Christmas!

Aren't they the sweetest little elves? Man I love them.

We had an awesome Christmas! It is SO sweet to celebrate the birth of our Savior with children of our own. It adds so much power and perspective. And.... joy. Definitely a lot of joy! Rowen had tremendous fun this year. All December long we did an advent calendar, talked about Jesus' birthday, talked about Santa coming, ate lots of candy canes... (I hope I never forget those sweet, sticky fingers) and it was pure joy to see his excitement and anticipation. It took him a couple hours to fall asleep on Christmas Eve, and it was totally a blast doing the parent thing once he was finally out!

We are blessed to be surrounded in family: we got to have three Christmases! The kids are spoiled rotten, for sure. A couple days after Christmas, I'm really learning the meaning of the phrase "spoiled rotten." Ha! This afternoon will be spent putting all the new toys AWAY, save one or two of his choosing. I can't wait :) I'd like to purge and give a bunch away, but with Charlotte right behind him in development, I think I'll just store them until she's old enough to be through with them too. During lunch, Rowen and I talked about getting out the bins and sorting all his toys so we can get out new ones every so often. He seemed excited about it too. That must mean he had no idea what I was saying. Muwahahaha

anyhow- sidetracked..... :)

We did Christmas Eve with just our little family this year, which was great. Christmas Eve service at church was awesome, then dinner in our pj's and putting the last ornament on the advent tree, hot cocoa & the Christmas Story- so sweet :)

Christmas morning Rowen climbed into bed with us and Matt tried to convince him to see if Santa came, but he was plenty happy just being in bed with the family. We finally got him up and it was all fun after that! He was so not into opening everything. He just wanted to play with what he had at the moment! The rest of the day was filled with family, food, and LOTS more toys. It's a good thing Christmas only comes once a year!

I hope it was merry and joy-filled for you all as well :) Bring on 2011!

Rowen's ABCs

idn't he cute?

Christmas Tree Hunting

We went to Hagg's this past weekend with my parents, & my sister and brother-in-law.

 tractor ridin' out to the trees (Rowen wanted to ride ON the tractor, it was a disappointment to settle for the wagon, but he got over it.)

 Rowen picked this one for Nana & Pop-pop

 poor Charlotte passed out for the entirety of the adventure. Happy to have been wearing the ergo!

 a little visit with big Santa

 awake now! What? Wait. Who's got me?

feeding the goats.

All in all, it was a fun trip. It was a little far out, and a little expensive, and there weren't many doug's to be found. Looks like they're only planting nobles now, which makes sense. But hard for the bargain ;) The weather held out on us which was a nice blessing! We enjoyed our free coffee & cocoa in the little barn while visiting with the animals & talking to Santa.  However, we'll try a new farm next year, mainly for the steep slopes. The trees are growing on a hillside, and it was scary trying to navigate the mud & brambles in rubber boots and wearing a baby! Luckily there were no casualties. It would make sense to just go and pick one up from a lot- they're cheaper after all. But there's something about going and cutting down your own. I'm thankful to live in a state full of fir trees just dying to be in someone's living room, bedecked with tinsel & memories come December!

Merry Christmas!

Box of Happy #2

Contents from our 2nd Organics to You box:

1 bunch Carrots-*LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch purple Kale -*LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch Collard Greens -*LOCAL, farm direct*

1 winter Squash(mixed types) - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch Beets - *LOCAL*
1-2 Onions - *LOCAL*
1-2 Garlic - *LOCAL*
2-3 Celeriac - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2 Green Peppers - ?

1 head cabbage -?

broccoli -?

lettuce -?

bok choy -?

mushrooms -?

1 bunch bananas -?

4 Satsumas - Cali'
4 Kiwi - Cali'

6 Jonagold Apples Apples - *LOCAL*

3 granny smith apples
3 lemmons

3 Navel Oranges - Cali'

2 avocados?

This week I tried a Veggie Box ($33) with a fruit add on ($15) and it looks like a good variety! I picked up a small bag of apples, a bunch of bananas, and a bag of cuties from Trader Joes for the extra fruit.

I made this recipe with the bok choy- it was good! I threw in some shrimp and half an onion and served it over brown rice.

