Turkey on the Traeger

The Thanksgiving leftovers are all gone now.  No more turkey, no more pie, no more cranberries, no more sweet potatoes. All the food we had this year was great.  But the turkey this year was the best we ever had!  Partly because I was thinking about it being related to the one that dented the hood of the Suburban a few months ago, but mostly because we decided to try cooking it in the Traeger grill instead of in the oven this year.  We cook all kinds of other stuff in the Traeger and it all turns out good, so we had to try a turkey.  We were going to practice before Thanksgiving to make sure it would turn out but were unable to find the time, so Thanksgiving day was the first try.  We had a back up turkey that we cooked in the oven the day before, in case we ruined it, but that didn't get touched on Thanksgiving because it is hard to ruin something on a Traeger.

This is what it looked like coming off the Traeger after 5 hours of cooking.  It was so moist and delicious that I could not get enough of it. df a a skdfo{;nui Shb (sorry, had to wipe the drool off the keyboard)  From now on, we will cook the turkey this way every year.  It was stuffed with some sliced veggies and oranges, then had a home made sweet/spicy rub all over it that made some great drippings for gravy and just to dip the turkey in! 

The next thing to try in the Traeger (think Traeger will pay me for saying their name so much?)

  a whole deer leg.  Just have to find the right recipe.  I am getting hungry just thinking about it. 

Playing in the snow

On November 28, we planned on going to get our Christmas tree after church.  But, we ended up just going up into the mountains with some friends to play in the snow.  I remember getting to play in the snow a lot growing up, but my kids do not even get to see snow very often.  The kids had a lot of fun sledding down the hill we found.  I heard Emma say at one point, with her arms raised into the air, "This is the best day of my life!"  Suffice to say that she had a good time!  Here are some pictures from the day.

She is okay as long as she is in a tire track and not in the deep snow.

Look out below!

Made it to the bottom!

Back up the hill again.

The older sisters team up to get some speed.

Pile them all on!

Leah did not like to be in the snow.  This was an instant reaction to being put down in it.

Cute sisters.

She is just so cute, I had to put this one in too.

Three of the girls came down at once!

All the younger kids on the ATV.

Daddy and Emma together.

Audry and her dad racing down the hill.

More friends coming down.

Emma tried to take Leah on the sled, but she did not want anything to do with it.

Riah and daddy, look out below!

Almost to the bottom.

We made it.

Fun was had by all, but eventually between the darkness and kids starting to lose it, we had to leave.  I am sure we will do this a few more times this winter as long as the snow keeps coming.  I just hope we can live up to Emma's expectations now, since this was "the best day of her life!"

What are you Thankful for?

 This is the question I asked my family to answer the other day, as Thanksgiving approached.  To really make them think, I told them to write down one thing that they were thankful for each letter of the alphabet.  Here are the responses:

LEAH: Okay, she cannot write, read, or really even talk, so here is my translation of her answers.  I am pretty sure she is thankful for cake.  She really got into this cake on her birthday.  Literally, she buried her hand clear to the bottom of the cake!

A - ba-ba - (that means food or her milk cup)

B - Dada - (self-explanatory)

C- Mama - (again, self-explanatory)

D - men - (this is what she says for Amen at the end of a prayer)

E - that - (when she is pointing at something she wants)

F - eese - (please)

G - this (pointing at something she wants and can reach)

H- Hi

Well, you get the picture. That is about the extent of her vocabulary so far.  Give her a break, she is only 1.5 years old.

SARAH:  Like Leah, she has a limited grasp on the alphabet and writing, but she can answer questions.  So I sat down with her and asked her to tell me what she was thankful for that started with each letter.  Sometimes I gave her suggestions of things that started with the correct letter, other times I just wrote down the first thing she said.  Here is what Sarah is thankful for this year:

A- an egg

B- Bob the tomato

C- Apple

D- Dora splora and boots

E- Emma and elephants (She could not decide between the two!)

F- Fingers

G- God and gum

H- Happy Hippopotamus 

I- Pillow case

J- Jesus

K- Kitty (or maybe katty, I was not sure)

L- Laughing

M- Me and mommy (she is thankful for herself and mommy)

N - Eyes

O- I like painting

P- Pee Pee on the potty!

Q- Clock

R- Click Clock

S- I lay down right here! (she had to adjust her position)

T- Crock pot, water and cracker, I need those for Christmas

U- Jesus

V- ummm, I love you!

W- My blocks and blocks

X- I want a computer for my birthday and a boat and a big house. This big!(she shows me with her hands, about 6 inches!)

