Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Picture Perfect


We were lucky to book a winter photo shoot with Bethany Raelene Studio, yes, my sister.
She's getting busy again now that she's back from Europe, so I pulled the "I'm your Big Sister" and "if you love me" cards, and got her down to Portland last weekend.

It was a blustery day, but we all had a lot of fun!
Here are some of our favorites -
a preview of what might be in your holiday card from us this year!

Thanks again Bethers!
We love them!

'Tis the Season

::Decorating the house with lights and baubles::
::Cute little boys with bells on their bellies::
::Lots and lots of knitting::
Wickey is a good helper.
::Tying the perfect bow::
No tree for us, but there's a corner table overflowing with goodies to be handed out!
::sister sister::
::Decorating the tree at Grammy and Papa's::
::Piles of Christmas cheer waiting to be mailed out::
:: Be Merry Friends! ::

Congrats to Brad and Char Weeda!

Sorry for the lag in postings, but there's been a lot going on over here in Portland!

Our good friends (and neighbors) Brad and Charlotte Weeda just had a baby girl!

Maizie Ella Weeda
born: Tuesday, December 8, 2009
6:26 p.m.

Here is the note that proud Daddy Weeda sent:

Here is the new little girl just after her first bath and the family photo just after the birth.
She was born at OHSU hospital in Portland at 6:26 pm PT on Dec 8 and was 9 lbs 1.3 oz and 22 inches. Hopefully she holds no grudges since everyone was ruling boy during the labor and right up to delivery where her daddy initially pronounced her a boy....whoops.

They are home now and getting settled together as a new little family.

Congrats Brad and Char, you have a beautiful daughter and we can't wait to watch her grow up!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!

I give thanks for this perfect day.
Miracle will follow miracle, and wonders will never cease.

-Unknown

Monday, November 16, 2009

Catching Up on Happenings Around Here

Of course, most of our free time, or at least Brian's, is being spent working on the "Fire Wall."

Uncle Vern was in town for a night, a long layover on his way from Montana over to convention in Hawaii. It was great to be able to go out to dinner with him and to show him all the progress we've made on the house!
Thanks to my good friend Chelsea who taught me this wonderful skill, I've become a knit-oholic! I think I've completed 8-9 scarves in just under two weeks, I think it's time to move on to hats!
Breakfast for dinner on blustery nights!
Peanut Butter and Banana Pancakes - my favorite!
Wickey loves peanut butter too!
And of course, lots of snugly family time on the couch, listening to Blazer games, college football games, drinking tea and playing gin.
These are times to treasure.

An Update on the Fireplace Project

Sorry for the lack of posting, but we've been quite busy here in the McDonald Household!

Winter is on its way, so we've been hard at work trying to get the final wall in our living room completed. This is the wall that's been boarded up since we had to tear the original chimneyand fireplace down when we fixed the foundation issues.
The last weekend we had decent weather, Brian worked on the concrete base for the outer chimney caseing we'll be building.



He is getting GOOD with that concrete!


After much consideration and calculation, scrimping and saving our pennies, this is the stove/fireplace we had decided to go with. It is a "zero-clearance, high-efficiency, wood-burning fireplace."
Well, we got it ordered and got it home, and after some final calculations, we discovered, with the current set up of our wall, it WASN'T going to work!
Needless to say, we were a tad frustrated with the situation.
Long story short: luckily we were able to exchange the first stove for one that would actually work with the pre-existing area where we're installing it. We'll have to make some minor modifications, but not nearly as extreme as we would have had to have done with the first set up. So instead of it looking like a fireplace with a glass door, its going to look like this!
A free-standing wood stove.
It will have a black pipe coming out of the top and going through the wall to the outside.
Brian as to cut his beautiful mantle to follows the specs, but he'll have fun reworking a mantle up above the pipe.
Since Brian has to cut a hole in the outer wall for the pipe to go through, we tarped off the outer wall to keep the rain out! We sure give our neighbors lots to wonder about!
Currently, our entire living room is covered with stove pieces. Its sort of a jigsaw puzzle with many different types and length of pipe to play around with to get it to fit just right!

We're being EXTRA cautious and making sure we read the manual VERY CAREFULLY. This is an important project to get just right. There are many regulations and strict codes that must be followed when dealing with a fireplace and chimney.
But - we can't wait until its completed and we can sit in the living room
and cuddle around a cozy fire together!
There is nothing like a warm fire in the winter to keep the spirits bright!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Thank You Veterans

I was rather pleased with myself yesterday as I enjoyed one of the perks of working for the federal government, a paid day off in the middle of the week!
My sister came down from Washington to spend the day with me and we hunkered down in the basement surrounded by paper and baubles and got some serious scrapbooking done.


While the day was productive for me personally, it would have been a complete waste if part of the day wasn't spent thinking of what I was really enjoying -
MY FREEDOM.

I'm thankful for those in my family who have served, I'm thankful for those I don't know and who I will never know who are currently serving or have helped to contribute to the freedom I enjoy in this country.

Thank you.