Looking Back at 2011

Wow, Can't believe it is almost 2012. This year has been quite a ride, but we are so glad to be in good health. Owen is taking off walking these days, and talking as well. Chris is getting out more, recently going air soft gun shooting a few times with Bryce and Austin. I am enjoying making more things at home which I would have purchased in the past (crackers for Owen at the moment! Excited to see how they turn out.)

There really isn't a way to sum up the whole year, but just looking back is so crazy. Chunky cheeks Owen, surgeries, pumping, etc, so much has changed. I finally had Apria pick up the IV pole and Kangaroo pump that we used to use for Owen's feeds. I guess I was just hanging onto them in case he stopped tolerating the faster feeds via syringe. I think tolerating since August is pretty good! It felt so great to leave them out on the porch to get picked up. Like a rite of passage for us all. That was the same pump that we had in bed with us overnight for the first 6 months, that we ran 7 times a day for so long... Whoa! I did a deep cleaning on it, but that old crusty thing is going to need some deeper cleaning than my old vinegar mix!

Ok so I went through our photos in about 5 minutes and selected a few of my favorites from this year. Ideally I was going to do "top 10" or "a picture a month" but there are just too many fun things we did this year. This gets a little excessive...I think it was 85 pictures!!! There may be some repeats but for the most part I hit some events, moments, or just fun photos. Enjoy a glimpse of our year!

Cutest sheriff in town

Meeting Aunt Amanda

Enjoying being fed peas!

Patiently awaiting ECHO results.

Girls trip!

Boys a snuggling.

Our lil gardener.

Family soup lunch

Just seconds before Evan grabbed Owen's NG partway out.

Meeting Baby Lola.

Pre-OP cuddling.

Traditional Team Britton Photo.

Auntie cheered up Owen with her songs and books, and the girls pictures.

Uncle Colin and Aunt Jac visited after Owen's surgery.

Brittons all together.

Aunt Shari Meeting Owen.

O can't get enough of Mat.

PaPa and his boys.

Thanks girls for helping Auntie make a scarecrow for the garden.

This photo is just ridiculous. Those cheeks are crazy stuff! Breast milk fueled baby! No steroids, believe me, we were asked!!

Touching the soft books with Nana.

Yes, I did that on accident. The guard was off. Obviously. Most would have realized sooner than me but that's what extreme sleep deprivation does to ya.

Enjoying Linda's yard with a Mercy reunion.

My Boys snuggling. There is a pattern here.

Chris firing up the pit for the first time. Thank you Universal Masonry and Design!

Wine tasting in the Short Bus for Chris's Bday.

Lovers!

My homies!

Owen and Case meet for the first time! Sweating bullets in Coloma.

Lainey and Owen just getting into trouble. (Owen is much more social in the warmer, healthier months!)

Snoozing on the beach in Mendocino.

A surprise escape to Napa with Aunt Jac. Yes we are immersed in MUD! AMAZING!

At the Cloutier wedding! Special day.

Owen and Case splishing along. Owen's scar is so much less visible now.

Chillaxing at the Solace fundraiser.

Owen's first Restaurant experience! Out to Eggheads in Fort Bragg. We wiped everything down at least 10 times.

Cloutier wedding shots.

Sweet Mama Ty and special friend Case. AKA Sharkey.

Wedding shenanagans out to dinner for Jac's bach party.

Someone is 1 Today!!

Family and Friends at Owen's gathering.

Papa made Owen a very special life flight helicopter he will get to play with when he doesn't throw things...Maybe when he is 15!

Baby Evan and Owen at the Maine event.

One of my favorite shots of the year of Jeremy and Evan.

Mama E and I with our boys! (and 80 chairs in our driveway!)

Another AMAZING wedding.

Chris and Jac during the money dance!

Swimming in the Aubin's pool.

One of the first harvests.

Bach Party to Santa Rosa wine tasting in a garden--life is good!

Grandma and O at the Bowens.

Mommas all around!!

Pre-op wearing the surgeon's cap!

Mikia has followed and supported us from a distance! So good to reconnect at the reunion.

Old friends! Jack and Michelle since age 10ish.

Post op gtube NO MORE NG!!

Aubin girls visiting Owen and entertaining us all!

Family time at Bodega.

Getting a little hairy around here...

Happy shower Jayme! Love that girl!

Bonitas at the Thrasher wedding.

Quick trip to Santa Rosa for the Heirloom vegetable festival and a little vino on the patio.

O and E at the top of a mountain.

Little angels, such strong boys!

Happy wedding Jayme! Loved being a part of that day!

Dancing was the best- live band did a fantastic job with the covers. Want to have them play at a party for us!

Harvest supper out in the backyard.

Tahoe could be a reality for us! Yeah!

Owen and Lainey getting grabby at Lotus Park

Someone got into the trash...and toilet...

Hiking up on the ridge with the Grovers.

