Ah, Vacation!

We made it to the lake for the weekend! Yay! 

Check this out. 

I felt like Abby with her book in her hammock. 

My baby was sleeping. The rest of the family hadn't arrived yet. I had a delicious, healthy (minus the much anticipated spicy chex mix) lunch - with pop!, and a crossword. And the weather is gorgeous! Gorgeous!

Ah, vacation! 

Corn Exploring

Marc took Cole and me on a Gator ride to a cornfield while we were in Turpin. Cole (and I) loved every minute of it. 

I think this was my first cornfield to be in this season. Before Cole, I would go with Marc periodically to check fields, especially if he had to work on a Saturday. General would come along too. I miss those times, but I wouldn't change it for anything. What a blessing!

Apples

This past week Shirley invited Cole and me to go to the Apple Hutch orchard in Plains, KS. We had a great time picking apples and a few pears. At only $.75/lb for fresh apples, you can't hardly beat it!

The orchard encourages you to eat as you pick. Cole (and I) had no trouble obliging. 

They had a corn pit to play in. Cole went in with no hesitation. 

After seeing how good the apples were, we made a last minute decision with Marc to get enough to make our annual pies for his customers. So, we got home and got started after Cole's nap. 

Cole liked standing on a chair with us and helping. He really liked eating the apples, or rather licking the topping off the apples. 

We have made 22 pies so far and only have a few more left. We normally do this around Christmas, but last year it kept getting put off until almost February! So, it feels nice to get it done early.

Here are all the pies we delivered to the farmers down in Turpin loaded up in the truck. I think we had 11.

Marc likes taking Cole and me with him to deliver and we are happy to go. It's fun to see the farmers and hear Marc talk business. He's so proud of Cole (and probably me too), and wants to show him off. 

Here's Cole loaded up ready to go to Turpin in his new car seat for the first time. He liked it, once he relaxed and laid his head back. 

Shirley and I have pie baking down to a science. We can turn out six pies in less than an hour (not counting bake time).

Another year down...

Few Random Cute Pics

Here's Cole being innovative and finding a way to look out the open window to watch the dogs outside one morning...

This is one of the many things Cole got into while I was trying to get Corbin to go to sleep today while we were babysitting him. 

He took bites out of multiple apples! 

How in the world do people have kids so close together?!?

Pepper Relish

From Dana:

My friend Jessica, from my Bible study, mentioned to me that she makes this pepper relish that people just love. I guess she has even had people buy it from her in the past. 

I was dragging my feet picking the jalapeno peppers out in our garden because I didn't know what to do with them. And when you pick them, you have to figure out what to do with them when you bring them inside or they end up going bad or just being clutter. Ugh. 

In the past, I have made pepper jelly but was looking for something different this year. 

My friend Michelle brought over her abundance of hot peppers to complete my recipe and motivate me to go pick mine!

I was able to can the relish today.

It's definitely spicy. Really spicy. Jessica likes to soften cream cheese and mix it with it and eat with crackers or corn chips. Sounds wonderful!

Wanna come and try it?

New Car Seat

Cole's new car seat came in the mail today. It was on our porch when we got home from our jog this morning with 2 doggie treats on top - one for General and one for Riley, the dog we were watching - from the UPS man.

We got it out this evening when Marc came home. Cole had fun checking it out. 

It seems big and comfy. I hope he's in it for a LONG time!

Cole kept asking to take the car seat to the truck by grunting and pointing. 

We plan to have him forward facing, so we're entering a whole new world of him being able to see out and see us and see what we see. I think Marc's just as excited as Cole. 

We Have Been Invaded

By Cindy

  

This small insect has taken over our pantry! We have spent the last hour and a half cleaning 

 W

We first saw a couple if these last week on the counter, now a whole city moved into our pantry. I called our bug guy and he was going out of town. He said clean out the pantry, vacuum it good. I read on line you could freeze your food or bake it so you did not have to throw it all out. We are freezing some and have tossed others. 

He is 1/100 of a cockroach but still creepy.

Here is my photo of it sitting on the counter, also the cleanup job.