Catching Up

So what has kept Jodi so busy that she couldn't get around to her blog? Truth is I'm not really sure. Maybe it is running Casey around to her piano and gymnastic lessons, maybe it is Levi's little scout group that she is over, maybe it is chasing Whit around, maybe it is volunteering in Heston's kindergarten class, maybe it is playing with her ponies or talking to her chickens, maybe it has been the morning sickness that luckily has passed, or just maybe, like a lot of other bloggers, she just lost her motivation to keep her blog updated. Who knows? Anyway, I thought I would at least try and put up a few pictures to show what we have been up to over the last couple of months.

Levi participated in a 3rd grade basketball league this year. He had a great time.

Grandpa and Grandma made Whit a cute little rocking chair for Christmas.

Whit also got a truck. He loves riding in it especially when his brothers or sister push him around.

Since our kids spent Christmas with another family this year, I surprised Jodi with a trip to Vegas to watch Phantom of the Opera on Christmas day. She sold a dog to a man who works for the Mandalay Bay in Vegas. He gave us tickets to the buffet so we spent Christmas Eve with her parents eating at the Mandalay Bay. We had a really good time.
We have had a fair amount of snow this year. It has been fun.

Levi finally got his Wolf badge earned. Now he is working on his Bear badge.

Casey is really enjoying her gymnastics class. I am willing to spend the money for the confidence it seems to be building. As for the danger and future cheerleading bills I wish she would quit.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We had tons of fun getting our tree this year. The kids had a blast playing in the snow. We took our old sled and they rode in down the steep road over and over. I can't believe someone did not get hurt. We topped the fun off with snacks and hot chocolate.

Halloween & More

We had so much fun this year for Halloween!

Our ward always plans such a neat party.

This year we had dinner, activities for the kids and a trunk-or-treat.

Later in the evening we headed to Grandma's for yummy homemade donuts and chili.

Grandma's are the best!

On Friday night we had our annual pumpkin carving party with some friends. Yummy food was included. This year we tried cooking the food in a pumpkin.

The kids are growing up so fast and becoming extremely independent. They all carved their own pumpkin this year. It makes me sad but it sure is nice!

Chris found some great templates for carving pumpkins on the internet and they were a hit. Our finished products are on another camera. You will have to wait until later to see them.

Now for something other than Halloween...........

Whit finally figured out how good it feels to stand by the heater. Now when it comes on we have four kids racing for the best spot instead of three.

There has been a lot of time spent lately raking leaves into piles.

Levi is having a blast with scouts. This is a shot from our last pack meeting. He just turned 9 so now he gets to be in the Bears with me. I am so excited!!!

We have had perfect fall weather for quite some time now. But, last weekend we had a little taste of winter. We had snow and were freezing for two days. The kids sure loved it! I am glad to be having nice fall weather again though. I am not quite ready for winter yet!

Whit is the clown of the family. His siblings are always teaching him new tricks and he thrives on it. Whenever he wants a little extra attention all he has to do is pull out one of his tricks. He loves to get everyone laughing at mealtimes.

Beans!

Our Zuni beans finally dried out enough to finish harvesting them! Chris rigged up a little contraption to separate the beans from the rest of the plant and it worked like a charm. We ended up with 60 pounds of these babies. I think we might be able to take a few summers off before we will need to plant them again. Zuni beans make the yummiest refried beans our family has ever eaten!

Whit loves watching the marbles go down in the towers the kids make. He also likes to knock the towers over.

Fall Colors

Yesterday after picking the kids up from school we rode up the canyon a couple miles to check out the fall colors. It was beautiful!

I am glad I grabbed my camera!

Busy!

Chris and I have been enjoying our family and friends blogs so much that I wanted to thank everyone for the time they put into them. We love to see what is going on in your lives.

We have been doing a lot of cleaning up the last couple weeks. The garden is officially frozen which means I should be done with all the bottling. I am not. I still have lots of apples and tomatoes sitting in my washroom waiting for my attention.

Our friends invited us to take a little vacation to their cabin and when we arrived home all our flowers were dead. So...we spent the afternoon cleaning out the flower beds. The kids were great at helping.

Whit is walking everywhere now and is getting hard to keep track of. He thinks he is as big as the rest of the kids.

The kids hard work paid off. We finally brought the pumpkins in out of the field. They are hoping to make a little money by selling these beauties.

Chris used his big muscles to press the juice out of a lot of apples so we can enjoy apple juice all winter. We ended up with about 30 gallons of juice off of our one tree. We gave half to our friends who provided the press and I bottled the rest. It ended up being a lot of juice.

Casey and Whit washing the apples before they went into the press.

This is a photo of some of the finished apple and grape juice we did this year. We ended up with 140 quarts of grape juice and 60 quarts of apple juice. I am grateful to be done with that job!

We Are Still Here

Yes, we are still here.  I guess we have been super busy.  Between playing, working and getting all the food in our garden put up, I seemed to have forgotten to update our blog.  Here are some happenings!

We bought a new puppy.

The kids amazed us with their building abilities at a family reunion.  

Levi went on an overnight school field trip.  Dad decided to go along.

They learned a lot of new stuff.

They shared an old stinky cabin with mice during the night. There were about 50 boys plus dads that slept in there. 

They ate good food.

Levi had fun with cousins.  All three of them are in the same grade!

I found these pictures on the camera yesterday.  The kids must have gotten ahold of it.  I guess the kids are proud of growing something so big.  I am embarrassed  that things got so out of control.

On Saturday Levi and Dad took a long ride (5 hours) up on the mountains with some friends and relatives.  It was Thumper's first mountain ride since we have owned him.  If you look close Tike, the horse we are breaking, is behind Levi and Thumper.  It was his first time being rode outside of the corral.  There was no bucking!  Yea!  Chris says he thinks Tike might be a lazy horse.  We will have to see.