Projects

So my picture taking of our creations is sporadic at best. But here are a few more. Andrew made these awesome hat and glove sets for Alec and Emma. The hats are crocheted and the gloves are knit. I am jealous, and was very tempted to keep a set for myself. Here is the one picture that I took before we gave them away:
Here is Emma after opening her set:
And Alec after opening his. He wasn't quite as excited. Not a morning kid.

Bike Trip from July

We are back from Mexico! It was delightful. I will share pictures soon, I promise. But for now, here is a scrapbook page from July that I just finished.

The Problem With Cats...

....is that they are so happy about the grossest things. Andrew found this scene outside earlier this month.Poor bird. At least this doesn't happen too much. Our cats tend to do way more of this:

Freezing

Psst...we are in Mexico right now. These posts are coming on their own.

So when we went to make the previously mentioned jam, we opened our freezer to find a little problem. We knew that a little water had gotten in, but we were lazy and ignored it. When we came back to get out our frozen berries, this was in the bottom of our freezer.
You are seeing the top of a foot square (at least) frozen block of ice. I guess the leak grew. We couldn't ignore it any longer...only because the berries we needed were in the bottom of that frozen block. And we were in the middle of a snowstorm. So our front entry soon looked like this:I did discover a good method of defrosting. You heat up a pot of boiling water. Set the whole pot in the freezer and shut the lid. Come back in an hour and it is steamy warm in there. We didn't lose too much, mostly just the last of a box of skinny cows. Not too bad really. Needless to say, our freezer is now back outside and is covered this time.

Winter Jammy Jam

Last night Andrew and I made this:What you see in that box is really 17 of these:
One for each of the special services staff that I work with in my teaching position this year. We also made 4 for our self as we were running low on jam. My original plan was to also include the principal, secretaries, etc but when I starting adding people up, I quickly changed my mind. This group of people included only the paraeducators and the special education certificated staff that work directly with the kids that I am responsible. Wow, it really does take a whole team. I owe all of these people a huge thanks!

Birthday Projects

Many of you have asked about some of the things that Andrew and I have been "creating". Some of them are boring, but I will share a few with you over the next few weeks as people receive their gifts. This post is about November birthday gifts. We made this set of notecards, from photos that Andrew took, and gave it to my Granny for her birthday. However, she didn't get it until last week due to poor planning on my part. Oops, sorry Granny!I also made (semi) cute little booklets of blank paper for both Rachelle and Emma as part of their birthday presents. I didn't think to take any pictures of those though as they were made on a whim.

More creating posts to come. Hope you are ready!

One Project Complete

This is one project that I have been working on for a while, with the help of my parents and Rachelle. Together we made a book full of pictures of Josh. The book spans his life, contains all of our favorite pictures of him, our favorite quotes, and shows him at different points throughout his life. This is a slideshow of the book, with music added to it.

We love you and miss you everyday Josh!

Scrapbook Page from April

Can you tell I'm getting caught up on my scrapbooking this weekend?

Food

This is a little tribute to all of canning, freezing, and other preserving that will go in our scrapbook. If you want to see the pictures in more detail, just click on the collage. Just a little update on all of those areas:

• We are still getting carrots, when I am not too frozen to go pull them out of the garden.
• The chickens are back living in their coop, but they aren't laying. Any suggestions?
• The herbs are still growing, which amazes me.
• We went around and cleaned up all of the apples a few weeks ago. The animals ate the bad ones and we cut, cleaned, and hand pressed the still edible ones. Next year I think we would like to try and get out there sooner and use more of the apples. The apple chips we made were tasty!
• Our compost pile is still going strong, the leaves we raked up really helped it stay warmer.
• I have been making zucchini bread or muffins fairly regularly and we still have quite a bit frozen.
• We are almost out of jam and about ready to tap into the frozen berries to make more.
• The blueberries have been in pancakes and are delicious.
• The canned peaches are quite tasty alone or in oatmeal.
• I just started an indoor pot of cilantro and think that I will probably try and start a few more plants inside after our Christmas vacation.
• Hope you all are enjoying the holiday eating!
  

Fall Fun

(You can click on the picture to make it bigger)

We really weren't torturing our cats either. They kept hanging around. Maybe they liked being thrown in the pile of leaves?

Christmas Letter

We sent out our Christmas letter today. We are sending them by email instead of using real mail this year. If you are reading this, you probably already know more about what we have been up to than those who are just reading our Christmas letter. But, if you didn't get an email from us, it is because we don't have your email address. If you are reading this, I would love to have your email address and I will send you a copy of Christmas letter! (You don't get to read it until I get your email.)
Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!
Lauriel & Andrew

Halloween Pictures

(You can click on the picture so that it gets bigger)

These pictures are old, but I am finally having some computer time with no deadlines and I am starting to get caught up. On Halloween, Andrew and I did not feel like dressing up and doing crazy Halloween festivites. So we had a group of like minded friends over and had a wonderful Anti-Halloween Harvest Party. We had squash and fall foods, carved pumpkins, ate pie, and played games. And we didn't do a lot of dressing up, it was wonderful!

Pictures from the Half!

You can click on the page to make it bigger so you can see all of the pictures.