Merry Frickin' Christmas

Last night our family Christmas celebration began with a power outage. Someone decided to drive their car through a power pole. We made the best of it and enjoyed a candlelit prime rib dinner.

Marcus enjoyed grilled pea puree. We had to grill his dinner because it was still frozen at dinner time.

 

Dinner was great. After eating, we spent some time trying to get a power source so we could open presents. Our new generator did not work very well, so I used an inverter from our truck to run a single lamp. Here is a picture of Marcus with my parents preparing to open presents.

 Elena opened all presents within a 6' radius. I think she could have opened presents all night long.

 Meanwhile, Marcus alternated between chewing on ribbons and wrapping paper.

The rest of the night was uneventful once we convinced Elena that there weren't any snakes in her room. The power came back on, and after resetting some breakers I thought everything was cool. At about 3 am, Karen informed me that things were REALLY cool in the house. Our furnace wasn't working. We used the last pellets for the pellet stove on Sunday, and I didn't make it to the store to get more. When we got up, the house was 56 degrees.

Luckily, John came by for coffee and offered up some pellets. The stove has been roaring ever since. We spent most of the day rotating the kids between the sauna (basement) and the arctic upstairs. Luis checked out our furnace and confirmed that he would need to order a part. The same part went out during a heat wave last summer and it took five days to arrive.

I spent most of the morning in a foul mood. In addition to the furnace, the shop thermostat and kitchen lighting also quit working. Worse yet, it was too windy to go bird hunting. Fortunately, "Santa" (Lisa and Luis) brought us one last bit of Christmas cheer: fart putty. The audio isn't great, but you can get the idea from the video. Sprout howled for a long time over this little stunt. Karen wasn't nearly as impressed, but agreed that this was the turning point in our day.

The Snake Eat Me!

Elena had her first vivid nightmare the other night. From what I can put together from her story, it went something like this. Now we get to spend a solid 30-60 minutes at nap time and bedtime searching her room for snakes and assuring her that dreams aren't real.

Enjoying the lights

 We are a little behind in the blogging business. These are pictures from last weekend. We went to downtown Caldwell and toured the Christmas lights.

 It is a short walking tour around the recently renovated Indian Creek. The weather was cold, but we didn't have the wind factor that we've been seeing this week. Sprout was sporting her new pink coat, minus gloves that we forgot at home. Luckily the sleeves are long enough that gloves are optional.

We capped off the evening by enjoying a Chinese dinner. Sprout especially liked the goldfish tanks- the one that caught her eye was the pooping fish which prompted her to launched a monologue based on the popular book Everyone Poops. I don't think the other diners were impressed.

Rescue Hero Party

 

Sprout's buddy Zarek turned three last week. Bev asked him what kind of party he wanted, and he said, "Rescue heroes." Bev took that to mean cops and firefighters. Bev and Justin went all out for this one, with games and costumes for the kids. First, all of the kids got cop mustaches.

This was followed by a doughnut-eating contest. Zarek's uncle was not allowed to participate because he has an unfair advantage (he's a real cop). He was nice enough show the kids all of his gear and handed out stickers.

We then played pin-the-water-on-the-fire. Bev hand-painted the burning building and the water splashes. She also painted the board below. Thanks for setting the bar so high Bev. We *really* appreciate it!

Six Months

Marcus hit his latest milestone last week. He is starting to sit up (with support), eats baby food, and will likely be crawling very soon. He also likes to smile for the ladies.

Santa 2012

Last week we made our annual pilgrimage to get a picture of the kids with Santa at the Orchard House. Elena doesn't really care much for Santa. When I told her that we were going to see him, the wailing began. She didn't cry in front of Santa like she did in 2010, but was still not very cooperative.

Enter Mister Mellow. He's generally happy unless you do something mean like take away the TV remote while he's chewing on it.

 

This time we enjoyed a nice dinner before we toured the light display. I highly recommend the Orchard House Santa for anyone looking for a free local option without any lines.

We're In the Cattle Business Now

After mastering the poultry business, we decided it was time to move on to cattle. Our "herd" consists of one steer, T-bone. We bought him from our friend Chad, and he's now frolicking in Tom and Tracy's pasture with three llamas. We're hoping to relocate him to our freezer in about three months.

Tom and Tracy have a large pasture which wasn't being grazed by "agricultural" animals. They need an animal to meet their agricultural exemption for property taxes; T-bone needs grass. It's the perfect partnership. I spent about 4 hours retrieving T-bone and taking him over to the pasture. I doubt I will see him again until he is packaged in delicious, frozen packages.

Christmas Tree

Today we made our fifth annual trip to find a Christmas tree. We went to the same spot we found last year. There was very little snow to be found, but we still had a good time. Once we arrived, Karen fed Marcus while Sprout and I set off in search of a tree. She didn't find a tree for us, but she did notice lots of cow manure. I think she said "THATS POOP!" and laughed hysterically about 50 times.

