Moose

We made a little craft using felt, pipe cleaners, Sharpie, and the infamous googly eyes.

To begin, trace a hand.

 Then cut it out.

 To make a hole for the antlers I tried using a hole puncher.  My hole puncher had seen better days and finally met its demise attempting this heroic feat.  So Plan B was to cut a slit at the base of the thumb.

 Next stick a pipe cleaner through the slit.

 Have fun shaping the antlers.

 The thumb becomes the face and the fingers are the legs as Brielle is trying to figure out here.

Add a googly eye, color the nose, and there you have it.

Paper Plate Owl

Using three paper plates, we made this owl.  I didn't take pictures of the process but figured I'd share the result.  Cute little guy, isn't he?

Rachael Ray Lies

Today I started two fires.  In the kitchen.  Yep, flames and all.

The first was when I was trying to boil water.  And I'm sad to say that this isn't the first time I've burned something boiling water. 

I began by filling a pot in the sink.  But lo and behold I had a gogurt pusher-upper in the same sink. 

Well, it stuck to the bottom of the pot, unbeknown to me. 

About 5 minutes later I was blowing out flames as if it were my 100th birthday.

Later in the day I decided to make muffins.  According to Rachel Ray's Thanksgiving show, you can put a pan on the bottom of the oven.  The bottom of the oven acts as another shelf when you need oven space.  That's where I heard that lie.

After about 7 minutes I smelled smoke.  Upon opening the oven door I was blown away by the big smoke cloud that escaped.  The muffin pan was on fire.  Not only did I lose my pan (a gift from my sister), I burnt the MN oven mitt (a gift from my parents) that I took the thing out with.  At least it stopped there.

The good news is that the other two levels of muffins are okay.  I know you were worried.

The bad news is that now I have to go make dinner.  Hopefully we still have a home after that event.

p.s.  Bryce said that Rachel Ray probably meant a glass or metal dish, not one of those rubbery baking pans.  I'm still holding her responsible!

We Moved!

Betcha been wondering why there's been no posts for a while.  Besides having technical difficulties with this blog, WE MOVED!

The story's a long one, but I wanted to get some pics up first so here goes:

This is our driveway which was the excuse Bryce needed to get a jumbo John Deer snowblower.

Our backyard.  "Yard" used loosely here as you can see, no grass.

Here's a view of the backyard looking out from our kitchen.

Our friendly front porch.

As you walk in, this is what it looks like to the right.  OR what it did look like.  This is not our stuff but the staging company's fixin's.

Eating area and kitchen.

Family room, eating area, and kitchen all are open to one another.

The dining room next to the kitchen which is now our "drawing room".  Can you tell I've been reading a lot of Jane Austen lately?  It's contains craft supplies and our piano.  Hence, the drawing title.

Now if you go back to the font door and look up, here's what you see...a cute loft.

Can you see why we fell in love with this place?

Back to the front door.  If you look to the left you'll see our formal living room which,  in reality, is anything but formal.  Right now it contains boxes and junk.  But maybe someday may contain a desk and bookshelves or something.

Adjacent to the living room is a bathroom and Brielle's room.

Now let's go upstairs.

Here's the master bedroom.

And bath.

There are also two kid room upstairs with a jack and jill connecting them together.  This allows kids to be up to something without parents' knowledge which I have already learned.

Now down to the basement.

And a selling point for us was this cute little playhouse they built under the stairs.

Galina's already begun decorating as you can imagine.

There's even a door down there so we can let Daisy out when we're too lazy to head upstairs and let her out from the laundry room.

Speaking of laundry room, here it is, next to the kitchen and garage.

And there you have it, our dream home on 4.66 acres.  I'll have to tell the story in another post in the future.  But needless to say, we feel incredibly blessed.  Incredibly.  We have been known to walk around aimlessly asking aloud, "Can you believe this is really our house?"  I guess hard work really does pay off, Father!  That and God's favor on us.  Thank you, Lord!

Galina's Latest Pursuit

Galina started gymnastics a couple of weeks ago.

 She took off with flying colors.

 I don't think her smile faded the whole class.

 Even when she was upside down.

 I think she's a natural.

 No fear serves her well for once.

 You can always tell how much fun Galina is having by how messy her hair is.

 That little boy in the corner is checking her out!

 See what I mean about the smile?

 And that boy is still checking her out!

 I'm impressed!

 She really enjoys it.

 Look at that face!

 And those cheeks....

 She's got the pose down for sure.

 Time to take a break?

 Who knows what she's doing here when she's supposed to be listening.

 Oh, I see...always one step ahead, I guess.

Galina the gymnast!  A bundle of joy and energy just waiting to bust out.