Warm Sunshine!

The temperature has more than doubled in the past week and a half. It's in the 60's now and it feels great to be outdoors again! Today, we did Nazca drawings (well the kid-American version) in the backyard with toilet paper and then had a picnic lunch in the fort. I am so blessed to get to enjoy the sunshine with my kiddos!

Our Home in the Forest

Welcome to our home in the forest! I thought I'd post a few pictures so that you, our family and friends, could see where we're living now. We are so happy to be here and we're really enjoying ourselves. Just tonight we had a picnic out on our back lawn. It is so nice to have grass and a beautiful view!

 Kitchen

 Dining Room

 School Room! The sliding door leads to the screened-in porch and the other door leads to the back bedroom, which is currently a play room.

 2nd Kitchen: Attached to the school room.

 Back of the house: Yay for a lawn! The trees are to the right.

 We don't have a good picture of our forest yet. I'll try to post more later, but let me just share with you how extremely excited I am about it!!! It's so fun to hike down to the creek and look at all of the different trees. I can't wait to clear it out, make a path, and just play! There are some great places for forts too!

Family room: Plenty of room for Bible studies and parties! 

I decided to also include some pics of the kids as they make the house/yard look so much better.  :)

My Sweet Girl and Her Sweet Cake

Keira turned 4 last week! She is a sweet, funny, and thoughtful little girl. She has changed a lot recently and we are continually blessed by her. She is our little prayer girl as she thinks to pray for people on her own and will continue to pray for them. She is a precious little girl!

For her 4th birthday party, she wanted a Rapunzel cake, so that's what she got! I had a blast making it and hopefully we'll enjoy eating it tonight!

(If you're at all curious, the box is hiding about 2 feet of PVC pipe and about 2 lbs of pinto beans.)

Before and After- Kai's First Haircut

Above: Happy snappy Kai (after haircut and dinner)

Below: Grumpy frumpy Kai

Just a Trifle

Tonight was the final of 3 women's retreats at church. We wanted to have a special dessert for the evening so I was given the challenge of making 3 trifles. My goal was to include the retreat's theme (A Seaside Escape), things most women love (chocolate, things pleasing to the eye), and fall (this was for my own sake. It's too sad for me to bake something in November without pumpkin and nutmeg.) SO these are the results.

I named each of them, but forgot to put the name cards out for the display! So sad! The details are as follows:

Berry Sunsets: Raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries made into a syrupy type thing. Pound cake (the pickiest recipe I've ever followed!) All layered with a lemon whipped cream.

Autumn Beaches: Spice cake crumbles (to look like sand.) Pumpkin layer (cheesecake pudding with pumpkin and spices.) Whipped cream layer (I think I just whipped cream with sugar and vanilla... I can't remember now.) THEN I made toffee and layered that in with pecans after the whipped cream. I added some "beach towels" and an umbrella on my sandy top for the beach look.

Moonlit Walks: Chocolate brownies with chocolate pudding (mixed with whipped cream) on top. Then I stuck the halved Oreos to the sides and filled in the middle with Cool Whip and crushed Oreos. Then I layered it all again and ended with crushed Oreos on top.

They were all insanely rich and sweet. Ergo, the name trifle... for all you need is a trifle.

Day-Trippin' in Tahoe

We spent the entire day in Tahoe yesterday. Here are a TON of pictures from our day. We had a wonderful time, enjoying each other and enjoying the amazing beauty of Spooner Lake. We also learned about the salmon lifecycle at Taylor Creek.

All of these pictures are from Spooner Lake, a small lake just east of Tahoe. There are aspen groves there that are amazing! I think we made it just in time to see the fall colors. The winds were picking up and blowing all of the yellow leaves through the air. It was beautiful!

Doesn't she look like a country music singer?

Catching some air.

This was the face he made when the winds picked up. Those aspen trees are so loud!

Salmon spawning at Taylor Creek

My Beautiful Girl