project life : week 48.

 It's week 48 and I'm still really loving this project.  Looking forward to documenting 2014.

click the photos to enlarge for a somewhat clearer image.

 Week of : November 25 - December 1.

 What happened this week:  Harvest lunch with Callie at her school.  Watched Callie perform in a Readers' Theater play her classroom put on.  I did some baking.  Thanksgiving with my grandma and grandpa.

 Anything special in this spread?  I ordered the Project Life Core Kit Midnight Edition and I love how the colors works with my Project Life Seafoam Core Kit.  I also ordered the
Project Life Sunshine Core Kit and I'm in love.

 Some of you may already know that I love adding text to white space in a photo.  And I love
the 5 senses journaling card from the Seafoam Edition.  I really need to incorporate this card more into my album.  That Flair button is from Elise Blaha Cripe's shop.  I'm a huge fan of her stamps and flair buttons.  These are my go to items that add just a little pop to my weekly spreads.

Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins.  I use photos, text and stuff to document our life weekly.

Jacksonville & Tree Hunting

McKenzie was supposed to have her annual holiday concert with her violin teacher last Sunday.  Unfortunately, it was postponed due to extreme ice and hazardous driving conditions.  This last week most of Southern Oregon had temperatures dipping into the teens and Matt spent most of the day thawing out a pipe under our kitchen sink with a portable heater he borrowed from his mother.  Schools were cancelled last Friday.  In fact Ashland schools have been cancelled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Sheets of ice blanketing all over our town are creating hazardous conditions and with the freezing cold temperatures, nothing has had the chance to thaw out yet.

So we made the best of our day and headed out to Jacksonville.  We were going to make this trip next weekend but with the concert being rescheduled, we decided to see if Santa was in town.  And as soon as we headed in to town on foot, we ran into this smiling face.

We usually go on a horse drawn carriage ride but the roads were to icy.  But extreme weather conditions couldn't keep this jolly-old-fellow and one of his elves away.   I'm sure Santa and his little elf helper are used to extreme cold temps.

Callie didn't hesitate to let Santa know she really wants a "Flashlight Friend" and lots and lots of skirts.

 

Wishing I could have spent more time taking photographs but their toes were freezing so we headed back to the truck.

 But Callie is all about window shopping in this small town.  Lots of pretty displays to look at.

And then once our toes had defrosted, we made another stop to a local tree farm.   It took us all of 20 minutes to make our selection because our toes started freezing again.  Both the girls made a unanimous decision that this was the perfect tree.

Then we got back into the truck to start the frozen toe thawing process again and headed back to Ashland for a late lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant to celebrate McKenzie getting straight A's on her report card.

project life : week 44

 It's week 44 and I still really love this project.

 click the photo to enlarge for a somewhat clearer image.

Week of :  October 28 - November 3.

 What happened this week:  Went on a couple field trips with Callie's 3rd grade class.  Carved pumpkins with friends.  And of course went trick-or-treating with friends.

 Overall thoughts:  When it comes to this project, keeping it simple is how I manage to get it done.  I really love putting it all together.  I love going back and looking at all my finished pages and then think to myself what it will feel like when I go back and look thru it 5 years, 10 years, 20 years later.  It gives me goose bumps just thinking about this.  Super cool huh?

Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins.  I use photos, text and stuff to document our life weekly  I am currently using the Seafoam edition of Project Life created by Elise Blaha.

eye exams and running shoes.

just before school started she had her yearly eye exam.  she's 13 now, so i think it's time she starts to learn how to fill out her own health history forms.  she did a great job.

this girl tagged along too.  and of course she found a new highlights magazine.  she loves those magazines.

callie was interested in everything and i was so grateful for the nurse who let her watch.  their staff is awesome.

 callie was looking at a screen behind mckenzie that reflected the letters so she could tell if her sister was passing her test.

 callie was super interested in everything her sister was doing.

 now this was the cool part.  mckenzie got to wear these 3-D glasses and view images.

and yes i let callie wear the glasses and look at the book but i never got a photo.  and yes mckenzie still has 20/20 vision and she was so excited she still doesn't have to wear glasses.

 after her eye exam, we made a stop to a local running store in ashland.  this is mckenzie's 3rd year running cross country at ashland middle school.

 this store has a treadmill so customers can try them out.

she loves her new shoes and this store is awesome because they give a small discount for students.

 how could i not let her try out their treadmill.

she did go into the store with shoes on but took them off.  can't remember why.

mexican pulled chicken stuffed peppers.

