who can pit the most apricots?

this time of year rolls around and i do A.LOT.OF.CANNING.  this year i'm going to take it easier, especially since i don't have a garden that i'm canning from.  

but i still need help and have six extra helping hands who can help with SOME things.  i am NOT one who likes to have help in the kitchen.  i enjoy working in the kitchen and having my kids busy coloring, doing puzzles or other activities at the table- BUT STAY OUT OF MY CORNER!

apricots take a bit of prep to make them into jam.  not much, but just enough to make me want to ease my burden a little.

that's where the little hands come in.  they can easily rinse all 400 apricots and divide them into bowls.  

they were eager for a challenge so i had them each count out 100 apricots in a large metal bowl of their own.

whoever pitted their 100 apricots first got 3 tokens for their token jar (we do a token reward system here for chores and good behavior see here). the "loser" got a token for their good effort!

who do you think won?!

don't you love brady's dimples?  they are just like chris'!

we had enough apricots for two challenges.  brady won the first round by a few apricots and olivia won the second round by a few apricots!  they loved this and were motivated the whole time!  i couldn't keep up with my chopping as fast as they were dumping their piles onto my cutting board (and that was AFTER the large bowl beside me was full!!!)

this little guy stayed busy by my side coloring "rainbows."  he has really come to love coloring.  he will sit at the table for about an hour and color spiral after spiral of color.  he is currently loving "winnie-the-pooh" color pages and shows me after each page he does.

he lines everything up!  "races" he calls it.  

apparently his crayons have places to go!

cars, legos, dinosaurs, action figures...they all get lined up.

this was a happy afternoon. cool breeze, warm sunlight filtering in the kitchen and happy faces.  i love being with my little people on days like this.

mommys' pile:

they got a whole lot of pitting done!

i diced all my apricots in quarters and had them separated into 4 bowls.  added in my lemon juice and 1 C. of sugar over the top of each and then covered overnight.  this is the next days' labors:

15 pints apricot jam

and i canned up my chicken stock at the same time in the pressure canner.  i had used 4 quarts for my chicken noodle soup, so i was left with 5 quarts to process.

a little bit of lately. {dinosaur park}.

every once in a while this summer chris has gotten home from work early enough for us to take off and do something fun with the kids.  this particular evening wasn't dreadfully hot.  chris got home around 7:45, leaving us enough time to play at a local park for about an hour.  the evening is my favorite time of day.

zach has become quite the climber this past year.  he is very coordinated and loves to climb up, down and across anything.  there isn't very much that holds him back, and since he has become quite skilled he has never fallen.

we like this park the best because it's in a pretty setting, has fun exploratory playground equipment with a dinosaur theme, has walking paths and a fun laser light game the kids (and daddy) enjoy playing.  this park gets the wiggles out big time!!!

playing the laser game-

i can't get enough of this little guy lately it seems.  most of my pictures are of him- trying to capture this fun age of excitement and exploration.  he has the cutest mannerisms and little voice and i am reminded daily that {although i wish i could freeze him right here in this phase and age} that he is growing rapidly and learning how to stay up to speed with his big brother and sister.

pretty soon he won't be our baby anymore.  i think he is starting to grasp the idea that a new little person will be coming to live at our house.  he often says "i am big." "i am going to be a big brudder." (brother)

i love that he was potty-trained in 2 weeks.  he doesn't wear diapers or pull-ups at all anymore, not even at naptime or bedtime.  no accident in bed yet.  a {HUGE} blessing to a momma who DID NOT want two kids in diapers at the same time!!!

i also love that he gets himself dressed and more often than not his shoes are on the wrong feet and his underwear and pants are backwards.  he is fiercely independent; however.  as are ALL of my children.  so, wherever we go, he goes that way.  no worries.  he'll eventually figure out that the zipper goes in the front and not in the back and that it's actually much more comfortable to wear your clothes the right way.

he has his own sense of style too.  if he's not wearing his baseball cap then he usually requests to have his hair done (spikey, like you see it the most).  he also wears his shades all over the place, but mostly in the car so the sun doesn't bother his eyes.

he loves to brush his teeth every morning and night and WILL NOT let anyone help him, other than to put the toothpaste on his brush.  he will scream at you otherwise.  he will scream at you if he doesn't like anything you're doing to him.  this can be a good and a bad thing.  no stranger is ever going to get their hands on this child!

watch out for T-rex!

easter 2013.

a few pictures from Easter at grammie & grandpa graf's house in the spring of 2013.

the kids always love coloring the eggs and grammie always has everything ready for them!