I'm planning on making this recipe with the celery root later this week. I'm excited to try a new vegetable! Who knew you could be an almost 30 year old veggie lover and still be trying new veggies?

And I made this recipe (with regular lentils since I didn't have red) last week for the Buckendorfs who welcomed sweet baby Kenzi into the world. It was so good, I'll be making it again this week, but I'm going to use the collards from our box instead of the spinach that I used last time. I'm also going to pick up some red lentils and see what kind of difference it makes! (If you were going to try this recipe, I also used a mix of veggie & chicken stock instead of water, and regular lentils take longer to cook than red lentils, fyi)

December Resolutions

Wow, my final entry! December is not exactly a time to be thinking about starting resolutions. Typically, the end of December includes a lot of indulging in things you KNOW are bad, or less than ideal, because you're going to resolve to stop doing those things in January. Nevertheless, my December will include a new resolution just like every other month this year. I know, I'm crazy, but it's been fun. Why stop now?

The Recap:

January - read through the bible in a year. (so close to accomplishing this goal!)

February - use the cash envelope system.

March - watch internet time.

April - walk whenever possible. (yeah, fell right off that wagon. Though I did run to the library this week with my fantastic stroller)

May - stockpile the freezer. OAMC style.

June- have a healthy baby and try to stay sane.

July - ban high fructose corn syrup from our house. (would you believe there are still condiments and crackers around the house with HFCS? The last of the Graham Crackers are finally gone, and I tossed the last of the ketchup. Trader Joes Organic is a very tasty replacement! Just made a tuna sandwich yesterday with sweet pickle relish, including HFCS. yuck.)

August- try one "deceptively delicious" type recipe a day. (Rowen's morning "hot chocolate" (half-scoop of ovaltine) now includes a spoonful of pureed sweet potatoes. Love it!)

September - journal pray as a daily part of my quiet times. (oh dear, I totally dropped this one this month. I need to start again.)

October - so long, corn-fed beef.

November - tidy up! fill BOTH our yard debris bins, every week. & keep the kitchen table clear. (I did it, folks! and it wasn't that bad! There was a bad week for the kitchen table- I was doing a bizzarre so I had my sewing machine out and I was not about to put it away nightly. However, I kept the REST of the table clean.)

December - spend at least hour, one night a week, on the kids' scrapbooks.

it doesn't seem like much. But for the past TWO YEARS I've been wanting to find time to work on them. I haven't even started Charlotte's. I haven't even made her extremely simple photo books of the professional photos we had taken. For the past week I knew I wanted their scrapbooks to be my resolution, but I couldn't think of a very good quantifiable goal. One page a week? Finish Rowen's baby book? And the truth is, I feel like this goal (that I came up with last night) is possibly reachable in a busy month like December. Pray for me :) That way I can spend that quick hour ordering photos to be developed, cutting out mats, sifting through old blog posts to find things to add, doing Charlotte's online photobook, whatever. It's just an hour. It's not that scary. A little bit at a time, that's all it takes, right? Wish me luck!

How are you doing on your new years resolutions?

Our Thanksgiving 2010

sorry, picture overload!! We went to eastern oregon for the long Thanksgiving weekend. It was lovely. All the snow totally got me ready for Christmas! I'm dying to get out the decorations :)

tower of brussels sprouts

GiGi Norma (Matt's Grandma)

surrounded in snow!

...but puddles are where it's at :)

Lots of fun with Uncle Awesome (that's how Rowen pronounces Evan)

overnight snow!

love :)

Poor LuLu- what a good sport!

More fun with the younger Happels

oh my goodness- an actual picture of our whole family?? (yes, we did it on purpose! Aren't you proud?)

MiMi

Rowen LOVED the "snow mo mo." Matt slowly drove him up and down the street a few times. (As did Pappy, and Mimi.) The next day he woke up talking about it!

goofy.

look, I exist! It's me in a photo! amazing.

Christmas Card!!

Aunt Jackie

Charlotte's first Thanksgiving! Sorry girl, no food for you. No food until January. I mean it. Don't turn 6 months old on Tuesday. Stop it. Stop it I say! (look how big she looks sitting in the chair! :( It was her first time. She LOVED it. oh man.) Stop it!