Halloween Party!!! or should I say parties...prepare for many!

My little nephew Joshua turned one!!! We went down to Springville for his little birthday party. He is the one in the engineer costume. It was fun. Grandma came up from St. George for the party. It was on the 25th and thier ward was having a trunk or treat so we got to go to that during the party. Fun.

This is at the pumpkin walk in Syracuse. They have like a million carved and shaved pumpkins. Those things are so professional. There are like temples and scriptures and faces carved into those things. They really took it to the next level.

Every year Layton puts on a Halloween Bash. It is free and there are games, blow ups, treats, cake walk, costume contest etc... It was fun. We came here with bunch of friends and their kids and then headed on over to the pumpkin walk.

This was the first time they really got to put on their costumes, so we had to do pictures by the pumpkins.

Halloween Decorations!!

I love to decorate for fall. It is sooo fun! October and November porch are my favorite porches for the year. We have a little tradition we do with the kids. Instead of carving pumpkins, we pin candy on them. This is so much less messy and more tasty. I am really bad a carving so this is a good option for me. Plus the kids get a kick out of it. This year though, it has been so warm and the bees have decided that heaven exists on my porch. All that sugar, so little time. I sprayed the pumpkins with laquer but that didn't seem to deter at all. The laquer doesn't deter Ariah from pulling off the candy and eating it either.

Cole's pumpkin. Very warty.

Mine and Ariah's pumpkin.

Ambra's pumpkin. Her little friend Bailey helped with this.

Decoration zone.

Black Island Farms

We went to Black Island Farms in Syracuse with some friends the other day. The kids had some money they had earned, and decided to spend it on this little outing. We had so much fun!! You can see that Ariah was all tuckered out after a long day of play play play!!

The kids playing in the corn.

This is Ariah's first time on the teeter totter. She was so cute! Just giggling and thinking it was the greatest thing ever.

We got to go on a hayride and they gave us onions, carrots, corn and pumpkins to take home. So fun!

Bouncin in the pumpkin.

On the hayride with friends Bailey and Katelyn.

This is the cow train. They get pretty creative with 55 gallon drums.

This slide doesn't look so bad, but it was actually really steep. Pretty scary from the top. They had about 8 different slides made out of hay. It was a really fun place.

Safari!!!

In preschool Cole was learning about animals. On the last day of their animal unit, they got to wear their explorer hats and safari shirts and go hunting for animals in the jungle! Cole thought this was the coolest thing ever. Doesn't he look cute in his little safari hat?

First Day of Fall

Ok so I know that was a little while ago, but cut me a break ok! I am just now getting around to blogging about it. I am so not ready for summer to be over. It seemed like a way short summer. No fair. Now it's raining, and we have to wear jackets. Although to falls credit, I do love it WHEN I AM READY FOR IT AND WE HAVE HAD A DECENT SUMMER!!! (which we have not). Anyway, fall is here i am now getting in the pumpkin and costume mode. Holidays here we come! (didn't we just celebrate new years not to long ago.) You know your getting old when the years just fly by right before your eyes.

Hike up Millcreek

We went hiking with the fam - Adam's brothers. You know, hiking with a very heavy baby on your back who likes to pull your hair out is not very awesome. This was like straight up hill and my neck was killing me cause of Ariah within like the first five minutes. But you know what, I love to sweat and get a good workout and that is what happened. Nothing like an hour and a half tough hike. It was fun to go with the fam. My kids did awesome.

Nice booty shot.

I'm not sure about this canning thing...

So this year I made a goal to preserve some fruit from my fruit trees. We have two apples, plum, cherry, nectarine, and apricot trees. We also have 2 raspberry and 2 blackberry bushes, a grape vine, and a massive garden. This year we did tomatoes, cucumbers, cantalope, cilantro, lettuce, beans, onions, strawberries, carrots, and broccli.

I have so enjoyed using my the fruits of my labors this year, but canning is a massive pain in the butt!!!! My first canning expeirience is that I decided to can the plums off my tree. I picked my whole tree (hours) then the next day I started canning. I canned 42 quarts of plums (hours and huge mess) and then tasted them the next day. GROSS!!! They were like mush. We undid all the cans and blended them up to make fruit rollups with our dryer. (At least they didn't go to waste.) The worst was the aftermath, my stove was black for weeks and the fruit flys were so bad we needed mosquito nets to walk around the house. We had to disenfect every inch.

After that experience, I tried applesauce. Another nightmare. I hate canning applesauce.

Ok, now that I have vented my bad experiences, I did have some good ones. Although the first batch of applesauce ended up to only my husband being able to force it down, the other two batches I did, turned out great ( I still hate it though). I also canned nectarine jam. OOOHHH that turned out good. (top picture). There is this feeling I get after a canning session, and it is one of accomplishment and satisfaction. Now that I have a few sessions under my belt, it isn't so bad. I know a few tricks of the trade and I don't have a black stove anymore ( no more fruit flys either.) We have been LOVING the fruit rollup mix. I freeze it until I am ready to use it. We have oodles of bags. I did pear, apple, nectarine, and plum. Yummy they are so good and my fam eats them like crazy.
So my first year of attempted domestication. Half nightmare, half endurance. We'll see how it goes next year.