Hot and Spicy Date Night

Saturday was packed full of fun. Luke and I even managed a date night. We waited to start the fun until the kids went to sleep. So at 8:30 we began the adventure.

Neither one of us had any idea what we were doing. But we trusted the internet to tell us just what to do. We found a recipe that had good reviews and decided we would just follow it as closely as  possible.

The date night activity----SALSA

What could be more hot and spicy?

Trying not to cry over the onions

Filling the last of the jars at 1:30 am

 

We seriously had so much fun chopping, dicing, talking, laughing, crying (over the many many onions) and solving world problems. I am glad I convinced Luke to help me out. I didn’t know that we would be in for a 6 hour project.

Finished with 21 pints of YUMMINESS!

8 months

2nd Annual Apple Picking Adventures

We went to an apple orchard again this year and picked a whole bunch of apples. They had a bad late freeze that took out more than half their apples but, we were fortunate to hear about the ones they did have.

Eli has an unhealthy obsession with DVDs---even if he isn’t watching one he would at least like to hold it. Here he is trying his best to get back in the van instead of helping us with the apple picking.

Micali couldn’t leave out Just Dog. He makes everything more fun.

Abigail and I weren’t much help either but we did manage to fill one bag.

And the best Apple Picker Award this year goes to…..

And a peek at last year

Pack Rat

I have felt like a pack rat the last couple weeks. We are storing up food for the winter months. I tried out something new too…Micali and I made apple pie filling. It was a lot of work but OH SO GOOD! We have also froze lots of fruit for our morning smoothies, pureed all sorts of fruits and veggies for Abigail’s baby food, and will soon be canning applesauce and salsa.

I can’t believe how much of a help Micali has been in this process. She just gets right in and does anything I ask her too. Her favorite was peeling the apples and pulling the pits out of the peaches after I peeled and and cut them. I am so glad she likes to be in the kitchen and help me out. Part of the reason may be because we do all of these fun things while the “little” ones are napping so she gets to stay up and it is her special time with just me.

This past weekend

On Sunday morning we loaded up and went to watch conference with our great friends the Chadwicks. They were out at a cabin in the mountains. It was a beautiful drive. Along the way we ended up with TWO flat tires but, luckily our van has tires that you can drive 120 miles on them while they are flat. It wasn’t the smoothest ride after that and you can’t go over 50mph but we were so glad we were not stranded in the mountains in the middle of NO WHERE!

When we finally got to the cabin I was in awe of the beauty. It was so peaceful watching conference and looking out the windows at this…

Splits

Abigail has a strange way of getting comfortable. Every time she is on the floor she ends up in this position. I always move her legs back underneath her and moments later she looks like this again. She really doesn’t like this position when she is trying to roll back over to her back. It doesn’t work so well for her.

she wasn’t sitting and fell forward this was just her laying on her tummy and she pulled her legs forward like this.

Her new nickname… “Splits”

Primary

Micali started going to Primary in January. She has adjusted well and is totally loving it. Her teacher is great and she also has made some good friends in the class.

Luke and I started serving in the Primary about a year ago right before the sacrament meeting program they do each year. We have a great class of the 10-11 year olds. We love our calling and have enjoyed teaching them the stories of the Old Testament this year. The theme for Primary this year is “I know my Savior Lives” So, all the songs focus on Jesus Christ. It is so awesome to be in primary and feel of the spirit of these children while they sing songs about the Savior.

My favorite is “I Know that My Savior Loves Me.” I get goose bumps nearly every time we sing it. It has been fun to practice the songs at home with Micali in preparation for this years program which, we will be having in a few weeks.

She is memorizing these songs so well. Just take a look…..

Fall Colors for Family Home Evening

Last night for our Family Home Evening activity we decided to take a drive up the mountain. We wanted to see the beautiful Fall colors and be outdoors. We popped some popcorn and set out for our adventure.

Here is just a little look into what we found:

 

It was so nice to get out and enjoy the nice fresh air and be all together! Daddy is so busy these days we really treasure the time we get to be with him!

