Saturday, August 31, 2013

Working Hard

Since we have moved into the new house, Randy and I have been working hard. A lot of the work we have done is yard work. Of course, I haven't really documented a lot of the trimming that has gone on, but I can say that we have filled up our extra three garbage cans with yard trimmings almost every week since we moved!

Here Randy is cutting down a tree that has grown way too close to the house. 
 Gone!

 This is the damage the tree left on the gutter

 not only have we been busy with trimming and weeding, but we have also had so much fruit that I have spent a lot of time canning, drying fruit and trying to use it as best we can. 
I've made jam (not from our garden)
 I also made bread. Here is Tyler enjoying some of it.

 This is a fruit picker we bought. It was so helpful in picking plums, apples, and pears!
 I dried plums in my mom's dehydrator. She was nice to let me borrow it for a while. The plums were soooo good.
 The girls chilling out while I cut plums
 I also bottled grape juice with grapes from our grapevines. This is my first time bottling juice but it wasn't so bad. I bottled 24 jars of grape juice.
 We ate a lot of the pears fresh and they were delicious!  But the pears we couldn't eat fast enough, I used to make and can pear sauce. I think I only bottled about 5 quart jars of pear sauce.
 We had the kids help pick apples for multiple family home evenings. We actually didn't even pick all of them. there were just too many apples! They tasted really good, but I had bushels and bushels of apples! My mom was a sweetheart (again) and she canned applesauce with me for three full days (almost 4-6 hours each day). We bottled probably about 40 jars. I left a whole box of apples at her house and she even canned more after that without me. needless to say, I'm so tired of apples now.
 These are pictures of apples we picked in just one night for FHE.

 The girls having fun spinning in the computer chair while I worked on sorting apples.
We pruned the trees a lot after the fruit was picked. I'm not sure how much fruit we will get next year because of it. I'm hoping our yummy bottled fruit and dried fruit will last us a little while. hopefully The trees recover well and we can have superior fruit in the coming years. It is such a blessing to have fruit trees. I feel much more prepared and self reliant. It is wonderful! It's hard work, but wonderful all the same.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

18 Months Old!


Alyssa is growing and growing and growing! You would think that after having four kids I would realize that they grow so very fast, but I think when you have so many running around, you miss it more with each one as you go along. does that make sense? She is a beautiful girl and has quite the personality. She is so different than Lily.

 Alyssa is quiet. She rarely talks. She is loved by all her siblings and they literally fight over who gets to sit by her. She stays busy following her brothers and sister around the house and she loves to be outside. Lucky for her we moved into a house with a fenced yard that she can enjoy!


 Alyssa is quite a bit bigger than Lily was at her age. I feel like as I get clothes out for Alyssa, that Lily just wore them herself. I adore Alyssa's dimples. I love hugging her and snuggling her. when I put her to bed at night or put her down for a nap, she lays down and waves her little hand and says "bye bye Mama." I love it.

  Alyssa started going to nursery at church. She cried and cried that day, but not because she didn't want to go. she cried when I tried to pick her up!! She did not want to leave at all. I'm so glad that she runs right into the nursery and waves goodbye to me. I'm glad she has no reservations about leaving her mom behind for treats and toys. It is wonderful. We are very blessed to have such a great little girl in our family.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Lily's First Day of Preschool

 Randy and I decided to put Lily in preschool this year. After talking to some neighbors we were told about a couple of different preschools available for Lily. We picked one and we couldn't be happier with our choice. it's not far from our house and she teaches the kids at her house. Lily had a great time that first day and has loved it since then.
 Look at that smile!!!

Our sweet four year old is learning and growing so much. she is going to love being in Kindergarten next year!

Monday, August 26, 2013

The First Day of School 2013

The kids started school on August 26th. The boys were very excited to start 1st and 4th grades at our new elementary school. 
Jacob
 This is what he looks like when he doesn't want to take a picture.
 I wrote out little signs for everyone. (I was kind of making fun of all the people who are doing signs lately...just a bit though)
 Tyler
 Lily
 Alyssa

 Tyler ready to go
Three of my little cuties

 All four of my babies. They are growing so fast!
 The boys walking away


 Jake and Lily by our front tree


 The girls
I couldn't decide where I wanted our first day of school pictures at our new house, so I took entirely too many pictures. oh well.

 After school, our ward primary had a snow cone party in the parking lot of the church. I guess it is a tradition for the ward. It was a lot of fun!


 Alyssa liked her snow cone

 How fun is that!?
 We had a fantastic first day of school. The boys liked their teachers and it was a really fun start for the school year.