100 Bottles of food on the wall,

Ok, so I didn't actually count all the bottles on the wall. But I will give you a run down of what is there. As I mentioned earlier our garden was too small to do any canning, so I bought from local sources and shared with my Mom, who planted a big garden. There are a few remaining jars from last year that we just did not eat as much.

The following is what I did this summer.

• Strawberries - 2 batches of syrup, froze with sugar
• Blueberries- 1 batch of syrup, froze for later use
• Green beans - 35 quarts (this was a marathon day at my Mom's, we did 14 cookers in 1 day)
• Peaches - 25 quarts
• Grapes- 28 quarts of juice, 1 batch of jam (these were given to me by a lady in our ward, all I did was comment on her garden and she was sending me home with boxes of grapes!)
• Tomatoes- 25 quarts ( I was a little over ambitious and bought a bushel from the Amish)
• Raspberries - 1 batch of jam (I should mention I have a raspberry patch, but it takes 3 cups of fruit for jam and I only got 2 cups. So I froze my berries for another time not sure what I was going to do with them. Turns out we found a guy that had raspberries in Sept, so I had enough to do 1 batch of jam.)
• Applesauce ???? This is yet to be done. The apples are now on. It is just a matter of getting them and doing it.
  

My boys are growing up.

Out with the old ABC/Noah's ark curtains and bring on the wild zebra stripes!!!

Parker has mentioned that he is afraid of the cars at night time. This puzzled us. He has cars on his sheets, he loves to play with cars, he loves the movie Cars. We weren't sure whether he was afraid they were going to crash through the wall or if the noises of them scared him at night. Well after sleeping in his bed one night, I discovered the problem. His curtains were very thin and as the cars go up and down the road at night their head lights shine in and cast shadows on the walls.

So we made a trip to Joann's fabrics to look for something different. I was trying so hard to be mindful of things that might be friendly during the day, but scary at night time. All the regular stuff he likes I could picture having bad dreams about at night, frogs, trucks, cars, bugs and monkeys. I decided I needed to go with a safe geometric pattern and dark. We walked over to the black fabric and Parker spotted the zebra stripe. So I made them new curtains.

It was a sad moment for me. Preston shares a room and won't get the chance to enjoy the little boy ABC curtains. They are growing up too fast.

You will be happy to know that the curtains are doing the trick. Parker is sleeping all night long in his own bed! Wahoo!

I finshed it!!

This is a picture of the finished product. Last year I took a quilting 101 class and I started on this table runner. I love taking the classes, but they often teach you something, but don't have enough time in class to finish it. Arghhhh. This is torture to a mom with small children, because you rarely have time to work on these things. I want to take more classes, but currently have 3 more projects in the works. My Mom told me I need to finish them before I do more. Needless to say between life and all the other things I have going on ( young women's, planning a halloween party, making zebra curtains, pampered chef and that on top of the daily battle of dishes and laundry) there isn't a whole lot of time for quilting.

My goal is to have my next wall hanging ready to work on during general conference next weekend. It will help me stay awake. Now it is in writing. I let you know how it goes.

Just FYI the place I take the quilting classes is www.stitchyourartout.com

Emily, Emily how does your garden grow?

With sunshine, fertilizer and water!! Yes this is Parker hiding behind my zucchini plant that over took my little garden. I could not believe how big it was. Next year I will allow more room for the zucchinis.

And yes you are looking at the front of my house. We have trees in the backyard that rob the soil of water and nutrients. So Jim killed the grass, added topsoil and I planted a garden. I am so proud of my garden. Parker loves being outside, so I was actually able to take care of it. It did quite well and is still producing tomatoes. We planted everything from seed in the ground so we got a little late start.

Keep an eye out for my canning post, although I didn't have a large enough garden to can from. I only eat and enjoy the fresh veggies with my garden.

How tall is the corn?

Parker loves to chatter all the time. I call it my running commentary all day long. He will ask where we are going, what we are doing, what certain noises are? One day I was tired of the usual questions, so I changed the subject. Look at all this corn. It is getting so tall. I wonder how tall it is. We should take your picture by it and see how tall the corn is compared to you. Pappy would like to see the tall corn.

So we stopped to take Parker's picture next to the corn one day!

Impromtu trip to Horseshoe Curve

We were already in Altoona and I was planning on taking the boys to Lakemont park. I forgot to check the schedule and the amusement park had already closed for the season. Parker loves trains and I thought it would be fun to take him to Horseshoe Curve. Especially since we were almost there. This would save me a separate trip.



