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.

WYO, part 2!

And now for the rest of the story! The second part of our trip we spent with Christian's family. It was fun to be there with just about all of his family...we sure missed Matthew and Charlene! Thursday night Daniel and Kasi came from Grand Junction, CO for the weekend and brought a car full of peaches (which were delicious!) Friday night we got to watch Christian's youngest brother, Jacob play football. The boys thought it was pretty cool to get to see Jacob in his uniform! Saturday was the much aniticipated weaning of calves (which is one of the main reasons we decided to come home when we did). We got to drive into Dry Head, MT just as the guys had brought the first group of cows into the corrals and were beinning to separate. Shortly after we got up there, we fixed burgers for the 30 people up helping (or just watching, in my case!) We hardly saw much of Carson who spent most of his time playing in the trees and water with another little boy. Travis and I spent our time watching the guys separate,vaccinate, and load the cows, just waiting for the chance to get to ride horses! The boys each got to ride horses with their dad after they were done with the first group of cows, which is what they had been waiting for for the last couple of weeks! That's all Travis could talk about forever and everytime someone was headed out of the house...he was convinced he was going to get to ride a horse! When the boys were done riding, we loaded our stuff up and headed out to meet up with Jan at Jacob's football game, but we were a tad too late and missed it. That night, we hung out with everyone. Sunday, we made the whole trip home. It was so much fun to see so much family while we were home! We are excited for Thanksgiving when we can see everyone again!!

Christian and I got to get away for a little while and ride on the tractor while he knocked in some ditches. It brought back lots of memories of when we were dating...

Cute little cone heads! The boys thought playing with grandma's strainers was quite entertaining.

Chicken fight!

If you know these Asay boys, you kow that they love to pick on (fight/wrestle) eachother. Christian thought it would be fun to shoot Jared with a rubberband one night and the idea totally backfired on him! He went to pull the rubberband back and it snapped and hit him directly in the eye! After it was still not feeling well the next day, we went to the doctor and found out that the rubberband had left a divot in his eye...ouch! While at the Dr. they did a little test on his eye that involved some dye. Well, the dye made it look like he had a black eye and made the inside of his nose a bright green color! It was kind of crazy. He looked like he was wearing makeup. I just hope he learned his lesson!

The boys getting ready to head up to chase cows.

Kasi, Travis and Stetson enjoying some crackers.

Sorting out the calves.

Jan cooking up some delicious hamburgers.

Kandace and Travis chillaxin'!

Emily, me, and Kasi.


Daniel and Christian holding the fence against the calves so they could get vaccinated.


Jared manning the gate of the truck!


Vaccinating away!


Travis and I hanging out!

Excited to ride. Giddy-up cowboy!

Travis loved when uncle Daniel put his saddle on the ground to ride.

The Asay grandkids in the tub!

Helping make some frozen yogurt!