Winter scenery

After an extremely long cold spell (and it's probably not over yet) we are expected to get up to 36 degress today! And another unexpected treat was waking up to beautiful frost and snow covered pines outside! I couldn't pass up taking some photos before I headed to work in the morning.

Winter Fun!

We had lots of fun this past weekend when Declan's girlfriend Paula came to visit! We had planned to initiate her to snowshoeing and that we did! We gave her a weekend of many 'firsts', including snowshoeing, shooting a gun, driving on a frozen lake, among other lesser things. Saturday morning we killed some time downtown Norway (waiting for it to warm up a little bit) by going to St. Vincent's thrift store and 8th Avenue Antique Salvage-a great local antique shop! Sad to say I did not get a picture of Declan's thrift store find-a tiny pair of mens 80's swim trunks that I'm ashamed to say he actually will wear in public. Then, after a light lunch and with the sun shining we headed out for an afternoon of snowshoeing. It turned out to be the perfect afternoon, mid 20's with sunshine and a light wind. We hiked around 3 hours and built a campfire up on a bluff with an amazing view underfoot. It was a idyllic first snowshoe for Paula, if I do say so myself! Then, after an awesome morning of worship on Sunday we headed out to the woods again, this time with a bigger group, no snowshoes, and made a huge fire to cook hobo pies and monkey bread on! It was the perfect end to a weekend of winter fun!



Cooking hobo pies and monkey bread!

Heading out for a snowshoe

The fam :)

Paula shooting the .22 for the first time

Bow Bow had a great hike

The view from the bluff

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Declan and Paula at the top




Beautiful day of snowshoeing with my love!



Massive recap!

So, I haven't really been motivated to update the blog ever since getting Instagram, but I'm working a midnight shift tonight and have nothing else to do!  Oh, and mom wanted some way to look at my Instagram page, so hopefully I'll figure out how to put a link on here!  Anyways, enjoy the random recap of the last 6 months!

A friend from church is having a baby boy (actually, she's in labor right now!) so I made some burp cloths and cute onesies!

The next few pictures are all some crafting projects I've completed just recently--but the crafting never stops, I'm always stealing new ideas from Pinterest, or just from seeing things in stores.

Saw something similar on Etsy for $90 and thought: I can make that!......Voila-rustic frame with trout and flies (custom tied by yours truly!) :)

Shadow box from TJ Maxx when I visited Mom in September.  These are really cute recycled paper flowers (which I probably could have made myself, but sometimes it's just easier to buy it already done!)

Saw some burlap wrapped candle holders in a store and again though: I can do that!  So, used one of my many recycled Bath and Body Works candle jars, some burlap ribbon and hot glue and there ya have it!

Ok, last crafy thing:  Probably the only upholstering I will ever attempt (if you can call it that).  Found this sturdy chair at the Restore for $10, put some fresh paint and a new seat on it and it looks purdy nice I think!

Went to Fayette State Park near Garden Corners, MI with some girlfriends in September.  This is the view from one of the bays right in the park looking to some pretty impressive limestone bluffs.  The park is a restored old iron manufacturing town-you can go in most of the buildings and learn all about this ghost town that was once booming in the early 1900s...kind of neat!

Ok, the next few pics are of things we've killed, so if you have an aversion to hunting close your eyes and scroll down to the end. :)

Bow isn't quite sure what to think of his furry compadre--there's so many coyotes and wolves up here it's considered a service to thin them out a little.  Just imagine one of these eating a little fawn from the back end while it's still alive and you won't be so sad that Alex shot him anymore....at least that's what I do...

Opening morning of bow season I got a nice old doe--thanks for the help Bow dog!

And opening evening Alex shot this nice buck with his longbow!

Kind of random, but we upgraded to a big boy grill (still not gas, but charcoal is better if you ask me!) And it captures the nice view and some of the fall colors!

Had a bonfire out on state land with some friends and Bow had another tussle with a porcupine :/
Porcupines: 3
Bow dog: 0

Got some new snowshoes, so bring on the snow! Hiking in the winter up here is actually one of my favorite times to do it, because you don't get super sweaty and there's no bugs!  Also, snowshoeing burns tons of calories! It's a win-win-win :)

Many of you know that Alex's personality is to go all in on hobbies when he decides to do them.  Last winter it was Nerf wars, this year I have a sneaking suspicion it is Ping Pong. :)

And to conclude this post how about an adorable sibling snuggle time!

4-Wheelin, bonfires, and family

So, it's been awhile!  We have been eagerly awaiting Spring, which seems in no hurry to make an appearance, but we've been trying to busy ourselves with outdoor activities, none the less!  We've been having bonfires at friend's houses, going 4-wheelin, and I've been doing some yard clean up at our house-which we are loving by the way!  As it gets warmer and the ice melts on the lake the view gets better and better and I can't believe we live here!  This is more of a random post of things we've been up to.  

