A Day at the Orchard

Last week we made our annual trek to our local Orchard. As always, it was glorious! I really look forward to this each year and so do the kids.

We came away with 3 bushels of Honey Crisp, Liberty, Cortland, Jonathan and Golden Delicious apples. We love to mix these and make some fabulous applesauce.

We also picked our own pumpkins and got 3 pie pumpkins. Yes, I am making real live pumpkin pies this year. No canned stuff for me!

The weather was a little chilly, but that didn't stop us or dampen our spirits. We had fun.

To My Family

Dearest Dear Ones,

I have realized that I haven't written you letters in quite some time. It is high time.

My Darling Libby,

Oh how I love you. You have been so easy and fun. You are so fun to watch grow. You make me laugh when you try to suck on your fingers while breastfeeding. It kind of hurts though, so could you please knock it off?
I also love snuggling with you and snuggling is great -- but could we stop the all night nursing business? Oh and naps longer than 30 minutes at a time would be a great addition to our day.
You are so fun with your rolling over and reaching for toys -- especially mid poopy diaper change. It's my favorite.
Keep singing to me, will you? When nothing else can, that, and your huge smile, makes me smile.

Thanks baby. Love you forever and ever,
Mama

Missy Mae Mae,

You are getting so big. I LOVE that you have completely learned how to use the potty. You have only had a couple accidents and none of them poopy. I can totally handle that. You are doing so fantastic telling me when you need to pee, thanks. If you could please stay on the toilet when you're done pooping instead of walking all over the house dripping poo on my carpet and floors looking for me to wipe you, that would be great. Thank you especially for getting me out of that sticky situation at Sams when I was just checking out a laptop and the alarm started going off. Great timing on your part to say, "Mama! I gotta PEE!". You rock.

Thanks for loving your sister so much. Could you please stop riding her like a horse though? She doesn't like that and I don't either. If you could also stop screaming when Libby is down for a nap and waking her up, that would rock the house!

You're my best girl! Love,
Mama

Bubs,

Oh how I love you. I love that you are loving going to preschool now. It was so fun to go watch you and your cohorts sing to the "Grandma's and Grandpa's" today at the Senior Center. You were so cute singing, "Hace Calor o Hace Frio". I loved it. And your little girlfriend Maya? She's a cutie. I'm glad you two have fun playing together at school.

Thank you for taking care of your sisters for me. I love how you make Libby laugh and sing "I Am a Child of God" to her when she is sad and I can't get right to her. It is such a huge help when you take Amelia downstairs and play with her so Libby can have a nap. It is not a huge help though when you tease her, causing her to scream and wake up Libby. Really irritating. Just thought you'd like to know. Also, telling me over and over and over that you want to do something isn't going to make it happen any faster. Nice try though.

You are getting so big so fast and I am going to miss you so much when you go to Kindergarten next year. It will be good for both of us, but I will really miss you.

I love you my Bubs. You're my best bubs in the whole world.

Love,
Mama

Emma,

I still miss you. I still love you. Every day. I can't wait to see you again. I love that your sister talks about playing with you. Do you come and play with her from time to time? I bet you do.
I hope you know what you're in for when you are reunited with this crazy family. Your brother and sister have grand plans for playing dolls and Star Wars and swinging and tag and and and...yeah, they have big plans.

I love you,
Mama

My Darling Dearest Love of my Life,

Oh how I adore you. As you know, your birthday is next Tuesday. You are going to be the big 3-0. I want to do really amazing things for you on your 30th since you gave me the BEST 30th I could have asked for. But, sadly you are just stuck with me on that day. I am staying home on Tuesday night and will make you a great dinner. The house will be clean and the children well behaved. Ok, the house will be straightened and hopefully the kids won't throw any tantrums.

Know that I love you more than anything. You make me laugh, hold me when I cry and are my best friend. You are my favorite.

Love Love Love You!

Me

Random

Today's post will be filled with random tidbits here and there. Jeremy was home for 11 days, so I got some crafting done!!!

First up -- SLINGS! Before Thanksgiving I had two really cute girls come to my house and order 2 slings each. Neither of them have babies yet, so they were in no hurry to get them. They are really smart though to buy them now. We all know that once the babies come the money goes everywhere else! So (drumroll please) here are their slings. I LOVE how they turned out.







These will all be available through my Etsy shop also. So, if you love them, or know someone who will -- go get one :)

My second bit of crafting had to be kept top secret for a while. But, the contest is over and I didn't win (sad). But the good news is that it really worked my creative muscles and was SO fun! So, without further adieu, here is my entry for the Fabric Bliss Make it Work Challenge! 10 lucky crafters were given a package of fabric and notions. The rules were that you had to use all the notions and some of each of the fabrics to make an apparel item. I made a robe for Amelia. The only fabric that I used that was my own was for the sleeves.