Y- Pillow

Z- Daddies eyebrows (her attention span is about gone and she has started playing with my eyebrows)

Obviously, Sarah does not know her alphabet but she really thinks she is answering the questions.  She is so cute.  Not that I am at all biased!

RIAH:  Now Riah is getting close to 7 years old and is very capable of doing this list. She wanted me to help her, and I did a little, but for the most part, I made her think about it and do it herself. Here is what Riah is thankful for in 2010:

Apples

Baby sister (that would be Leah)

Calvary Chapel (our church family)

Dogs (we do not have one, but maybe that is why she is thankful for dogs!)

Emma (I think she means her sister, not the neighbor next door)

Family (she actually likes us all!)

G- God

Help (either people helping her or her being able to help us)

Icicles (One of the words I mentioned to her and she liked)

Jesus

Keepsakes (all the girls have a box that they keep special things in.  Mostly things that Brooke wanted to keep for sentimental reasons)

Lillie (a girl next door)

Mommy

Noni

Opal (because it is mommies birthstone)

People (she is just thankful for everyone in the world)

Quizzes (I guess she still likes school, although you wouldn't know it by how long she takes to do it)

Riah (either she is thankful for her name, or she is thankful that she is who she is)

Sarah (one of her younger sisters)

Toys (at 6 almost 7, toys are still important to her)

Umbrellas

Violins (Because she could not think of anything else that starts with V)

Winter

X-rays

Zoo (just not the peacocks! Click here if you do not know the story!)

EMMA:  Emma is 9 now and loves to read, write and be creative, so I expected her to get into this assignment.  Here is her list that she titled "The Thankful Alphabet, A to Z":

Authors in general and American Girl (her favorite book series)

Books (she reads a lot)

Cousins (does not have very many but is thankful for the ones she has)

Daddy (aww, how nice, she likes me!)

Ellie (her friend that lives next door)

Family and friends

God

Horses

Internet

Joys

Kindness
Lollipops

Mommy

Noni

Ocean

Power (Gods power)

Quilts

Rain (yes, my child likes rain!  Where did I go wrong?)

Sisters (hers, not the mountains over by Bend!)

Tales (she likes to tell stories and listen to stories)

Umbrellas

Vans

Water

X-rays (I told her to get a dictionary and find something with X to be thankful for)

Youth Group (Not that she has been to one yet, she just thinks they will be fun)

Zoos (what else starts with Z)

BROOKE: Next is my beautiful wonderful wife. Once she finally sat down and write the list, she came up with 2 lists.  One is a spiritual thankful list and the other is just things she is thankful for. Here is what she came up with:

Agape Love, Another year with my family
Belonging to Christ, Beavers (Oregon State University)
Christs sacrifice, Coffee (with a little fancy creamer)
Discipleship,Dates with John
Easter, Emma
Forgiveness, Friendship and fellowship
Grace, GPS
Heaven, Homeschooling
Isaiah, Internet
Jesus, John
Kindness, Kissing
Love, Leah
Mercy, Mom
New Life, Neighborhood
Omnipotence, Obedient children
Peace, Photography
unQuenchable thirst for the Word of God,  Quiet
Redemption, Riah
Self-control, Sarah
Trinity, Telephone
Unchangable God, Unconditional love
Virgin birth, Video
Worship, Warm sunny days
eXtra grace, mercy, and love, eXtra dessert
Yahweh, You (yes you! : ))
Omega(its not a Z, but it is the last letter in the Greek alphabet and God says He is the Alpha & Omega, the first and the last.), Z the last letter of the alphabet


ME: Finally its my turn.  I will try to not make this the same as last year, but that might be hard. We'll see.  Here it goes:

Almighty God 
Blessed assurance of my salvation even when I stumble

Changing Churches - This year we switched from going to Calvary Chapel Corvallis to attending Lebanon Calvary Chapel.  Although we miss all our friends from Corvallis, it has saved us money and time.  But more importantly has been very good for our spiritual growth in 2010 and we are able to serve more living in the same town instead of 30 minutes away.

