For Dinner????

 We have been busy bees here on the Harriman Farm!  This last month we added two new additions--turkeys!  We wanted to raise 4 for us and 4 for some friends of ours, but funds were low for a new coop, so we decided to just get 2 and try it out.  We instantly fell in love with our turkeys!  The white one is called Napoleon and the black one Gobble.  We were hoping one of these guys would grace our Thanksgiving table, but I can see now that that will be impossible.  They are incredibly loving.  They find the kids and curl up and fall asleep on them.  They love to be held and sit on the kids shoulder--so unlike the chickens.  They are now outside this week for the first time.  We had them in an inclosure out on the grass.  They kept breaking out and we would find them on our porch looking through our french doors trying to find the kids.  We finally gave up and just let them roam around.  The chickens ignore them.  Where ever the kids are, they are.  I am serious, if we had to grow our own food we would starve!  Maybe a cow would be easier............

 Curled up for a good nap.

Snuggling with Isaac.

Easter

 I have been sooo bad about blogging.  I will start with April and see how it goes.
We celebrated Little Grandma's 69th birthday the end of March.  We had a little party and got to have some gluten free cake (which turned out surprisingly well) and ice cream.

 Eve helping me stuff our egg hunt eggs with candy.

 Decorating eggs.  Ian and Eve loved all the pretty colors.

 Quinn hid his under his bed the night before Easter because he didn't want them mixing with everyone's inferior eggs :-).

 My pretty Easter girl.

 I attempted making a satin dress this year.  You can't see it, but there is a shear over skirt with pretty little sparklies all over it.  Grandma helped a lot, but it turned out very pretty. 

 After church and dinner we had an egg hunt in the backyard.  Here, wilderness boy gets into it sprinting around finding all the eggs he could.

What a beautiful Easter we had.  I took the plunge this year and got rid of the Easter baskets full of candy.  Each kid got a nice gift and a chocolate bunny and that was all.  We focused on Jesus and his gift he gave us.  There were no complaints and they loved the gift.  They got candy in the egg hunt and that was it.  It simplified things and that is how we are going to continue next year!

Ice Storm & Snow

 Last Monday the snow began.  We got about an inch the first day.  The kids were ecstatic!  They made snow forts, and snow man, and sledded their brains out.

 Mr. Snowman

 Quinn working on filling a laundry basket with snow for the fort they were building.  That day we got word that a big system was heading our way.  We were able to sneak out in the afternoon and stock up on supplies.

 Over the next several days we got 14 inches of snow and the first ice storm I have ever seen.  Everything had an inch of ice on it.

 At this point, the snow was beautiful, but not fun to play in.  The kids would sink in and get soaking wet.  They decided they were done with snow about that time :-).  On Thursday we lost our power for 18 hours.  Paul was like a little kid getting out the generator and turning it on.  I am thankful for that generator.  It works our well so we can had water and flush the toilets!  He also hooked it up to the fridge and the laptop computer.  By the end of the evening we were so glad when the power came back on.  The house had started to get cold (the fireplace only warms a part of the family room) and we were ready for food not cooked on a camp stove.

 We did some fun Science experiments with water and soap changing the properties of the surface area of water.  Everyone got into this one.

 We were stuck up here for an entire week.  We did get a lot of organizing  of the house done, saved a ton on gas, and played some fun games.  Sometimes it is just fun to escape from the world and the snow let us do that!

This last picture reminded me of all my cello friends near and dear to my heart!

Ensign Ranch

 Over Christmas break, we took the kids to a ranch that our church owns on the other side of the Cascade Mountains with our friends the Woods family.  The day we got there it snowed--which was great because that is why we wanted to take them!  The kids were so excited to see the snow.  Here they are playing right outside our bunkhouse.

 We rented a bunkhouse for our family which was pretty much glorified camping.  We did have electric heat and electricity and only a short walk to the bathroom with flush toilets.  The kids thought it was great fun to camp in the bunk beds.

 Here we are setting up our room. 

 Pretty hills by the sledding hill.

 There was a gigantic hill close by our bunkhouse that the kids got to sled down.  Our inner tube was so fast!

 Paul cooked all our meals on a little camp stove in our room.  We made dinner in the crock pot.  It was fun.

 The only draw back was that snow is very wet and we just couldn't dry our things fast enough.  We ended up taking clothes over to our friends cabin that had a wood stove.  Next time, we bring lots more gloves!

 Quinn sledding with his buddy.

 Does this kid ever get cold?!

 Eve and her friend

 The best part was that there was a working horse ranch there.  The kids got to go pet the horses and for 3$ a piece go on led rides.  Trail rides were also available, though no one wanted to do one.

 Eve was thrilled to ride her horse, Izzy.

 Paul leading Ian on Buddy.  Unfortunately, Paul doesn't have great report with horses.  Buddy decided to lay down in the snow while Ian was riding.  Thankfully, Ian jumped off in time and was fine.  They said it had never happened before--Yikes!  I would love to go on a trail ride next time.

 We will definitely come back in the summer to take advantage of the 3 fishing lakes on the property, plus archery, shooting ranges, and trails. 

Christmas 2011

 Since we are right in the middle of being snowed in for the week, I thought it would be a good time to update the blog!  Here are some pictures from Christmas.  Here is Evie modeling her Christmas dress made by Grandma Stallman.  She is all girl and would wear a dress everyday if we let her!

 Christmas Eve day--getting the presents ready under the tree.  Once again, we cut down a tree from our property.  We decided we had better start planting fir trees to offset all these Christmas trees we are cutting down.  I actually felt a little guilty this year doing it.  Maybe a tree in a pot next year would be nicer :-).

 Christmas Eve and Christmas day were both in the 40's and great outdoor weather.  The kids had fun playing with the chickens as always.  Of course, we needed to wear our best Christmas clothes to do it in!

 In the evening, Eve got Grandma's couch bed ready since she spent the night.  She brought down her Tinkerbell blanket and pillow--a big privilege for Grandma!

 Quinn lighting the candles for Christmas Eve dinner--as our tradition--home-made pizza.  I think he looks a little like Harry Potter here!  For the first time, we made a gluten free pizza since Paul, Isaac, and I have gone gluten free (more on that later). 

 The kids love our Advent Elf.  Every day a piece of candy was left in one of the pockets for the kids to find.  They were sorry to see this elf go!

 Isaac getting ready for the Christmas Eve scavenger hunt.

 Little Grandma made all the kids matching jammies with an ocean theme this year.  The material has adorable lobsters all over it.  The kids then had to sing an ocean rendition of "Deck the Halls" before starting on the hunt.

 The hunt finally led them to their presents and here they are unwrapping them.  Lots of books--our favorite!

 Eve was pleased with Angelina Ballerina.  She has been begging for ballet lessons since she say the Nutcracker--we will see.

 Ian loves anything dragon and was pleased with his 3 headed dragon puppet.

 Christmas morning the kids decided to divide all the gifts into piles and go for it.  It was crazy.  I remember Christmas morning taking hours in my family as we opened each gift individually and played with it.  This was over in about 10 minutes flat, but the kids had a blast.  Crazy kids!

 This was the favorite gift--a slot car track.  Paul had one as a kid and he was right, the kids love it.  They each have a car (except Eve) and can race each other. 

 Getting ready for Christmas turkey dinner, yum, yum!

Our decorator in residence, Quinn, loves to decorate for the holidays.  Every door in the house is decorated, usually a month in advance of the holiday.  We love seeing all his art work everywhere.  The only bad thing is the scotch tape, it isn't always the easiest to come off.

We had a wonderful Christmas together as a family as we celebrated and remembered baby Jesus, the real reason for the season!