December 2019 & January 2020

Here are some quick photos from the last couple of months. I wish I had clever titles for these blog posts. Hahah

Anyways, the photos are all over the place. After our trip to CA, we invited some friends over for tamales after church. Here the big kids are playing UNO while the grownups visit. It is so nice that we are moving to a new season of BIG kids who can entertain themselves okay for a bit.

Tamales! We dressed them in salsa and crema and it was so good. I also made a big pot of posole and it made my heart so happy to share comfort food from my childhood with friends.

The day before my neighbors came over for a tamalada. We spent all day making tamales. I think we made 4 dozen?! Here we are putting the masa in the husk.

Evie got in to help for a bit too!

Jonathan attached to me to the hip….as always. We made boozy coffee drinks, chatted, and caught up after being a way for a couple weeks. Yay for sweet neighbors!

 

Jump back to December. Making sugar cookies. The kids frosting the cookies.

We invited a couple of our neighbors for chili and Christmas festivities before we headed out on our CA trip.

On another  day, we had our annual family gingerbread making night!

December and Christmas really means crafting season at our house. Haha.

We saw the sun and headed out for a hike! We love Powell Butte.

At my canning club. Going around and sharing what we made before swapping.

Day date. Checking out the new pizza place by our house.

We had a mac and cheese night with our bible study. YUMMM.

Ev an I went to the Nutcracker with friends. It was so fun to go on a mama and daughter date!

California! We ended sick so many times on this trip. This trip was a doozy!

Christmas family picture for the win. We went to Vintage for the candle light service. It’s always sweet to be back and visit.z

Christmas Eve dinner.

Game night with the cousins at April’s new house. Woohoo! So much cry laughing.

Beach days when we weren’t sick! Beach with cousins/Curtis’ BFF.

Chowder on the wharf with the kids.

More beach days. I think we were outside from 9:30am-almost 4pm on this days. These sunny days were medicine for my soul.

Little new years eve party with cousins.

And then Curtis and I went out! Woohoo!

 

Another beach day. Tide pooling.

 

Family day back home in Portland.

Movie and pizza night with friends.

We made lots of cookies in December.

We rolled beeswax candles….because, tradition!

 

We made homeless care packages with friends. The big kids did so well assembling.

We made little notes to go into the care packages.

 

More holiday stuff. Making garlands with craberries. Jonathan did so good!

Christmas decorating.

 

Phone pics from January.

Hike with friends after our trip.

It snowed! For like a hot second.

We also worked on getting tile in our kitchen. LET THERE BE LIGHT!! It’s so much brighter. Slowly, very slowly, making this home the way we want it.

Evie and her new favorite book series. She read through 4 of the books in like a week and half.

Curtis commuter car broke down. New to us, truck!

 

Not technically January, but close enough?! Super bowl party  this last weekend.

 

 

 

 

October/November 2019

October Stuff:

It’s 2020 and I am now uploading October pics from last year. Homeschooling is taking over my life! I am taking less pics these days…and not because I want too. Booooo.

Anyways, the annual family pumpkin patch trip! We were so busy in October, we did’t even get a chance to carve our pumpkins. I don’t even know October got so jam packed?!

 

We went to a different pumpkin patch during the week, with our homeschool friends. This place was cute. They had some animals to pet, an indoor playground, u-cut dahlias and other flowers, and fresh apple cider donuts. Oh Oregon and your cute farms.

 

Some pics from our “autumn nature walk”. We made nature bracelets, went on an “autumn scavenger hunt”, read, “Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn”, and had a picnic after our walk. We ate popcorn and I made some hot chocolate for all to share.

More nature outings with friends.

Day date with this cutie.

 

Friday family dinner nights with our Portland family.

 

Some November pics. November was also busy. Grandparents visited, we celebrated Ev’s birthday, and we dedicated Jon at church.

I didn’t get any pictures from the dedication, because I forgot. Whoops. After the dedication, we invited a few friends over for brunch and brought out the trusty waffle maker! We made waffles and latte’s and Jonathan napped the whole time. HAHA

 

Now, Evie’s 6th birthday Party! It was a kitty themed party. We ate snacks and donuts and the grownups drank so much coffee. We needed it!

 

Birthday morning. On her actual birthday, we had pancakes, went to the Children’s Museum, opened presents, and went out to Sushi for dinner.

 

Halloween! This time we went trick or treating with our new friends who live a few minutes from us. We met at their house, ate pizza, and then the grown ups filled up their to go cups with the mulled wine my friend had made!

 

On a nature walk with the kids. It was just them and myself on this walk. Which is odd. Hahaha! We usually do our nature outings with friends. Still it was really great to have some one on one time with my three. We had a sweet time together.

Some homeschool scenes:

Our schedule this past fall.

Jonathan always wants to be included.

We went apple picking in October!

 

Sometime in November, our old friend came to visit. We made a roast, mashed potatoes, some veggies, and slathered everything with some spicy cranberry sauce I got from canning club. It was such a good meal. Our house is tiny and between all the kids in our community, the grownups always end up eating standing up around our kitchen island. HAHAHA. I love sharing meals together. Even in our cozy house!

 

Crafting with homeshool friends. Celebrating autumn with dipping leaves in beeswax to preserve them.

 

A few of my girlfriends and I get together every so often and craft/do something artistic. Here is watercolor night at my house in October. In November we made autumn wreaths!

 

I made a bunch of Americano’s this past fall. Yay for espresso machines!

I caught Ev reading her chapter book. She finished a chapter book in November. So we went to Powell Books to get her another one! It’s fun to see her read.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with some dear friends and one of Ev’s bff’s. We returned to their house a couple days later for CREPESGIVING! We used all the leftovers from thanksgiving and put them in Crepes. So good! Girl’s helping making the crepes.

Here they are again on Thanksgiving. Eating their pie!

 

That’s it for now!