Kindergarten going on 3rd grade

I bought Henry this owl pellet that we're are still in the process of dissecting. He LOVED finding the skull and figuring out what animal it was.  We're going to glue it to the paper as a full skeleton when we're done finding the bones.

 Excuse me as I brag for a moment about Henry.  Since this is his life journal I have to record this for posterity.  Justin and I just went to parent teacher conference and we found out that Henry is pretty much a genius!  He's reading at a 3rd grade level!  I thought maybe he was approaching a 2nd grade level with his reading, but he's apparently way past that! He's also off the charts with everything else from math to science and the penguin that he drew was the most life like looking one of the whole class! He is polite and helps the other children with their reading.  He is kind to all the kids and he participates well in all activities.  I have to say that I feel really good about trying to home school him next year.  Even if I crash and burn, he will still be ahead of his class, AND doing what I've been doing to get him to this point of excellence was really fun and easy for me.  I enjoy teaching him and he is a little sponge and listens to everything I say.  I'm really looking forward to it:)

Still working on that smile.  lol! This was way better than the shot with the strawberry. 

The two things he needs to work on are being quiet while his teacher, Mrs. Genesi, is talking.  He has a tendency to talk to his neighbor, talk to himself, and make clicking noises with the back of his throat.  I don't blame him for making clicking noises because I remember being young and trying to figure out just how many sounds I could make.  It's so fun when you're a kid! 

When my mom went in to my Kindergarten parent teacher conference, she said my teacher, Mrs.  Barriger, who was also my brother's friends' mom, and said, "there's a big problem".  My mom sat there with her heart pounding in her chest, wondering what could be so wrong.  Finally she took a deep breath and sighed, "Annie just uses way too much glue".  Hahaha!  My mom was like, "um, that's not really a big problem".  I do remember pouring glue all over my hand, letting it dry and then carefully trying to peel it off so I had a life-sized glue hand with all it's lines and prints.  What's more fun than that?  It took a lot of patience and intricate peeling to get that thing off, skills that I appreciate to this day.  I frequently have to carefully peel stickers off of church pews, kitchen chairs, the floor without ripping them with a tearful Bea peaking over my shoulder.  I also need all the patience training I can get.  I am debating about even teaching Henry how to do it.  And don't try to even tell me that every single one of you didn't rub glue all over your hands at one point in your childhood. 

It's the thought that counts

This is a drawing of Bea with pigtails and a crown

 Yesterday Henry and Bea got in a little fight and to apologize Henry decided to get on PBSkids.org and print Bea out a photo of Valarie Velociraptor from her favorite show, Dinosaur Train, then he drew a picture of herself with a crown on, colored everything, cut it out, taped it together, wrapped it all up in a construction paper bow(that doubled as two bracelets) with a heart on top.  He brought it up to her and she opened it up with a huge smile on her face, saying that she loved it.  She put her bracelets on and we pinned it to her cork board in her room.  He has turned into the most thoughtful little guy and I'm so proud of him!

I also wanted to say that I have written 200 posts on Henry's blog since he was 1 year old.  This is a milestone and probably about 1 volume of the many he will have of his life when I get it all printed off someday.

Bea loves Dinosaur Train and this is her favorite dinosaur, Valarie Velociraptor

Day after Cleaning Day

Thanks for playing with me

 My favorite day is the day after our house cleaners come because the house is perfect, no one has to waste time in the morning cleaning up their rooms, putting toys away, doing dishes, which slowly eats up our time, especially when you're trying to be a good mom and make your kids take care of their own stuff and not do it all yourself. 

Clemmie helped too

Yesterday we played Henry's new game he got for his Birthday, Number Ninjas, made a giant snowman outside and ate giant strawberries before school even started.  We had so much fun! I was just thinking that when I home school him next year for half the day, I'm going to have to just put all the cleaning aside and just play and do school and I need to be ok with the house not being perfect sometimes. 

best buddies

This morning I woke up and Henry and Bea had already gotten themselves breakfast and were all dressed in their snow clothes and playing outside in the snow.  I'm so grateful for kids that like to play outside and for kids that think up things to do and do them without me having to come up with an activity.  Hooray for big kids!

