recent things...

Can anyone believe my mom is 50???  I can't.  Except for the fact that she has 7 grandchildren, you would never know.  :)

Baylee and Madison

Mom and her kids. :)

Brenna loves to smash scrambled eggs in her hair every morning.  Lovely.

Which leads to bathtime, inevitably.

It is probably her plan all along.

Our olive tree has ripe fruit, finally!

We have been harvesting and curing like crazy!  :)  It is my first time, so I am hoping it works out!

A few of our jars, should be ready in May.  :)

Noah got a high chair!  He doesn't look all that happy about it here, but he loves it.  Now, he is part of the family at meal times.

And then there is this one... he is just busy being adorable!

Jaden's 7th Birthday

Apple Picking

We went up to Pulford Family Orchard last week for our annual field trip/apple picking adventure.  :)  Here is Farmer John explaining to the kids how to graft a tree.  Tony wanted to know if I took advantage of the opportunity to tie that into our spiritual grafting into the body of Christ... obviously he has never taken 3 small children on a field trip with all of their little friends.

Next, they learned how the apples are cleaned and sorted and stored.  They even got to go into the giant refrigerator which was a nice break from the heat.  (Yes, we were a little over dressed!)

Jaden was excited to get the apples!

I still made them take a couple of pictures with the inevitable results.

Then, they got to start.  We were thrilled this year to find some tart green apples.  (Last year we only got sweet red apples, which were still wonderful, but we much prefer the green ones around here!)

Aubrey had fun and managed to find every apple in the orchard that had been eaten by a bird or bug.

Jaden did much better this year  though and found lots of huge flawless apples.

Baylee and Matt :)

They were very excited to get home and make some yummy apple recipes.

Especially Aubrey!  It is hard not to just eat them all up plain, but we have a few pies and breads planned that everyone is very happy about.  Happy Fall!!!

Jaden's Birthday

Is it just me, or is it completely out of the blue that Jaden is now 6 and going into 1st grade this year???  I don't know, it kind of caught me off guard, but it is true.  He is so happy to be 6 now "like Luke."  He can only enjoy it for 6 months until Luke turns 7, and then that is all I will hear about until this time next year.  So the cycle goes.  :)  Anyway, speaking of Luke, Mrs. Karrer outdid herself this year and made Jaden the most amazing knight's castle cake I have ever seen, and not to be unfair, she made a beautiful princess one for Baylee as well.  I'm not sure if she truly realized how much work it was going to be, or if she just loves my kids that much, but we think she is pretty special.  :)

She did most of the work at her house, but brought it all over here on Saturday morning to assemble it.  The kids must have asked if we were finished yet 1000 times.  They were SO excited!

She even let them put the tops of the towers on when she was done.

Balyee was thrilled with hers.

And of course, my mighty knight loved his and has said several times that it was the best birthday that he ever had.

Thanks Anne, you made it so special for them!

Aubrey had some fun too.  Since Jaden got a new bike, he got to upgrade to Jaden's old bike.  Tony put the training wheels back on it and he hopped right on.  He loves it!  I was shocked at how well he did.  It is pretty big for him.

He was SO proud.  :)

So was Daddy.

Jaden and Baylee waited all day for this moment!

Her cake looked so cute with the candles on it.  What in the world??

So everyone enjoyed some cake and I think Anne was very relieve when it was all disassembled!

The kids were even crazy enough to want to get in the pool.  I remember those days... but they are long since passed for me.  Thankfully Tony and Nate were willing to brave the cold and swim with the little ones.

Nana and Cathy hung out with the girls.

Chase man enjoyed Jaden's new beanbag.  He was so cute, he liked the balloons too.  Just wasn't quite sure about all the people, but he is getting much better.

Jaden LOVES JC and was so glad he came.  :)  I saw them sitting together eating cake and had to grab a picture.  It was the sweetest thing.

 

First Food

I decided it was about time for the girls to venture into the world of food.  Baby food stage is my least favorite.  It is so messy and difficult.  I am a little bit more excited this time around though because not only does it mean more food and less formula, I am planning to make all of my own baby food.  My mom got me the baby food cooker I had been eyeing and Ashley got me all of these fun little storage containers.  I can make freeze and store all kinds of wonderful things, my goal is to never buy jar baby food this time around!  :)  

After much research, I decided that I would not start them on cereal as I did with my others.  I just don't believe anymore that little ones should begin with grains.  They are too difficult to digest, and are not nearly as nutritious as fresh vegetables and fruits.  So, I went with avacado.  

It is so easy to just mash up right in the peel.  I love that it is filled with good healthy fats, because how much are they really getting down at this stage?  Maybe a teaspoon?  A teaspoon of mashed green bean seems to me to be a whole lotta work for not much nutrition.  

Olivia LOVED it.  She latched onto that spoon like it was her bottle, and she had enjoyed avacado a thousand times before.  I have never had a child react like that on a first bite of anything!  This is usually the face I get:

Brenna didn't think it was the best thing ever.  Every time I tried to give it to her she started to gag.  Oh well, Livie got a good TBS I bet, Brenna will just have to try harder next time.  :)

Big Sis finished it off for them.

Livie, (very happy about this big girl stuff) and Brenna, (not so much).