My beautiful boy, six times around the sun!

 

Sweet Solomon,your not my first child so I know all too well how fast times goes. Every milestone has been a bit bittersweet for your Mama because I don't want you to grow up too fast. You are an ever curious, compassionate, funny, thoughtful and creative little boy.These day you love to build forts of all kinds and write little notes(a new skill picked up in Kindergarten).
Every New Year you give me something wonderful to celebrate! I love you more than you will ever know, your happy personality lights up my world.
Six is going to be awesome!

A Christmas treasure...

My family and I went for a hike along the Sandy River to get some fresh air on Christmas. I have been so cooped up lately that I couldn't handle it anymore. It was sunny and beautiful on Christmas Day but by the time we got to the river in the very late afternoon the sun was no longer hitting our side of the river. Nalah was leading our hike through the woods full charge and the other older kids were hesitant at first but had a fun time building forts and throwing rocks into the river. The kids stayed behind with their Papa and Uncle, and I walked  up ahead to check out the rocks along the shore. I  noticed my footprints were the only ones along on the beach that day and lucky for me there was a giant red agate just sitting there on the beach. My Christmas treasure!

Holiday market in the woods.....

 (photos from Christmas in the Garden at the Oregon Garden)

Wishing you all love and light this holiday season!

This Moment...

Look who I busted putting on mascara in the bathroom?

 (Sigh)...they grow up fast ;)

Join along with Soulemama to share your moment this week.

Frozen Beauties...

 Nalah and I took a chilly walk one morning to take pictures of our unusually cold weather last week. There is something so beautiful about frozen roses. We never had them in Wisconsin, by the time the frost came the roses were long gone but here in Oregon they hold on all winter, it is amazing. When moved here in January of 2003  I remember being amazed that there were still roses...and a homeless peacock living on our roof, but that is a different story.

The Great Christmas Tree Hunt...........

Feeling Thankful

  I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday!

We threw together a last minute traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a trip to the farmers market on Wednesday to get a ton of seasonal root vegetables to make this. It was yummy and I don't think I have ever even had a rutabaga before. We also threw in some potatoes that Sollie grew in our garden! It was our super local,home grown and seasonal side dish. 

These are Sollie' home grown potatoes, he is especially fond of the tiny "snowman" potato, we didn't cook that one.

Ben looked super happy when he walked out of the bakery with this, however it looked way better that in tasted. We are going to try turning it into french toast.

 Being a vegetarian and living 3,000 miles from my extended family I am not really a huge fan of Thanksgiving and would rather just feast on Indian take out (we did this last year). But Thanksgiving is my Husband's favorite holiday and he arranged his work schedule so he could be home, so we did it his way this year. Although very last minute(we were grocery shopping at 10pm on Wednesday)it came together quite nicely.

 I was thankful that Ben worked through the weekend last week so he could take this week off to help with the kids so I could participate in a  holiday craft show at my son's school. It was a really nice change of pace for me, to get out of my house by myself for several hours. I sell my crafts mainly online I don't usually get to interact face to face with the people who purchase my goods. It was very nice to hear positive comments on my work. It was a lot of sitting around but I feel it was totally worth it. As a stay at home mom with out a regular paycheck it feels really good to contribute financially. The first day sales were a bit slow but the second day was a huge blessing for me. Each sale from HumbleLuna means a lot to my family and helps me provide Christmas gifts for my kids each year. Despite all the stress leading up to it, I feel it was a success and I hope I can participate again next year.

Here are some  crappy pictures of my booth: