christmas part 1. the tree.

THE TREE!?  I LLLOOOVVVEEE THE TREE PART OF CHRISTMAS!  forgive me.  i'm going to definitely go overboard with my exclamation marks this post, and any other post having to do with christmas.  every year starting with the first year we were married we have gone to the Carnation Tree Farm right near downtown Carnation and it's pretty adorable.  definitely there are always too many people and parking is tricky but for some reason those things don't ruin it for me probably because there are very sweet parking attendants that usher your car into the newest open spot and they are jolly and happy to be doing it, instead of crabby and grumpy like most parking attendants seem to be.  and the trees are so spread out over a few different fields so even if you go on the first saturday of december when it is sure to be INSANE, it just doesn't feel insane once you're out on the hunt.  also if you go in the morning as we always do, there is sure to be fog weaving in and out of the trees and in the hills just west of the farm.  it's so so so so so so so so so magical.  and the barn there....OH THE BARN....it's so pretty...i just so badly want to go explore every nook and cranny...but instead i settle for the gift shop that is in the bottom corner of it.  oh and i forgot to mention that santa is there.  you heard me.  and he's pretty good as far as antas go...the suit is spectacular, he's a jolly type of old guy, but the beard is fake and terrible.  is it so hard to grow a beard for christmas??!!  it takes what, a week or two?!!??  any who.

here's the thing about picking a tree.  my taste changes weekly concerning just about everything.  for a while, douglas firs were the only way to go.  then noble firs.  then doug again. (i call them doug now...we're pretty close).  all of those times, i HATED the idea of any spruce or a frasier. "too naked looking!" i'd say.  well this year i couldn't get enough of them!  who am i!?!!?!?  the type of person that gets a norway spruce, evidently.  matt and i almost didn't make it out of there alive.  we had to have a fight about what kind we were getting and i nearly exploded.  the only reason i didn't explode was because getting a tree is still magical even if you're wanting to beat up your husband.  don't worry, i didn't beat him up, and he loves our tree too.  she's so perfect...nice sturdy branches, much fuller than a frasier, and a gorgeous dark green with really pretty red wood showing through underneath the needles. boy howdy is she pretty but seriously, she bites.  most prickly tree ever.  getting the lights on almost killed lindsey greene and i.  yes. lindsey greene helped me with my tree decorating. i think i'm becoming overly dependent on her but it's hard not to when she's just so good at everything!!  i think the prickles are going to be natural great teachers to quinn about touching the tree.  he's pretty much got it figured out already but sometimes that sparkly ball right in the middle at toddler eye level catches his attention and he just can't help reaching in. he regrets it every time. 

i wore the backpack with quinn in it and nearly died.  my whole back is so sore today!  it was worth it though for sure.

some of our very favorite friends shared in our christmas tree hunt this year. some of which (i won't mention any names) couldn't keep their hands (or lips) to themselves (see below)

told you.

this is matt and the quinner praying for dinner by the christmas tree.  all sorts of special happening right here. 

Punkin patch #4....I think

not super sure i'll get around to posting all of our punkin patch adventures this delightful fall season but this is our most recent one!  also, i think blogs without a billion pictures are silly so i'm going to make sure and post a ridiculous amount of photos pretty much always. did i mention this punkin patch was the roloff farm!!  so fun, so beautiful, we loved it.  also, it's important to note that it was my moms FIRST TIME TO A PUNKIN PATCH EVER!  i know. how are we even related.

  it was pirate day at roloff farms.  i'm still wondering what pirates and punkin patches have in common...i've come up with nothing but they were absolutely the most legit pirates i've ever seen. i think they were real. 

 there is a tiny town on the property that you can tour...it is for reals weird but strangely cool. 

this is my mom and i.  i love her.

 this is us in a teepee.  nope...that spelling doesn't look right either.  anywho...why do they also have a tepee!?

Quinn's been up to these things lately....

playing in this ugly toy that he LOVES and i'm grateful for

swinging

more swinging

wearing his dino-jammies to safeway

running and running and running

making messes that look like this

sitting in rocker toys that look like ADORABLE sheep

teeter-tottering

and being concerned about it...

he's about 8 years old here...am i right!?

have we gone over swinging already?

because he just super loves it

see?

this concludes what quinn has been up to. not because this is all he's been up to, i'm just bad about photo-documenting.  i'll get better.  oh, also i don't know how to flip the sideways ones. go me!!

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!

 it didn't rain! i was the most happy ever!  it went really well.  we made some dollars but we didn't sell EVERYTHING...so we're going to do it again in July. 

we decided to do it only on sunday because it was supposed to pour all day saturday.  well it didn't end up raining but as it turns out, we needed that full day of dry weather to get our stuff spruced up and ready to sell!  it was so fun. lindsey greene, matt and i took turns playing with quinn, spray painting, and organizing.  

then we had friends over for slow-cooked carnitas, a bon fire, strawberry shortcake (courtesy of nick dunn), and an extreme haircut for my very good friend natasha!

nick teaching quinn how to use his iphone. crap.

the back of natashas head, pre-cut. it's the closest thing we have to a 'before' shot

after!!!!  so cute

all the hair on the ground...SO MUCH hair!

my sweet husband and our baby. he's been wanting to have a bon fire for weeks so he was pretty excited.

after everyone left and we were so exhausted, i got a text from my brother that he needed to get picked up from the airport at 10:30.  i basically drove the 25 minutes to get him half asleep and then when i got home, i was too tired to get ready for bed so i stayed up even LATER! it was such a bad plan. waking up at 6:30 sunday morning to set up was for reals the death of me. the lovely lindsey brought me coffee, bless her heart.  i'm pretty sure she's the most selfless person i've ever met.

people came, a few of them bought stuff, and at the very end, we sold Juanita! she was the computer desk that we painted and loved on. we even got adorable hardware from anthropology for her.  guess who bought her!  my pot smoking, pot dealing, CREEPER neighbor who could NEVER fully appreciate her cuteness.  oh well...at least we sold her and we have room in the garage for MORE THINGS!  hee hee.  oh my poor husband.  

we ended the perfect long weekend at the neighborhood bbq down the street.  i sadly didn't get any photos, we only actually knew 2 of the families out of probably 10, so it would have been weird to run around snapping pictures.  i SHOULD have gotten some pictures of quinn hanging out with the chickens in their backyard and saying 'bock bock bock bock!".  it was way cute.  it made matt see that chickens CAN be practical and fun!  i've been trying to convince him of this since we got married.

i did get this picture of matt and quinn walking home from the bbq because it was quinns 11month bday!! and i always feel i need a picture of him on his month birthdays. 

alright, time to go get ready for the blessedly short week.  blessings!