Life with Justin, Betsy & Dave (& Baby!)

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Our Life Today

The new year is flying by even though Dave is still jobless and it feels like there are many more hours to each day now that we have a slower paced life at the cabin!

Today was a homeschool ski day at the local ski hill. Justin has been enthralled watching snowboarding on the Olympics lately, and he was excited to get out and try it for himself. He loved it!

Abby and I went into town to do a little shopping. Then after her nap she got to watch a little show with her best pal, Minnie!

Pinewood Derby Cubscout Race

My brother Jeff's family came out to spend President's Day weekend with us at the cabin. It was also Justin's Pinewood Derby race for Cub Scouts! He came in second for his den (Webelo/Arrow of Light) and his car was also voted the best in style! So he came home with two trophies. It was fun to have extra family there cheering him on!

Sledding fun!

Justin was excited to have extra sledding buddies with his cousins there. He, Kaitlyn, and Elissa had a lot of fun sledding down the driveway. It was a gorgeous winter day!

Strange local festival

We had heard about a local festival in a nearby town and we all ventured out to experience small town Wisconsin life. The first event was turning a bunch of kids running around a baseball field trying to be the first to capture a pig (they got to bring the pig home). I'm not a huge animal rights activist but I felt a little squeamish watching teenage boys leaping and landing on a little pig. Oof!

The next event was a chicken toss. Everybody crowded around and 3 men threw about 100 chickens off the roof and people tried to catch them. It was really...something!

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Christmas!

Here's a snapshot of Christmas 2017

The Friday before Christmas we met my parents and Jeff's family up in Duluth to walk through Bentleyville. It's a gigantic outdoor Christmas light display complete with free hot cocoa, cookies, popcorn, marshmallows, and fires to roast them. It was COLD! (around 10 degrees) but so much fun. It put us all in a festive mood to begin Christmas week.

We took a school bus shuttle to Bentleyville. Abby was ecstatic and sang "The Wheels on the Bus" the whole way (only a 5 minute drive, thankfully!)

My parents with Justin and Abby in the lovely glowing light tunnel entering the area

Dave, Justin, Abby, and Me

They had free strollers to borrow (yay!) and Abby stayed toasty. Dave was a bit cold. HA!

I loved the big #OnlyinMN lights! Crazy Minnesotans...set up an outdoor attraction in the coldest part of winter haha!

Justin, Kaitlyn, and Elissa

Christmas Eve morning, after church, we opened our family presents at the cabin (notice Abby's bare feet! You can take the girl out of California, but...)

Justin "helping" Abby open one of her gifts

She loved playing with the screw and ratchet set from Grandma and Grandpa S.

After opening our gifts, we headed in to my parents house, where candy cane making was on!

Dave is helping the mixture cool down after adding the root beer flavoring (Justin's choice).

Next, Justin gets in on the action by pulling the candy

It's turning a lovely, glossy amber

The finished canes! Aren't they pretty?

Justin playing chess with his cousin Carl Christmas Day

"Santa" came while Abby was napping!

The filled stockings, ready for the mayhem

Abby with her giant Mickey and Minnie dolls. She LOVES them!

Abby wrapped up in a "baby burrito" (or beebee beetoh as she calls it) with Micah

Feeding the birds with Papa and his brand new squirrel-proof (maybe?) bird feeder!

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Mickey and Minnie haha!

We need to get this girl to Disney World!

Justin is turning into an expert shoveler!

Back to the cabin for New Year's and -15 degree high temperatures! Brrr!

But we got to experiment with freezing bubbles...lots of fun!

Abby and Justin also received packages from Grandpa John and Grandma Linda (Abby's biological grandparents). They know she loves Minnie Mouse!

Our first holiday season being "local" in almost 15 years! It was great to enjoy being with everyone and just hopping in our car and driving away instead of having to say good-bye for 6-12 months at a time and flying across the country! We are excited to see what God has in store for us in 2018.

Making Pumpkin Pie

At some point during the holiday season I made pumpkin pie. While this seems a simple task and does not generally include bragging rights, let me give you a little glimpse of how my pumpkin pie baking process went:

1. Text my mom for the recipe because my cookbook is in storage
2. Pull up the link to the recipe
3. Begin getting out ingredients
4. Set Abby up at the sink because she wants to "hop" (help)
5. Continue getting out ingredients
6. Move the chef's knife out of Abby's reach just as she's about to grab it to "wash"
7. Begin putting ingredients in the mixer
8. Help Abby push her sleeves up before they get wet
9. Smell evidence of a dirty diaper
10. Change said dirty diaper
10.5 Wash hands
11. Begin mixing ingredients
12. Make a final decision on what color to paint the basement from the paint chips Dave offers me
13. Continue mixing
14. Approve Justin's final school work for the day and clear him for screen time
15. Cut Abby off from the water because it's getting all over the floor
16. Deal with the tantrum that ensued as a result of #15
17. Continue mixing
18. Take a potty break
19. Help Abby brush her teeth after she follows me into the bathroom
20. Pour the mixed pie into the crust and place in oven
21. Set the timer and pour a glass of wine! Haha!

And to make all this reading worthwhile, here's a picture of my little munchkin "helper"!

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

6 Week Catch Up...Yikes!

Time has simply FLOWN here in cabin life. Winter has set in (although it's still been fairly mild with just enough snow to keep it beautiful and the kids happy) and Abby is finally calling it "home." There have been lots of trips to Nana and Papa's house. We actually have only had 2 completely free weekends since moving here!

We kept our Christmas decorations up front in the storage unit so we are surrounded by many of our familiar holiday sights, which makes the cabin extra cozy! We are in a downhill slide towards the new year and Dave and I are both starting to get a little nervous about his job ( lack of) situation. But God knows Dave needs a job and we are trusting him to provide the right one at the right time in the right location.

In the meantime, here are the highlights of the past 6 weeks:

One of the final days before the lake froze (taken November 9)

Justin and I love going on nature walks during the woods

Lots of cozy reading times at the cabin

All bundled up and loving the snow!

Abby and Justin cuddling in between sledding

Dave and I were able to go to Chicago to see our good friend, Sandy Jump and her daughter, Dana

Abby helped make gingerbread cookies!

The cousins at Thanksgiving

Cookie baking extravaganza the day after Thanksgiving

Celebrating Kaitlyn's birthday at the pottery place

Abby enjoyed placing her ornaments on the Christmas tree

Justin decorated the upstairs AND downstairs Christmas trees!

Taking a walk (which is a term loosely applied when Abby is along;

this is one of the only times she actually did any walking!)

Abby's first movie! We saw The Star and she sat through the whole thing

(and went through 4 buckets of popcorn and 2 cups of ice water)

My birthday cake with the super-fancy singing topper from Mom and Pop S.

Silly girl LOVES olives haha!

One night at Nana's Abby's pacifier disappeared. We have NO idea where it went!

So we quickly concocted a story about the "Big Girl Fairy" who comes and takes pacifiers from girls when they're big enough and leaves special big girl presents in its place. Abby received her own nail polish and a little baby that has a potty chair (which actually flushes!). It worked! Phew!