Pumpkin Decorating

We went to the Greenville Hands-On Children's museum.  They were having a special pumpkin-decorating activity.  So, Makenzie and Hailey decorated too little pumkins.  Isaiah was tuckered out and slept, but he helped hold on to them on the ride back to the car!

Buddy Walk 2009

Last year, we skipped the Buddy Walk because Isaiah had just come home from the NICU. This year we decided to go. We didn't get our act togther to raise money, but we went just to socialize. There were clowns doing facepainting and making balloon animals. There were two different magic shows. And several "buddies" performed.

This is the group picture of all the "buddies".  Isaiah and I are in the front to the right, just before the stroller.

Here is the 5 of us.  Students from Wofford College came and helped make posters for the buddies.  Makenzie and Hailey decorated the poster for Isaiah.  After the walk, all the buddies got a medal and a goodie bag.

Spencer took this picture.  If you look closely, you can see the "Team Isaiah" poster in the glasses!

Apples, Apples, Everywhere

A wonderful woman from my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints AKA LDS ADA Mormons) taught a class on how to make homemade applesauce on a Thursday.  It was awesome!  I had nothing much to do Friday, so the kids and I took a trip to McAbee's Apple Stand and purchased LOTS of apples for all the ladies from the church who wanted to try their hand at canning apples.  I bought 18 1/2 bushel bags of apples!

I used one bag of apples to make applesauce.

I boiled the apples in my water bath (the large black pot).  Then you just put the apples through the squeezo (the contraption to the right) and presto...homemade applesauce.

One bag of apples made 6 1/2 quart-jars of applesauce, 2 pint-jars of apple butter, and 2 pint-jars of apple cider concetrate (I didn't have a recipee for this one, so it might not be worth repeating).

I took another bag of apples, used a supercool corer/peeler/slicer, shoved as many apples as I could into quart jars, and then added a syrupy mixure on top...and presto: apple pie filling.  One bag made 9 quart-jars!  YUMMY!!!

One More Step Into Food Storage

I went an collected our items from the Walton Food Truck today.  It was my first time ordering and it was kind of fun opening all the boxes and organizing everythings.  A HUGE thanks to Carol Justice for doing this all the time!!!  So Spencer and I ordered a bunch of the little cans of stuff for us to try.  Then we'll figure out what we use and how to use it (without buying a huge can and realizing we don't like the stuff!)  Then we'll know what bigger things to order next time.  This is kind of exciting and kind of scary at the same time!  Luckily there are lots of families that are really good at food storage to help me out!

My Awesome Sister-In-Law

My brother married the coolest woman in the world.  She is funny and tells great stories.  While being a full-time stay-at-home mom, she started her own photography business.  She has an amazing eye for pictures and does an extraordinay job of capturing someone's personality on film.  She also won 3rd place in a regional photography competition!  Anyway...she came down to Spartanburg the 1st weekend in October and agreed to take picture of the me and the kids (Spencer was in Bogita, Columbia for work.).  WOW....that's all I can say.  WOW!!!  The sneak peak are on her blog (a little ways down now).

www.ngpblog.com/blog

UF Butterfly Garden

On the Sunday after the Jacksonville Quilt Show, my parents took us to the UF Butterly Garden in Gainseville, FL. We met my cousin Jennie and her son Evan there. We had an great time exploring the gardens. The flowers were beautiful. The paths meandered around and over a nice little stream with several little waterfalls. And then there were the THOUSANDS of butterflies flying everywhere. We all had lots of fun until it closed at 5 pm. Then we went to the Mellow Mushroom for dinner. YUM!

Here are the 4 of us. It is impossible to get a good picture of all 4 at the same time! I know my mom has been trying for 29 years!

Makenzie...the budding photographer. Jennie hasn't had a child drop and break her camera yet, so she let Makenzie use her camera to take pictures.

Hailey with the best seat in the house...Grandpa's Shoulders!

Grams and Hailey. Hailey didn't get much of a nap, so she was a little grumpy.

The butterflies LOVED Hailey...but she wouldn't hold still when they landed. And of course, the refused to land on Makenzie.

Hailey checking out the flowers. She studies everything.

And the littlest one...Isaiah. He is doing WONDERFULLY! Butterflies landed on his head a couple of times. He loved watching them flying all around. And of course...he loved the cuddle time with Grams.

Jacksonville Quilt Show

I have started a tradition with my mom, my aunt Martha, my cousin Kathy, and my mom's neighbor Ruth. We all go to the Jacksonville Quilt show together and we have SO MUCH FUN!!! We have fun wandering through the beautiful quilts, exploring the vendors, and laughing over lunch together. This year Isaiah came with me and loved being surrounded by thousands of grandmothers! My dad kept the girls for the day and the caught a 2 lb bass!!! This is one of the few events that make it onto the calender at the beginning of the year and I plan events around it!