Fran, Char and Dad's Visit

I knew that Fran and Char were coming to visit and Adam picked them up at the airport. When they got here Char said he had to go out to the car "to get something" when he came back in my Dad was with him! Oh my gosh! best surprise EVER!! I was so excited to see him!

We set out to explore The Dalles. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we do live in such an amazing town. I just wished my family was here and missed them so much that I had not fully appreciated all that The Dalles has to offer. We had so much fun at the Discovery Center, the river, the dam, and even just walking around the town.

We went to Hood River and Adam decided to go into a Juice Bar. We all thought it would just be like a Jamba Juice. We were sooooo WRONG! Dad and Char got this Beet juice drink that had beets, tumeric, ginger and apple juice in it. No ice or anything. Dad took one drink and with a super straight face he looks at Fran and says "This is the worst thing I have ever had, wanna drink." Hahaha. Each of our juices were equally as bad as Dads. Hahaha, I guess we aren't into the super natural stuff.

On our way to Portland we went to Multnomah and Horsetail Falls. Horsetail was so COOL! You could go right to the bottom and you got totally soaked! My camera lens was covered in water. We all loved it!

Multnomah was just as beautiful as ever. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Look at us all the way up on the bridge :) Adam stayed below to take the picture and Char refused to go on the bridge and stayed on the path. Dad kinda freaked out when I picked up Grant and held him up for the picture. He grabbed the back of Grant's coat the whole time. That's my Dad, always my hero.

We went to Portland and walked around the streets. It was a bit of a culture shock to us kids. Seeing people sleeping in doorways on one street and a shop that sold a $2,000 skillet on the next street over.

We were all super excited to try Sushi and Sashimi for the first time. Since I don't know what is good Sushi or not I don't know if it was of good quality, but I am so glad we tried it. I loved the experience and it is one I will never ever forget!

Hahaha, I love this picture of Dad and Char after eating a big ole bite of Wasabi

After a long day exploring Portland we ended the day at the hotel. We all went swimming and Dad even beat Char in a swim race :) Grant loved the water and it was a great ending to such a fun day.

We went to the mall before we dropped them off at the airport and this is a picture of how Stacie and I felt after dropping them off :(  It rained super hard the whole way home, and I have heard that the flight was kinda rough on their way home. I am so glad they came to visit. We had so much fun!!!!

Uncle Charlie's Christmas Gifts

Stacie has been wanting owl pellets for a few months now. Charlie searched until he found her some. He mailed them to her for Christmas. Stacie was so excited. I had to dissect the first one, but after that she did the second one on her own. She loves to find all the little bones.

Grant was super excited to get his very own dinosaurs. Char you are the best Uncle ever! Thanks for making my kids so happy :)

Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas. Although we did miss all of our family in Idaho. We opened our gifts ate a super yummy ham with cheesy potatoes, rolls a cherry pie and a pumpkin pie. A huge thank you to all the AMAZING Grandmas and Grannys who got some great gifts for us and the kids :)

Grandma Brenda got them a loom and dinosaurs and lots of other things that they love love love! Thanks Grandma!

Grandma and Grandpa the kids love their stuffed animals and jammies!

Granny they love their pillowcases, or should we say "blankies" cuz they have not put them down long enough for me to put them on pillows.



My Grandma McDonald made this very awesome family sign with all the birthdays of all the cousins, aunts, uncles, kids, grandparents. It has the years they were born along with the day, and month. If they have passed away then their death date is also on it. This is absolutely a treasure!
Yes, I really do wake up looking
this fantastic. Haha.

Grandma and Grandpa Jorgenson's gift is not pictured because we "accidentally" opened it early due to the fact that it felt like jars and Grandma makes the BEST canned goods. It was her famous pepper jelly and Salsa. Good thing we opened it early!

We love love love love love our Grandma's and are so lucky, thankful,appreciative and happy to have them in our lives!

It's All About The Crafts

My housecleaning, cooking and other chores have been shoved aside by all these fun crafts! I set the kids up with crafts (Grant mostly just cuts everything) of their own and we spend hours having so much fun.

I saw this on pinterest and just had to make them. The only bad thing is that I could only use what I already had at home.  I used an old shirt for the cut outs. I found templates on google and printed those for the tie and the turkey. The stretchy shirt fabric was horrible to sew and the hot glue shows through, but I did the best with what I had and it turned out pretty cute. I can't wait to make them again and this time use some better fabric. 

I used this tutorial for the base bow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVNSxHBgB1g I then made the ribbon spikes using this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQKZtwVsh7Q To top it off I made a loopy bow using this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS_QQuqh2rg I made a 1 inch bottlecap image as a centerpiece and I got that tutorial here http://folie-du-jour.blogspot.fr/search/label/Tutorial

Bee bow tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k_e1yO5Iek  .   Flower tutorial 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS_QQuqh2rg&spfreload=10

I used theribbonretreat.com for supplies and the tutorial on youtube  super easy and way cute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTc0zJF43m4

Now that you have some super good tutorials to work from, you can make all kinds of super fun bows.


The next two bows do not have a base bow. It is just 5 inch spikes with a boutique bow on top. I love to add the mini bows. That tutorial is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRtu0c5Ugk8

Stacie's wonderful work of art. She is so talented!

Another one of Stacies drawings

Grants masterpiece

 I literally have to make myself do one chore and then I reward myself by being able to craft a little. For example
Dishes done = two  bows
Vacuum = one bow
Put kids in the tub = whatever you can get done before they escape get out.
I have had people ask me how I make my bows. I have practiced and tried many many different ways and I think I have finally found the perfect tutorials.

What Happens When You Find The Camera On The Computer