Bedroom Update

Photos coming soon...

Bailey, helping to hold paper bags in place while Andrew blew the insulation down the wall. This particular wall is in the music room, and we experienced our own little indoor snowstorm when the insulation blew PAST the paper and out the sides.

Insulation has been blown into the walls downstairs, and placed in the walls upstairs. We had a minor set-back last week with the discovery of a leaking roof...7 contractors and $200 later, it's repaired and we're back on track!

Wiring has been complete, bring the total number of outlets in the room to more than 1, less than 5 (I can't remember how many, exactly...).

The next phase is SHEETROCK!!!

In the meantime, the music room has been transformed with the addition of baseboards and insulation; the study also has new baseboards and insulation, and Ernest Pearson (who apparently used to live here) could come to claim his math book, except he died in May of 1994. Some people will go to any length to get out of doing their math!!

In addition to the Algebra book, we also found another hymn book - except this one's not in great shape; and the corner to a newspaper's classified section. (Anyone up for a diamond wedding set - $10!) We're still looking for gold in the walls..... And I'll post photos as soon as they're downloaded from my camera, and not the phone.

Sweet Caroline

Today, my Sweet Caroline is 2. She is truly a joy to have in our family. She loves Bailey, loves babies (I love watching her try to rock her baby doll to sleep...), LOVES pajamas (her idea of getting dressed is to change from one pair of pajamas to another - and yes, she's wearing a pajama top in the photo...), wants so much to be a big kid, and loves books. She also adores nursery. She literally dragged me down the hall a few weeks ago so that she could go to class. I was glad someone was there!

She is now sleeping in her crib - minus one side, effectively turning it into a toddler bed. She stays in bed, because if she doesn't, she falls on the floor. She is now out of diapers - even at night time. Caroline loves to have pig-tails put into her curly hair, and brings me the "tails" frequently. She doesn't like to keep them in, because it's more fun to have mom put them BACK in than to just leave them alone.

Caroline also loves "shoe-es". Hers, mine, LeGrand's, she doesn't care. She puts her "Shoe-es" on first thing after waking up, and is disappointed when she can't find them. Sometimes to the point of tears.

Some of my favorite words that she says include:
Shoe-es, juicy-juice, cheesy-cheese, boot-es, and Mommy-Ah

I love that she finds joy in life, and that she wants to have her picture taken - but only because she wants to see it right away. She won't hold still long enough to really get a good picture...

Recently she split her chin open falling onto the sunroom floor. The idea of "aidy-aids" was fantastic, until she realized they had to STAY on her chin or she would bleedy-bleed all over the floor. Then she wasn't such a fan. These ones lasted most of the day. Then, I think they started to itch, so she took them off. I don't know if she put them in the garbage or not...

Caroline is one of the best helpers. She loves to throw anything away, making her an ideal helper when diaper changing time comes around! She also hates to be wet, sticky, dirty, or in any way less than clean. If her clothes get so much as a speck of dirt on them, she changes them. Today, I stuck the hair dryer up her shirt to dry it so that she'd keep it on! This child is going to drive me nuts with her OCD! Still, I love her dearly and am so grateful she's part of our family.

So, Carolina - Happy Birthday! I hope you have fun today!

a total photo dump

Bailey is now 9 months old. Her last well child check weighed her in at 17.5 lbs (24th%), and 27 inches tall (28th%). She is always on the go. She beelines for the stairs if we leave the door open, and is rather quick getting to the top. She hasn't mastered coming down the stairs yet, but... that will come.

Bailey loves Caroline. Caroline calls Bailey, "Boo". The two of them spend a lot of time laughing at each other. I love it.

School... Is going well. We still have our ups and downs, but for the most part, we are all enjoying it. The children love to go to Co-Op on Fridays, where we have the chance to be out of the house and doing other things with other people. (Hence, the name, Co-Op.) Our latest venture was to the fire station. LeGrand and Savannah and Margaret loved it. Caroline hated it. She loved the trucks, did not want to have anything to do with getting up there and actually seeing the truck. LeGrand thought it was pretty cool that he could squirt the fire hose...

I don't want to be on the fire truck!!!

All the children in our little co-op. Age range is from 3 to 10. It's tons of fun!

The house... We had a flood. Margaret was so sweet when she saw the water... Her comment was, "Um... I'll go get more towels." I'm pretty sure all the towels were being used. Here are some photos.

