Baby it's Cold Outside!

I went on a youth group retreat with my two oldest girls this weekend and it was such a great time! We went to Leavenworth (no, not the Federal prison. It's a small Bavarian village in Central Washington.) where it was covered in a beautiful, thick blanket of snow. Everyone was thrilled because we haven't gotten ANY snow this year! We played outside, had snowball fights, sledding, and a very cold and wet game of capture the flag. Camp Camrec was the name of our facility, and it was a wonderful experience. Right before we were ready to board our bus and head home on Sunday, we heard that our town got over a foot of snow! At that point there was a grumble spreading through the crowd of kids. I think they were wanting to be done with the snow :)

This was my son's reaction to our epic snowfall. I think that he was pretty excited to finally have some of that powdery white stuff to jump around in.

My ladies in the hen house, however, are not nearly as overjoyed. I found an egg in their coop that was completely frozen solid. We decided to peel it and see what a frozen egg looked like.

That first photo is kind of blurry, but it was really weird. It almost looked like a hard boiled egg, but it was solid and slimy. Pretty gross!

My dog is also not enjoying herself. She didn't understand what the snow was. There was so much of it that it was even with the porch. So she stepped off the porch into the snow, and poof! She sunk right down into it and it scared her. Honestly, it was pretty hysterical. We got her in right away and warmed her up.

This is after the jump. You can see that big dip in the snow on the right.

I have some sewing to do to keep me busy while it's too cold and wet to do much outside. One thing I'd like to complete before spring comes is my Chicopee quilt. I have the top finished and all sandwiched together with the batting and backing fabric.

I made this using the Jelly Roll Race Method. It is so fast and fun! I added borders to my top since this particular jelly roll came with much less than the normal 42 strips of fabric.

I'm hoping the snow melts before too long, but we'll enjoy it while it's here and use it as an excuse to get some things done inside.

Egg Surprise

I trusted my daughter when she said "no, mom. The chickens haven't been laying ANY eggs!" Part of her daily chores include letting the hens out every morning and checking the coop for new eggs. It is our first winter with the hens and I have heard that they don't lay much at all when it's cold. So I believed that maybe it had just been too cold for them to produce. I got up early one morning last week so I decided to let them out and let my daughter sleep in. When I looked in the coop... 16 EGGS!!! And two of them are so big that I think they might have baby dinosaurs in them...

Since that day they have continued laying about 2-3 eggs every day. Tomorrow is Saturday so maybe we'll have omelets for breakfast. Goodness knows we have plenty of eggs!

Birthdays and Winter Fun

Winter is a busy for me. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this. As if Christmas weren't enough reason to be buried in things to do, our family also has 3 birthdays within a 2 week time period at the same time.

The first birthday we celebrate is for our sweet puppy Bijou. I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't celebrate the birthday of their dog on Christmas Eve, but she is an important member of our family. She turned 4 this year.

The next day was Christmas and it snowed ALL DAY! It was great. Behind our house is the Junior High and they have a huge hill. What better thing to do after opening all the presents than to load everyone up in the truck and go sledding?!

Here is Alice flying over a jump on the hill. She got a bit airborne on that one!

 

And my little man taking a break from making snow angels.

 

 

Irene isn't really the dare devil of the family. In fact, she's quite a chicken. She was a bit scared of such a big hill, but once she went down the first time, we couldn't stop her.

 

And this is Sara after a crash... letting me know she's okay.

 

 

The next birthday is my husband's. He turned 34 on New Years Eve. He thought he was turning 35 so he was excited to be 34 for another year =) We went out to dinner with some friends at a fancy restaurant and then went to a kid-friendly New Years Eve party afterward. I love anything sparkly, so to ring in the New Year I got a new sparkly shirt!

 

Irene had the next birthday on January 5th. She's the big 1-0!!! Or as she would say "DOUBLE DIGITS, BABY!!!" We went to her favorite place (a local indie book store) and she got a new book. Then she chose Olive Garden for dinner. By the way... did you know they no longer sing Happy Birthday and give you a dessert at Olive Garden if you go there on your birthday?! Maybe it's just our Olive Garden. Or maybe our server was grumpy and didn't want to. After dinner we played outside in the snow and it seemed like the perfect picture opportunity:

And for something crafty!!!! I've been in a huge crafting slump lately. Working is really putting a damper on my sewing time. I opted for a project that is more transportable. As many of you know, The Frosted Pumpkin has a new cross-stitch sampler. I never did finish my Dessert of the Month sampler, but the latest one is a Woodland Sampler! How could I say no to woodland creatures?

I have all my embroidery floss, but am having trouble finding the tea-dyed linen. I started my sampler but the white floss doesn't show up very well on the ivory linen I bought. I'm going to tea dye it myself and start over!

What have you been up to all winter? Hibernating, being super crafty, or out enjoying snowy weather activities?





 

Settling In

We moved into our new home 3 weeks ago and we are settling in very well. It has been so great to spend time with friends and family. I have gotten to spend a lot more time with my husband too, since he isn't spending 2 hours a day commuting. His work is now less than 10 minutes from our house. The sun shines here, even when it's cold. The sky is a color of blue I haven't seen in a very long time.

This was the weather on moving day. If I ever move again, will someone please remind me that winter is not a good time to do it?

The kids and the dog were pretty cozy in the car though. The bad weather didn't seem to bother them too much. Of course, they just had to ride along.

It took a few hours to get over the mountains and into central Washington. When we left Puyallup the skies were grey and dreary. As soon as we got over the pass, the sky became blue and there was a huge bright ball of light in the sky.

This is what the sky looks like everyday where we live now. It was the kids' first day of school here and there was a rainbow! Can you spot it? Can you spot the cute little boy too?

My favorite room in the new house is the living room. It is so bright and cozy. I love sitting on the couch in the morning with my coffee.

There really has been a lot to do here so I need to get back on a blogging schedule. I have been sewing so much! My new sewing room/closet has been getting quite a bit of use. Everything is organized and has it's place. It kind of has to be that way when you have a smaller space. But it makes it more enjoyable to sew because I'm not spending half an hour looking for a specific fabric or a pair of scissors before I can start making something. I share my sewing space with my clothes and that's okay because I don't have many of those.

The next post will be FULL of tons of sewing and knitting stuff! I promise! No more talk about moving. Let's get back to the making =)