 Daughters, I have 4 of them and they bring great joy to my life, at least now while they are all under the age of 10!
Earth and all creation. The natural environment speaks so loudly of a creator it just boggles my mind that people can think that it created itself from nothing.
Freckles. Riah has lots of freckles and I just love them.  I always tell her to be careful not to wash them off in the shower and make sure Emma doesn't steal anymore of them.  Emma has just a few and I gave her a hard time that she stole them from her little sister!
Gods word.  I get to read it everyday and study it to learn how to live the way God intended when He created all this.
Hobbies.  I have a lot of them so I do not spend a lot of time on any of them.  I also stay busy with the family, church and work so I do not have a lot of time for them.  It is nice to know that I have things that I like to do if I ever find some free time to do them!
Ice cream.   Yes I am thankful for Ice Cream.  It is a very yummy dessert or main dish depending on the day and mood of the family.
Jesus. This letter has to be for Jesus.  His sacrifice on the cross for my sins way back in the past is the only reason I have any of these things to be thankful for.
Kids.  Children are a blessing from the Lord.  I thank God everyday for the blessings He has given me and entrusted me to raise.
Love.  I am thankful for the love of God, the love of my family and the love from my brothers and sisters in Christ. 
Marriage.  I am thankful for my marriage.  God gave me a beautiful, wonderful, loving, caring wife that makes my life exponentially better than it would have been without her.  Not to mention that today is our 15th anniversary!
Not stuck inside.  Well, at least most of the time.  I am thankful for a job that I can enjoy being outdoors and not stuck inside at a desk all the time.  I am even thankful for this when the weather is bad.  That should tell you how much I prefer being outside to being at a desk!
Oak trees.  I am thankful for the Oak trees in our yard.  Not as much this time of year because of all the work cleaning up their leaves, but the shade they provide in the summer is great.
Patience.  I do not have a lot, but am learning it more as I raise my kids and just going through life.  Things just do not always happen the way you think they should and you just have to have patience to know that it will be okay.
Questions from my daughters.  I know this is the same as last year, but I really am thankful for the questions they ask because of the things it makes you think about and the entertainment value as well.  Besides, Q is a difficult letter to find a word for.  Especially when the dictionary is all the way across the room.
Resurrection.  I am thankful that my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ rose from the grave to defeat death and give us eternal life.
Snuggling with my daughters.  They all like to cuddle up in my lap when we sit down to watch a movie.  I really enjoy it when then do that too.  Only about 2 at a time now.  They are getting too big!  Makes me want them to not grow up.
Thanksgiving.  I am thankful that we have a holiday in this country that makes us think about what we have and all the reasons we have to be thankful.
Unmerited grace and mercy of God.  I am thankful that God has given me blessings that I do not deserve (grace) and that he does not give me the punishment that I do deserve. (mercy)
Veggie Tales.  I am thankful for these movies and shows with Biblical values.  They are made for kids but I like them too.  It also ties right into why I am thankful for the letter S.
Woodshop.  I am thankful for my woodshop.  I do not spend a lot of time in it, but it is there if I have the time. I really enjoy building things and having projects to work on.  It will probably get used more when the girls all get older.  What is my house going to be like with a bunch of teenage girls?
Xylography - That is the act or art of cutting figures into wood, in representation of natural objects.  Okay, I did not know that, but I was looking in the dictionary for a word starting with X to be thankful for and found it.  It kind of fits don't you think?
Yearning.  I am thankful that God has given me a desire to know Him better and to live for Him to be an example to my family and those around me.
Zygodactylous!  I just thought this was a cool looking word.  It was almost the last one in the dictionary.  I will let you look it up if you want to know what it means, but do not ask me how to say it!

Well, there you go.  That is what the Jayne family is thankful for at Thanksgiving 2010.

Happy Birthday to me!

Today I am 14975 days old.  That is 41 in human years for all you mathematically challenged out there.  It does not seem like I can possibly be that old.  It seems like only a couple years ago I was in high school in Paisley, Oregon,  (If you have never heard of Paisley, Oregon, don't worry about it, neither has most other people on the planet.  But it is a great place to go!), but I actually moved away from there over 20 years ago.  The past seems like a blur now as time continually speeds past me.  Now looking back on the past years of my life, I see the all the wonder blessings that God has given me.  I was not always walking with God like I should have been, but He was always there watching over me and teaching me.  Now as I move on into the future I get to continue growing in knowledge and wisdom.  You come to realize, as you get older, that you never really knew as much as you thought you did!  I thank God that I get to keep going with all the wonderful things he has blessed me with.  Two of which are in the picture with me above.  In the grand scheme of things, I am not really all that old, but I am probably past halftime in my life, so now it is time to finish strong do all that I can for God.  I'll start by continuing to lead my family and serve the Lord in whatever way He asks.