Henry still doesn't know how to smile for a photo.  He did 5 different faces for this shot and this was the best one! haha.

I told Henry that if we have an awesome snow day next year I would take him up the mountain and we would do school on the ski lift, memorizing addition and subtraction problems, Chinese characters and  practicing spelling.  I figure with all the time that is wasted during the regular public school day, why not use that precious time to go skiing! He got so excited when I told him that idea.  I wish they had a home school ski program.  I would totally go for that!

Happy 6th Birthday Henry

My Sweet Birthday Boy with his Pirate Cake

Dear Henry,

On February 24th 2012 you turned 6 years old!  What a wonderful milestone it has been for us all.  We have seen you change so much this past year and we are so grateful for the wonderful big boy you've become.

Hanging out with his friends at his party

Henry, you have an exceptional zeal for life and have so many talents.  You enjoy everything you do and you're always active in accomplishing so many worth while things.  The things you enjoy most are, building with Legos, especially Ninjago Legos, riding your bike, playing Little Big Planet(sparingly), writing elaborate stories and illustrating them for hours on end and reading your own stories and reading with me.  We have read the first two Harry Potter books together as well as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and are now working on The Wind in the Willows.  We love reading stories and then watching the movies afterward.  One thing you have been doing a lot lately is skiing! You just finished a 5 week long ski school at Snowbird and you really improved.  Last week we went skiing together, just you and me, and you knew exactly where everything was on the mountain, knew what the lifts' names were and where they would take us.  You also forced me to take the transport bus up to the main lodge just so we could buy candy and hang out, which is also a huge reason you like skiing since that's what we did to bribe you to go when you were younger and crankier:)  Now you love it and won't hesitate to go.  You are also a great swimmer, even though we haven't been going regularly.  You are totally comfortable in the water and can swim across any pool.  I hope you can join a swim team this summer! 

Licking the candles

You are such a great big brother.  Bea ruins your Legos, takes your stuff, kicks and hits you and you usually turn the other cheek and come to me for help. I really appreciate that you are so kind and that you aren't a fighter.  You LOVE your sisters and you made me throw away a tee-shirt that said, "Sister For Sale" because people would ask you which one was for sale, which you did not like because you love all of your sisters, even Bea.  You love Violette the best.  You ask to hold her often and you pay a lot of attention to her.  You kiss and hug her all the time and love to make her laugh.  You also play a lot with Clementine and you enjoy hearing her talk gibberish around the house and you laugh a lot at what she says.  When Clementine does say something coherent, you marvel and say, "She's the smartest baby in the world!". 

One of your new talents is blowing bubbles.  You really love bubble gum

You have become such an obedient boy these past 6 months.  I remember when we first moved and I needed you to do your chores and you threw tantrums for hours when you only had 10 minutes of cleaning up to do, but now you help me anytime I ask.  You keep your room clean and organized and have never shoved everything under the bed. You get dressed, attempt to comb your hair, brush your teeth and put your pajamas on without having to ask you twice and you are usually ready for reading and songs way before I'm even ready to read with you, which is a miracle!  After we read together, which sometimes lasts an hour, I sing your favorite song, "It's just the thought of you" which has been your favorite for about 2 years now.  You sometimes sing along with me with your sweet voice and are so happy to go to bed after I sing to you.  If I don't have time to sing, it's hard for you to go to sleep since I've been singing you to sleep ever since you were a baby.

You LOVE these "Mouth Man" shirts so I got you a couple more for your Birthday.  You also love to put the hood up.

