Trick or Treating in the Canyon ~

Since Jordyn is the only kid in the canyon, she gets rather spoiled! Most kids get one or two pieces of candy at each house...up here they pretty much dump the whole bowl of candy into her bag. But look at what she received from one house...

thats right...a new kitten :) Actually, they need another week or two with mommy before we can have her, but its hers for the keeping if she likes. (and if mom and dad say its okay)

A lot of the snow had melted during the day, but it was still rather icy and sloppy out. Good thing we wore our snow boots! As we walked up to each house, Jordyn would ask..."will someone jump out and scare me?" (i think she was having flashbacks of last years trick or treating scare) But it was a rather calm night, and she had a great time!

I hope your Halloween was safe and fun~

p.s. i HATE flash photos on Halloween, and i dont have an off camera flash, so i apologize for the horrid lighting! :)

Halloween Fun!

Just so you dont think ive been slackin off...i finished this stitchery last night and wanted to share. It finished at 12 1/2" X 15", so it was a quick little project to do in time for the holiday! I received the pattern from Kaaren thru her first Friday freebies...she will be posting a new stitchery on the first Friday of each month, and the first two are really cute, so check it out if you get a chance. Now that that is finished, i can get back to a Christmas cross stitch that has been in the UFO pile for almost 20 years.(yes, you read that right) Its almost finished too...so its just been taunting me forever! Photos of that next time~
Now on to Halloween fun...if you havent watched the weather lately, we got a rather large snow storm up here for a few days. 18 inches to be exact. Naturally the day of the Halloween party at school was cancelled, so sadly Jordyn missed out :(

The good news, on Friday the weather let up, so we were able to take Jordyn to storytime at the library. The roads were not bad at all, but most parents stayed home anyways, so there were only two families present. That made the library visit extra fun!

They got to play all the games as many times as they wanted...

And the hidden candy was theirs for the taking!

After being cooped up in the house for 3 days, it was nice to get out and do something different. Jordyn certainly seemed to have a good time...

and since it was daddys first time to storytime, he had a great time too!

Later that evening we decided to carve the pumpkins. I left that project up to daddy and Jordyn, while i took photos. She had a ball scooping the goop out...and daddy roasted the seeds for snacking!

After cleaning out the pumpkin, it was time to design a face....

When the design was chosen, the carving began...dont worry, those are kiddie carving knives :)

The design i chose was a little more difficult, so i let daddy do that one. Here is a perfect example of redneck pumpkin carving...

The knife wasnt "cutting it", so he got out his drill~

And here is the finished product!
After everything was finished, Jordyn and Daddy walked the ghost pumpkin up to Great Grandma's as a surprise. Now we are ready for trick or treating...keep your fingers crossed the sun will come out tomorrow and melt this snow down a bit :) Cheers~

First Day of School!

Jordyn's first day of preschool was today, and she LOVED it!
She'll be going two days a week for 3 hours, which is great, because there arent any children in the canyon, so this way she gets some kiddo time, as well as the classroom environment!

I thought she might have trouble being left at school, but when we pulled into the parking lot, she saw a friend from the library, and ditched us to hold her hand and walk over to the classroom.

Here she is in awe of her new room...eye candy everywhere!

Her first homework assignment...

And here she is with her new teacher...Ms Bev!

Wordless Wednesday

Glory and Goodies...

After a long weekend of camping, rain, music, rain, dancing, and more rain, we got home yesterday evening. I will be doing laundry for a week, but other than that we had a great time! Due to constant soaking, i didnt bring out my camera much this time around, though i did capture some fun video (which i will post soon), and this photo of Jordyn jammin by the fire. With fabulous company, you can have a great time under any circumstances...and that was definitely the case here :) It was, however, nice to sleep in a warm dry bed last night!

And look what was waiting in my mailbox when i got home! Marguerite over at Adventures of Quilting and Sailing sent me these lovely goodies. She had this great article about the book i received for my birthday, so she thought i might like it...but she included a few fun extras that were a nice surprise! Thank you Marguerite!!! Justin and Jordyn have already gobbled up most of the chocolate biscuits and im totally thrilled about the fairy fabric :) I love the postcard too, as Jane's blog and photography are favorites of mine. Quilters are the most generous people i know...Thank you thank you thank you!!!

I also signed up for another mini quilt swap on about.com, so i ordered this book thru amazon for ideas. I may not use it this time around, but the price was right, so im sure it will come in handy in the future. Besides, you can never have too many quilt books.
Cheers~

Jordyn shows off some of her new moves...

Unfortunately it rained all day, so her garb and belt were damp...causing them to slide down often...but she was a trooper and boogied anyways :)

More Black Bear Wildlife...

Its Finally Finished!

Well, here it is...Berdenas 90th birthday quilt, finally finished! (and shes only 91 1/2) :) She was pretty excited and surprised to see it today, and im soooo happy its done. I finished the binding very late last night, and justin was anxious to get it out of the house before one of us spilled something on it :)

As mentioned before, its a double sided quilt (per her request), she wishes to hang it on the wall and be able to turn it over now and again...so ive included a few photos to give you an idea of both sides.