Mat and O on thanksgiving.

Shari and O hanging out.

Tahoe family trip!

Hiking Fallen Leaf Lake.

Owen and his girls.

Chris and Owen just monkeying around.

I don't know who these guys are??? They snuck into our house on Thanksmas!

Someone can WALK!

Someone can CLIMB!

What an amazing and blessed year 2011 was. We are so thankful for everything we have and look forward to another year of health, peace, love, and happiness! 

It's beginning to look a lot like...

We sure had fun this year, as Owen's curiosity seems to be at an all time peak! He just doesn't miss a thing. 

 Playing with the non breakable ornaments.

 Helping decorate the tree.

 I loved seeing the new ornaments from last year of Owen's, it was a treat to open them up and see the photos of our lil guy.

 Last week we took a truckload of toys down to UCSF. We advertised our efforts on facebook, and Chris at work, and we had many takers. From friends and family we estimated about $600-700 worth of toys. Such a neat thing for the kids. Some items were for the departments, like crayons and dvds, and other items were for kids specifically like nurse barbies, hats, baby dolls, and sock monkeys. Owen enjoyed an Easter basket when we were there in April, and with the holidays coming up it just made sense to do. Chris and I did this last year but just a big box that we mailed. This was super cool.

 Out front with the loot.

5 minutes before the workers were supposed to meet us, Owen decided to lose his lunch right there in the truck...We were scrambling to clean everything up, change him, and be somewhat presentable to the gift receivers. Whew. Thank goodness Chris and I were both there. Sometimes you just need 2 extra hands.

We also stayed with my dad for a few days and enjoyed the visit and food (duh!). Dad and I had a nice walk thru Atherton, where the homes were quite expensive. We hung out with Matt, my dad's roomie from Iraq, and caught up with some of his new and old stories. Thanks for letting us crash dad. It was very relaxing and fun to see you twice in one week. Owen did a LOT of walking on his own to his Papa. He is saying Papa like crazy these days.

We wish you all a very very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and New Year. May 2012 bring health, happiness, peace, and excitement into your lives. We are excited for what is ahead. 2011 was such a roller coaster year, but roller coasters are pretty breathtaking. MUCH LOVE TO THOSE NEAR AND FAR!

Cardio Update

Just had an EKG this week and there weren't any changes! We prepared for an echo as well but Owen didn't get one. Whew! Keeping a 16month old still for a few minutes is challenging enough for the EKG, let alone 30+minutes for the echo. Guess when our next appointment is? (for cardiology) MAY!!! 6 months out! Wow! We have been going monthly or every other month since we found out about Owen's heart when I was 5 months pregnant. Of course we have many other appointments but this was AWESOME!!!

Owen's Stats-

(For his biggest fans)

Weight- 23# 8ounces

Length- 30inches

Words- BOMB, MOM, POP, BOTTOM, HAT, HOT, RA, BLU

Favorite activities- Pushing his train around, wrestling, pointing (when asked) where is the clock, outside, birds, turkeys, horses, fan, etc. He will also hold up his hand and feet when asked and sniff his nose when we ask where his nose is. He has been giving high 5's for a while, but is more and more consistent with his pointing to objects. It is so fun to communicate!

Favorite foods- water, goldfish, chips

Love this boy! He is doing so well! Still has OT once a week, and will start Speech Therapy twice a month soon. GI appointment next week. A shoutout to Baby Evan, Owen's best friend. He is still going through chemo, his second round finishes up right after Christmas. He may be having surgery later this Winter to remove his tumor. He is growing, and walking, and all over the place. Owen plays with him like nothing is going on. Evan is such a stud!! Love him!

2011 Harvest tally

In January every year I hit up the calendar section at Borders. I guess I will have to try for Barnes and Noble this year... I get a wall one, a desk one, and a purse one. They each have different purposes. The wall one and purse one both have birthdays, but the purse one always has more information on it. The desk one is strictly a garden journal. This year was my favorite one, "Under the Tuscan Sun," complete with beautiful photos from Italy, recipes, and of course italian vegetable photos. The 7 days on a page style is perfect for a garden journal, and I put recommended things to do on the top part of the day and things that I actually did, what was growing, what what ready for harvest, etc on the bottom part of the day. I recently viewed a friend's oh so organized spreadsheet of her own garden harvest. This is much more user friendly, neat and clean, but I find it easier to write down a quick tally. The only drawback is storing the journal once it's completed. But it's also my own personal almanac! I will share some photos  from the year, most of which I haven't posted. The bottom is our tally. We are still hoping to do a small CSA next year between a few family members and friends. We love doing it, and will be expanding the garden anyway, so why not share our produce even more? We also hope to share some of the load, ha! Some folks can't or don't want their own garden but love it, so we would love to host an informal community garden. Even if we get people in the dirt a day or two that would be great! Almost all of our seeds were from Baker Creek Heirloom company. We also obtained some seedlings from Headstart Nursery, but didn't have as much success with those. 

