Whew! Last week was a blur... mostly because of a weird, lingering stomach flu that made it's way through our house, but I will resist any thoughts about blogging those details. Mostly the story of the past week has been RAIN! This is Oregon, so we're really no stranger to rain. And when we start actually noticing the rain, it's bad. Carson's school was cancelled early Thursday and all day Friday because many of the streets in Sheridan were flooding and many of the back roads we normally take to-and-from McMinnville were closed because of high water. This posting on a local site had some of the best pictures. It let up for a while over the weekend, but today the heavy rains returned. The forecast for tomorrow? Rain.

 

 

We received our yearly snowfall last night, waking up to about 2-3" and the sound of Nolan declaring that, "It's Christmas again!"
Once we were bundled up we trekked to the garden to let the chickens out and Nolan discovered that cold chickens apparently can't run very fast. He managed to catch most of them, except for the little one that can fly. It perched itself on top of the greenhouse frame and our darling angel just shook the heck out of the frame until mommy finally made him stop... Eventually it becomes apparent that it could fly over the fence, and I didn't really want to spend the morning trying to catch a hen. Next stop was the snow hill where we did a few runs before the boys declared they were cold and headed inside for a major movie marathon. Good, lazy snow day!

 

 

Nolan's birthday falls during summer months, so they celebrate "half-birthdays" for summer kiddos instead. (He, of course, does not know the difference and now believes he should get a booster seat and be able to turn his bed over - thanks equal-opportunity society that we live in...)
Anywho, so we "celebrated Nolan" in his class today, with fruit snacks, baby oranges (his favorite food in the world) and a visit from Mommy.

 

I found a webpage yesterday about eyebombing and Carson thought it was absolutely hysterical.
So.... Golfball + Sharpie + Playdough and we spent the evening, well, eyebombing the house!

 

       

     
 

Many of our happy times outside of the farm seem to happen in Pacific City, so we headed there after church today to celebrate the new year.
Pictures of kite flying, fun in the sand and super-cold wave jumping at sunset are posted here.

  

So our big goal for the lambs this year is that they live.
Well, more specifically that they live long enough for us to butcher them.
It's a tough life when you're a farm lamb.
Anyway, with that (and the calendar) in mind (lambs came in January last year) one of our projects for the holiday break is to try and create a smaller area with a higher fence. Hopefully one coyotes can't jump. So Scott and Poppy spent a wet afternoon outside today, siting out an area, digging holes and setting posts. Couple more days of work and we should be ready for Lambs: Round 2.

 

Merry Christmas to each of you from the Burke farm!



We spent a gorgeous Christmas Eve at home - working in the garden and playing with the boys before heading off to Christmas Eve service in the late afternoon. On the way home we stopped at the nearby Newton Lights display, where we played on the railroad tracks, watched the lights and hummed along to the music of the display. Before bed we snuggled up on the couch and read The Night Before Christmas and then tucked two excited little boys into their beds.


   

Christmas morning started about 6am when Carson crawled in with us... he tried to stay calm (and lasted about 15-20 minutes) before blurting out, "Is it morning yet???" After that it was all we could do to stall the gifts until Great Grandma arrived. (Happily she was early!) We read the Christmas story and then dove in...

 

Once everything under the tree was opened we pointed out to the boys that there had been no gifts from Santa, "Maybe you need to look around a little..?" (In their defense, it was still pretty dark when we first started.) Finally they found their "Santa present" sitting in the lawn. We spent much of the afternoon outside (between rainstorms) enjoying the beautiful rainbows that God kept sending, one after another, to remind us of his love on Christmas Day.

Happy Birthday, Jesus - and Merry Christmas to all!

Sunday was the annual Christmas trip on the Polar Express!
They actually made some good improvements this year, including a Santa that was fabulous and some elves that really kept things moving. The boys were more anxious and excited than I remember them being in past years, staring at the door until the moment Santa entered our car. Absolutely adorable!
More pictures posted here!

  

Green Christmas tonight at our house! That makes it official - it's the weekend before Christmas:)

 

Come one, come all to Carson & Nolan's Christmas programs!
Nolan's last day of PreK in 2011 was Tuesday and we celebrated with cookies, string cheese and Jingle Bells. (No one can party like 3-year-olds!)
Carson's last day is tomorrow and he stood on stage tonight with his class and sang before an audience of hundreds - WAY TO GO CARSON!
Very proud of what both of the boys have accomplished already this year!