All Hallows Night

For our Halloween night we went over to our ward Harvest Party.  We had a chili dinner with yummy Great Harvest bread.  We had a costume parade for the kids followed by a trunk or treat.  I really like this idea for the little people.  Not that Allie really needs a lot of candy, but it's a quick walk around the parking lot for little legs and an efficient way to get a lot of candy.  

After the party we headed out to see the Grandparents.  We got to Papa Von's house last and had to wait a little while before they arrived home.  Blake, Allie, and I had a great time handy out candy to the kids that came.  I forgot how much I enjoy this part of Halloween.  Papa Von had large candy bars that we got to hand out, and some of the kid's faces were priceless when they saw what they were getting.  After, we went home and put our princess to bed beofre the Halloween witch came that night

Can you guess who Allie was for Halloween?

Princess Cinderelli

Wishing that she could turn this large pumpkin into a carriage for the night

A fun tradition that we just started is the Halloween Witch.  Before going to bed you have to pick out a baggy full of candy that you want to keep.  The rest of the candy gets put by the door for the Halloween witch to take.  The witch comes that night, takes the candy, and leaves you a book.   Allie enjoyed finding the witches hat and her surprise under the hat.

Pokin Out

The other day I was getting ready in the bathroom.  Allie told me to turn around and look at her.  I turned around to find this!

After I busted up laughing, I had to sit down and explain the danger of Q-tips in ears.  I guess she has seen them a few too many times in mom and dad's ears

"Look at this big trick!"

Allie is into saying a new phrase lately.  Before she does something, she will say, "Mom.  Look at this big trick."  You wonder where they pick up the words they say.

Today the trick of the day was making the cup stay on her mouth, with no hands

Of course, Allie wanted a picture of mom performing the trick too

Marshmallow Treats

A fun, easy, quick, and interactive treat to do with your kids.  You first dip the tops of large marshmallows in melted chocolate (found at WalMart, JoAnn's, or Michaels) and set them on waxed paper.  While the chocolate is still hot, you add on sprinkles. Then, place the marshmallows in the fridge for about 30 minutes while the chocolate cools.  Then remove marshmallows, place on lollipop sticks, wrap up in cellphane, enjoy a few and deliver the rest

Allie loved every step of this treat.  About half the marshmallow she did completely on her own.  She wanted to dip and sprinkle all by herself

Allie ready to hand out her goodies to her friends

A closer look at these fun treats for any occasion

Imagination

Allie is starting to use her imagination and play pretend.  Lately while I'm getting ready, Allie loves to look out our bedroom window and watch the kids playing at Ustick Elementary.  The other day, I was in the bathroom and I heard all of these different voices.  I had wondered if my sister-in-law had popped over and Cam was playing upstairs with Allie.  No, it was only Allie and her frogs at the window watching the kids.  Allie was pretending the frogs were talking and she was changing her voice as she pretended to be different frogs.  I loved sitting back and watching unnoticed.

Applesauce Adventures

We survived last week, canning applesauce 3 out of the 5 weekdays.  The adventure of picking our apples out at the orchard was a fun experience, but I don't think you will ever catch me canning applesauce again unless someone can let me in on the secrets.  I am not against hard work at all, but when my yeild is very low after many hours of work, I don't feel like I've accomplished anything.  

We ended up with 22 quarts of applesauce, 12 quarts of chunky applesauce (cooked in the crockpot), and 30 quarts of apple slices (for pies, cobbler, struddle) along with 15 hours of work and a sticky kitchen for the week.  My sister-in-law and I tag teamed this project together and so we split our totals between the two of us

We ended up getting FREE apples through a connection with my brother-in-law.   It was a fun experience and didn't take long with 2 husbands hard at work, 2 wives running buckets of apples back to the car, and 2 cousins off playing on the swingset and filling up their tummies with apples

Allie and Cam off playing on the swingset at the apple orchard.  The apples they kept eating were not inspected prior to eating.  I think they got ate a few rotten ones

Our first day was a little chaotic.  We weren't sure which method of applesauce making we were going to do.  We ended up trying the crock-pot, the "foley", and the attachment to the Kitchen Aid

As you can see the kids were having a blast

Miss Brynn was enjoying herself. She was getting into the apple box and trash can of apple peelings

One of our days, the kids would not go down for naps.  The two were getting along quite nicely upstairs, all was quiet, and then Allie came downstairs. Allie came walking into the kitchen with her swim suit.  A little light bulb went off in my head, wondering how the hec she got her swim suit out of the top drawer in her dresser.  Well, not only was the swim suit out of the drawer, but every article of clothing from every drawer, and every book off the bookshelf.  It looked like a warzone had hit upstairs, along with the downstairs apples mess...but we survived!

Applesauce, Canned Apples, Apple Butter

A preview of what's to come with all of our apples. Any more ideas out there of what to do with apples?

Pumpkin Patch 08'

We started out our evening with our 5th Annual Dinner In A Pumpkin. Allie woke up from her nap just in time for the action. She thought it was a hoot to help me put our dinner in the pumpkin, and especially that we put the pumpkin in the stove. We had Papa and Grandma Deb over for dinner and headed out to the Pumpkin Patch. We met our friends the Hoegers out at the patch and got to work before the sun went down.

We first took the tractor ride out to the petting zoo. We were excited for this new feature (I don't remember this being at Linder Farms in years past). Allie quite enjoyed feeding the animals. Her favorite animals were the goats and sheep; they were right at her level and she could do this all by herself. Allie is into being independant lately and wanting to do EVERYTHING by herself. (This includes her thinking she can wipe herself after pooping in the toilet) Our journey in the petting zoo ended when Allie was feeding the donkey and it bit her finger. Papa was quite creative in creating some distraction and he took her to ride the poney.

