Pre Halloween Activities

Lastnight we decided to carve pumpkins as a family finally. We got some pumpkins out of our garden we share with Devin's family and they turned out huge and ... lets just say ... not round; so I am sure you can imagine the crazy jack-o-lanterns we could have come up with. Devin and Rylan did one while Calyn and I did the other. We will let you chose who did which one... Also Calyn had a Halloween party in her preschool today so she got to dress up for a preview of what is to come Halloween night!!

Here are some pictures I came up with while playing with Cal's picture in Photoshop. Let me know what you think or if you have any other suggestions. Until I can afford the $1200.00 camera I want along with the lenses and accessories, I will have to figure out how to become a pro with Photoshop:)

Fall Fun

The other day the kids and I went over to Mom's to help put up the Halloween decorations. Before we started Dad had piled up some leaves for Cal and just like we usually do, the adults had just as much fun playing in them as Calyn did. Here are some pics of us jumping, flipping, etc into the pile. The only thing I wish I would have captured was when Demi did her flip, aparently she was worried about getting leaves up her nose cuz she plugged it to jump in!!



Sky's flip.


Demi and I showing off our gymnastics skills (or lack thereof) not the greatest form but at least we were BOTH bad. Consistency is key.

Sky, you are such a goof ball.

Applesauce!!!!

Last week I finally broke down and made applesauce with apples from my family's apple trees. It is quite a process and with two people making it we make 14 quarts in about 5 hours. Not bad, I suppose, but it is still... I have picts of all the processes except the coolest one!! Leave it to me to forget to take a picture of it. Any way, here are the picts and the steps. It turned out pretty good. We put some red hots in some of the batches. You can see the red spots in one of the pictures. We will see if it makes it "red hot!"
First the apples!!
Quartered them ...

boiled them, then put them through the processor that cored them, peeled them, and processed them at the same time, WOW!
then boiled the puree...
then canned them. Here is the finished product!! What a rewarding feeling to see my kids enjoy it!!!
Here is one with red hots in it. You can see the melted red hots.

Fun with Faye

Today a couple friends from High School came over for lunch. Coby Meikle Steele and Jamie Byington McClure. They brought their adoreable kids to play and we laughed about old times together. Coby brought over some pictures from high school and even Jr. High and we agreed it seems like a lifetime ago. Anyway, the girls (Faye and Calyn) were outside playing so cute so I decided to get some pictures of them and now am just bummed I didn't get the camera out sooner because I didn't get any picts of Cheese (Coby) or her cuter than sin little boy Hudson. It was good to see both of them and hopefully we will be able to get together again soon. Thanks guys!!!
They were having lots of fun going down the slide together. Here they are getting ready to go down.
I love how Faye is hugging Cal here. They look like little twins.

Preschool girl!!!

Calyn is so excited to be a Pre schooler. She loves going there every time and actually asks for homework. I know, that will surely not last, but for right now it is adoreable. She has learned a ton already and has only been going for three weeks. She goes Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 to 11:30. Since I am one of her teachers Rylan has to go to the treehouse daycare one room away and he seems to be getting better with that each time. At first it was a struggle and the ladies had to bring him to me because he would be crying the whole time. Now he seems to play better with the other kids. It is a hard thing for a mom to leave her baby when he is sad!! Here are some pictures of Calyn with her class.
Here Calyn is feeding her caterpillar. We are learning about the letter C this week.
"Fancy the Fish says ffff ffff ffff"
Calyn's cousin Brooklyn is sitting next to Calyn here. Her mom Melissa is another teacher. Calyn loves going to school with Brooklyn. They are buddies.
Today Calyn got to help with the days of the week activity during circle time. This is where they learn what day, date, and month it is, and about the weather and do the pledge.