Merry Christmas!  First thing this morning I made an attempt at giving one of us a heart attack.  But we're too healthy.  Instead I got some wicked heartburn.

Our two days together as a family were awesome.  Yesterday, we went to Mass at a great neighborhood church I've been meaning to check out.  Phoebe had a chance to sing her favorite carols she's been belting out non-stop for about a month now.

We tried to downplay gifts and really focus on giving and only getting a few things.  Well, we blew that one.  Today we unwrapped presents for about 6 hours.    The time was mostly dragged out because Phoebe wanted to play every game and do every puzzle as they got opened.  But that was awesome. Thanks for all the wonderful things you sent to us or to our kids. We have lots of new games, math-based activities, and the pig!

Pigs are definitely a part of our life right now thanks to Mercy Watson.  Thanks to all of you who have built that up as these stories are stellar.  Phoebe's aunt Laura made a stuffed pig with a bunch of piglets zipped inside that come out.  Their lips have Velcro so they can attach to their mom.  We had a good laugh at that today.

We've been snowshoeing a ton a block from our house on the Mississippi River Road.  Phoebe likes to trek through the "woods."  It's a great reminder that while we can see the downtown skyline from our bedroom window, we have this great set of woods just a block away.

Alisa got me beer stuff and I got her wine stuff yea.  She won a silent auction share of local beers and paraphernalia for my gift.  The money went to Our Saviors Housing and I got to sample some great local brews, got a tshirt and a hoodie. Alisa hasn't enjoyed wine in a long time since we've been either thinking she's pregnant for 2 years or she has been.  So I got her some wine and then got sidetracked in the garage for the last 2 months making this wine rack/end table.  I picked up some quarter-sawn oak, started experimenting, swore a few times, called my dad a lot, and then this showed up. My parents added to this by sending a wine-stop with an antler on it.  Pretty cool addition.

A new wine "glass" from a local artist and the wine stopper.

Santa brought Phoebe and Alisa a deck of yoga cards.

Christmas Programs and Birthday Cake

Phoebe was an angel for our church Christmas program.

The preschoolers sang Away in a Manger

Our 10.4" snowfall last week.  Ruined by rain.

Alisa's mom made a "Mercy Watson" cake.  If you haven't read these
early chapter books, they're pretty awesome

We had a visitor on our clothesline post when we came
home the other night.  I was hoping he would stick
around to take care of some garden eaters.

Phoebe is quite loving.  She calls him "the little guy" most of the time.

We're having a horrible cycle of colds go through our house and I tested positive for strep throat this morning.  High 5!  I'd rather have a couple toenails extracted with a vice grip than get this again.  Even Peter's got a snotty nose.  I guess 2nd kid gets to start experiencing germs/viruses earlier.

Alisa's parents were here for a week.  They got to enjoy the Preschool Christmas show as well as our church program.  Rina made a cake for Phoebe and Dale built some shelving for Alisa to store sewing supplies.  Phoebe and Peter got to enjoy their grandparents a ton too.

Phoebe is very excited about Christmas.  Today she stuffed a little doll in her shirt and walked around her bedroom knocking on various things.  Apparently she was looking for someone who would take her in and help her get baby Jesus out of her belly.  We sing a Christmas song every night before dinner now and do the signs she learned for preschool to go along with them.  It's been fun seeing her get excited about surprises.  And she doesn't seem too focused on the gifts and materialism--a great relief.  

We didn't celebrate Phoeben's birthday with anyone else, but she had a great birthday at home.  Alisa made the cakes as you can see.  She got a new sweatshirt from my parents, dominoes from Alisa's, some Mercy Watson books and Legos from us and my brother's family sent story flash cards, where we get to make up stories based on cards with images.  Great stuff for everyone around here.

Peter's growing fast and hopefully gonna settle in here after a couple days of wanting to eat about every 2-4 hours.  The little butterball needs to let him mommy sleep and have some time to herself.

Otherwise, Phoebe loves "The Little Guy" and he's pretty content, unless he's hungry.  Then he's pretty ticked off.

Sorry to take so long to post.  Soon after my last, Phoebe and Alisa both got quite sick and it drained our home of all it's energy for a solid couple of weeks.

Halloween!

I don't think I need to say much here.  We had a good time carving pumpkins.  Alisa did a spectacular job sewing Phoebe's "Get to Work" Cinderella costume.  I made the bucket--not much :)

 He's sleeping and eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping and sleeping and sleeping . . . and we thought we should maybe wash him after a week of being in this world.  He didn't fuss, but looked pissed the whole time.  Phoebe loved it when he arced a nice pee in his tub.

Here.  I know this is what everyone's waiting for.


Personally, I think all kids look like mutants and are fairly ugly for about a month--except my own.  So I'm not going to go on and on about how cute Peter is.  I think he's absolutely beautiful and he makes me cry, just like Phoebe did (and still does).  Our own kids are the most beautiful things in the world.  And I know I share that understanding with all you parents out there.  It's a bizarre experience and becoming (and being) parents is the most brilliant experiment designed.