Henry, you really love the gospel of Jesus Christ.  You and I read the scriptures every morning together and you know your scripture stories very well.  Your teachers in primary tell me that they can tell you have studied at home because you know all the answers to their questions.  You have also passed off 9 of the 13 articles of faith that you are supposed to memorize this year.  It's easy for you because all I have to do is play the song and you memorize each one in just a few days. You are truly concerned for people who don't believe in Jesus Christ and I know you are gaining an understanding of the importance of living a righteous life.  You love your brother that died and all you want is to be together with him and Jesus someday.   Just last night as we were looking at your new levitating globe I got you for your Birthday I showed you where China was.  You asked me if people in China believed in Jesus and I said that they haven't had the opportunity to know about him, but that you might be able to teach them since you were going to learn Chinese in the Chinese Immersion School next year.  You could be called as a missionary to China someday.  You got a huge smile on your face and said, "Mom, wouldn't it be cool if I was the first missionary to go into China!?" Then did a little joyous wiggle in your bed.  I'm so grateful for your love of the gospel and missionary work. 

The thing I love about you the most is your sweet and kind nature.  The other day I woke up and you had created me a book called the Magic Mom Book and you had colored for about an hour and put it all together with tape just for me.  You are constantly writing me notes that say, "I love you Mom" and I just cherish them with all my heart.  Something I will never forget is the way you look when you stand next to me with your arms around me, looking up, and I'm looking down at your beautiful big green eyes, freckled nose, and dimpled cheeks.  Your face looks just like an angel and I know you are a special spirit.

Here are some(not all) pages of the Magic Mom Book.  I have the most wonderful son in the world!

us skiing down the tram at Snowbird

holding hands

Here we are at the lodge eating candy

these are the mountains all around the world

this is our farm someday

Even though we've had our hard years(ages 2.5 to 5.5, phew!), you have turned back into the sweet boy I knew you naturally were.  You had a rough first 6 years of life, having a dad who was gone a lot, a mom who was always pregnant,  babies who ruled the house, and being forced to move and leave your friends and cousins, but this year your dad will finally have a job and we can soon build a stable existence for you and your sisters.  We have had fun dreaming about our dream farm for years, laying awake at night saying what we wanted to have on a farm someday, and hopefully in a few short weeks that will become a reality and you can have your chickens and collect the eggs like you've always wanted.  I promise to someday build you a tree house just like the Magic Treehouse books and fill it with books for you to read.  All I want to do is make a wonderful life for you.  I love you so much my dear, sweet son.  Thank you for all you are and for who you have become.  Happy Birthday

Love,
Mommy

Slushing

Fun in the sun. 

It snowed a decent amount this past weekend and as I drove past our local park I noticed about 1000 kids sledding down a really great hill and wished I were doing it as well.  I actually had a ski date with Henry that day so I vowed to go sledding as soon as I could get to Wal Mart to buy some inner tubes without having to drag all the kids with me, which just happened to be last night.  I spent at least an hour blowing up the tubes interspersed with dizzy spells and we headed out this morning to sled with Ella and Avery.  When I stepped outside I noticed that I was hot in just my shirt and then looked around and saw that there was no snow left on our front lawn.  I drove to the park and there was about 1/4 inch of slush on the ground left to sled on.  No matter how hard I pushed the tubes, they would slowly slide down.  Perfect for the little kids, I guess, but after about 10 minutes Henry said, "mom, I'm bored." I was too, my thrill seeking, speed skiing son.  The kids found it more fun to wade around in the swampy cesspool smelling pond at the bottom of the hill and after getting thoroughly soaked, decided to head up to the park where they had plenty of fun and didn't get bored at all playing in the balmy 59 degree weather. This is the only time in the past 10 years I wish it were cold and snowy and it's warm and sunny every day.  Go figure.

Revised Pledge of Allegiance

Today I asked Henry if he knows the Pledge of Allegiance and he told me he says it every day at school.  He was doing legos so he wasn't really focusing on what he was saying, but he started to recite it and this is what came out of his mouth: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united mates of hysteria..." and then he got the rest right. I feel like that pretty much explains the state we live in.  Henry and his sisters are the United Mates of Hysteria.  Way to go Henry. 

