Thanks to Jenelle’s hard garden work, flowers have exploded in our backyard (with a small boomlet in the front yard).
Category Archives: Better Homes & Gardens
White Christmas
We are pleased to report that we had yet another lovely Christmas season in our neck of the woods. Although our efforts to get the decorations up were hampered by Jonathan’s post-Thanksgiving appendectomy, before long we were looking for a tree. Feeling uncertain that we could repeat every year our 2006 feat of finding a U-cut tree for only $10, we decided to invest in a truly evergreen tree. (You know, a “fake” tree.) One thing we like about our tree is that it’s pre-lit with 1100 lights. This sounds like a lot of lights, and it is, but it actually looks about right on a 9 ft. tree. However, as we learned the day we bought the tree, our house’s wiring isn’t designed to have all of the kitchen and living rooms lights on while microwaving dinner while powering 1100 little Yuletide sparklers.
Continuing a long tradition, Jenelle made hundreds thousands of Christmas cookies (13 varieties of cookies, plus 1 drink, 1 truffle, 1 fruitcake) in what is locally known as the annual “cookiesplosion.” Many of them went to lucky friends and neighbors. If you didn’t get any, move closer to us next year.
On Christmas morning, we dressed Annika up and photographed her in a cute penguin costume that Jenelle found in a second-hand store. It probably traumatized Annika, so she may not be looking forward to Christmas next year.
After opening presents and starting breakfast, a miracle occurred: snow began falling from the sky! Although it never quite made the day a white Christmas, it was still a wonderful surprise.
You can see more of our Christmas pictures here.
More Firsts for Annika
As Annika prepares to experience her first Thanksgiving holiday, we wanted to let you know some of the other exciting firsts she’s been experiencing. For her first Halloween, she dressed up as a beautiful butterfly. Jenelle made Annika’s costume herself, and though Jenelle did not think of herself as a seamstress in the past, she’s encouraged by the success of the butterfly costume. The family costumes were rounded out by Jenelle the Bumblebee and Jonathan the Flower.
In early November, the family took a drive through the fall scenery of the Columbia River Gorge, where Annika saw her first waterfall, the 242-foot Wahkeenah Falls. She was obviously very excited and looks forward to seeing many waterfalls in the future.
Around the House
Jenelle and Jonathan have been busy lately getting the house ready for baby. And what does the hone of every newborn need? Why, a cheesecake, of course. So, one evening Jenelle made a lovely blueberry one. We are now more excited than ever to go pick blueberries this summer.
Jonathan has lately turned the garage into a lean, mean, garden-housing-project machine. He recently completed two of three raised beds that are currently slated for the backyard. Each bed is about 4 feet by 8 feet by 1 foot. The soil in the backyard isn’t good for growing much, so they ordered some lovely topsoil to fill the boxes with. Jonathan knows it must be good dirt because it smells like a farm.
Since June is a little late to be planting a garden, they cheated by purchasing some starts, which are now very much at home in their beds.
Pre-Mother’s Day
In honor of our household’s soon-to-be mother, we have posted a few pictures showing the growth of our soon-to-be daughter. We hope to add a few more before the big day.
Tulips, Lovely Tulips
To celebrate Tax Season Liberation Day last week, Jenelle and Jonathan visited a local tulip festival. Although it’s not the big deal they have in Holland, they still had a lovely time and are considering visiting the local iris festival in May.
Return of the Critters
It was a ripping, munching sound that tore at Jenelle’s dreams early one morning. She opened a sleepy, tax-return weary eye and looked out the window. There they were on the lawn, big, furry, hungry animals, black with white accent — the skunks had returned.
But these weren’t skunks . . . instead, they were racoons looking for grub-munching goodness.
Racoons and skunks and grubs, oh my! She woke up Jonathan, and he got out the camera.
Apparently, the racoons were social animals, with one big racoon accompanying several little ones. They soon realized that they were being watched, and they made racoon sounds and soon became as curious about us as we were about them. Before long they were only inches from our bedroom window. The younger ones seemed to be the most curious.
Fine Art in the Vance House
A number of years ago, Jenelle took a watercolor painting class at BYU. Over the course of a summer term, she painted several lovely scenes that now grace the walls of our living room. More recently, Jenelle also learned to cut mats for these paintings. Jonathan’s contribution was pounding nails into the wall. . . .
Caught Red-Handed
Jonathan did. By moonlight. And porchlight. The biggest black animal with a white stripe you have ever seen. As he was returning to bed after a trip to the bathroom, Jonathan’s keen sense of hearing detected the faint clawing, ripping, and shredding of what is left of our backyard lawn – thanks to our partially opened window. My keen sense of hearing woke me from a deep sleep as I heard him carefully opening the blinds on our bedroom window. He was staring intently out the window, the full moon casting an eerie shadow over the hedges. I got out of bed quietly (since the window was open). We could hear the unmistakable rip of the grass and see a large black shape where the sound was coming from. It was surprising how big the lump of shadow was. It scurried to a new spot on the lawn and then we saw it. The unmistakable white stripe. It was a skunk! Jonathan took a chance and turned on the back porch light. The skunk was undeterred and continued its grub munching frenzy. It seemed to tire easily of its current feast and move to a complete new part of the lawn versus just down the pocked lawn a bit. Perhaps it had already eaten the grubs in that area on its previous trips. I tried to follow its movements out of one window while Jonathan readied the camera. Without warning, he snapped the shutter, but the skunk I was watching was no where near his field of vision. It was then we realized there were really two skunks working their 4 am havock! A big black and white grub-eating polecat Thanksgiving – right in our back yard! So that’s what ate my tomatoes and dug up the flowers! It’s disturbing to think how many grubs must be wiggling in the grass to keep the critters coming back. The lawn is a mass of grass clumps, dead and dried, thrown carelessly next to neat little holes. Did you know they can inflict their oily foul-smelling stuff 15 feet? We didn’t open the door. Though I suggested it – they were intriguing. Jonathan remained more clearheaded in the wee hours and reminded me of this minor factor.
After the reality of 4 am sank in, we called it quits shortly after this, went to bed and resumed our sleep, albeit dreaming of black and white stripes and grub annihilation.