Now it feels like Christmas!

We woke up yesterday morning to a dusting of snow and then it snowed on and off all day. The snowflakes falling were giant! The only bummer is that it is freezing and very windy. Highs are only expected to be in the mid 20's all week and they are all calling for a few more inches on Wednesday! Ben tried to drive to work yesterday but slid off the road and through an intersection and decided to turn-around and come home. We were glad he did :) All schools are closed today so we are looking forward to another day snowed in. I am kind of wishing I made it to the grocery store though. I might try to venture out on foot today, or we are going to have to get very creative with items in the pantry. I'll try and post some pics later.

Well Carol and Ross, this could make your drive up much more of an adventure than you had anticipated! Maybe we will have a white Christmas after all.

It sure doesn't feel like Christmas around here

We are on day 6 of the advent calendars, the lights are hung, and the tree is decorated but it sure doesn't seem like Christmas is just a few weeks away. I think its the weather. I've only worn a hat once and the sun is still shining. I am definitely not complaining, I'm just used to a certain chill in the air and gray skies. It has been a great week for us. Ben has been home for the most part. Not much work this week with all of the teachers just getting back from Thanksgiving break. We've been making the most of it and getting some stuff done around the house and just enjoying spending time together. Here are a few pictures from the week. Finn really enjoyed decorating the tree this year. He studied each ornament and would carefully decide where it should go on the tree. One of the ornaments is from the 70's and has a picture of Ben from when he was probably about 3 years old and Finn said "look it's me!" Finn made us laugh the other morning. He had just found a wise man in the advent calendar (thanks Grandma!) and he said "look, my little guy is holding a toaster." Well, actually it was a chest. Here are a few pictures from this week

Thanksgiving wrap-up

I think I am still full from all the food we have eaten the past few days. We are definitely looking forward to some quite evenings at home. On Thanksgiving we had dinner at Annee and Mike's house and were joined by my mom, Uncle Robert and Mike's mom, Judy. All the food was delicious, Finn and Lily had a blast together and we had a really nice time. In case you were wondering, Lily is going to be a big sister in mid-January.

Then we spent Friday evening at Shawna and Brian's new house and had another yummy dinner. Finn and Nora chased each other around the house all night and yelled like Banshees!

Last night we had turkey again ( and all the fixings) with my dad, this time at our place.
We have tons of leftovers...my favorite part. I'm already dreaming of turkey and cranberry sandwich's for lunch.


We hope you were all as fortunate as us to have such good company and full tummies!

Hallelujah!

We are ecstatic that Obama will be our President! It is surreal but gives me so much hope for the future. It's amazing to think that Finn and Otto will grow up in a World where a man or woman of any race can be President of the United States and they won't know any differently. Very exciting times ahead!

Halloween

Anyone recognize this costume? Yes, Finn is wearing the same elephant costume he wore last year. He had the most adorable train conductor costume but absolutely refused to wear it. A couple weeks ago he was telling everyone he was going to be a race car and then just a few days ago he decided he wanted to be a robot. Ben had to work last night so I figured we would just hand out candy, but when Finn came home from school yesterday he was all excited to trick-or-treat and agreed to wear his costume from last year. We went to gram's house to trick-or-treat and then in her neighborhood. We had a great time and Finn kept telling me how happy he was :) Instead of saying "trick-or-treat" he would say "trick-or-treating." On the drive home I think he ate at least 6 or 7 pieces of candy! Otto was a polar bear.

The other pics are from the Halloween carnival we went to last weekend at the community center.

Trying to find the time

Wow, it's hard to keep up with this whole blog thing. I'm usually either too exhausted, or its my to turn to be the "seeker" in a game of hide and seek or Otto's trying to chew his way through an electrical cord underneath the desk...yikes! But at this very moment Otto and Finn are both napping at the same time! We still can't figure out how to write text in between photos?! Hopefully we can figure it out soon.

The perfect afternoon snack

whole wheat toast with pumpkin butter and apple cider...Perfection!

cutest autumn baby ever

Well if you can't tell already, Fall is my favorite time of year. I mean really whats not to love....knit hats and sweaters, Finn's red rubber rain boots, jumping in puddles, apple cider, squash and pumpkins, raking leaves, the smell of smoke from chimneys, homemade gingerbread and apple crisp. I really could go on and on but I'll spare you. Here are some photos of Otto I took yesterday. Check out the amazing sweater I found at the thrift store.

Finn's 3rd birthday!!

I can't believe my baby is three years old! Finn's birthday didn't really go as I had planned, but such is life. Somehow he ended up having two parties in 3 days. My dad was going to be out of town on Finn's birthday (and his) so we had a last minute party on Saturday as well as on his birthday. Our friends Shawna and Brian were also in town for the weekend and Saturday was Brian's birthday. Finn has been talking about a fire engine cake for weeks, so Ben and I made him one. It took a scary amount of red food coloring to make. The cake turned out way better than I thought it would. Not bad huh?

marbelized paper

Today we tried marbleizing paper using only shaving cream and food coloring. We followed the instructions here: http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/kids_craft_marbled_paper. I was a little skeptical but the results were amazing. It was so quick and easy! I can't wait to try it again.

Keeping Finn busy

The key to our happiness these days is keeping Finn busy :) Finn has a way of finding "trouble" if not kept busy. The past few days we made apple prints and he really liked making his name with beans. I just took some paper bags and spelled out his name with glue and he filled it in with the beans. He also had fun stringing pasta and making a bracelet and necklace. I dyed the pasta first by soaking it for a few hours in food coloring and rubbing alcohol and then let it dry. He was really sweet and kept saying "Thank you so much mom, I love this pasta so much", while clutching it to his chest. Too funny. Of course it made my day!

Salsa!

Here is the salsa Ben made with our tomatoes.

Other signs of Fall

These are pumpkins from our garden...think there are three more to go. Grown completely Au natural. They actually started growing out of our compost pile. We figured they were squash plants but all turned out to be pumpkins or gourds.


Here is a photo of our fall table. Apple prints we did yesterday and flowers and a gourd from the garden plus other finds from nature walks.

Fall is here

Fall has arrived in the NW. While dad was at work yesterday we took a spur of the moment trip to Hood River with Gram to do the Fruit Loop. It was a perfect drizzly day with downpours and rainbows mixed in. Our bellies were filled with popcorn, caramel apples and apple cider. We brought home tons of apples to make an apple pie or two and Finn had fun running through the flower fields and checking out all the pumpkins and gourds.

Tomato Tart

With soooo many tomatoes this year in our garden, I found another great recipe.

Savory Tomato tart

• 1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
• Pastry for 9 in. pie crust ( I cheated and bought the kind you roll out yourself)
• 4 oz. of crumbled goat cheese
• 2 tsp. coarsely chopped thyme
• 2 or 3 large tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

Preheat oven to 450 F. Saute onion with olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat until onions are golden brown. Remove from heat. Lay pastry dough flat on an ungreased baking sheet. Spread onion evenly on top, leaving a 1 inch border. Dot with goat cheese, sprinkle with thyme and grate some fresh pepper over the top. Place tomato slices on top, overlapping slightly. Fold pastry over topping crimping the edges. Bake until crust is golden brown, 18-20 min.

The first post

I decided to try out this whole blog thing mainly for fun and thought maybe it would help me brush up on my computer skills. I've been inspired by all of the crafty moms out there and their blogs. Hoping that this site will inspire others as well as keep our friends and family updated on our life.