My little Valentine

Handing out Valentines

This year, Valentine's Day was kind of significant for Henry.  So, we've had our ups and downs with Henry ever since he was about 2 and a half and just recently we've seen him mature so much.  He has finally grown out of the really difficult phase he has been in for so many years and has turned back into the happy, delightful boy I knew was under that emotional exterior.  At one point I even thought he had ADHD but after seeing him spending an hour and a half writing out his classmates names on his Valentine's cards and focusing on many other projects, including reading chapter books, building legos, and drawing intricate pictures and coloring them, I came to the conclusion that he does not have ADHD but just has tons of energy, which is what I expected all along.

This past Saturday I spoke to Henry's ski school instructor and he is improving leaps and bounds.  He's already in the advanced class and now is going off jumps, skiing on his edges and doesn't use the "pizza" anymore to stop but uses "french fries".  haha.  He's getting so good! It's just so amazing to see my little baby boy accomplishing so much.  I am swelling with joy just watching him read, swim, ski, rock climb all the way to the top of the wall, sing, play his little guitar, memorize the Articles of Faith and be such a good kid.  At his class today one of the aides said he was a stickler for the rules.  He really loves those rules!

We've been having so much fun together lately and he tells me he loves me all the time and it just melts my heart.  The other night I drove separately to the gym and when I was leaving, Henry yelled through the window, "Mom, can I come around to your side to give you a kiss?" Of course you can sweet boy. 

He made me a Valentine the other day and was trying to hide it and when he realized that I accidentally saw it, he was devastated. He is such a thoughtful boy.  I just can't say enough good things about him.  I am so looking forward to spending more time teaching him and getting to know him. 

For Valentine's Day I actually pulled myself together and made a couple batches of cookies, decorated them and delivered them to our friends and neighbors.  What I made used up so much dough that I couldn't deliver them to even half of the people I wanted to, but I at least thanked people who had helped me after the baby.  Henry and Bea helped me make the dough, cut out the hearts and I decorated them and we all went around to deliver them.  I used my grandmother's delicious recipe and everyone has been asking me for the recipe.  I'll post it on my neglected food blog hohlfoods soon. 

Missin' You

Brothers

Henry's brother from another mother just left Virginia to live in Australia for an extended period of time.  We haven't seen River since we left Pittsburgh last May, so since we moved across the country it has been hard to get together, but Australia is even more impossible to visit! Our only hope is that he will come back to Utah and live right next door when he comes back to the states.  Henry will miss his little brother.  We love you River!

Silly little boys

Chinese immersion, here we come!

As you can see I don't have any good recent photos of Henry!

 I just entered Henry's name into the Chinese immersion school lottery in our school district and he got picked! I couldn't believe it.  At first I was totally torn because I've heard amazing things about this program but I was totally planning on home schooling next year.  It's only in it's third year here, but other places like CA have been doing it for a while now and say the kids are fluent by 6th grade and can test out of University level classes by the time they hit Jr. High.  Some of them get a minor in their language before they get to college.  You can only start in 1st grade and since this program is only in it's third year, the fourth graders will be the most senior group when Henry starts. There are two teachers at Henry's school and as far as I know, one of them is native Chinese.  Not sure about the other one. Every school around here has something special going on in it.  The school Henry is in right now has a special needs program, but the school that just so happens to be just about equidistant from the house we're hopefully going to buy here in Sandy, has this Chinese program that he got into.  The new house is still in our current school district, but we're only three streets away from the other district, so hopefully I'll be able to work something out to get him there on the bus. If I had to drive him there, it would be a 6 minute drive, so not bad at all.  The other really amazing thing about Utah schools is that you can put your kid in school half day if you want and then home school them for the other half of the day, which means I can just send him for Chinese school every day for either morning or afternoon (whatever time they decide to do the Chinese portion) and then I can teach him at home(or go skiing! haha).  I can decide to home school him one year or put him in another year full day whenever I feel like it, but he will have to go to Chinese school every day for the three hours until sixth grade.  During that time, they learn math, science and social studies as well as obvious language learning stuff.  There are a bunch of videos on You Tube that highlight these programs.  The best one I found is a school in California, but there are some specific ones about our school district right here in Sandy.

