Jon and Elbow...continued.

Thanks to Bonnie, I was informed that they are "Tiger barb" and that they need 'oxygen' to stay alive. Oops. I thought you could buy a bowl, stick a fish in it and watch it swim around. I guess the "bubble makers" (filters) are necessary. SO....being the fish pro that she is, brought over a MUCH better and fancier tank (pink, but i don't think the fish will mind) to move Jon and Elbow into. Bubble maker and a light too! Jared even bought little baby marbles to decorate the bottom. VERY cute. I have to say, they are definitely MUCH happier. They eat their food now and swim around. (You may be asking yourself, "they weren't doing that before!?" Well, no not really. They just sat at the bottom of the tank. (I was slowly killing them and Eli had nothing do with it!) Now....I'll happily extend their "life span" to about 1 month from the original 1 week. That may be stretching it, but I'm feeling lucky.

My baby's 1!

For my little one's birthday I decided I wanted to make a cupcake caterpillar. Instead, I made an "inch worm" out of miniture cupcakes. It was so fun to do and he definitely loved it.

More please!

Tastes better when it's smeared ALL OVER the face, hands, clothes, feet....!

We got him this little John Deer tractor to ride and push. Gotta work on those walking skills that he's starting to do. He loves it. Couldn't wait to get it out of the box. It honks and plays music and reves the engine.

Jon and Elbow

With Eli's obsession with fish, (today he watched "coley fish", then pretended that EVERYTHING he played with was a fish or fishing pole.) I bought him and Ashton two fish. "Elbow" belongs to Ashton (They've been learning about the letter "E" at school) and "Jon" belongs to Eli. I kept asking Eli what he wanted to name his fish and sometimes I just can't understand what he is trying to say. The closet I could come up with, with what he said was "jon". SO....Jon it is! I give them 1 week. He's already tried to give them a french fry. I also had to hide them on my counter behind the bag of bread and a box of crackers and told Eli that they are taking a nap and that I put them in bed. He looked at me funny and went looking for them in all the beds. NOW...it's 'out of site, out of mind'.

Bridal Veil Falls

...a sunday walk with the kids.

Ashton's "cold" face.

Warming their toes!

Water got a little deeper and Eli lost his footing...

Yours truly

1...2...3...4....(5 was with me.)

waving traffic down

Love this picture of the two of them.

Love this one too.

Offical signs of fall. (Alisha, I think it's safe to put up decorations now.)

...reap what you harvest.

Well, I did it! I've stepped into the canning thing and actually succeeded. With the help of Jared and Mykael we got two batches of 7 bottles done last night. I had noticed the day before that our pears had fallen off the tree and decided that we needed to can them before they were unsalvageable. This is the first time doing it without my mom and it's been years since that happened so Jared and I were quite pleased with ourselves to have such an awesome turn-out. (Although, my mom did get phone calls up until 11pm with questions I had during the process. Thanks for letting me keep you up!) One bottle didn't seal so we had it for breakfast this morning. For some reason, Eli thought they tasted better dipping his hand in and pulling one out, as opposed to me dishing it out in a bowl for him. Big surprise, huh?

He made it before his birthday...

For a while now, the kids and Jared have told me that Dylan "walked". Of course I always shot that down not believing them because deep down, I wanted to be the one to see him do it for the first time. I've seen him take a step and then fall, but nothing like this. It wasn't until I captured this that I saw how WELL he walks. Results from "practice" I suppose. So it was proof enough that he probably has been walking here or there for a while, but with me out of the room each time. I'm gonna give the credit to the one that claim to have seen him first. Mykael!

Pampered Chef

Yesterday evening I had a Pampered Chef party. (Feel free to order something if you'd like. My party closes wednesday.) I've been working on getting my house in order for quite a while now and was able to make it clean enough to host a cooking party.

I was excited to see what that would all intale seeing that I've never had/nor done any kind of party like this before. I sent out invitations and even put up fall decorations and had my house smelling like cinnimon and cloves. It was/still is (for the time being) awesome! I love a clean house!!!!

The "consultant" came early to set up and then we waited for guests to arrive. Angelle (friend since childbirth) came early also to help get ready.....And was the only guest to leave when it was over. I'm bummed that no one else came. But we still had a good time. It was probably more relaxed than if all the invited people had shown up. My parents were here, Jared was here, and the kids were here. SO...it wasn't like an empty house. The guys hung around and played with all the fun gadgets

and the kids were able to help. They LOVED it. (Poor Eli didn't do well with chopping the onions. If P.C. only had something to cure onion tears!)

We made french bread pizza

and these super yummy mint fudge cookies. REALLY EASY!!!

I'm Grateful to those who helped me clean. I'm beyond words to express my gratitude towards you!!! I love you!