Partying with the Spud Harvest Vacationers!

We had so much fun with Grandma Myrna, Uncle Spencer, and Aunt Valerie when they came to visit. Here's a view of our fun!

First we made Grandma help pick all the tomatoes, peppers, herbs, carrots, and cucumbers because it was supposed to freeze. Sounds like fun, right?

See Julia with her cache of carrots?

Then, we put Julia in the garbage can to stomp down all the tomato vines so we would have room for more! Sounds like fun, right?

We picked 3 laundry baskets of green tomatoes and made 18 quarts of tomatoes with basil from the box of ripe ones to freeze. Sounds like fun, right?

Grandma also helped me learn how to make fruit leather in the over. We made 4 trays from the plums that Aunt Lisa sent down! The kids don't even know they are eating prunes! Sounds like fun, right?

Grandma and Julia had a tea party and played some Memory too!

After we picked all the herbs, we watched Psyche and pulled the leaves off of the basil so we could freeze it for pesto! Sounds like fun, right?

Then we we watched the movie Chocolat and ate lots of German chocolate to keep us from devouring the movie while the kids were at school. Sound like fun, right?

On Sunday we made Gyoza and ate it in shifts as Val, Spen, Kath, and Reb came and went! 

Grandma and Gus are expert wrappers. They did about 100 gyoza. Sam and Tim are expert eaters! Sounds like fun, right?

What I don't have pictured:

• Spencer: He was out partying his BYU friends and the girls a lot
  
• Our trip to the Physics Department: for the Homecoming Dinner and Physics Demo (Cool)!!!
  
• Kath and Valerie's dates with Trevor and John to Sadie's (pictures will arrive soon).
  
• Gus's slide show from South Africa and Germany: Fun! Neat places!
  
• Our nightly chocolate feasts: It was shameless! We'd pull out a few bars, break them up and pass them around-- over and over again. Even Grandma got overloaded with chocolate.
  
• Our Monk parties: We got Grandma hooked! 
  
• Our kitchen clean up parties: I think the garden posts are enough!
  
• Katherine doing homework: She was sad she didn't get to play with Valerie as much as she wanted to
  

We had a great time with our wonderful family! Thanks for coming! In all fairness, Myrna (the best sport in the world) even enjoyed the garden work! I enjoyed her company especially. 

Timmy is 8

Happy Birthday TJ! 

Last Saturday, October 4th was an important day for us!

Timmy woke up this morning and had his special requested breakfast of French Toast and Sausage.

 His Aunt Kait and Uncle Tim, and Great Uncle Alan and Aunt Cindy from Alaska came to visit too! After Breakfast, Timmy reminded us that it was "present time" before we watched Conference. He was really excited to get some cool new Legos to play with.

After enjoying Conference on Saturday, we went up to bowl with Aunt Jen and her kids. 

Here is Timmy bowling in his might. 

After bowling, we went to Aunt Jen's to carve pumpkins! I remember why it took us 3 years to try pumpkin carving again.

 You can't tell from Tim's smiles, but it was a rather emotional and intense experience for many of us. Kids were fighting off tears (or giggles for some), as there seemed no end to scooping out pumpkin guts, and carving wasn't easy. Even Aunt Jen resorted to using a drill (as pictured below!)In the end, it was worth it! 

Look at the beautiful Pumpkins and the cute kids behind them: Katherine, Timmy, Julia, Sam, and Rebekkah. Finally, on Sunday we got together with our Grandma Lynda, Grandpa Tony, and Uncle Jared & Aunt Nicole at Aunt Jen & Uncle Brett's to celebrate the October Birthdays for the big family! Grandpa gave Sam, Tim, and Cousin George some Clone and Padawan costumes to play in. This was important, since they really 

enjoy putting on Star Wars plays for us. What a wonderful 2 day celebration for Timmy!

 Now, that he is 8 years old, we look forward for his special celebration in December when he gets to be baptized with his cousin Ethan. Timmy says he is "excited and can't wait!"

Dinosaurs in my bath

The bath has been taken over by ferocious creatures and a four year old. I realize that I have mentioned this before. Now I have proof. Can you see a couple of creatures that aren't like the others-- not the cute little girl!!

"Jewelia"strikes again

Pictures of "Jewelia" 

She opened up some hair bands that had "jewels" on them a couple of days ago. She likes to wear them on her ankles and on her ears. Notice there aren't any in her hair?

Coming Soon... Timmy's 8th birthday!!!

The House Rebels

When Gus leaves town we are all sad. Even the house is sad. Weeks had gone by without anything breaking at home, but when Gus left on this big trip, it all changed. Even the closet rods collasped at the thought that he would be gone for 15 days. The salsa maker cracked and it's handle fell off. The handle on the oven ejected and so did pieces off of the top of the microwave. They were all in mourning. I didn't think I needed another reminder of why it's good to have a man around, but I guess I did--especially when I couldn't make them better! Luckily for Gus, the glue and the screwdriver will all be waiting for him when he comes home. Don't worry, I'll give him a hug and kiss before I hand him the tools! ;) Only 36 hours to go!!!!

Cucumbers and Salt on the Patio

This has been a common scene on our porch all summer--cucumbers, kids, and the salt shaker. Our one plant produced about 4-7 cucumbers a week. We had a hard time keeping up. 

Julia and Timmy help to demonstrate the way we like to eat them! There are half eaten cucumbers, with teeth marks, lying around on the counter at any give moment during the day.