Utah    http://youtu.be/hTG0YFU8vWA
California  http://youtu.be/3zsOLNHwcso

There aren't any programs past elementary school as of now, but I bet they'll have something in place for the students as they progress in the program.  I have a bunch of friends who have friends who have put their kids in the program and they LOVE it.  Most of my friends wish our school had something like that or that they had put their kids in the lottery.  Since Henry got in to the program, all my kids have priority to be in it as well, so they'll all be taking Chinese together.  The fun thing is that they're all so close in age that they'll be able to talk to each other at home if they want to.  There are also classes for the parents of the children who are in the immersion programs so they can learn as well.  I fully intend to do whatever I can to learn as much as I can, even if I end up just being semi-conversational, but can't read much or write. I'm really excited for him to start! I wouldn't have believed it, but dreams do come true in Utah:)

Dead Pet

Good-bye old friend

Since September we've kept a small black widow spider in our windowsill.  We found her in our garage and I put it in a jar so I could take photos of it to send to my dad and then never took her out.  I wanted to see how long she would stay alive.  I thought maybe a few weeks, but months passed and she was going strong, eating whatever I put in there and spinning a giant web inside my large mouth quart sized jar.  Everyone thought I was crazy, including myself, for keeping a pet that could kill my children in the house, but they were totally disinterested in it and it was out of their reach so I just left her there.  The kids excitedly showed their friends around Halloween time that they had a pet black widow, but then they forgot about her.  I enjoyed watching her spin her web and gracefully move around the jar as I did dishes and I was always on the hunt for bugs to feed her.  She was the perfect pet for me!  Just a few weeks ago I put some bugs in her jar and she didn't touch them and ever since then she just started to shrivel up.  Today I noticed she was sitting in the position that dead spiders sit in instead of her usual sprawled out, beautiful, elongated position.  She wasn't dead, but her abdomen was shriveled up and her usually red hourglass marking had dulled to white.  I knew she was on her way out and I didn't want to watch her die over days and days so I tossed her outside in the freezing cold.  She would die quicker that way(do I really feel like I'm going to cry? haha). I know people expect to get their pets back when they go to heaven.  I wonder....

Alive

Henry put this rubber T-Rex skeleton puzzle together almost all by himself.  It was hard for me!

So if any of you are wondering...we are still alive.  On Halloween I took the most adorable photos of the kids in their costumes with my old slr camera and they came out all unfocused and horrible and that was the last straw. I wasn't going to take another photo with that camera.  Uploading photos has also been a huge problem for many reasons including 1. Our desktop took at least 15-20 minutes to recognize it was attached to my camera and bring up the photos, 2. The Mac that my sister left me wouldn't even recognize my camera as attached to it so I couldn't upload my photos on that, and 3. Justin's computer was totally full of photos and I didn't want my pictures on that anyway.  If I don't have photos I'm just not inspired to blog because most of the time I forget what we did a week ago and without those photo reminders I can't even remember what to write!(such is the brain of a tired mother).  Now with a new camera for Christmas and a new laptop for my Birthday that has a chip reader built into it I am in heaven.  My photos load in about one minute, my camera works and I have an empty hard drive to store all my photos in! It's literally a dream come true! 