                    

we always try to give the kids things other than candy in their "baskets."  they usually get a new water bottle and this year zach got a water bottle, stickers and new pj's.

brady also got a new water bottle, some stickers, a chocolate bunny and a few eggs full of jelly beans and candy, some new flip flops.

olivia got a new swimsuit outfit for her baby "stella," some jelly shoes, a water bottle, stickers, chocolate bunny and some new shirts.

thanksgiving 2012.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

olivia produced some wonderful works of art in her preschool class before Thanksgiving.

                               

 

we were able to go down to burley and have Thanksgiving with chris' family.  it was wonderful to be together as a family, but we missed chelsae who wasn't able to come home from college.  we enjoyed dinner in mom and dad's brand new open kitchen and dining room.  they did a beautiful job on their remodel and dinner was delicious as always!

        

after dinner we went for a lovely walk along the river.  it was beautiful with the evening sunshine and crisp air.  zach enjoyed his ride and olivia and brady rode scooters.  grandpa helped to encourage olivia along when she got "too tired."

                 

                  

it was wonderful to see shawnae again and have some time with her.




this yellow bridge was the perfect spot for a family picture! 



          

after our walk we went home and bundled up for a traditional ride into the mountains to see the Christmas lights.  visiting with our friend, the camel!  how cool is he?!

it was a wonderful weekend with family and on the way home we brought someone back with us!  auntie shawnae is moving in with us for a while for a change of scenery and fresh start.  we are so proud of her for the decisions she's made and the goals that she has for her future!

happy halloween and the band of pirates.

*disclaimer: if you missed the previous post i am in the process of updating!  continue scrolling down to see all new posts!*

have you ever noticed that my poor husband is the one who has to either shave or dye his hair...or wear a ridiculously ugly wig?!  this year was busy, busy, busy.  there was no time for making costumes.  no extra money for ordering online (and gasp, would i really do such a thing?)  so...dig through the dress-up box, raid closets and come up with something that EVERYONE in the family can pull off using ONLY items we ALREADY have.  the only thing i splurged on was the before mentioned ridiculously ugly "Jack Sparrow" wig $7.99 at Walmart. gotta love that!

i rubbed some black eyeliner in under chris' eyes (you know, going for the Captain Sparrow look)...however, chris sort of just ended up looking like Ozzy, and quite frankly i couldn't wait to get him home, yank that wig off his head and clean off those eyes.  it was spooky.  (as is this really bad picture of my family trying to look like the misfit band of pirates we were going for...just look at those poor little faces...)

the kids played dress-up as pirates for about the whole month before the actual shin dig.  they just couldn't get enough.  there were various assortments of ways we could assemble our costumes.  brady was a spectacular pirate at school.  i mean really, it was quite impressive that we had everything already in our closets!  

the boys upstairs played pirate all month as well.  it made for lots of fun treasure hunting, map making, and "ARG ye matey!" talk all around the house!

                 

and what do you do when the festivities are all over, costumes have been thrown back in the closets and jammies have been donned?  daddy hurries and gives the kiddos a piggyback ride to bed!!!  

                     

on a side note:  i made delicious canned pumpkin.  i just couldn't bare to see all of the lovely pumpkins on my porch go to waste, so before the frost hit and claimed them for good i hurried them inside and started scooping the guts out of them.  now, there is a disclaimer here.  it is not recommended that you can pumpkin, due to the density of the flesh; however, after many hours researching this particular subject and finding many homesteaders who home can pumpkin year after year with no problems, i decided to go ahead and try it.

it was a messy project and somewhat time consuming, but i think all in all worth it.  i plan on growing my own pumpkin patch this year and can't wait to make pumpkin-flavored goodies all fall and winter long!