What you need:

.  4 or more (depending on size)  bell peppers, any color is fine.
.  3-4 chicken breasts, depending on size
.  2 tbsp. chopped jalapenos (I left these out)
.  1 cup diced tomatoes
.  1/2 cup chicken broth (I just dropped in a bouillon cube and let it dissolve into all the juices as it cooked)
.  1/4 cup finely minced onion
.  1/4 cup chopped green peppers
.  2 cups salsa (to cook the peppers in)
.  1 package taco seasoning

recipe:

.  1 tsp. salt
.  2 tsp. onion powder
.  1 tsp. chili powder
.  1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
.  1/2 tsp. garlic powder
.  1/4 tsp. oregano
.  1/2-1 tsp. ground cumin, depending on your preference

What you do:

1.  Put whole chicken breasts and all ingredients in crock pot and stir and set on low for 6-8 hours.
2.  When it's finished or after at least four hours in, shred chicken using two forks until it's all complete.  Mix well.
3.  Using a sharp knife, cut the top of the pepper off and pull out all the inside ribs and seeds.    Then slice the peppers in half.
4.  Run under cold water to wash and remove remaining seeds inside.
5.  Lay peppers on towel to let dry.
6.  Place peppers in lightly greased baking dish (I love using coconut oil).
7.  Spoon crock pot mixture over the bell peppers.
8.  Cover with salsa.
9.  Sprinkle lots of shredded cheese of your choice (I used mexican style blend purchased at Costco).
10.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until pepper is soft.
11.  Enjoy!

jedediah smith state park : summer family camping trip.

We had our own personal chef who made the best blueberry pancakes.

We had a beautiful campground host.

We ate pancakes a couple of times and drank good coffee.

We found many banana slugs.

And Callie really loved the banana slugs.

These three rode their bikes all over the campground.

There were nice people who took family pictures for us.

There were giant fallen trees to climb on.

And treasures to be found.

And more family pictures to take.

There were toads to photograph.

And toads to be caught.

There were cheese-filled hot dogs to enjoy.

And marshmallows to roast.

And little crabs to watch along a beach in Brookings.

We got up super early one morning to catch the low tide.

And when you get up super early, you get to see lots of star fish.

And we also got to watch this sea otter fight for an eel, who won his battle and then feasted on his meal.  

This girl loves to explore.

We also got to enjoy an afternoon jet boat ride.

 This girl loves a good jet boat ride.

And this girl really, really loves a good jet boat ride.

And our our jet boat took us to Lucas Lodge where we had an amazing lunch.  And that poor dog really wanted Callie to throw him her dinner roll.

I think her dad told her he put ground up banana slugs in her blueberry pancakes.

And this girl can now ride her bike sans training wheels.  Not only can she ride sans training wheels, but she can hold a root beer in one hand and steer with the other.

I think her dad kicked her but at a game of Holly Board.

And thanks to a self-timer on my camera and a giant water can used as a make shift tripod, I was able to capture another family shot.

Oh yes... and a camping trip wouldn't be the same without a trip to a Dairy Queen.

There were harmless snakes to be found along the river bank.

And toads and tad polls to be caught.

That toad was to fast for her to catch.

I think she was watching a couple of dogs playing in the river.

We brought along hand held radios and Callie loved talking to her dad with these.

There were ocean waves to play in.

And a giant sand hole to dig.

There were sisters playing in the waves together.

And she even made a new friend, Amber to play with while we were there.  These two were just to cute.  To bad she lives in Canada.