Henry at the new Museum of Natural History wearing a bug mask

I guess I should recap a few major events since the last time I wrote just for posterity's sake.  So...
1. In October the kids took a trip to Southern Utah with Justin to camp and play in the desert.  Henry climbed to the top of an arch and scared some old ladies to death.
2. We have been taking Henry up to Snowbird on a regular basis to ski and he has gone down the blue square(intermediate for you non skiers) all the way from the top of the tram, which takes about 45 minutes to reach the bottom.  He's doing aweesome!
3. I missed the parent teacher conference that was scheduled and Henry chastised me for being irresponsible. I ended up just having a phone conversation during which the teacher said he was already at the academic level they want all the kindergartners to be at by the end of the year.  He could have just gone into the first grade. 
4. Henry and Daddy had fun ding-doing-ditching people for Christmas
5. Aunt Courtney got married in the SLC temple the weekend before Christmas so Henry got to spend a whole week with his cousins, the Chous, and his best friend Wee-o.  They had so much fun running around together, having sleepovers and throwing tantrums.  We hiked up to the Bradshaw family cabin and did some sweet sledding together. 

Henry lounging on the elephant trunk at the zoo

6. Christmas came and Santa brought another PS3 controller, Little Big Planet 2, which Henry has already beaten, and the best present, a slider bike called the rip rider 360 that has coaster wheels in the back that allow you to spin out in 360s.  Click on the link to watch the commercial for it.  It literally is as fun as it looks.  Justin and I want an adult sized one. 

I like how he spells Jackson

Can you tell he's watched the Christmas Carol over and over?

7.  Since we're in Utah, we've had many visitors.  We had Nanni and Papi(my dad and step mom Teri), Mary and Aaron(step sister who married my cousin), other cousin Margie, my brother, Uncle Will, and then we hung out a lot with Meghan and family, Tracie and family(both Justin's sisters), and had tons of fun the week before with everyone who came out for the wedding. 
8.  Henry has been gorging himself on Candy since Halloween and I've pretty much let him eat whatever he wants, but on January 1st I got rid of every piece of candy in the house(like I've done in years past) as far as he knows.  It's actually in the Ziplock box up at the top of the pantry.  When you read this 20 years from now, Henry, you'll know my little secret.  haha. 
9. Finally, Justin took a job here in SLC at a place called TOSH (The Orthopedic Surgery Hospital) and will start in August.  We have been looking around at real estate and have found our dream farm which is a short sale so we don't know if things will work out, but we're praying to get it.  It's actually a 2.25 acre horse property, but I'm going to slowly integrate some goats, pigs, more chickens, and a giant garden.  The house comes with one horse, chickens and some wild cats that catch all the rats and mice.  It's my dream come true, rats and all!

Halloween!

Here we are with my crew! Funny story: a woman helping out with the Halloween party tripped over a baby doll Bea had wrapped up and left on the floor and she thought it was my baby(since I had actually left her on the floor for a minute about an hour prior to that to help Clementine and take a photo of my baby) and let out a loud scream and did a crazy freak out dance that scared all the kids. I scared someone for Halloween and didn't even try! Muah ha ha ha! I suppose my relaxed parenting style scares women on a daily basis anyway.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

fun game with daddy

The kids love playing with their dad. We will miss him this next month as he is gone 3 out of 4 weekends in November. Waaaah.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

little testimony

Today me and my four kids(still can't believe it) went to a little Halloween activity with sister in law, Tracie and at one point I noticed Henry lagging behind. I called out to him and waited and he eventually caught up to the group and as he ran up to me he announced with a beaming face, "Mommy, you were lost but I said a prayer and I found you!" Probably one of the most proud moments I have had as a mother. That's my boy:).

It snowed last Friday and Justin took him on a hike up in the mountains to play in the snow. The mountains look spectacular with the fall colors and the snow. This little boy can't wait 'till winter.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Soccer Star!

Henry scrambling to get the ball.  Go Henry!