Cute huh? I don't know who won yet, but she said she'd email the winner last week and I was never emailed. Oh well, it was fun to play anyway!

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Now for a little bit of randomness.

Did you know that in Logan, if you have mail to go out but don't have any mail coming in, they will not stop at your house to pick up your outgoing mail? You have to be a mind reader I guess. Very irritating. Today, I had to run outside as I watched the mailman walk by and shout at him to come back! It is snowing and pretty gross out there. So, here I am, running outside in my socks with my mail that needs to go out today. Seriously people? Is it that hard to just pick up my mail even if you don't have anything to give me? guess so.

And just to end the post on a happy note. Here are two of my favorite pictures from Christmas.
Who is more excited for Amelia to get her new Cabbage Patch Doll?

Me and my sister and 2 of my brothers.

When I was young, my Mom would get a Christmas Mouse from Baskin Robbin's every year. It was a mouse made of layers of ice cream. We would dig into it on Christmas Eve and just loved it. Well, this year, my Mom decided to recreate the mouse. We took it to my sister's house on Christmas day and Mom brought it out for dessert. Everyone was so surprised and excited. Look at us, all growed up. Wish Todd could have been there. Even though he'd probably have shoved my face in it or something, just for old times sake. heehee!

Hang in there

I am coming back. I have found that in the last month, I have done so much blogging...but what is better, quantity or quality? I feel that this last month there has been a lot of quantity, but probably not great quality. So, that is something I am going to be working on.

Now, if you will indulge me a bit more...I have more pictures from Thanksgiving. Ok, not really from Thanksgiving -- somehow my camera did not make an appearance on that day. These are the last of the photos, until I get the pictures back that we had taken. They are sure to be fantastic!

Libby and Aidan. Aren't they just the cutest?

Sissa doing Amelia's hair

Sleepy Carlie, asleep on Daddy's feet.

Telling Great-Grandma lots of stories

Aunt Karen and Baby Aidan (the only thing Amelia calls him)

Seth and Grandpa Greggor

Sassy Grandma.

By the way...do you like my new look? I won it!!! I KNOW! I never win anything!!! I won the contest over at Ruby and Roja. Go check them out today!

I'm Full.

Seriously. So full. I ate 8 pieces of pie last night. I'm a wee bit embarrassed to even admit that, but I just couldn't stop. We had chocolate, pecan, blueberry banana, apple and peach. How could I not eat all that pie? Also, how could I not take pictures of all that pie?? I am looking at my camera for pictures of Thanksgiving, and I did not take one. Not one single picture. So, you'll just have to imagine the beautiful turkey, my nice place settings and the beautiful people that filled my home.

Jeremy's family was here, and we had so much fun. This whole week revolved around food. Everything we did had to do with where we would go to eat after. Here are some highlights of our week.

• The house was crowded and loud. I loved it.
• I loved sitting around with my sisters-in-law while we nursed the babies and could just chat.
• I loved having my father-in-law take Jeremy power shopping...we got some good stuff for our kitchen!! Thanks again Greg!
• I loved getting our family pictures taken at the park. The weather was beautiful, we couldn't have asked for it to be any better!
  
• I loved the turkey brine that was brought from Williams Sonoma and that made our turkey so delicious! Thanks Brad and Karen!
• It was so much fun having the cousins together. It will be even more fun when mine aren't the only hellions! :)
• Going to Ikea for the first time. WOW. That's all I can say.
  
• Libby's baby blessing on Sunday. It was great having almost all of our entire families here for it. And...the food was good too!
• Saying goodbye to Jeremy's Grandpa Syl. He died on the 16th. His funeral was on Monday. Knowing that he is with my sweet Emma now gives me such peace. He has battled Parkinson's for many years, so knowing that he is free from the toils of his body, is really a blessing.
• Food, food, food. We ate at many great restaurants, laughed a lot, and had so much fun.

Now, other than the sound of my fingers clicking on the keyboard, my husband singing to my babies and my sweet little one sleeping in my arms, my house is quiet. We've cleaned up (some), braved a couple stores (Joann's and Hobby Lobby), had a little snooze -- me, bought some Christmas presents -- Jeremy, and had a lazy evening at home.

It is good. Oh so good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to eat some more pie.

A Few Pictures

Here are a few photos of our week...

It's been a good one for sure.