Take it inside

Well, it has finally turned cold.  The weatherman is predicting a possibility of some small flakes of snow sometime this week.  That means that the time of just throwing the kids outside to get them out of my hair has come to an end...sigh.

That also means that the perpetual mess in the house is upon us.  The younger children like to build "nests" out of totes and blankets.  The like to pretend that they are baby birds chirping and waiting for their mom to drop food into their mouths.  Um...yeah right.

In order to have a tote to play this fun game in, one must be emptied, and contents played with for about 30 seconds, then abandoned and left alone.  Perfect temptation for the dog.

My youngest son wanted a picture taken of his fishing pole that he got for his birthday.  This has been a fantastic birthday present.  All of the kids have enjoyed it.  My middle daughter has a knack for breaking it, which can get really irritating.  I'm constantly opening the ?reel? to unwind the line so that it will then wind back up right.  I finally had to ban her from playing with it.  This doesn't seem to happen to any of the other kids.  Not sure why it happens to her.

My youngest, since the older kids have went back to school, has decided to get into EVERYTHING.  She gets bored without all the chaos, and likes to make her own.  It is so frustrating to constantly be picking up after her.  She isn't as bad as my oldest daughter was, but is definitely Miss. Distructo.

We all made a trip to the cows today.  This is not unusual, we have been doing it for a while.  We have a calf by the name of Thunderbolt that we are feeding.  My youngest thinks she needs to climb out of the Suburban window and join everyone else.

They are all getting ready to go on an "expedition."  Thunderbolt takes a while to eat his grain.  He likes to savor the moment. 

Do you suppose this hay hook would help on the expedition?

Or maybe this stick?  I'm thinking that the Mr. Potato head earrings that she has hooked on her ears will definitely help.  Who knew??

Can you believe how dry it is?

At least the trees are still green.

Busy Day!

Today we went to an acquaintance's house to pick some apples.  They have a beautiful flower and produce garden, as you can see by the pictures.  We are definitely into fall around here.  It is getting cold, and everything has about finished it's time. 

So, here is my youngest admiring the flowers.  This is just a small taste of what their garden looks like.  Absolutely amazing!

What is it with kids giving their parents flowers?  I mean, as a bystander it is always charming, but as the parent who receives the flower, what the heck am I supposed to do with it?  Like I want to hold onto said flower for the next hour until we can get somewhere that I can put it in water.  And then, if I "accidentally" loose it, the poor child thinks that I hate them.  I have a hard enough time keeping track of my children, let alone some stinking flowers...

This one liked to take a bite or two out of an apple, throw it over the fence, and then complain that they were hungry and wanted another apple.  Argh!

One box down...can we go home now?

At last we found a seat in the garden...only one.  They then proceeded to fight over it until we were ready to leave.  It was an old tractor seat. "I was here first!!!"

...once again, more flowers.  The pink ones actually made it to my house, courtesy of my oldest girl, and are now adorning my kitchen table in some water.

Another box.  Oh WHY do I torture myself so?  We also harvested all the zucchini, tomatoes, onions, pumpkins, winter squash, crookneck squash, cantaloupe, green peppers, jalapenos, and banana peppers from our garden today.  That only leaves the carrots, swiss chard, potatoes, and beets.  Oh, and one more round of broccoli.  Man, I'm not complaining, we're saving a mint in groceries, but I seriously need more time in my day!!  (also more counter space)

And this child of mine, who just got his braces put back on his teeth, thinks he's going to somehow eat all of the apples out of this box.  Not sure how that's gonna work!  He's sure a good helper though!

I don't like Tuesdays!

I really don't like Tuesdays.  They are my laundry day.  I tried to do my laundry all week long, but then it just never got "done" and I felt like I was always one step behind, so I went back to doing it once a week.  It averages 12 loads.  While it is still warm, I like to hang them out on the line, although as the days are getting much shorter, and the temperature is dropping, I can only get about 6 loads out on the line, and I have to dry the rest in the dryer.  Anyway, I have to stay close to home on Tuesdays  because if I don't, then I do not get my laundry done, and I have to do it for ANOTHER day, which just makes me grumpy.

So, my middle daughter got the camera and got me hanging clothes up on the line.  I find that I like to put my clothespins in an apron.  They stay clean that way, no spiders crawling on them.  I don't care for spiders in my laundry.

This is what these two did this afternoon.  The worked on homework.  My children have an inability to keep their back sides off the table or counter.