Henry has been playing soccer every Wednesday and Saturday this fall and yesterday he finally got the spark in him and had some awesome fast breaks.  He didn't score, but dribbled the ball down the field several times, maneuvering around kids and actually focusing. Yay! So far we have played the black ninjas who should have been playing against professional teams(score about 20 to 0), the orange team who were all in his kindergarten class so during mid play Hen would stop to chat, hug and flirt with the girls, and other teams who were all a head and shoulders taller than everyone on our team (except for Henry who is also a head and shoulders taller than every kid on his team as well).  There are only one or two kids on our team who can actually run fast enough to score and so far we usually only score zero to three goals per game and have never won.  During this game he got pushed a few times and I told him that's just how soccer is and to brush it off.  Then he got the idea that he should push and trip the kids on the other team if they were doing it to him, but the most funny part about that was that he would try to guard people (like in basketball) and trip kids during non play time while they were just standing around waiting for the action to start.  Thankfully none of them were even moving so they didn't get tripped.  He was even hugging some girls on the other team at one point. I think it's good for Henry to know that his team doesn't win, but everyone still has fun, he still gets a treat and everyone goes home happy.  We just love watching Henry play sports.  I've been trying to pack stuff in before the baby comes because it's going to be a long month of nothing planned after the baby comes, so live it up Henry! You are awesome and I love you!

Just like old times+canyons=happiness

Little apple pickers. Clementine, Bea and Ella

Today I woke up to the lovely voice of Stef who called and woke me up at 8:20(I know she was jealous:).  She told me how much she loves homeschooling and I told her Henry loves Kindergarten and riding the bus where he learned that "what the F" was a bad thing to say.  Another mark for reasons to homeschool.  Anyway, we went to Bea's ballet class which is always the most darling thing to watch and then my friend Alissa and I with all our girls headed up to Heber to pick free organic apples in someone's front yard.  I was in heaven.

We probably picked 100 lbs of apples which we will make into sauce for all our babies.  Clementine was banished to the stroller after multiple attempts to cross the super busy street and Bea and Ella were intent on climbing the ladder no matter how many times we told them it was the "mommy" job. The sign advertising the free apples had a very minor spelling error on it.  No biggie.

The best part is that they used the lower case "L" so it looks more like "apies" which is even more hilarious than leaving out one "p".  lol.

Really great apples we just couldn't reach.  These trees were not pruned so they grew really tall and the apples were tiny, but hey, who can argue with free and organic?

Happy "apie" eaters

Clementine banished to the stroller.  Poor Clemmie!

We raced home to Justin who was all ready to go up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a bonfire where we, along with Alissa and Ella who decided to join up with us,  roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, played on a playground and let the kids put on a show at the amphitheater.

afraid of the fire

Clementine, once again, banished to a life of restricted access.  As long as she had a marshmallow she was happy to be there:)

Bea was unfortunate enough to get an ember in her hair and now has a nice little bald spot right where her only head freckle and part usually is, so we'll see how that looks in the morning.  After scrubbing the kids down and putting them to bed Justin came home with probably $60 worth of produce from our CSA and I spent quite a bit of time scrubbing down multiple winter squash, potatoes, carrots and fruit galore.  My counter tops are overflowing with fruits and vegetables and I am reminded of the good ol' days in Pittsburgh when I had no kitchen space left after buying multiple bushels of peaches and had a garden full of giant heirloom tomato plants that would produce more tomatoes than we could possibly eat.

Perfectly roasted marshmallows with chocolate stuck inside.  One of my all time favorite treats

What's not to love about the fall?

Rare view of my pregnant-ness

I really love the fall for every reason: winter squash, pumpkins, Halloween, my Birthday, this baby finally leaving my body soon, cool nights and fall colors.  All you East Coasters who say that the fall is the best on the east because there are so many trees, believe me when I say that it's way more beautiful when you're looking at those colors up super steep canyons on breathtaking mountains.  The leaves are already changing here and with all the rain we had this year the colors should be extra vibrant.  I miss Pittsburgh, but it's so amazing to be up the canyon in a matter of minutes doing what we did today.  What a fabulous day!

A special thanks to Alissa for providing me with all my photos since my camera is acting up.  You've got skills, sista!