She’s got Talent

Micali loves taking pictures. She will take the camera randomly throughout the day and you never really know what you are going to find on it. She has even mastered taking pictures of herself on it, thanks to Aunt KayKay. It is so fun to look at the pictures and see what she has taken pictures of. These of course are some of the better ones. There are also random pictures of the floor, ceiling, TV, computer screens, and random toys on the floor. I am glad she has an interest in and is helping me out on getting little snippets of what goes on here everyday!

These blankets are part of their new bedding and they both just LOVE them. I am sure they will love them even more when it starts cooling off. And just so you know sometimes Abigail wears clothes but in the afternoon it gets to HOT in the house for her and she gets cranky if she has clothes on. I get cranky too but just have to deal with it. :)

An inside look…

I have been having lots of random thoughts through out the day. I keep thinking—Oh, I need to remember that and write on the blog so I don’t forget about it.

I will just start with highlighting what each of the kiddos are doing these days:

Abigail—

this girl is on the move. She isn’t crawling yet but can somehow manage to get herself where ever it is she wants to be. She is scooting and rolling, nothing on the floor is safe. If she finds something it is instantly in her mouth. One of her favorite things seem to be paper she loves to wad it up and chew on it. She is now pretty set on her new sleeping schedule. She likes her bed when she knows it is time to be in there. She is also easy going when something comes up and we aren’t home when she should be napping like, church from 12:30-3:30.

Elijah-

 (taken almost a year ago—didn’t like be dressed like a girl)

I am totally loving this little man these days. He loves his mommy and says it all the time. He knows that saying “Mommy—need go potty” will get me to move. He has figured it out in the morning that as soon as he says that, I will come open the door for him to come out. Then as soon as he sees me that urge to go is gone and he just wants to climb in bed between mom and dad. He is staying dry all night already. He is very good at saying “thank you” if anybody gives him anything. He finally went to nursery without crying yesterday since our vacation that hasn’t been his favorite place. I love hearing him talk to Abigail—“Good morning Princess!” “I Yuv you, Abby—Gail” He likes to point and her and say princess and then point at himself and say prince. He never forgets to tell me in the morning to “Make smoothie, PLEASE” The biggest shocker came the other night when we put a chicken enchilada in front of him and he just totally cleared his plate.---remember he isn’t a meat eater--- We have been putting our dinner on his plate for nearly a year with the same results---he didn’t touch most of it. He finally figured out when I say “this is dinner” that it meant oh I better eat.

Micali-  

This little girl is growing up way to fast. I love it and hate it at the same time. She can do so many things all by herself. Shower, shoes and socks, quesadillas in the microwave, and she is such a big help. She loves feeding Abigail, helping Eli get on the potty, singing songs to her baby sister to make her happy. If I can’t get to Abigail right away she will just climb right in her crib with her and sing her songs until I come in. She is doing really good and not sucking her thumb. This morning I said why don’t you just stick that thumb in your mouth and see if it still tastes like strawberries. She got a yucky look on her face, barely stuck her tongue out and said, yuck, it doesn’t taste good anymore. I have been trying for the last 9 months or so to think of something that would be really special that she would be excited enough to actually stop putting that thumb in her mouth. So, last Sunday I was talking to her and asked if she would want to go to the store and pick out something special---but she isn’t really attached to any certain thing so I couldn’t think of anything specific and I pick up toys and things all day long, we don’t really need anything else. Then a thought came to me A HORSE RIDE!!! For the first few days I would just remind her when I saw it in her mouth or just say—uh oh looks like Mommy and Daddy will go ride horses without their Micali girl. She would get a smile on her face and take it right out. On Friday she finally asked me to put the yucky polish that tastes horrible on her nail to help her remember, Saturday she wanted “remember tape (band-aids)” and yesterday she didn’t need anything. Now we just have to find some nice person who will let us ride their horse. I think it might actually work this time but I have thought that before. I told her she had to do it for 7 days and today is day 4. It never really sunk in until I made the chart with her and explained it all to her. Let’s hope this works.