 Yesterday Phoebe and I enjoyed the weather and cleaned up all the leaves in our front yard.  What the heck?!  We only have one tree on the boulevard!  Phoebe had fun and then left me to bag everything so she could go play with her new brother.

So far, she thinks it's great that he's peed on himself and once hit himself in the face while getting a diaper change.  Today in church Phoebe was asked if she had something new at home (Alisa and Peter stayed home).  Her response was "I have a brother Peter and he peed on his face." I guess this is all payback after being the king of potty jokes . . . as a kid of course!    ;)

Safari Legos

Basement wall after cleaning, and cleaning,
and cleaning the crazy rotten wood.

Legoland! Phoebe liked it, but I'm not sure
if she liked it more than I did.  Coolest store
on earth!

 So what have we been up to . . . Well, Phoebe's liking preschool.  She often doesn't want me to leave, but doesn't get upset when I do.  She loves it as far as I can see, but that's not very far yet.

She's super into Legos which I think is about the coolest thing ever.  I found my old space legos from the early 1980s and killed an entier morning building with them.  Most brilliant toy ever created.

People talk about nesting.  Whatever.  I get it.  But I said to Alisa that that term sounds like something suburbanites do when they go to the mall and pick out a bunch of color-coordinated crap for the babies room that they really don't need.  I removed a rotten workbench that was mostly compost, but was once some solid 4x4s.  You can see the beautiful basement wall left behind above.  Nice, eh?

We had 6 cubic yds of composted soil trucked in for garden health and to fill the new 3'x15"x16' box I built from decking.  Pretty fun to put together and fill.  Gonna plan some blueberry bushes this spring.  Should be a fun new endeavor.  As you can see, I put my first year's hops to good use doing a fresh hopped IPA.  Haven't tried it yet.  Ask me in November how it turned out.  I'm already scoping out a couple other areas in the yard to grow a couple other varieties of hop.  So there's my version of nesting for ya!

Our garden was great this year.  We still got some broccoli, kale, spinach (under a cold frame), raspberries, and carrots out there. But our squash/pumpkin patch produced about 70 squash total.  What a great crop.  We did well with peppers this year as well!  I can't recall, but I think I filled about 30-40 pints total and have them frozen.  A lot of nice greens right before our first frost last week.

Finally, we await child #2.  Everything's going well.  Alisa's doing well and we're finally wrapping our heads around having a second child in the house.  I've struggled to comprehend that this child is coming since my life has revolved around Phoebe in a very good way.  I'm still adjusting to being home.  But I think the arrival of our new child will force me to stop puttering on projects, sit back and enjoy the great time we will have together as a family this winter.

We look forward to see you all when we do!

About 5 cubic yards of dirt for the garden, almost taking
out our herb garden.

The blueberry box

Early harvest.  About a dozen more butternuts came in since

Fresh hopped IPA

Day before the frost.  We did well this year!

Broccoli under the fabric, raspberries are tall, and carrots in the straw.

Phoebe's going to be "Get to Work Cinderella"
for Halloween.

Second trip to the dentist.  She does very well there.

We a few weeks into Phoebe's pre-school year and my non-school year.  I'm feeling quite ok about not working at this point.  I think what occasionally creeps into my thoughts is how easy it will be to let go of work and stay plenty busy around here without going back to work.  My days are very easy going and being around all day does not provide me with any sort of mental stimulation.  But for now, that's totally cool with me.

 Today, Phoebe and I sadly pulled up the first of 4 rows of green bush beans.  It's sad to see them go.  It's been a great summer gardening here.  As we sadly start to pull the garden, the benefits roll in.  Last night, I brewed a Chinook IPA.  I'm growing Chinook Hops and the first year's yield is very slim.  So I plan to throw these in fresh once the yeast has done it's work.  This will give a very large aromatic boost typically not found in many beers since fresh hops are quite precious.

Chinook Hops: a few dozen cones--not enough to brew a whole batch, but enough to fresh hop with.

Picking Basil for supper last week

Last weekend I made salsa and canned 20 pints.  I still get quite nervous about canning, but the more I read, the more confident that I am about canning tomato products.  But there's always those warnings out there that make me a bit jumpy.  Beer just tastes bad if it goes south.  Canned foods can kill you.  Ponder that irony for a while.

We've been freezing quarts and quarts of applesauce (we bought a second fridge for the purpose of gardening--very nice to have another in the basement), lots of swiss chard, beans, and we got a great crop of sweet peppers.  In a future blog, I'll get some photos of the squash yield.  Should be impressive.

Phoebe loves pre-school so far.  Lots of new songs get sung around the house.  When I ask if she learned it at school, she just looks away and ignores me.  Now I know what those parents always meant when they said to me "I don't know what's going on here at school--he just comes home and locks himself in his room."  I'm getting the pre-school version of that behavior.

Carrot crop pulled.  We gather about this many sweet
and hot peppers every couple of days.  Things are slowing
a bit with the cooler nights, lower sun,
and shorter (but still hot!) days

Our squash and pumpkin patch.
Can't see em, but there's quite a few hiding in there.

Phoebe's new activity: Triking in the Grass