I put my short pants and my hot pink boots on to wade through 4 inches of water. Thank goodness the boots were rubber, it took us a few minutes to get the surge protector out of the water. 

Even Margaret's doll house had water in the basement! Hers was a little easier to clean out though.

March 17, 1985

"Next week, March 24, on Sunday I get to finish a goal by playing a number "We Thank Thee Oh God For A prophet". This is what it will look like on the program: (Imagine a hand drawn picture here...) I'm excited but I won't get nervous about it.
I will be accompanied by sister Ross a sister in the ward.
Patience will not write in her journal so her children in 100 years will not know about her and she will remain aynonomous unless someone writes about her. The prophet of our church is spencer W. (Whooly) Kimball."

So THIS is what I found interesting to write about when I was 10! The one box that was affected by all the water in the basement was my box of journals. They're all drying in various places in the house... This particular entry was in the very first journal I ever wrote. I laughed out loud when I read it. Especially the part about Patience and her not wanting to write in her journal!

I think the positive about having my journals get all wet, I may have a new project... Writing the Readers Digest Condensed Version of my Life. Leaving out all the entries that read simply: "Today was a great day." And some of the things I remember about different events that I wonder why I didn't write more... Mom said the memories would come, I just don't remember my grim outlook on Patience's journal writing! And I'm certain that with all the things she has accomplished, Patience will NOT remain anonymous!

My first entry? Friday 20, August 1982

We went to my Father's graguation. It was fun. We had an orange float. We also had a drink of sprite. We went out to lunch at Burgur King. I felt happy ubout it. I liked it. We had fun today. I was hot. And it was boring. I did not like it. When we got home my baby sister started crying.

This journal was highly entertaining. I learned that I was a terrible speller, I had a hard time reading my handwriting, and mostly I had nothing important to say! Still, it made for some laughs!

FYI: None of the spelling was changed... Told you I was a terrible speller!

Rain,Rain, GO AWAY!!!

Dear Person in Charge of Water Disposal Around Our House:

Thank you for the excellent job you do at removing water from around our house.

I'm sure that you've been gone for the last few days, because we've had water IN our house. You would never let that happen, I'm sure. A little was worrisome, but nothing we couldn't handle. To wake up this morning to 4 inches COVERING the basement? That's obnoxious.

Granted, the majority of our things reside in Rubbermaid Totes (Thanks, Rubbermaid), but for the 8 cardboard boxes that were down there, don't you think you could have made sure that the water was directed elsewhere? I mean, Really. So... Now, thanks to you being on vacation and having someone else do your work, I've got 15 journals and books strewn throughout the house DRYING, it cost us somewhere in the three hundred dollar range to get a pump and another shop vac (we now have one per person old enough to vacuum, thank you...), and the basement is STILL drying.

And did I mention that it's still raining??? Let me just tell you. We have now moved every movable item in our basement. Spent the day stressing over whether the freezers were going to stay cold, AND cancelled lessons and work just to deal with water. Do you know what? I am NOT a duck. I do NOT have webbed feet. I would prefer to keep water OUT of my living space. Who cares that it's the basement. My children play down there. I work out down there. And all my stuff was creatively organized down there.

So if you don't mind, please do not ask your substitute to come back. They did a terrible job.

Sincerely,

Linda of the Stahr Clan.

P.S. a little water is just a worry. A LOT of water is a problem. We don't want to go through this again.

The walls read...

Andrew is remodeling the upstairs bedroom so we can put someone (or someones) there.

Yesterday, he found some books in the walls. And a can of shoe grease.

a brand new can of shoe grease. weight 7.0 oz. just like the can says. smells pretty good, too!

The Methodist Sunday School Hymnal circa 1911

The cool thing about one of the books, is that it has some songs in it that I didn't realize were not LDS songs. The melodies are different though - try singing How Firm a Foundation to the tune of O, Come, All ye Faithful. It's crazy.

The other book is a Government text book for the girl who used to live here back in 1922. It's really interesting. And I'm not just saying that. There is a fictional proposed law used as a study question that talks about making smoking in public restaurants illegal. How many states have that as a law now? The suggested reading is to start at page 41. I think I'll start at the beginning.

I wonder what else we'll find in the walls.........

SNOW Day!

One of the beauties of homeschooling is that I get to choose which days are snow days, and which we still do school for even with the weather. Today, I chose to do a late start day.

And the children went outside and built... Me. Savannah said it's me. I'm still looking for the resemblance, but I love that there was enough snow for the kids to be outside and building stuff. For an hour. LeGrand came back in with soaked feet, but he was thrilled to have been outside playing.