The funny thing is they weren't even trying to get stuck this time and they stuck both Jeeps--bad.  

Both Jeeps ended up being buried in mud down to the axles :/

After a few hours the property owner (an elder at our church) came with his truck to help and proceeded to get that stuck also!  Lol, so we ended up leaving all three vehicles overnight and came back with a friend who had a backhoe the next day.  Well, after getting that stuck, too they finally got all four vehicles out!  Quite the ordeal....

In other random news, we held a concert at our church the same weekend they were here.  Northland International University in Dunbar asked if they could use our facility to host a concert, so we had Jason Gray, Andrew Peterson, and the band Caleb come on Sat. night.  It was a great concert and what's even greater was that God brought about 700 people to it!  We couldn't believe the turnout and were so grateful for God's provision in working everything out with the concert.   Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of the concert, either!  Sorry!

Making hobo pies at a friend's campfire Bow is patiently waiting for his to be done. ;)

I wanted to show off my crafty homemade pillows, since Alex was less than impressed with them (I guess he's just not the crafting type--which I think I prefer) :)

 We had Max and Jamie (Alex's bro and our sis-in-law) over last weekend, and we had gorgeous weather....I'm talking 70's and sunny!  So, we got out and did some hiking, which I think is one of Max's all time favorite things to do, since he seems to be doing it every weekend with his family.  I always chuckle a little when I see posts from Jamie of them hiking with the kids and the kiddos are in their Crocs! :)  Those kids are troopers!  Wish we could've had them up last weekend, too, but we had some great adult time!  I was bad, however, and didn't take any pictures!  Look to Jamie's blog for that, I know she took some pics, so maybe she'll post them soon.

The view from our kitchen window-this deer was checking out one of our cats :)

We're also looking forward to a busy kickoff to summer, as we'll be going to Houston at the end of May for some Acts29 conferences, Declan will be coming to pick up a vehicle for his dad, my parents will visit the first week of June, Judy is coming with Anne and David right after that, then Drew and Rebecca come in the middle of June to visit, and then we wrap up June with a family reunion in Traverse City!  And sometime in there I'll be starting to work full time on nights, for a few months, while 2 girls in my dept are on maternity leave!  Looking forward to it all, though, especially having the fam come up to hang out!

Kitchen Redo-Before and After

Our first project to tackle in the new house was to put some fresh paint in the kitchen.  This house has a whole lot of paneling in it, and the kitchen was no different.  The walls were paneling and the cabinets were also a dark wood....made room seem smaller than it is and just dated.

Before

After (panoramic setting kinda got messed up, but you get the idea)
(Oh, and we didn't paint that back door because we're going to replace it soon, hopefully)

Before

After

After

Some artwork

Oma's recipe for honey white bread---YUM!

Found this cute chalkboard thingy on clearance :)

We're home owners!

Well, not quite yet, we have to close on Friday, but it's pretty much a done deal that we have ourselves our very own house.  We've been looking for almost a year and now found this one just in time (thank you God) because Alex's brothers and Mike Shane just moved up here about a week ago and need a place to stay.  So, long story short, they're going to move into our duplex we've been in since May, while interning at our church!  Very exciting times to say the least!  And all this craziness just happens to fall right before Christmas when we're super busy and leaving for TC/Manistee for a week! AH!.......have to remember to breathe sometimes....

Anyways, here is a link to view the listing of the house:

(It is a bit of a fixer-upper, mostly cosmetic stuff, and eventually new siding and a roof, but it has a view of the lake and it's bigger!)

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1800-Grand-Blvd-Cr_Iron-Mountain_MI_49801_M42698-10032

I was telling a friend the other day that the only rooms I wouldn't touch as far as changing would probably be the garage and the laundry room! haha, so needless to say, it's going to be a lot of work, over a span of years. Yikes.  But, that's home ownership!

Declan & Ruth

Last weekend we got to see Declan and his girlfriend Ruth for a few days, they stayed with us and we got to know his new girlfriend a little better.  It's always fun/crazy/exhausting/loud when Declan comes to stay. :)  We love him, though and are glad that he feels welcome to come for a few days...and hopefully to move up here in the near future!  Here's just a few pictures from that weekend, Ruth and I went to the farmer's market Saturday morning, hiked around our favorite spots, made a Goodwill run, and Declan shot a deer Saturday night- his first! (Sorry, no picture)

Sadly I only got pictures of the back of Ruth!

Sweeping view

One of about 3 pictures of us since we've been married :)

Buds :)

Bow Bow wanted to wear dad's scarf (it has a different name, but I can't remember it...I'm sure he wouldn't like me calling it a scarf!)