Christmas 2011 at the Harper's

Here are highlights from Christmas Eve and Christmas day!

We had our annual Christmas Eve program along with our very own Mary and Joseph.

Baby Seth starred in his first role as Baby Jesus. (We did have an unhappy angel/shepherd.)

Sunday because of church, we opened family presents after dinner around 4:30! Everyone had fun posing!

Ryan was also wearing new clothes in this picture.

Sveta loved her new table runner that Tracy made her.

Ethan loves to build with Legos. I think he got four different sets.

Sydney loves princesses and was excited to get these games.

Haily could not wait to open up more presents at Grandma's.

Sveta got excited about having a wireless router for their house!

I just love this picture of Ethan holding Seth. Little Seth pretty much slept through his first Christmas and visit to Grandma's house.

Sveta's Borscht

Sveta came over and made Borscht for us today. It is a lot of work. I grew some beets for her but they are small so we also found some finally to buy (the big ones).

The cook was reluctant to have her picture taken in the kitchen!

You have to cook meat, dice up potatoes and then shred cabbage, beets, carrots and onions.

Then you cook it with some special spice in a big pot.

Finally after a lot of tender loving care from our cook, it's ready!

It was great! Eric and the kids came over for dinner also and the children even ate some of it.

Greenhouse Broccoli and Cauliflower

I went out to harvest some of our broccoli and cauliflower from the greenhouse yesterday. These were grown in our 4" tubes hydroponically! Not bad for a harvest on December 12th!

I think I've now learned how to grow great broccoli and cauliflower. Look at the size of that one head of broccoli.

We have a bit more and the broccoli will make side shoots but I've started seeds for a spring repeat! After cutting our lettuce three times, I'm restarting our hydroponic lettuce tubs as well.

Ryan and Svetlana's wedding pictures!

Sveta has not wanted me to post any wedding pictures but I can't wait any more so figured I would at least put a few on my blog.

The wedding was just wonderful and we had a beautiful glowing bride!

Ryan and Sveta got married on 11-11-11 at the Columbia temple. The weather was great and the fall colors were pretty much at their peak.

It was great to have all of the boys and their family here and Richard and LaDonna! At times we had 25 in the home for meals but it all went pretty smoothly and like Caprise said the only meltdown's were the two year olds a couple of times!

I love this picture in the trees!

Sveta bent down and with her puffy dress she looks like she's sitting on a clowd!

Fun and Yum!!!!

We had our second annual chocolate dipping class Saturday at Susan Brown's.

What fun everyone had creating some wonderful Christmas chocolates!

We did peanut butter cups as well as fudge dipped in chocolate (is that enough chocolate for you?)!


Just look at all of that chocolate!

Between the stirring of chocolate with our fingers, the visiting and chatting was wonderful.

We did try to help clean up and it wasn't too bad after licking the bowls!

Seth Michael Harper

Our new little Seth Michael Harper was born November 30, 2011 at 6:10 pm to Eric and Tracy Harper. He is a welcome addition to the family.

This is Sveta's first chance to every hold a baby! (I think she liked it.)

He was a little more than three weeks early but weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and is 19 inches long.

One time when I had our boys at home, a young neighbor gal asked me how it was possible to have enough love for four (at the time) boys! I was amazed. Seth is #10 for grandchildren and there is an abundance of love for all of them!

His older brother and two little sisters are so excited to welcome him into the family. Sydney asked Eric if he knew who they were and then proceeded to say, "Seth, I'm your big sister Sydney!"