 Our watermelons were so yummy! The only bummer was the crop wasn't very high. They were pretty good sized.

 The spaghetti squash came early on, and I just ate the last one a week ago.

 My prized cosmos didn't do as well this year. I planted cosmos and sunflowers at the end of each row. This was also the drier part of the dirt, and cosmos needed more water than they received.

 Some wild parts to our garden this year!! The weeds got out of hand even with the plastic laid down over the crop rows. I also jumped the gun and planted potatoes before the plastic was down and so the potato patch was crazy with weeds.

 The sunflowers were so much fun. We kept them up for a while because when the leaves are a little crunchy and the wind blows, it is such a nice natural wind chime.

 Some of the black eyed pea harvest. The pod and the shelled peas. There was 2 harvests of these. We hadn't grown these before, and were a nice treat as well as very storable. We had 6 plants, and got a decent output.

 Octopus squash!

 Melons!

 Goofy Chris holding our sizeable melons!

 This crookneck was a mutant! The whole stalk of the plant was over 4 ft long and the entire plant was covered with squash just as shown above. I counted 21 squash on it at one time. It was a huge producer!

 A quick beer and garden harvest one night.

 Pretty heirlooms.

Granny smiths.

Here we go
Garden Tally 2011 (Spring-Summer-Fall)
Eggs- 3 per day until July... 540 eggs, 45 dozen eggs
Carrots-75/ ~9#
Broccoli- 2 small heads
Chard- 10 large bunches, did not count the all the chard we got over the winter!
Radish-30
Lettuce- 10 heads
Baby greens- Large salad per week for 2 months in spring and now.
Cilantro- 8 bunches
Parsley- 20 bunches recorded (still going strong, really the only thing down at the garden to harvest. Get 2 bunches/week!)
Russet Potatoes- 4#
Red La Soda Potatoes- 18#
Fingerling Potatoes 22#
Yukon Gold Potatoes- 6#
Kale- 15 bunches
Heirloom cucumbers- 68
Snowpeas- 25
Yellow squash- 86
Zucchini- 105
Blueberries- 6 ounces
Green beans- (first year, from 6 plants!) approx. 28#
Jalapenos- too many from 4 plants, lost count after 200...
Garlic- 6 large bulbs, after a few sacrificial heads were pulled too early
Purple green beans- 5#
Baskets of cherry tomatoes- mixed types-@ 2.5# each 72 baskets or 180# of cherry tomatoes
Tomatillos- baskets 2# each, 25 baskets, ~200 tomatillos
Lemon basil- 12 bunches
Basil- 19 bunches
Spaghetti squash-5
Black eyed peas- hulled peas- 3 pounds/ 9 cups of dried beans.
Soy beans- 10 ounces of in-shell beans
Corn-16 edible ears
Granny Smith Apples-15
Larger Heirloom tomatoes- 26
Sunflowers- 20, (still harvesting the seeds...very time consuming)
Cosmos- 10 bunches
Watermelons- 6 total, 2 @9#, 1 @ 11#, 3 @ 4#
Honeydew-3
Butternut squash- 3 @ 7"
Green Zebra Tomatoes- 24
Acorn Squash- 1 small where I planted jumbo pumpkins? no pumpkins either...

We had a great year! Every year is a true experiment! We love not going to the store. I didn't calculate the cost savings of all this produce this year because we give it away as well. But I can tell you were were really only going to the store for yogurt and fruit! We are hoping our mandarin trees take off, but that still won't help us in the summer. Luckily we are very close to many orchards where we have been enjoying pears, apples, mandarins, and walnuts. I even purchased strawberries in november. This is pretty crazy, even for California! I froze a ton of them so we can enjoy them through the winter.

Chris is in the process of increasing our garden's size to almost double. The layout will be a little different, as well as a permanent path. To those of you who have visited, you know the current path is quite rustic. I will be thankful for that, and so will the stroller. When we were pulling out the tomato cages and the plastic Chris and I had our first tomato fight. We decided it was going to be an annual tradition. In late october there were still so many tomatoes on the plants, even though most had rotted. It was pretty fun to run around dodging each other's tomato bullet. Owen sure got a kick out of it as well.

WHAT's in the dirt right now?
Up at the house, I have so much mesclun lettuce, a decent amount of Kale, basil (well protected from the frost). I have planted oodles of garlic, onions, and a decent amount of broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels. They are looking pretty healthy but I have never planted the latter 3 veggies with good success. Here's hoping!

We have been considering taking a 100 mile challenge. I recently read a book about 2 Canadian journalists who did just that- only ate food grown or made within 100 miles of their home. This would be much easier for us here in Cali. It is also very handy to have the deep freezer and canning abilities. Chris and I have a lot of fun planning, planting, and harvesting, who knew we would be country kids?