Conversations with number 3

Our 3rd daughter, Sarah, is a source of constant entertainment for Brooke and I.  She has really started talking in the last few months and always makes us laugh.  I like to have fun with her and ask her off the wall questions to just to hear what she will say.  A lot of the things she does has earned her a few nicknames as well. You can read about those HERE.  Like the nickname blog said, I often call them Bob or George when I first see them.  Mainly Sarah, because she responds in a more funny way than the older girls.  The older girls just look at me and say, "Daddy, my name is not Bob!"  For Sarah, this is just the beginning of a conversation about her name.

Here is how the conversations usually goes.

"Hi Bob!"

"I not Bob, I Sarah."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I Sarah Bob!"

"What about George?"

"I Sarah Bob George."

"So your name is Sarah Bob George?"

"Yes, George!"

This can continue as long as I keep asking her more questions.  The other night we were at a friends house and she was asked what her name was.  She responded with Sarah.  Then when she was asked how long she has been named Sarah, she looked at her fingers and said 3.  Next she was asked if she knew what her name was before her name was Sarah.  Without hesitating she said, Yes.  Sarah!  Later that night at home, I asked her the same questions.  Here is the conversation that followed.

"What is your name?"

"I Sarah."

"Who named you?"

"I did."

"But who gave you the name Sarah?"

"I myself!"

"You named yourself Sarah?"

"Yes, I Sarah!"

"You don't think that maybe mommy and daddy named you?"

"Daaaadddddy, I Sarah. I name me!"

Then she walked off to play with some toys.  So our 3 year old is very confident that before she was named Sarah, her name was Sarah, and she named herself Sarah!  Conversations like these are the ones that I cannot wait to show her when she is older!  That will be fun.

Anyone want some Oak leaves?

Being a forester, I like trees.  I love to be out in the woods walking around enjoying all the amazing things God has created.  However, I am not very fond of Oak trees.  At least the ones in my yard.  Well, actually I don't really like Oak trees in the woods either.  There are several reasons for this.  If you have Oak trees in the woods, it is a good sign that the trees that have commercial value will probably not grow there and the Oak trees we have around here are not that valuable commercially.  They are also a good indicator of poor soils that will be really hard to plant trees of any kind and get anything else to grow.  The most important reason though is that, if there is Oak trees, there is usually a lot of Poison Oak in the area as well and I do not get along with Poison Oak very well.  

Our Oak trees are great in the summer when they help shade our house on the hot days and keep us cool.  But in the Fall, starting in October, they start to drop their leaves and make a big mess in our yard and the street.  It would not be that bad it they just dropped their leaves all at once and were done with it, but our trees have to start in October and slowly drop leaves on us until mid December.  As a result, I get to spend a bunch of time every couple weeks blowing and raking the leaves off the yard into a pile in the street for the city to come and collect sometime in December. 

Everyone that lives in the houses at the end of the cul-de-sac blow all the leaves out into a pile in the middle of the street instead of by the curb so that we can still park on the curb in front of our houses.  This is the pile that has built up as of November 20 before I blew this weeks leaves on it.  It is actually a lot bigger than it looks in this picture.

Here is what I have to contend with this week.  I would just leave it there until all the leaves are on the ground, but I would end up with dead grass and a lot of moss.  I don't have enough grass actually growing to afford letting any more die!  That is another downside to the Oak trees.  The grass does not like to grow very well under them.  

Using this tool and a rake, about 4 hour later, I am finally done.

Here is the pile now.  Again, it is a LOT bigger than the picture makes it look.  There is a couple of dump truck loads of leaves here.

 The lawn looks a lot better now too!  I should only have to do this one more time this year, I hope!  The leaves are almost gone off the trees.

It usually takes a lot longer for all the leaves to come off, but I think all the wind and hard rain last week really helped knock them off.

So if anyone has the need of a big pile of Oak leaves, I can hook you up!  If you like raking and running a leaf blower, come on over, I have not done the back yard yet!!  I will even let you use my rake and leaf blower!

Thanksgiving Decorations

Friday night, Emma and Riah decided to make some Thanksgiving Decorations for their room.  The got out all kinds of paper, pens, markers, glue, glitter, stamps, ink, and scissors and went to work.  They are making leaves, scarecrows, turkeys, and Pilgrims.  I also told them about pumpkins, corn, cornucopia, and sweet potatoes.  They are hard at work, it will be interesting to see the finished product.  Maybe we will have them decorate the rest of the house too! 

Here they are with all the decoration making supplies.

Leah wanted to help them.

Sarah wanted to help too.  This was her contribution to the effort.  I think she is posing as a scarecrow!