I think this may be our best tree yet. I's a balsam fir. I put some lights on it and snapped the picture below. We'll decorate it tomorrow.

You may have noticed that our tree does not have a skirt. Karen said, "I was waiting to make sure we're going to get a tree every year before I spend $20-30 for a tree skirt"

Me: "We've made it five consecutive years now and we have small children. So what kind of commitment do you need in order to go ahead with this *large* investment?"

I'm guessing this tree will have a skirt soon. Anyway, we followed tradition and visited a hot springs on the way home. It was pretty crowded, but Sprout really wanted to swim so we stopped. She had a great time while Karen and I glared at some unattended, unruly kids. Once we got home, we had breakfast for dinner. It seemed fitting since I had pie for breakfast.

Thanksgiving 2012

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year for 15 of our family members. As you can see above, Marcus came dressed for the occasion. He enjoyed milk and some mushy green stuff. I think it was green beans.

We cooked a much larger turkey this year, and it cooked much more quickly than we expected. It was done at 10, but dinner wasn't until 1:00. We just turned it down and it turned out fine. Dinner was great, and I'm still enjoying the leftovers two days later. I am a firm believer that pie is the true breakfast of champions.

The next two pictures are proof that it is impossible to get three kids to pose for a picture simultaneously.

 

After Dinner, we watched some football. Sprout and I crashed out on the couch.

Welcome Home Stewie!

Way back in the summer of 2011, I went fishing in Alaska with Marty, Ben and Steve. I was fortunate enough to catch a large male king salmon. I finally got him back from the taxidermist, so I thought I would share some pics.

5.25 Months

 Marcus passed his 5 month mark last week. He has become much more active, but he is a pretty happy kid most of the time.

 

 Marcus has started eating...everything in sight. He chews on toys, fingers (yours or his) and rice cereal. These two pictures show how brown his eyes are.

Halloween

Halloween began with a trip to see Great Grandpa. GG answered the door wearing his scary mask; Sprout was not impressed.She pretty much gave him the stink-eye the entire time she was there.

  

Fortunately, Alex and Katie were more forgiving.

 We hung out with the Macks for the evening. They are much more festive than we are.

 

We took all of the kids over to see  Karen's parents. Once there, the kids ganged up on Justin.

 Marcus chilled most of the time.

 That is, when he was able to breathe. He spent much of the day with the tiger's face covering his. I think he may be on to something, as was able to take a nap anywhere! Sprout was really in to her cat costume. She wore it several more times over the next week. We even drew whiskers a few more times for her.

 MEEEOOWW!

Karen Doesn't Have Trust in My Parenting Abilities

For some reason, Karen is unwilling to leave the kids under my watch while she goes on vacation. I really don't get it. Here is an unrelated video I took of Sprout the other day.

In my defense, I did not encourage this activity, I simply documented what was already going on when I went down to the basement. She was actually ready to jump from the 6th step and I made her move down to #4.

Halloween Fun

This weekend we started getting in the Halloween spirit. Sprout kicked things off by decorating her pumpkin.



 The plus of using the washable markers is that I can rinse off the pumpkin and repeat. Instant hours of decorating enjoyment.

 On Saturday, the kids dressed up in their costumes and we went to the wildlife refuge for animal education, crafts, and story time.

 Sprout was being shy, so she decided that getting a ride was better than walking to the different animal stations. They had educational lessons on local predators, owls, snakes, bugs/spiders.

 This sums up how the afternoon went- Marcus is crying and Sprout is picking her nose.

Afterwards, we retreated home for some pizza and a much needed beer. Luis helped entertain my favorite pumpkin while I recovered from the outing. On a side note- Sprout wore this same pumpkin outfit when she was 8 months old. It fits Marcus at 4, almost 5, months.

Linder Farms

Last week we ventured to Linder Farms to enjoy the pumpkin patch and other attractions. Before heading out on a big adventure, it's important to be well rested.

 The girls enjoyed playing on the bounce house. Elena would have been happy to spend the entire outing here, but there were many more attractions to see.

 We went for a ride on the barrel train. I got a free ride so that I could supervise the kids and keep them from barrelling out at the wrong time.

 There were a few photo ops. I'm pretty sure this one won't make the Christmas card.

 Elena loves swings and this one was no exception.

 The last stop was the petting zoo. There were a variety of animals including sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, and donkeys.

 Speaking of donkeys- everything was going great until Elena took it upon herself to feed the donkey unassisted while I was helping another kid. The donkey was trying to sample "Sprout" and she ended up with a sore finger. When asked the next day about the trip, she was sure to tell you about the donkey biting her finger. Hopefully this will reinforce why we don't bite.

We had an enjoyable day and look forward to making it an annual excursion. If you're local and are looking for a kid-friendly outing, we highly recommend this one.