Fall is in the Air...with a Flood

mowing

jogging

i love, love fall weather...and i take it for granted until the freezing cold sets in, minus the flies!!  this fall was no exception, absolutely beautiful weather except for a freak rain storm that laid down about 2.5 inches overnite and flooded our basement. arghh!  it also blew really hard.  hard enough to blow the chains in the gutter out of the drains and straight into the boys' window well which then filled and flooded their room.  bentley woke up to think the girls had played a trick on him and spilled water all over the carpet.  i wish that were so...i ran down and saw the window well full of water.  by the time ben cruised over to the shop and go the sump pump, all the water had dissipated into the wall, closet and carpet...leaving a nice mess.  but only a precursor of what was to come.

the kids also say the funniest things i would like to remember!  here are some ellee classics:  'spicy toothpaste', and wondering why the white bus got pulled over by the police and the kids have to pick up garbage???  nope, those are jailbirds picking up trash.

emerson:  'those pigs have lots of balloons on their bellies' and i'm never getting married while looking at her aunts' wedding pictures.  me-why?  because those dresses look soooo itchy!

bridon:  after reading in the bom, 2 nephi about the lamb lying down by the lion  'i'm going to die with no steak!!'

bentley:  after questioning me why i don't get around to making cheesy pull apart bread like grandma mcintyre ??  me-i have a lot going on with canning, the garden, and all these animals, she doesn't have that   so he says-'yeah, but grandma's got uncle spencer'  bahahaha

and, after passing a mint field ellee says it smells so good.  bridon says he didnt' smell anything....bentley says to him 'she can smell it just fine, she's only 2 1/2.  your nose is 7  and full of toots so it's probably dead.'

here is a recap in pictures of our beautiful fall:

school

riding the tractor we got from ezra

popping pto popcorn on fridays!

running 5ks...my best one yet!

gymnastics

visiting teaching paddle (last day of the month with lots of duck poo)

frogs

sunday drive to meridian temple

dropping di...this was a sad one for me (saying goodby to mission and babies)

teaching the boys dutch oven cooking

library

blowing bubbles

camelback w camille while we were at the temple

pumpkins

the old houses no more (reminds us of our view of the blood moon too)

jog-a-thon...em rocked it!

playing cooker

one on one with mom while em's at kinder

fun with cousins

the beginning of the flood

so warm!

stem nite

the wild man

joanna gave us a ride

the kids also say the funniest things i would like to remember!  here are some ellee classics:  'spicy toothpaste', and wondering why the white bus got pulled over by the police and the kids have to pick up garbage???  nope, those are jailbirds picking up trash.

emerson:  'those pigs have lots of balloons on their bellies' and i'm never getting married while looking at her aunts' wedding pictures.  me-why?  because those dresses look soooo itchy!

bridon:  after reading in the bom, 2 nephi about the lamb lying down by the lion  'i'm going to die with no steak!!'

bentley:  after questioning me why i don't get around to making cheesy pull apart bread like grandma mcintyre ??  me-i have a lot going on with canning, the garden, and all these animals, she doesn't have that   so he says-'yeah, but grandma's got uncle spencer'  bahahaha

and, after passing a mint field ellee says it smells so good.  bridon says he didnt' smell anything....bentley says to him 'she can smell it just fine, she's only 2 1/2.  your nose is 7  and full of toots so it's probably dead.'

Fall Party VII and Halloween!!!

 another beautiful halloween day!  we had bentley the rodeo clown, bridon the fighter pilot, emerson as strawberry shortcake, and ellee the 'pig-e-let.'  the older three had school parties earlier in the week.  i brought pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern to bridon and emerson's classes and we participated in the parade thru the school.  bridon scares people with monsters in his lunch bag and of course, there is a picture of him with his stache and an ice pack over his eye from a bump at recess.  we even had a fun, fhe where we read a scripture and then guessed which part of the 'witch' was in the bag (they could only feel what was in a brown paper bag).  the peanut butter was the absolute best!  we had green olives for eyes, canned apricot for a tongue and so on...

 i still love to make the kids costumes or help them find what they love.  emerson's was the most work this year. i made her wig, shirt, and apron, and painted her leggings.  i sewed ellee's leggings and revamped the 'pig' costume from when bentley was a little guy.  we went to the annual trunk-or-treat, brought our cornbread and had a cup of chili before all the candy madness.  this year we didn't have to clean up, so we left with all the brothers and went to all of our neighbors here that we like to stop and visit...floyd's, gibbens', svaty's, etc.  everyone made a haul and we got home at a decent hour to light our pumpkin and set back our clocks.  the boys thought ben was the meanest dad ever when he locked their treat bags in the safe :).

 i dressed as a pirate and this time of year always makes me extra grateful for the blessing of health and strength.  i am blessed to be a wife and mother...and to be here and not in a hospital somewhere!

the saturday before halloween, we hosted our annual fall party here at the house.  it has been going 7 years strong!  the kids invited a few friends over and our cousins came too.   we did all of our traditional games including tug o war, bobbing for apples, costume relay, decorating sugar cookies, pumpkin bowling, donuts on a string, and treats afterwards.  we had a great time with family and friends!

Working Together

during the fall season there was hay to cut, feed to grind, cattle and pigs to move and feed, and of course, our poultry situation to always be improved upon!  there is no picture of seed cutting this year, but that went on as well.  one of the funniest stories came about because of it.  ben kept seeing wolf spiders in the back bathroom when he'd get up in the nite to go cut.  it started freaking him out and he was batting them off in his sleep.  he called the spray guy and took care of the problem.  but we gave him a good scare with a plastic, spider.  while he was making eggs, before the bus came, i put it on his shoulder without him knowing.  he fre-eeaked!!!  so funny....all the kids and i had a good laugh at his expense.

i got seriously ticked with our ducks.  they were straight run and 2 ended up being males, 1female.  we kept having the darndest time with the water always running out...until we discovered it was the ducks making huge messes in the water and spilling it everywhere.  after school one day, the boys and i dug out the whole, rotten thing and locked the ducks outside.  i may or may not have said a four *#@^ letter word.  it was bad news in there, rotting the floor out.  the ducks were finally in heaven outside in their pond under the leaking riser and no more messes for me.  however, when brian moved, we bought 4 heritage turkeys and they can fly....so then we had to put a top on the run to keep them in.  all was well for a few months.  until it was butchering time of the conventional turkeys.  2 huge ones died the week before and the actual day before while we were at church.  what a tragedy!!!  the 3 older kids were the only ones who got to make a little money off that deal.  they all loaded up at the crack of dawn on a monday morning when they had the day off, and watched the turkeys and one duck get packaged up.  the largest tom was 35#!  still, i think we may give it a try again, although i'm not sure what went wrong...

we were able to eat from the garden right up until the end of october.  lots of melons, carrots, squash, and tomatoes.  and then, cleaning it all out on the nice, warm days...

bridon and bentley have a few jobs they like to do for our neighbors.  here we have bridon going out to scoop up dog poop in their yard.  oh bridon.  bentley did some weed eating on the ditch bank as well.

we had a couple of sows that farrowed and the piggys were so cute.  one was a runt, and he made it a good couple of days on a bottle before he keeled over...poor guy.

ben was busy swathing and doing quite a bit of planting.  the kids had fun going out for rides and we'd take dinner if we could.  on sundays, our family had the animals to feed.  we'd all hop on the motorbikes and enjoy the fresh air and move everybody around and do all the chores.

the new batch of chickens started laying this fall as well.  it's a good life to be busy working and growing together!