goodbye 2011

So I'm a goal oriented person.  And as we were meshing our objectives for 2012, we had to revisit some for 2011, in no order whatsoever.  These are the ones we remembered off the top of our heads:

• have Baby A.  check.
• learn to can.  check.
• fence by back door.  check.
• cook with the peeps, often.  check.
• indulge the peeps' imaginations.  check.
• give to others in ways that seriously stretch us - financially, socially, emotionally.  check.
• go to Oregon, go to Tennessee.  check, check.
• write letters.  epic fail.
• see hot air balloon festival.  check.
• earn more money.  check.
• learn to make salad dressing on a whim.  still not quite there.  fail.
• have a garden.  check.
• see the peeps start to swim like fish.  check.
• make wise financial decisions.  so subjective.  check.
• be realistic and specific about our possessions.  downsize if needed.  check.
• finish replacing baseboards.  fail.
• wallow in joy, always.  definitely not always.  fail.
• be more careful with haircuts.  no buzz cuts this year - check!
• wrestle with the kids.  check.
• live in a state of gratitude.  always a process.  check.
• smile at strangers.  check.
• Christmas cards.  fail.
• make an effort to earnestly listen to our children - their needs, wants, dreams.  sometimes this is a hard one, as they talk all. the. time., but definite improvement has been made.  check.
• keep our home cozy.  check.

And we'll stop there.  Obviously, not all the goals were met.  I have the actual list, but I guess these were some of the more important - and, of course, we probably didn't achieve the ones we've totally forgotten!  Priorities, priorities.

We have had such a splendid year.  You should see our goals for 2012; we're bringing out the big guns.

new best friend

i love her eyelashes

and her little hands

on the bookshelf

We have been slowly trimming our possession of books.  Mostly we're just donating a bunch to the library, and giving some to friends.  And if we are keeping it, but don't really remember it, I'm reading it.  You know, to figure out if I actually want to keep it.

This means I'm reading a strange selection.  I just finished one on frontier women (was my grandma's) that was super interesting.  Can you believe what those people went through to settle the West?!  I am ever so thankful for warmth, shelter and stability.  So I am rereading the bottom, Dustin & I are finishing up the AP, CS Lewis stands to keep me busy for a while (does anyone else have to read each paragraph of his ~3 times?), the Ann Voskamp book is new (have you read her blog?  it's rich), and I don't remember the mystery up top at all so far, which means I'll send it off to the library once finished.

And now you can read library books on the Kindle!  So Dustin and I are sneakily trying to dominate its usage...

'Is the Kindle on the dresser?  I thought I left it there.  I wanted to finish _____'

'I don't think so.  You could look for it.'

'Yeah.' walks away

*Chortle*  lifts pant leg and pulls out Kindle.

coconut snow

S chose this yesterday.

And so I got to work.

And then, well, they got to work.  I mostly sat across from them, eating coconut and mixing more frosting when needed.

P helped with clean up.

Almost Christmas!!

into everything

This little guy is curious for sure.  And definitely don't leave the dishwasher door unlatched when he's around.

garlands

She woke up one morning and got to work.

 While Baby A had a morning snack

Then he got up and joined right in

 By this time Baby A was busily exploring an open drawer

 And then they finished.  It sparkles!  It shines!  It hangs in the archway, looking divine.

Our girl says each night with a gasp, 'It's so beautiful!' and I have to admit, they did an awesome job.

snow schmow

It has been crazy, super, insanely cold here.  This is from the desktop early Monday night.  I saw that it was supposed to get down to -25 in the mountains last night - and that doesn't include wind chill! Brrrr.

So no playing outside for us.  This was from the weekend.

tiny pears

I found the cutest pears this weekend.  Forelles.

 And Baby A had his 9mo check this morning.

Dr couldn't hear his heart murmur anymore.  Hooray!

winter gardening

 No surprise, found her on the couch 10min later.

the advent calendar

I usually think about how handy it is not to have a fireplace.  No danger, no soot, no crazy children chasing each other with the poker.  But a mantle would be good for this - right now it's strung across the bookshelves.  Maybe in the next house.  I rather love it, actually.  Came out just like I was hoping.

No tree yet.  This weekend, I think.  But we got the dishes out a month ago.  It's nice eating on plates we can actually microwave (our non-holiday ones don't go in there).  Holidays.  Love.