthday cake (thanks LaRonda!)
-I want a black rubber door mat so I can paint it white
-I remembered that I forgot to show the boys how to make paper snowflakes today.
-I'm excited about salt dough ornaments
-I now know that Victoria Secrets makes a modest coat -don't judge a book by it's cover I guess eh? Hmm.. It is a lovely coat!
-I want to sew some hand warmers.
-I want a chicken coupe.  I wonder if I'd have to get chickens then?
-I NEED a fireplace by my shower!! (Jessie you're doing it again!! :))
-I've been inspired and wasted some time.  Got to love it!

If you need an invite let me know -I was not paid to say that and pinterest doesn't have a clue who I am. Who does that remind you of?  I wonder if Pioneer Woman is on pinterest?   She'd probably post a lot of dog pictures...

November Birthdays.

Isaiah turned 6 on November 12.  Crazy.  It's fun having a 6 year old, but it makes me feel old.  Due to a wedding my parents were in town for Isaiah's party.  It was fun to have them here.  Other than a party we had for Nate in Thunder Bay they usually miss parties around here. Sadly, with all the craziness of a party I totally forgot to take a picture of Mom and Dad with Isaiah. :(  

My niece, Moriah (Matt's second oldest) also had a birthday on the 12th.  She turned 11.  Crazy.  Since Mom and Dad were in town we decided to join the parties.  We had a lot of fun!  

Jeremy's dad turned 60 on the 12th also.  Crazy.  Not that Eldon turned 60, but that we have 4 people between our two families with birthdays on the 12th.  Jeremy's birthday was on the 15th.  We got with Jeremy's family later in the week to celebrate the birthdays on that side of the family.  Sadly, again I forgot to take many pictures.  

Our nephews, Adam and Ashton turned 1 on November 9th.  We of course did not make that party, but we celebrated from afar. :)

Here are precious few pictures from Isaiah and Riah's party. 

The handsome and beautiful birthday people

Isaiah has been saving for a certain Lego set for awhile.  He was very please that his grandparents decided to help him out so that he could buy it before he turns 16.  

Camping

I just realized that I never posted about our camping trip from last month.  Will I ever post about current things again or will I always be a month behind?  :(

We went camping one weekend in October.  We thought: "Who else camps in October?  Surely we will have the place to ourselves".  When we pulled up to the camp office I saw a sign that said "Campground full. Do not enter".  Yeah right.  Someone just forgot to take the sign down the end of August right?  Jeremy went to the office.  He came back out.  Everything is full, but one site and it's surrounded by boy scouts.  We decided to live dangerously and took that last sight.  Yes. were were surrounded by many small boys, but other than a few that ran through our site and the noise, they didn't bother us.  They must have had some good leaders.  They were all quiet before by 10:00. 

We had beautiful, slightly cold weather.  Much better than humid and hot.

Our food was simple and processed.  I know my limits.

Cutting wood.  Wet wood that didn't want to burn, but it kept them busy.  Callie spent much of her time crawling around and exploring.  Keeping an eye on her was a full time job.  

Brothers. 

The little grey speck by the falls is Jeremy with Isaiah and Nate.  Pictures like this (all the people) remind me that I don't link in "the bush" anymore.  It was just slightly crazy.  At one point a small boy asked me to watch his blanket while he played.  I finally went in search of his parent so I could move on to another spot.  Another time I saw a person wearing green skinny jeans.  He was much past slightly older than someone who should wear skinny jeans.  It's been a month and I still remember.  Yes, slightly crazy, but entertaining all the same. 

More hiking.  She loved the backpack, but also enjoyed trying to keep up with the rest of us. 

Fire, fire, let's all play with fire.

We did a lot of hiking.  It was a good 24 hours away.  I think next time we'll try for longer.  It was so nice to be away from  phones and noise and laundry and other things that needed done.  It was good to be together as a family.

In closing, Nate shared these thoughts with me late at night by the fire:

Nate: "I would feel bad if I were walking along and saw a sign that said "you are lost" because that person that made that sign wouldn't know how to get back and I wouldn't know how to get back".  

A Princess Party

Last month we were invited to our niece, Kassidy's princess party. All invited were to come dressed as a prince or princess.  Some how the princes at our house decided to go as knights/mighty warriors.  Preparing for this party was a lot of fun and provided some good family knight night activities.  

I've been wanting to try freezer paper stenciling for a long time.  It was a blast!   I ended up doing it myself instead of having the boys help because their project with Jeremy was much more appealing...

These swords are dangerous!  They are made of wood, they have screw and saws were used to make them.  Sadly I don't have a better picture of the finished project.  I was too scared.

The Princess and her cake -my sister-in-law knows how to do a party!

Callie, in her tutu playing at the make up table -she loved it!  See the mirror in the back?  All the girls thought this was great.   I wish I had more pictures. 

The littlest princess at the party -our beautiful new niece Breille Faith.   She is a doll! 

The day of the party our family was blessed by a friend with tickets to Dutch Wonderland -what a place!!  We had a blast.  It was a very full day and I'm blaming that on the reason Jeremy and I showed up in jeans and t-shirts to the princess party. :)  I must say that a lot of the adults were dressed for the part!

Generations

Several weeks ago we invited a neighbor in for homemade ice cream.  It didn't work out so at the last minute we invited my grandparents and my aunt and uncle.  What a great evening!  Sometimes last minute plans are the best.  

I love these picture of Callie with her great-grandma Esther.  

Great-Aunt Audrey reading to the boys.

A different time, but same great-grandparents.