Canning Craze

Fall always means "let the canning begin!" at our house. There is nothing I love more than the freshest, and most delicious produce from the garden (or the local farms). This year my garden was a sorry sight. Next year will be awesome!! (I always say that:) I did find some beautiful tomatoes in our ward garden...

Ah, the salsa... so much work, but so worth it!
Peaches...

Fresh salsa...

Strawberry jam...

Garlic Dill pickles...

And canned tomatoes...

I think we should be set for the winter!! It was a lot of work, but it always makes me feel good to know it is done. It also helps that it all tastes so darn good!

Fall Soccer

Another soccer season has come and gone. Kaden and Rylie both played their little hearts out, and we had such a blast watching them both do so well! This game was a little early, can you tell by the look on Parke's face?

Kaden played so tough, and scored numerous goals. Way to go bud!!
As always, we had our biggest supporters at most of those games!

Coach Kelli did a fabulous job with the boys and made it lots of fun!

My cute Mom & Dad

Nic made a deal with sis that he would coach her team if she wouldn't be nervous to play. Let me tell you, she was so excited to have her Daddy out there with her! It was one of the cutest things I have seen in a long time. This was what I walked in to see at her first game...

She actually got in there and kicked the ball. Yes, kicked the ball people!! It was awesome!!

She hung onto her Dad a lot! I don't think he minded...

Rylie and her sweet friend Kendal...

Once Parker got going, he was all over the playground...

This picture is so precious to me. Every time Parker has been missing Kade and sees him, he runs up, grabs him by the shoulders, and forehead to forehead talks to him. It melts my heart the way he loves his big brother, and Kaden is the best big brother ever!

Nic getting kisses from the baby one...

Lots of good times at the soccer games, but we are definitely all ready for a long winter break! Great job guys!!

First Grader

I didn't ever think I would actually have a 1st grader! I guess there is no getting around it, my boy is officially growing up. Here he is on his first day of school in his 'smooth like butta' shirt that Gramy bought him. The funniest thing about this shirt is he has no idea what it means, he honestly wanted it because it had a big cube of butter on it. So hilarious!!

On the way we met up with some of his buddies, Jaron & James...
Oh, and another buddy, Davis...
We are really excited about Kaden's teacher Miss C. She seems like such a sweetheart!!
Kaden hanging up his backpack...

All settled into his new seat. Kade was so excited to see some familiar faces in his class. I was so glad to see him so happy and ready to go (even though I was crying inside). Ah, the joy's of motherhood.

And yes I hauled this bright red wagon full of rug-rats around the school all morning! What choice did I have? I'm shameless that way, and we had a blast!

Yes, Rylie's shirt is on backwards...and Parker's shoes are on the wrong feet...but who's paying attention?

We sure love our Kaden, and he was missed all day long!!

Nothin' Quite Like...

A good ol' farmer's market!! When we heard the local farmer's market had some of the best Filipino food around we were all over it! Nicholas served his mission over in the Philippines, and looks for any opportunity to enjoy some of the wonderful food he loved there. It is tricky to find! Before we could even get to Nic's food, we spotted the snow cones and just had to have one...

That's the way. Lots of syrup buddy...

Finally we made it to this little joint...

There it is... in all it's glory. Nic was very impressed, and was in heaven as he scarfed down his entire plate.

Me on the other hand could not resist my beloved asiago cheese bread. I get it every time! I think I had devoured at least half of the loaf before we even hit the road. Mmm... I could go for some right now.

Obviously there were loads of fresh produce. Rylie was loving it! Ironically, we ended up buying some fresh corn from a farm that is located right down the street from us. Hmm, I guess we could have saved ourselves a trip to the market, but it wouldn't have been near as much fun!

Parker's highlight of the day (besides the snow cone) was watching these bees hard at work. He thought it was about the coolest thing ever, and I don't disagree. Nothin' quite like fresh honey right off the comb either! We returned home with some fresh corn, bread, raspberries, full tummies, smiles on our faces, and a bar of organic handmade carrot spice soap (I am addicted to organic soap right now-it's our fav). Very fallish! I smelled it all the way home!!

Our Trip to the Candy Factory

We kept ourselves on the hop this summer, trying to squeeze every last ounce of fun we possibly could out of the time we were given. In the end it was a great success, and I am sorry to continue going on and on about summer when it is clearly fall!! Bear with me, I am almost caught up. In some of our summer adventures we visited the Sweet's Candy Factory. They give free tours of their facility, and it was very interesting to see how some of my favorite candies are made.

We had the most interesting experience as we drove down to the candy factory. My dad had insisted on sending us with his trusty GPS, since none of us had ever been there or had any idea how to get there. He entered the address and sent us on our way. We were caravaning, my mom and Cassie in the front, me, and then Candace. As we reached our exit we got off and started driving down the streets of SL. Everything looked to be a normal route as we made our way around, until... we turned into a residential area. Hhmm... I thought, but continued following. After all, maybe this huge candy factory is located right in the heart of a small quiet neighborhood? Pretty soon, we made a complete square around one of the neighborhood blocks. Okay, this was definitely questionable. We all just continued on our journey as the clock was ticking closer and closer to our tour time. Finally we made it out of the neighborhood and onto the main city street that we had seriously already driven down (in the opposite direction). Now we were headed back out of town. All of a sudden Cassie and my mom turn into a little apartment complex and pulled into one of the parking spots. As we all filed in to park, we were laughing hysterically. At that point we realized we were definitely lost, and definitely going to miss our grandiose tour of the candy factory. Bummer!! As we sat there deliberating on what to do next, and making calls to find out just where we went wrong, a lady walked out of her apartment. She politely asked us if we could move our vehicles so she could get hers out. We were just about to jump back into our cars and leave when she asked, "Is everything okay?" I replied, "Yes, we are just lost. We were trying to get to the Sweet's Candy Factory." To which she smiled and said, "Well, that's where we're headed, you can just follow us!" We all loaded up, and were off- once again on our way. We finally got there!! Yay! (I think someone was watching out for us that day:)

We got to go through the next tour, with our new found friends. I wish so much I had them in our picture. Here is my mom and sisters, and all the kiddos with our stylish blue hair nets on...

They give you lots of yummy samples throughout the tour, and at the end they have this cute little candy shop that you can buy up candy to your heart's desire!!
Parker really wanted some of this awesome rock candy!
And later that night he was a huge help to his daddy in mowing the lawn... Pretty darn cute if you ask me. Just can't get enough of that little stinker!!

Fun in the Sun

Every summer we have loads of fun swimming at Mimi & Papa's pool. Here are a few pics from our fun in the sun!!

Kaden was doing so good swimming without any help.

Cannon Bomb!!

Goggle Buddies

One of my new favorite pool side snacks... salmon, cream cheese, and capers, on crackers. Weird? Maybe, but oh so yummy!!

Attractive, I know.

There were many a popsicle enjoyed in that there pool...

And lots of quality time spent together...

Until next year...