The snow was more of chunky rain, and I'm certain it won't last, but hey. Since we don't get snow that often here, it's been fun to have some coming down the last two days! And maybe, just maybe, we'll have more in the morning! Here's to hoping.....!

Bailey...

Caroline loves Bailey. She calls her "Bay-Boo". It's lovely to have Caroline come up to me with her arms wide open and say, "hold her. hold her..." Of course, she needs CONSTANT supervision, but she's such a sweetie, and Bailey lights up when Caroline is around.

Bailey is now 7.75 months old. She'll be 8 months in 10 days. Crazy!

She's progressing rapidly. Currently, she crawls, and loves pulling herself up onto the furniture. Recently, we got a new coffee table and end table from one of Andrew's relatives. Both of them have little shelves, ostensibly for books. Bailey thinks they're magical little seats for her. The only problem is that she can't get down once she gets up. It's mildly entertaining watching her climb onto the shelf. It ceases to be entertaining when she face plants OFF of the shelf.

These photos were taken on January 1, when we were home being sick. Bailey has had a bit of a cough for the last couple of weeks - it may be related to teeth. I'm not sure.

Shortly after taking these photos, Bailey decided that she no longer wants to sit still when I'm holding her. She'd rather be standing up and looking around. She has - as of today - started inching her way around the table when she's standing there. It won't be long before she's cruising the furniture. Already she is a pro at the baby yoga "downward dog" position! And no one even taught her!

She loves Mom, loves fruit, and loves her fingers. She is also the noisiest of our babies - with Savannah being the possible exception. Bailey will "talk" for hours. She's currently sleeping in her car seat - buckled - until we get the upstairs bedroom finished so that we can move Caroline into her own bed, and Bailey into the crib. Still a couple of weeks out.

Oh well. She won't be damaged by the sleeping location, and it makes it easier to move her if we need to.

Now, I'm going to bed. Church comes early.

Christmas day

Santa came!!!

And slept in LeGrand's new bed. How about that.

Presents under the tree, by the tree, around the tree... there might have even been one or two IN the tree.

Andrew worked for weeks on a new bed for LeGrand. It's perfect for him, with room to grow. In the morning, Andrew made the comment to LeGrand, "Hey, Bud - do you like this new bed? It's yours!" To which LeGrand replied: "Well, You slept in it!" He didn't seem all that thrilled until it sunk in that he finally had a big bed all his own! He couldn't wait to sleep in it. At nap time, he told Andrew, "You have a King Sized Bed. This one is mine!"

Such a big bed... such a little boy. He makes his bed every morning. And loves to sit and read on his own bed.

Everyone had a fantastic Christmas. Savannah got a curling iron, Margaret got a doll that looks a little like her, Caroline got "JAMMIES!!!" and Bailey got something to chew on that isn't Mom. Andrew got a jar of Snickers (his favorite, in case anyone is wondering) with a mustache on it so he can tell people that "It's MUH-STACHE". We all leave it alone.

The children (LEGRAND) all thought it was pure torture to have to sit through Sacrament Meeting before opening presents, but it was a good program (including the man who did the narration using different voices... weird, and a little distracting, but still good...) and truly the reason we celebrate Christmas.

Here's the kiddos immediately after Church and before they could open anything... LeGrand is so full of excitement it's killing him, Margaret is showing off her new headband, Savannah also wearing her new headband (found in stockings...), Caroline doesn't have the foggiest notion what's about to hit... Bailey was asleep in the car seat. Church wears her out.

Here's Bailey. In her new hat from Grandma and Grandpa Pierce... can't wait to chew on it!

There are no after pictures. We were all too tired from opening presents, and scattered for naps. What a fantastic Christmas it was - something homemade for everyone; LeGrand's bed, aprons for the girls... And a WHEAT GRINDER for me! (It comes with a wooden box so the flour doesn't go everywhere. That's the homemade part of it. I Love it.!)

And now... Happy Christmas to all, and to all... a GOOD NIGHT!

Decorating the Tree

This year, we managed to put our Christmas Tree up with TWO weeks to spare before Christmas! Ian and Christen can probably remember when "Santa" decorated our tree for us (thanks, you two!) because we just hadn't decorated it before Christmas eve. NOT so this year!

This year, we had a family night decorating party - complete with popcorn for treats. Everyone, except Bailey, got involved in the putting ornaments on the tree. Caroline was enthralled with the putting on of the ornaments... and the taking off of the ornaments to find them a new spot on a different part of the tree. Multiple times.