Emma coloring a leaf.

Riah showing me a leaf she made.

Here is the results of all their hard work.

Now they are already planning on what they are going to make to decorate their room for Christmas.  It is only 28 days away they tell me!  I think someone needs to check their math on that one, but we will let it slide for now.

What to do on vacation?

After work today, I officially started some vacation.  I am off work until November 29th.  Now I am thinking about what to do while I am off.  Here is what I have come up with so far, not in any particular order:

• Sleep
• Play with the kids
• Spend time with the wife
• Blow the leaves off the yard
• Clean up the shop
• Work on some random woodworking projects
• Eat some birthday cake
• Celebrate 15th wedding anniversary
• Smoke a turkey on the Treager
• Eat a turkey dinner with family and friends
• Study 1 Kings 6 and prepare a bible study on it
• Think of something to blog about
• Do some geocaching
• Go mountain biking
• Run on the treadmill
• Call mom
• Play in the snow
• Take the girls to swimming lessons
• Go out in the woods and get a Christmas tree
• Put up and decorate the Christmas tree
• Start a Christmas/End of year letter to send out with Christmas cards

I am sure I will come up with a lot of other things to do and only get a couple things on this list done, but I will start off with some sleep.  I am usually up by 5 am, but I think I will sleep in until at least 7 tomorrow!  Although by Monday or Tuesday, I will not be able to sleep anymore and I won't be able to go to sleep until 1 or 2 in the morning and I will wake up by 6 or 7.  That is just how my vacations usually go, so I should have time to get lots of stuff done.  We will just have to wait and see how it goes.

Family Game Night

 We like to play games as a family.  I realized a few nights ago that we had not played any games for a while.  I asked the girls what they wanted to play and they came up with Jenga.  It is a great game to play with children!  Especially children who tend to sometimes be a little clumsy!  I thought it sounded like fun and had to have the camera out to catch some of the action.  Sarah wanted to watch a movie instead of playing, so it was just Emma, Riah, Leah and Daddy to play.  Brooke was out running errands.  Leah didn't stand much chance of not knocking it over by just getting within 3 feet of it, so she became a spectator.  She is very good at that!  Although, she did kind of come and go.  She would watch the Jenga tower being built for a few minutes and then would go keep Sarah company watching her movie for a few minutes and then come back to check on the progress of the game.

 She was quite happy to point a blocks now and again and tell her big sisters that they should get that one.  Her main job, as is her main job all the time, was to be cute and funny.  She excels at the cute part and is usually quite funny with the things she tries to do.  She does have her moments of, shall we say, unfunniness, but we don't need to talk about those today.

 The first round of Jenga, lasted about 5 minutes and here is the end of the game!  As you can see in the picture, Riah was not happy that she knocked the tower over.  She likes to see it fall, but does not like the crashing noise it makes.  She would prefer to have it fall when someone else is taking their turn so she can have her fingers in her ears.  So when we started game 2, on everyone else's turn, she would stand and watch with her fingers in her ears, just in case it fell!

 We started a second game.  Emma and Riah get really cautious after I pull all but a single bottom block out at the start of the game. They are sure that it was going to fall right away.

 They got really serious and amazingly patient for 9 and 6 year olds!  Look at the concentration.

 Here, Riah took a couple minutes to pull out this block.  Then I would scare them by flicking a corner block out of the tower without even grabbing it!  Emma tried it once and almost knocked it over early in the game.  She decided that was not a good way to get a block out.

 Riah became very steady and careful, which, if you know Riah, she is usually very jumpy, bouncy and not careful as a person can be.  The tower in game 2 was getting quite high and lasting a long time.

Leah cam back to visit again and give Emma some advice.  Emma learned that advice from a 1 year old is not something that should usually be followed.  The tower almost came down, but some how it stood back up.  She may have bent the rules a little bit by how much she was touching, but I am not sure so I did not worry about it.

 Riah got another one out and back on top.  It is getting really tall now!  Emma and I each went another turn and then it was back to Riah.

 She looked at it and thought about it for a while and then went for her block.  She barely got her hand on it and CRASH, it came down again.  It was a fun night of playing games with the girls. 

 The next night, we all played the board game "Life".  That is another one of our favorite games.  Emma and Riah had a couple of bad games that time though.  They both kept landing on bad spaces and having to pay out all the money they got.  When we finished the game, Mommy had won with over 2 million dollars, I had 2 place with 1.8 million dollars followed by Emma with 700 thousand dollars and then Riah with 150 thousand dollars!