I appreciate all of the suggestions for quilting it, but in the end, since i didnt have the right foot for my machine to do meandering(and didnt want to learn on this particular quilt), i decided to throw caution to the wind and strait stitch across the sashing. Its not quite as strait as i would like, and since it isnt square, there are a few wandering sections, but for the most part it worked out rather well. It was definitely worth it to see the look on her face, she was thrilled and immediately sat down to enjoy all the individual squares.

It was another beautiful day up here, so we decided to go for an adventure out on the island, and then jordyn went for a swim. She likes to parade around in her froggie towel, and wears it like a cape.

Also, on another good note, we were able to salvage a few poles and a side wall to make this much smaller shade awning from the original. So, after all...not a total loss, and we will have lots of uses for this one, as it is smaller and easier to move around.

Happy Weekend Everyone!~

Busy at the Black Bear...

Lots of fun going on up here lately! Today, we were visited by the deer...we have to keep a close watch on them...they like to eat my flowers. Last year i enjoyed my grape hyacinths for about 3 days before they gobbled em up, but this year they have been going strong...and i want to keep it that way. The best defense...send Jordyn outside, she spooks em in no time!

With the combination of rain and sunshine, our surroundings are finally turning green, so Jordyn helped Daddy mow the meadow. With the opening of the ditches comes even more fun (and laundry for me), as little miss will go thru about 3-4 wardrobe changes in a day...all soaking wet and muddy!

With all the time being spent outside, i stalled out on Berdenas Quilt. Its quilted together though and just needs binding, so its almost done. My goal was mothers day, but i played all weekend instead! Besides, i had to take some time out to make this addition to the swing set. It needed a little spicing up, so i dragged out some old wood, the saw, the drill, a little red paint...and presto...a climbing wall!

In other Black Bear news...remember our beehive we got last June? Well, sadly we lost the hive sometime in January...we think the queen died, but they did leave us one large jar of honey...yum! We have the beehive all cleaned out though, and are awaiting another colony. We hope to get our new bees earlier this time, as the flowers are starting to bloom, so they may have a better chance of establishing themselves! Wish us luck! :)

New Doll for Jordyn

Since Grandpa has never had chicken pox, Grandma decided to come over to our house to play with Jordyn...and look what she brought with her...

She made this beautiful doll for Jordyn, and as you can see...she loves it! In fact, she had to go put on one of her play dresses so she could be matching!

She named her Sally, but then again, she calls all of her dolls Sally. Im not even sure where she picked that up...we dont know anyone named Sally. Perhaps she got it from "Nightmare Before Christmas"...im telling you...the kid is hooked! She was singing the songs from that movie yesterday when we were playing outside :)

Anyways, here's the best part...while Grandma and Jordyn played, i took the worlds longest, hottest, uninterrupted shower (i even had a chance to shave my legs...hurrah). Then i actually got to take a nice two mile walk...kid free! There was even time left over for quilting! (pictures soon)
It was a fabulous day for everyone. Thank you Grandma Pat...you made our day!

First Trip to the Library ~

We finally made it to storytime yesterday...Jordyns first trip to a library. We arrived early to let her become familiar with her surroundings before the onslaught of kids arrived. She really liked all the toys, books, puzzles and goodies...and i was rather impressed myself!

After storytime, each kid got to decorate a basket for the Easter egg hunt...and here is Jordyn with her rather festive bag!
She was ready before most of the other kids, and kept sneaking into the main part of the library to scope out where all the eggs were.

She hit her quota almost immediately...sneaking around the library earlier certainly helped!

But she had fun running up and down the aisles...oops...here's one. I had a great time too...and found several books for her as well as me!

As soon as we got home she had to check out her loot. All in all, i think it was a little bit of sensory overload for her...soooo much to see and do...but i know she loved it!

That evening we decorated our own Easter eggs...glitter and all! What fun! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Cheers~

What did you do today?

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Its snowing...again! Time for playdoh!

April Fools...no, it actually is snowing again! ugh! Thankfully Jordyn and i went out exploring before it started to get too wet.

She cant seem to get enough icicles...she loves eating them. I gave it a try and thought they tasted like dirt...but i couldnt convince her otherwise, so she munched away on them.

She enjoyed sliding, swinging, climbing, and playing in the dirt...oops...thats not dirt...thats sheep poo! doh! Yes, they look just like brown jelly beans :)

She likes to pretend she's serving food out of her little house...if you drop by, she'll fix you a hot dog and a drink.

When it started to snow, we headed inside for warmth and playdoh fun. A dress and jewelry were required. (note the plastic ring she hung on her lobe like an earring...pretty clever! All in all...a lovely afternoon!
Sorry i dont have any crafts to show...i finished two more of Ellies February BOM, but they are the same as the one i already posted...i also finished a logo design for our fire department, but im waiting for approval...and im working on a gift, that i cant show photos of....but i promise to post pictures soon! Thanks for visiting :)