First though, she had to inspect each and every one that went on the tree. The ones on the floor around her, those are the ones that she wasn't sure where she wanted to put them... so they went on the floor until she decided what to do.

LeGrand thought that every ornament he put on the tree was his. So much so that he decided to eat the candy canes he put on the tree - whenever he wanted. After all, they were his! He put them on the tree!

Bailey was entertained by the Russian Weeble-Wobbles, called "Never Fall Downs" (That's the translation, at least.) So, were the rest of the children.

The tree finally up, all the children can't wait for Santa to come... they all wanted to put presents under the tree the night we decorated, but we didn't want Bailey opening everything. No sneak previews here!

Savannah (10), Bailey (7 mo.), Caroline (1), LeGrand (3), and Margaret (5) - Christmas 2011
Yes, LeGrand is wearing shorts.

I love that Caroline is digging toe jam out...

Now that the tree was all decorated and ready for Christmas, it was time for the littles to go to bed so the Parents could have some quiet time.

Merry Christmas... from the Stahr family to yours.

Savannah's Double Digit Arrives!

"Hey, Mom! I'm only one E away from 'teen'!"

Savannah turned 10 in November. I'm late posting pictures about it...

Grandma Stahr took us both out for lunch to celebrate our birthdays; we went to Red Robin (yummmm...) and had a fantastic time!

Dinner was a simple affair - just us, but the food was good. I think next time, Savannah won't choose to have a roast with mashed potatoes and apple crisp for dessert. She was so full from lunch, that she literally could NOT fit a single bite in. After I insisted that she had to at least try her dinner (in my defense, she didn't tell me that she was full from lunch, just kept picking on her food and playing...) she forced herself to eat something, and then threw up. She then told me it was, "The worst birthday, EVER!" No one likes throwing up on their birthday (or any other day!).

The birthday Crisp. Tasty.

This was Margaret's gift to Savannah. It says, "Dear Savannah, I thik you're worth 100 GRAND. Love, Margaret."
She wrote it herself, and was so pleased that Savannah liked it! I just like seeing my children love each other...

Her new coat! She wasn't sure what to think at first - it wasn't at all on her list of things she wanted, but now she wears it EVERYWHERE!

Presents were fun for her, though! And now, she's all about being 10. I'm still wondering when that happened. I remember her first steps... and the steps she's taking on her own now too. What a lovely young woman she's growing up to be.

4 things I learned last month. In no particular order.

4. The Good Lord knows me better than I know myself. That's why the last two children are so close in age. I'm still trying to figure out His plan. He already knows it.

3. Papa Murphy's sells their pizza crust. Unbaked. For $1. We're going to be using this more...

2. If you don't brush your teeth, your mouth will be full of bacterial poop. I need to go brush my teeth now.

1. Sometimes, you have to just leap without looking in order for the blessings to come.


Pictures and information on the family coming later. I promise.

How they harvest Christmas Trees

The process is amazing.

First (and here's the obvious one) they grow the trees.
Next, they cut them down and put them into bundles.
Then, because those bundles are so massive, they bring in...

He flies in, is attached to a bundle, turns, and flies back for the drop into a truck. The whole process takes approximately 1 minute.

Helicopter rental: $750 per hour. Roughly 1000 trees are lifted per hour. Trees are wholesaled at $25 each, and sold to the consumer for more than that. It costs the grower roughly $.97 per tree to harvest.

We watch the whole process out the front window for free.

The helicopter was close enough this year for the children to wave and have him wave back.

And one more shot with Mt. Jefferson in the background.

Now. The day after Thanksgiving, start your search for the perfect Christmas Tree... buy Oregon. Search Salem. We watched them get harvested just for you.

CIDER!

I figured that since it's been a while, I should probably start with the oldest event first.

Apple cider. A Stahr tradition started - in our little family, three years ago when Andrew brought home an antique cider press. We've made mostly delicious cider ever since. (I say mostly, because last years cider was a little off... This year, we've outdone ourselves in deliciousness.)

The cider day dawned crisp and cloudy. Andrew and Savannah were outside by 8:30, getting the press all prepped for the pressing of 1600 lbs of apples. (Yes, you did read that right.) One Thousand, Six Hundred fantastic pounds of apples. In all shapes and colors and varieties. As I got some breakfast ready, Andrew and Savannah pressed some apples for breakfast beverage. They brought the first gallon in at 9:30 am. It was gone by 9:45 am.

