September and October Fun

This is what happens when I get behind on blogging- one post with tons of pictures that I finally downloaded from my camera. 

In a nutshell, a large one, here are the highlights from September and October. 

My friend Holly and I decided that we were going to can peaches this year. I am not exactly sure why- we never eat canned fruit and I have a bunch of  "store canned" peaches in my food storage already. I guess the reasons were: 1- I had some jars I needed to use 2- I remember home canned fruit tasting better than the stores 3- I want my children to have the experience of canning and 4- The prophets have told us recently that having a garden and preserving food is a skill that we will NEED in the future. (see here if you would like to read the article) 

Anyway, Holly went to get the fruit. It wasn't ripe yet so we had to wait to can. It was Labor Day weekend and she was vacationing when the fruit was ripe- so we (my family) canned all 200 pounds of peaches- making 96 quarts. And, no, I will not can your fruit if you bring it to me. This was just a bad coincidence that she was gone when the fruit was ripe.

It took 12 hours to do it all, I did 14 quarts in 4 hours by myself and the rest was done in 8 hours with the help of everyone. Teamwork works! 

It was a long day and Ben says he will never can again. After we were done, Bridger said, "I know, Mom, we can eat these peaches when it is winter and we don't have any other peaches!" 

BINGO! He is a smart one :) 

To reward ourselves, we went to a hot air balloon festival that night, the kids enjoyed it. 

 They light up the balloons in correlation to music, it was fun to see. 

Mutton Bustin Round TWO

Carter has been sad that he didn't get to mutton bust ever since Bridger did it in the Spring, so we found one last rodeo that had mutton bustin. The boys trained and trained by riding Ben. He was much more ferocious than any sheep would ever be. 

We signed them up and here they are excited to go:

Enthusiasm ran out quickly and by the time we got to the rodeo- Carter was insisting that he WAS NOT participating. We encouraged and offered as many bribes as we could think of, but he still refused. Bridger was still in for the adventure here:

 And here too- waiting in line with all the other participants. 

And somewhere in the line, Bridger lost his gusto. He didn't even want to get on the sheep and it took some coaxing, then he got off as fast as he could.

Maybe next year. 

  Carter was happy to be watching from the sidelines.

Linder farms Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch

We went with our friends the Perrys and Maxfields to the corn maze. Carter had been sick the day before, so I had a barf bag handy- for either he or I- to use at a moments notice. The evening was fine.

 That is the evening was fine until the pumpkin patch and Bridger came to me and said, "I'm going to barf." I handed him the bag and he held it while looking for his pumpkin. He was waiting in this train ride when he really started barfing. I took him out and the train left without him. He was really bummed.

Carter had a fun ride!

 Kids are so resilient. He just finished one episode of barfing then he wanted this picture taken:

 The night ended up with 4 of us barfing (at home) and a week with the stomach bug. It's hard enough taking care of a healthy family while barfing being preggo. Being preggo with the stomach bug and taking care of a barfing family was almost more than I could do. It makes me so thankful for our health!

We planted almost 200 tulip bulbs here in this flowerbed in our back yard. I can't wait for Spring for them to come up! 

Five minutes and a Marker 

Boys used marker to make their pirate faces. Somehow the eye patch, beard, mustache, and forehead scar all mingled into one. 

 Of course Sissy has to do everything her brothers do! 

 And throw a fit when her fun has ended.

 Pumpkin Carving

 Ha! I didn't even get a picture of the finished product! We had fun doing it and they turned out cute. 

I love crazy bath pictures!

Afton's hair is getting longer every day.

Halloween

Back L to R: Bridger as Ninja, Maeley as Witch, Carter as Batman

front: Sissy a ladybug, Carson Spiderman and Ashlyn as pumpkin

This is typical Bridger:

 We received an invitation in the mail to a Winter Snow Globe event where you go to see Christmas lights, see Santa and eat treats. He wanted to host his own, so all by himself, he set up this in the basement. When he gets an idea, there is no stopping him. We received personal  invitations to the event, and were greeted by a cute little boy in a Santa hat. We enjoyed cheez-its, craisins, almonds, apples, pudding and applesauce for our lunch at the Tippets Winter Snow globe. 

Sissy enjoying the leaves. (not sure if she or Ben chose her outfit, but it was not me)