Following the petting zoo, we set out to find the perfect pumpkins. I ended up loosing my husband in the gourd patch, but Allie and I were able to find the perfect pumpkins for the 3 of us.

Allie very excited about eating our "dinner" out of the pumpkin

The yearly family photo with the sun in our eyes

Allie was not at all afraid of these animals. There were horses, emu's, (which freaked me out) a donkey, a crazy zebra horse, and lots of goats. I think this is why she ended up with a bite from the donkey

Getting up close and personal with the goats

Enjoying the poney ride and waving to mom and dad

These two just look thrilled to be out looking for pumpkins

Allie came walking toward me with this pumpkin saying, "It to heavy!"

The whole gang with our pumpkins, gourds, and all

South Fork of Salmon

One thing I love is to be spontaneous! On Friday night about 10:30 pm Blake got home from the Boise State game and we decided to head up to the cabin for the night. Why not? The house was in decent order and what else were we going to do on Saturday.

We spent the night at the cabin and lounged around on Saturday morning. We then packed a lunch and decided to take a drive up Lick Creak Road along the South Fork of the Salmon River. Blake and I both love this time of year and one of our favorite things is the changing of colors with everything, but especially the tamarack trees. It was a beautiful drive! The pictures don't do justice for the beauty we saw. We pulled over for lunch, in the middle of no where, with quiet solitude all around us. It was such a fun day.

Allie decided she wanted to sit on the little corner of the couch to watch t.v. at Papa's Cabin

Honestly this doesn't come close to what we say in person-but just imagine

The peaks and jaggedness of the mountains was impressive

Allie wanted to eat her lunch on the rocks instead of the blanket-go figure

Dad took off fishing up stream when Allie had an accident. We just stripped the wet pants off and continued picking leaves.

We finally found dad and headed back to the car for some dry pants

South Fork of the Salmon-There were these gorgeous islands of grass in the river

African Plains at Zoo Boise

We went with a couple of Allie's friend's, Natalie and Macie, to check out the new African Plains Exhibit at Zoo Boise. We made it to the zoo about 4 pm, with 1 hour to spare before the zoo closed it's doors. We hit up new area which consisted of the lions and giraffes first. I am very impressed and excited for this new section. I think we sat for quite awhile watching the lions run and play. We then went to check out the 2 new giraffe. Allie was very impressed with there long necks.

Following the new hype we went to check out the rest of the zoo, which we have seen many of times. It was a little unimpressive after the new animals. We were also a little worried as we walked through the remaining zoo unable to find some of the animals. The tigers were no where to be found. We passed by another animals cage to find the sign, "Sold to a zoo in Texas." I hope we didn't have to sacrifice the rest of the zoo to bring in the African Animals; although we quite like them.

The girls checking out the lions who would frequently walk right by the windows

The lions were awaiting their dinner. I'm glad we were on the other side of the glass

One of our new giraffes

The popular giraffe slide

First Frost!

Well, we officially had the first frost!  We remebered about midnight as we were getting ready for bed.  Blake and I both grabbed our hats and coats and headed out to the garden.  Luckily the only thing that we had left was the tomatoes.   We had recently read an article in the paper about turning your green tomatoes red.  In the article it mentioned putting the tomatoes in a box, wrapped them in newspaper, or cutting off the vine and hanging them in the garage.  

We do know that our green tomatoes go red; only because our rug rat this summer had us prove this theory. Allie picked a handful of green tomatoes through out the summer and after letting them sit in the window for awhile, they turned RED.   Well we decided to hang the vines we had picked off the ladder.  We'll keep everyone updated.  Hopefully we can continue to get red tomatoes over the next few weeks.   

Our fabulous new garden in the garage!

We also ended up with a bowl full of tomatoes.  We are keeping these in the house, so we'll see which ones turn red first

Allie's First Picture

On Sunday, I had recruited the family to help me make cinnamon rolls.  All of a sudden Allie was gone and we heard the "noise" that the camera makes when we take pictures.  We found Allie off taking photos with the camera.   It was pretty funny to see her photos and the world from her view.  We let her play around with our supervision for the next little bit and she just loved it!

We told Allie to aim the camera toward mom and dad and take a picture.  This was her result!

Allie Moments

10-1-I was supposed to be getting Allie ready for bed when I got side tracked. I ran into to check a few things on the computer and saw that a cancer patient that I had taken care of numerous times passed away. I started crying. I went into Allie's room and started getting her pajamas on and thoughts of this young man came to my head. I started just sobbing. Allie came and threw her arms around my neck. Allie then proceeded to take out her binkie and gave me a kiss on the lips. Then, she asked me in a very concerned voice, "What's wrong mommy?" Little kids this young can clue in so well. It made my heart so warm to see the response that my 2 year old daughter had toward her mom who was uncontrollably sobbing.

10-3
We had just finished getting Allie dressed. We came into my bedroom to get dressed, and Allie says, "Mommy, wear purple like me." Well I did and we had a great day being dressed in our purple shirts. Thanks Al!

I was in the office and heard the toilet flush. I thought Allie had went to the bathroom. Allie comes running in and says, "Mom, Cinderellie went poop!" I just bust up laughing.

10-9

You absolutely are getting to be like your mom when I was little.  You have this funny issue with the sleeves on your shirts.  You can handle short, or long sleeves...but absolutely hate it when I try to roll up your long sleeves when we are eating or doing something messy.  Today I put on a 3/4 length sleeve and you absolutely had a fit!  You grabbed the sleeve and tried to pull it down to your wrist, as if I had rolled up a loinog sleeved shirt.