This year, for the first time, Savannah was old enough to be pulled from "DUNK DUTY" and became a CRANKER. Andrew was Press Slave - once again.

LeGrand and Margaret were bucket fillers... a fun job when you get to go diving for apples in the massive bins! Sometimes, all we saw was this:

And then, he came up for air, and we saw THIS:

We pressed a grand total of 97 gallons of apple cider. It was a glorious day. Our freezer is now full.

Cider for sale: $8 per gallon. Shipping is extra.

The Law of the Harvest

"That which ye sow, that shall ye also reap."

Three years ago, the Stahr family planted a garden. We included corn, peas, beans, and something else that I can't remember because it was three years ago. I'm lucky I remember today! Our corn blew over in the wind, the peas didn't really grow, and the beans were thin - at best. Not to mention the deer. They ate what we didn't pick as soon as it made a showing. We vowed we weren't going to plant another garden until we had a fence up. And so, we didn't.

This year, Andrew put up a fence made of fishing line. I will admit that I was extremely skeptical and kept hinting that we do something different. The fence was wonderful! We didn't have a single deer in our garden, and it flourished. Not because of the fence, I'm sure - although the fence certainly kept critters at bay!

In our garden, we planted corn. We planted pumpkins. We planted beans, peas, onions, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, three different types of peppers, and the weeds came on their own. That was the upper garden. In the lower garden, we planted tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, strawberries, and more peppers.

Fast forward to the end of summer... Our broccoli died. Our cauliflower died. Our zucchini is JUST NOW getting zucchini (just in time for the first frost! How fantastic!) The weeds did fabulously. The corn blew over - but not until we had already harvested most of it and canned a lot of it. And when I say a lot, I mean 40 quarts. The onions didn't do very well, but that's o.k. Our potatoes harvested out two 5-gallon buckets full of the largest potatoes I have ever seen. Our beans didn't get picked except for dinners a couple of times. We just ate the 12 carrots that we grew (we started with two rows, and they just didn't grow... Tonight, we picked 43 sugar pumpkins, and the children grew 3 carving pumpkins each - we had 4 giant jack-o-lantern pumpkins volunteer themselves by our burn pile to the side of the house. We picked more gallons of tomatoes than I can count. We've picked a peck of peppers to pickle - and there are still peppers left to pick. We pickled 3 gallons of dill pickles.

In the last three months (because we started in August...) we have canned the following:

41 pints of blackberry jam.

11 pints of gooseberry jam.

50 quarts of applesauce. (spiced and plain with a little sugar)

97 gallons of apple cider.

38 quarts of white grape juice.

23 quarts of peaches.

7 quarts peach pie filling.

9 pints triple berry jam.

5 quarts pickled tomatoes.

40 quarts tomato juice.

12 pints tomato basil sauce.

11 quarts spaghetti sauce.

20 pints pizza sauce.

5 pints, 6 quarts pickled peppers.

40 quarts frozen corn.

11 quarts southwestern salsa.

9 pints corn salsa.

11 pints sweet pickle relish.

15 pints, 8 half pints dill pickle relish.

And we pick up between 15 and 18 farm fresh eggs daily.

We have literally filled every. single. one. of our quart jars. And we still have pumpkin to do. And red grape juice. And I forgot to count the quart of dried tomatoes that I put into the freezer.

So... if there is a food emergency on the planet somewhere, and grocery stores are all sold out of things that are yummy to eat, you're all invited to dinner. We can eat some of the meat stored in our freezer and grind wheat to make bread. We'll have to use rocks, because we don't have a wheat grinder, but... at least we won't starve to death!

Cookie Cutters... For Soccer Players!

Amber, my sister in law, and Richie - her husband, have started a cookie cutter business. I'm inviting you to check out their website, and, please recommend it to anyone you know who plays (or cheers on) sports!

Their business is Briarmark - they sell more than just a soccer ball cookie cutter. They sell the markers to color on your cookies, and other sports shaped things to make fun cookies, cakes, and lollipops!
Just click on the link below - and refer often!
www.briarmark.com

A new Photo

Of the whole family! Still can't see Bailey's face too well, LeGrand is off in LeGrand land, and Caroline is - well, Caroline... but here we are! If any of you of the Pierce Clan want a copy, please leave a comment and let me know - I'll gladly send you one!

Photos taken by Alisha Kathleen Photography