Boots and flip flops

Baby Olive and Nora

Ending another season

With higher temps this week, the snow is disappearing from the slopes of our local ski area.  We may attempt one last outing tomorrow if time permits.

 The Cannonball was Dane's favorite run this season because it had a big jump at the bottom.  It was so big that 50% of the time he would actually not make it all the way to the top of the jump and instead would end up sliding backwards down it.  That didn't stop him from trying!

At the top of the Cannonball run was this large "cannonball" which was covered in snow by the end of the season.

This shows a bit of Nora's progress on the skis this season. Pardon the rough video as I was running backward down the hill in my snowboard boots.

Just in the nick of time...

Happy St. Patty's Day!



This Old House Tour- Main Floor

For those of you who have wanted to see some of the inside of our home, here it finally is.  Almost 1 year ago, Grandpa and Grandma moved into their new house, and we moved our things into this house.  We have made quite a few changes but still have many that we hope to make in the future.  Our house has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (after we added one upstairs last winter).  Part of it is over 100 years old and used to be a log cabin.  It is old, a bit uneven, and very loved!

This is our entryway/laundry room. I wish that we had a more formal entrance, but this is certainly practical.

The old bench was a school desk at the old Nora Township School down the road.  It works wonderfully for the baskets that hold all our hats and mittens and hides all our boots and shoes nicely below.

Our big old farm kitchen.  Grandpa and Grandma remodeled it about 6 years ago.  Until then, it didn't even have a dishwasher. We spend lots of time in this room!



Looking from the kitchen into the dining room.  You might notice that the door frame between the two rooms is very wide.  That is because the wall between the rooms is an old log wall from the original house.



This old kitchen cupboard came from my grandparents when they moved off their farm last spring.  It also holds many old kitchen utensils from them.  The little electric "fireplace" helps keep the kitchen warm when the winds blow.  The big sliding door to the deck lets in lots of nice light, but it gets a bit drafty in the winter.

The dining room looking into the living room.  This flowered carpet needs to be gone as soon as possible, but we haven't tackled the flooring in this house yet.  The old sewing machine came from the family that lived here before Mike's parents bought the place. Apparently it was in the house when that family bought it back in the 1950's.

Our computer hutch that looks like a pretty china cabinet when the doors are closed.

Off the dining room, there is this uninsulated front porch.  In the winter, it makes a great walk-in freezer! On my to-do list is making curtains to replace the unsightly blinds hanging from these windows.

Our recently painted living room.

Pretty old piano from my grandparents.

The main floor bathroom. We recently had all the trim boards (window, door and floor) replaced with these old trim boards Mike's dad salvaged from the house Mike and his dad grew up in before they tore it down a few years ago.  I think this trim gives it so much character, plus it has some sentimental value.

As a side note, if I may pat my own back, I sewed this curtain as well as the ones in the living room in the last 2 weeks.  I don't do much sewing, but I really like to make my own curtains so I can get exactly what I want.

The guest bedroom.  The old desk is from Mike's grandma, and the chair (and the matching one in the front porch) are from my grandparents' old house.

I'm rather slow at putting things up on the walls in this room.  It has been painted for almost 10 months now.  Note the floral carpet here as well that needs to go!

So that's the downstairs for now.  Our next big project is to redo the walls in the stairway.  Currently, they have at least 7 layers of wallpaper on them.  Stripping them would be nearly impossible, so we are looking at other options.  There are 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, and an old attic converted to a playroom/guest room up there.  All bedrooms have wallpaper that needs to come down and painting to be done.  The stairs have the same lovely floral carpet that must go, and Nora's room has some even more interesting carpet with a large pink tropical floral/fern pattern. (We call it her casino carpet!)  I wouldn't count on that update for another year, but here's hoping it might be sooner!

Hopefully the last big storm of the season...

Are you sick of seeing pictures of the snow?  Me too.  Yesterday was almost 40 degrees and we could see the snow piles shrinking.  Then a storm set in last night and lasted well into this afternoon. We didn't get much new snow, but it all blew around like crazy.

Mike standing on what should be our driveway.

Another big drift across the driveway.

Looks like we better get the snowblower out.

Weekend with cousins

We spent last weekend visiting Hugh, Melodee, Zach and Ellie.  The weather was much more pleasant than our weather so far this weekend, so we spent a considerable amount of time outdoors.

They have a great sledding hill!

Ellie mastered the shovel.

Not gonna budge!

I can't believe he will be 5 years old in 2 weeks...

Hugh and Melodee made these great finds this winter! They even both run well.  The red, white, and blue one is a 1972 Polaris Charger, the same model that Mike and Melodee remember having at home when they were very young!



From February

Here are a couple videos I took in early February right before our trip to Hawaii.  The first is a toboggan ride down a hill in our pasture with the kiddos in front of me.

I couldn't resist this one.  I promise that only her feelings were hurt!

We stayed home to celebrate our Valentine's Day.  Homemade steak and fettuccine with chocolate fondue!

NicoleAnne's

A friend of ours recently came to visit along with some of the beautiful clothes she sews for little girls.  She has recently started her own business, NicoleAnne's, and she asked if Nora would model them for some photos.  The clothes were beautiful, and Nora loved them.  She wasn't super cooperative, but some of the photos turned out pretty well despite my lack of photography skills.

After many pictures, Nora was tired of the process, so she just laid her head on her hands.  I know this picture doesn't show the beautiful clothes she was wearing, but it was too precious to leave out.

Check out NicoleAnne's!

http://www.nicoleannes.com/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nicoleannes