Crafty

So I have been feeling that creative itch lately. I have been wanting to make it down to my craft room more than I have, but I did get down there and whip up this little lovely the other day (not to boy-the bib). I think it is my favorite bib I have made so far. The other side is red polka dots with a solid brown star.

For Valentines Day I wanted to surprise Carson and Halli with a few things so I set this up for them to wake up to Tuesday morning. I was most excited to make the Valentine cookie-which turned out amazing. Mrs. Fields has nothing on my Valentine cookie! I also made them pink heart pancakes for breakfast which they just loved.They were happy and excited to find goodies from us and both sets of grandparents the morning! Thanks to our great families for sending goodies!

Other exciting news for us-Bentley got his first tooth last Monday, after a week of crankiness, and he is sitting up on his own now! I'll be taking some 7 month photos in just a couple days so I'll have lots of cute shots to share.

My Soda-Can Stove (A Post by Ryan)

So since Christmas I have started collecting some emergency essential items and items that I can use for hiking and camping trips. I have joked that depending on how the economy is in the next little bit, I will just buy some land in the middle of nowhere and go "Off the Grid". Well, i'm not seriously considering that, but i have purchased a number things that i have wanted for a while. Since Christmas i have purchased an internal frame backpack, hiking stove, Leatherman, mummy bag, water filter, and few other little things. Also, I created a wish list on Amazon that is getting a little out of control.

During my search for some of these items i ran across a design for a hiking stove made of soda cans. I decided to make one of my own. Here it is:

Last night i finally got around to trying it out and it worked great! i was able to boil 2 cups of water with about 1 oz of denatured alcohol. There are a couple more designs i am planning on trying, so hopefully they will work just as well.

I'm pretty sure Tiffani thinks i'm nuts for getting into this kind of stuff, but it has been a fun little project. Hopefully i can continue to make a dent in my wish list so i can be all prepared for my next trip.