Pumpkins

Last Wednesday, we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. This was the lastest in the season that we've ever gone, so our selection wasn't all that great. The pumpkins were mostly small (which is fine with me). The boys managed to find their pumpkins pretty fast because they were more interested in the tractors around, bugs on the pumpkins, and all the rotten pumpkins! Maybe next year we will be a little more focused!

Travis stomping on the bugs!

Carson's pumpkin!

Showin' some love to the scarecrow!

Our plan all along was to carve pumpkins while my parents were here last weekend since they didn't get to go to the pumpkin patch with us, but we never got around to it while they were here. So, Monday, for FHE, we carved our pumpkins. Neither of our boys were too thrilled to stick their hands inside the pumpkins and pull all the "guts". It wasn't until Christian threatened that we wouldn't do pumpkins next year and a few times of being called a girl, that Carson decided he could do it! We even kept the seeds this year and cooked them. They boys thought it was a great family home evening treat!

Playgroup PaRty!

Yikes...I'm a little behind on this post. Last Wednesday, we had a little Halloween playgroup party. Two of the ladies in our group were going to be gone during Halloween, so a friend and I decided it would be fun to put on a party for the kids. The kids all came dressed up and we started with pumpkin painting. The boys made some pretty snazzy pumpkins, but I forgot to get a picture of them!

After painting, we had a super fun Halloween lunch which included:

Mummy pizzas,

fruit cups,

Cheese stick witch's fingers,

Bone breadsticks, and carrot eyeballs!

After lunch, the kids decorated cookies for dessert and then spent the rest of the time playing together. It was a beautiful afternoon, so it was fun to be able to have our party outside and enjoy the nice weather.

The whole group of kids! They are a fun bunch!!

Harvest Time!

This time of year is a busy one for farmers. Christian spends a lot of time checking in with his farmers to see how the year has turned out. In his spare time, he even gets in on a little harvest himself. Christian helped one of his farmers the other day by driving grain cart for him to help keep the combines moving along quickly. My boys have been dying to go out and see the corn and the combines for the last couple of weeks. We took advantage of Christian helping the other day and went and took some treats and drinks to the guys working. Our timing wasn't the best because they had just broke down when we got there, but the boys got to ride on the tractor with their dad and the farmer made sure that Carson got to ride in the combine with him even if it was just to the house to get fixed! They had lots of fun "helping" fix the tractor, playing with the ears of corn that were stuck in the combine, looking at the cows, and riding in the mule. They were in heaven and I wasn't sure I was going to get them to go home with me!


Carson riding on the combine with one of our favorite farmers that Christian works with, Jim.

Riding on the mule!

You know you're tired...

...when your little legs can't carry you 10 more steps to the couch and you fall asleep on the stairs! This is where I found Travis sleeping today after I carried in all the groceries. I guess I wore the little guy out...he was drooling and all!!

Sick days and Apple Pickin'

Well, not much exciting has been happing in the Asay household these days. We are on week #2 of my little guys being sick. The beginning of last week Travis started out with the flu and then gave it to Carson, and by the end of the week, Carson had a cold and has now given it to Travis...my boys are such good sharers! I guess that's what happens when you go to school! So, we have been trying to get them healthy again (plus I'm tired of wiping snotty noses!)!

Carson is loving preschool. It is so fun to hear about what he does each time he comes home. We had originally enrolled him at the local community college, but I just didn't feel good about it after the first couple of times I dropped him off. So, I decided to see if one of the other preschools around was still accepting new students and lucky for us they were. I instantly felt better about it and have been happy with the decision ever since! He's having a great experience!

Travis is growing like crazy and is developing quite the sense of humor! He loves to tease us by calling us snowmen. He wakes up in the morning and the first thing he wants to do is put his cowboy boot on and his work pants and wear them "all day". He's at the "I do it" stage which is hard for mom some times! I would much rather just do it myself than wait for him to do it, but I just have to remind myself that he's learning, so I just need to be patient.

We've been enjoying the nice fall weather with lots of walks and playing outside as much as we can. We visited an apple orchard at Klooz Farms the other day and had lots of fun picking apples. Next year we know to go a little earlier to get the best apples, but it was still fun! We picked 12.5 pounds of apples for only $3! And the nice old man that helped us out even let the little boys each pick out their own pumpkin to take home!

Travis and his bag of apples. I guess it must have gotten too heavy to carry around as he was following me around because by the end, he was just dragging it behind him!

Down of the rows of the orchard.

Travis trying to pick some apples. I think if he would have taken the thumb out of his mouth he might have had more success!

Checking out what was in the pouch of the apple picker!

Bountiful Harvest!

Now that Summer has ended, and Fall is in full swing, I'm sad to see my garden die! We have had a great (well...great for us) year with our garden! This spring, we planted 10 tomato plants, 2 cucumber plants, 4 pepper plants (only 3 survived our kids and the dog), and 6 (three different types) hot pepper plants. Our tomatoes really thrived this year, along with our cucumbers...we only had two plants but had WAY more cukes than we could handle. Our pepper plants didn't do as well as the tomatoes, but there is always next year. We have loved having fresh cucumbers and tomatoes whenever we have needed them and will miss our garden.

Those who know me know I've never canned before. We canned a half batch of salsa last year...which kind of discouraged me because we only got 6 pints of salsa and it took what seemed like FOREVER! So, when we planted our garden this year, we hoped to just be able to can one good batch of salsa and then eat the rest as fresh produce. Well, we actually managed to can 32 pints of salsa and 12 quarts of tomatoes. But, didn't stop there! We froze a box of peaches, had a friend show me how to make/can applesauce and Elderberry jam, froze 10 quart bags of apples, canned 12 little jars of strawberry jam, and now I have some raspberries to make jam with! This might not sound like much to some, but to me it's a huge accomplishment...it's rather satisfying to hear those lids POP as they seal! I think we will be set for the winter and I'm so glad for those who taught me how to do it and helped in the process. I've learned a lot this summer!

Here are some pictures from making applesauce...it was lots of fun and the kids had a good time helping out too!

Some of the salsa. We have hard water so when I boiled the jars to sterilize them they look all funky!

Making Elderberry jam.