Cozy

We started using our woodstove last week. It is AWESOME!!!! The back rooms even get up to 70 degrees...for free!!! I love it, love it, love it! So nice not to hear the furnace all day, and wood heat is definitely warmer...to the bone warmer!!


Reading with the kiddos...Anslow thinks he likes story time too. We are enjoying the magic treehouse series. We finished #4 today, a pirate one. Next up is a ninja one, we are looking forward to it! We do enjoy a good cuddle with a good book, and a fuzzy friend or two!

Some cheer

Our first Christmas in the new house. What a relaxing way to spend the holiday! My parents came to join in the festivities. We opened about 2/3 of the gifts on Christmas Eve, then finished up with stockings and the remaining gifts in the morning. A good time was had by us!

A surprise visit from Santa in the middle of the present opening, He arrived at the patio door, he is very tall!

Mom and Dad got their favorite yearly gift, a photo calendar. My brother and I collaborate from different sides of the world (He is in Okinawa) to make this gift happen. Thank goodness for the Internet and computer skills, and digital cameras, and smiley kiddos!


A new rug for Mom and Dad's master bathroom. Lots of store scouring and internet browsing to find the right one, and it fits the space!! woo hoo!


A big Transformer. It took Mommy several attempts and at least a hour to learn this guy, but I DID finally do it!!! Now, to teach him!


A collection of kitties with a house for Ady. She enjoyed her gifts. She also loves the doll with long hair, it seems to be around the house a lot and changes clothes often, a big hit.
The other big hit with the kiddos are the zhu zhu hamsters. They race them across the floor and they really are totally adorable, what a fun thing!

Ju-jitsu at home

We started taking Ju-jitsu as a family about a month ago. We really like it. This week they were able to send us home with a video of the first Kata. Kata number one has 25 positions. My understanding of a Kata is that it is a way for our muscles to become familiar with the many kicks and punches and blocks. There are seven to learn, eventually. We were working on learning steps 1-3 last night. Caiden had to wear his pants and belt. (thanks Kyle) Aren't Daddy and Son so cute? (cute probably isn't the best choice of words...)

Soap: a fun kid project

The kids and I spent the last couple of days melting and molding soaps for some Christmas presents.


I bought glycerin soap at Michaels, it has coconut and aloe in it. I chopped up the blocks and the kids put them in the top of the double boiler to melt. I was surprised how fast it melted. I was picturing the incredible slow melt of parafin wax. One set of directions suggested using the microwave and taking it out every 10 seconds to stir. This method didn't actually sound like much fun, they like to stir on the stove and feel BIG.

Next, they chose a color and dropped the food coloring in drop by drop. Surprisingly they didn't ask to mix the colors. The closest they got was Caiden asking to make a rainbow. Maybe we need to work on this a bit more...apparently my darlings aren't familar with primary colors. (I feel a lesson coming on!) I had also bought sparkles for the soap, and we added some to each batch. Michaels is really a fun place to gather craft supplies, good thing I hardly ever go in!!


Next, spoon the melted and colored soap into molds. We used ice cube trays. After we had 1/2 the soap made, I did see cute Christmas shaped silicone molds at the dollar store, but I didn't want to have to store them, so boring cubes it is! Maybe another year, tree shaped soap would have been cute. After pouring into the molds, it takes a couple of hours to cool and harden. They popped out like a charm. (although I did spray them with Pam at the beginning)


Once they were all completed, Ady divided them up between the containers, I think they turned out cute, and I hope their friends will enjoy their Christmas soaps. I also think that Caiden and Ady enjoyed the project, they had smiles from start to finish and took turns beautifully!

Glamorous lives

We got to ride in a limo last week. My sister in laws birthday surprise was a limo ride with the family and dinner at Claim Jumper. There were eleven of us and it was great fun. I had never ridden in a stretch limo before, the kids thought it was fun to drink sparkling cider while we rode around. I thought it was great to not have to drive in separate vehicles and worry about directions or getting separated. The cousins seemed to enjoy each others company. Amber and Kyle are very gracious to their younger cousins who totally adore them!

The tree this year

We finally got the tree brought up from the attic of the other house, let it get warm, then set it up. I am the official tree assembler, my elves helped a little before tiring of that and running away. They did return though to hang the ornaments, they were only kind of excited about the balls, when the boxes of special ornaments came out, there was quite a scramble.

Caiden figured out this year that he could stand on a chair and get them much higher, which is better than the gathering of ornaments that we experienced last year. Daddy finally took a break from watching football (and taking these smashing photos) to help with the top. My job was to untangle the ornament hooks and give advice (which I'm never short of!) I think it turned out lovely.

Will Stop for fresh fruit

Last week during our Thanksgiving travels we stopped at an orange grove in Orland, CA. My husband is a bit of a fruit freak, and so we stop regularly for large quantities of fruit, especially if freshly picked. We stopped at the grove on the way down, then again on the way back up. At our second stop, we got a tour of the packing facility and the kids and I and the dog went for a walk through the grove. Caiden picked a couple of oranges. We got bags of mandarins and of Fishers. The machines this particular grower has to bag the oranges happen to be old potato baggers from our area...which of course leads to farmers discussing crops and other things...which is probably when the kids and I headed out for a walk.

The kids have been eating the mandarins like crazy. I don't personally care for them, but they love how easy they are to peel, the small wedges (perfect for little fingers) and how juicy they are. I like the Fishers, they are low in acid and very juicy and sweet.



Today we made orange juice out of the Fishers. It was fabulous. We even got a tiny impromptu fractions lesson out of it, when we counted how many oranges it took to make the juice, because they wanted to count each 1/2 as one, so we got to pair them up and count again. I loved the mechanical juicer, it was acquired from Kevin's grandmother's kitchen a couple years ago and I hadn't tried it out yet, great fun! So, we used 10 oranges to get 3 cups of juice, doesn't seem too bad!! Certainly more than I would get by doing it by hand! Plus it was absolutely delicious!

Our Master Shower

Kevin spent a couple of weeks getting our master shower completed.Installing the fiberglass shower was fun. It came in three parts and of course almost nothing lined up just right, so a day or two of cutting away little parts and making the holes fit just so and installing the drain and caulking, caulking caulking (I think we should own some of the company with as much caulk as we have used with the home set up!)
Next, Tile and grout. Then trimwork.
I love it!