The trains blow their whistles and then the sound of the metal wheels on the tracks makes a screeching sound. Parker does not like loud noises, so he covers his ears.


I was able to get him to release his hands to point to the train.
Horseshoe Curve was built to help the train deal with the mountainous terain. They built the track on a horseshoe pattern so that it would be gradual climb or descent. The train started on this side.

And wrapped around to this side. It is quite a site to see. One year they did fireworks at the curve and lit up the track as well. They have pictures in the little store for sale. It was really cool.
And where was Preston during all this, just being a happy boy! I carried him because our only options to get to the curve were a little tram or stairs. I knew the stroller would limit us, so he hung out on mom's hip.

Ag Progress Days

Ag Progress Days takes place in Rock Springs, PA, which is 15 minutes from my house. I use any excuse that I can to hang out with my family. So anything that gets them to come to my neck of the woods we will tag along or feed them dinner or least offer a clean pit stop.

I enjoy Ag Progress Days. It is nice to walk around and I have to get my milk shake each year. For those of you asking what is this all about? Penn State sponsors 3 days of vender's, demonstrations, and good food for the area. This is particularly exciting for farmers as they can see a lot in one place and talk to different sales people and get new ideas. By 4 pm the place had cleared out, because everyone had to get home to do chores or milk the cows.

We met up with my Dad, Lee and Courtney and the girls. Parker and Lilly had great fun jumping on these cow mats. Aren't you glad the cows comfort is kept in mind?




Lilly was quick to show Parker how the feeding stalls worked. Complete with mooing sounds.
Most tractors come standard with an extra seat for a child, lonely spouse or friend to ride along and keep you company, or maybe offer advice on how to drive.

Lilly saw these hats and had to had one. We were walking all over looking for a cow hat. We finally asked someone and it was a good thing we did, because we were headed in the wrong direction!!


More of the famous cow hats. The babies napped through the getting a cow hat. Did I mention they were really tricky to put together. Of course with 3 year olds they kept coming apart. Courtney and I were running short on patience by this point and then having to reassemble cow hats. Ugh.
If practiced milking the fake cow, they gave you a coupon for ice cream. Parker and Lilly both took a turn.


The end of the day. Everyone is tired and thirsty.

Do you see spots?

The things we will do to entertain our kids. Jim put dominoes inside his glasses. It was good for a laugh!

Loving the pool

Preston decided he wanted to go for a little swim and just crawled right in with his clothes and diaper on. The first time this happened I was unable to take a picture, because I was alone. It happened the next day and Jim was there this time, so I could capture it on film.

He loves the pool. He has crawled in several times with everything on. He plays until he has had enough and then crawls out.

I encouraged Parker to join him.

Happy Birthday Uncle Ben

Parker loves birthdays. Last month he asked if we could have birthday cake. So we made a cake for Uncle Ben who had a birthday in Aug. He is blowing out the candles.

Getting into mischief

I was packing to go visit my parents for a few days. I came out to find Parker hiding under the table eating a banana. I had bought a huge bag that I was going to use for banana bread. I have to limit the amount of fruit he has and he had already had his rationed banana for the day. Plus I did not think he would like the overripe banana.



Preston was missing. I went calling his name and looking in various rooms of the house. He was in the computer room playing with the mouse. He also loves to play with the answering machine. This explains why when you call you might not even hear a greeting or if I never returned your call.

I have started putting the gate up during the day to keep them both out of here.

Air popped popcorn

We have recently rediscovered our air popper. We got it as a wedding gift and it has been collecting dust for quite a while.

The boys love popcorn. I know I know, I would not let Parker even have popcorn until he was 3. My poor Mom and sister would make it and eat in secret around him. One day we were at Home Depot and they were giving out popcorn when we walked in the door. I didn't want to hear Preston squeal because he couldn't have any and I was there to monitor it, if i needed to do the Heimlich. So I gave in.

Then I realized it can be a healthy snack and it is super convenient. Parker loves watching it pop. We put a little butter on it and some salt and take it with us on the road for a snack. It is so good. Even I love it, and I was never a big popcorn fan.

Hmm, Do you think the popper would wake the boys? This is making me hungry.

Changing the sheets

So this is what was going on while I was changing the sheets on my bed.



Parker is emptying all the dirty clothes out into a large pile and calling it his "sand pile" so that he could jump in it. He then proceeded to add some clean clothes that we laying around. Preston was upset, Parker was probably piling clothes on top of him at one point. This is what you get when you try to do house work.

Now you can say you have seen my dirty laundry!