This is the little chipmunk.  She was supposed to be sleeping.  But she has recently learned how to crawl out of her crib.  None of my other children were that successful at it.  She can both crawl out of it and right back in it.  Not good.


So, I am not one who usually likes coleslaw, but I grew some cabbage in my garden this year, and I really need/needed something to make with it.  So, I found a recipe that just happened to have some cabbage in it, but it also had everyone else in it that I had at my house!  And, it was really fantastic!!!  So, here it is.  I highly recommend it.  And, like I said, I don't like coleslaw.  I found it in the Costco cookbook, of all places.

Sweet and Spicy Coleslaw

6 c. shredded green cabbage

2 c. shredded red or purple cabbage

2 c. shredded carrots

1/2 c. thinly sliced green onions (I just used regular onions, and diced them small)

3 fresh nectarines diced into 1/4 inch cubes

3 jalapenos, diced with seeds removed

1 c. mayonnaise

2 T. vinegar

1 T. white sugar

1 t. dried celery seeds (I only had celery salt, which I used instead of celery seeds)

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

In large bowl, combine cabbages, carrots, green onions, nectarines and jalapenos.  In a small bowl, stir together mayo, vinegar, sugar, celery seeds, salt and pepper.  Pour over the cabbage mixture.  Toss lightly to coat.  I served right away, but recipe says to cover and chill for 2-4 hours.  Makes 10-12 servings. 

Busy, busy, busy!

Well, the soccer season is in full swing.  The 3 older kids are all playing.  The oldest has games on Saturdays, and the 2 girls have games during the week.  This makes for some busy weeks.  I have a feeling that fall is just going to fly by.

The oldest here is #7.  He's in the blue uniform.  I have a camera that is now 9 years old, it's zoom leaves a bit to be desired.

This is how we entertain ourselves during soccer games.  We jump on each other.  Standing is child #2, and sitting is child #4.  Being sat upon is the neighbor girl (poor neighbor girl), and child #3.

...and here is child #5.  We went camping this summer up in the Uinta mountains, up next to a high mountain lake.  It was so much fun!  Here's the youngest pipsqueak thinking she can challenge her older brother to a duel.

 Here's my little midget.  We love him anyway!

This past weekend the 2 oldest kids (and grandpa) participated in a 5k.  (you can see the younger boy in the background with his stick...yes, we are obsessed with sticks around here.  You should see my front porch!  There is a stick from every place we ever go.)  They did awesome!  They both really enjoy running, and that just makes me  happy.

I also ran another marathon at the same time.  Here we are, with all of our bounty from the races.  Three blue ribbons, a finisher medal, and a commemorative "pint."  It was an amazing weekend!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for coming up and helping!!

So, we got a package today from down under.  It is always so much fun to get a package in our house!  Everyone gets so excited and you can get them to  be on their  best behavior for almost 2 hours by telling them that if they are good, then we will open the package "in a few minutes".

So in this way fun package from Australia, we got these amazing hand painted ornaments!!  I tell you what, to me, this is fabulous!  They are so cute. as you can see, and they have their names on them, and they are just adorable!  Thank you guys so much!  Maria, you are one talented lady!  They look fantastic!  The kids love them and they sure think they are special that they have ornaments that are just for them!

I decided that their are a lot of pictures that I want to share,  but I don't have time to put them all on right now, nor do you want to shuffle through them all at the moment, but here are a few.

In our house, we don't carve our pumpkins, we paint them.  The reason that we don't carve them is because it would end up being me carving 5 of them after the kids walked away.  I would also have to clean the inside of them all, and that, also, is a pain in the rear.  So, we paint them instead and that way I also get to use the pumpkin for cooking after that as well.  The kids love to paint, and I love to have the pumpkins to cook with, so it is a win-win situation.

Gabe was a pirate this year.  He looked purdy good, except for the fact that is pants kept falling off.  He doesn't have a waist, so you can't get a belt tight enough and still allow him to sit down, and he refuses to keep suspenders on.  He just pulls them off.  Very irritating. 

Forgot to put the picture of our big pumpkin that we grew this year in the garden.  It was fun.  Although, with these pumpkin plants, because they produce such big pumpkins, you only get 1-2 pumpkins.  So, we had to go buy a couple of pumpkins so we had enough for everyone.  I don't think we will be planting the giant pumpkins again.

Mya didn't like being a lady bug.  It took me a while to realize there was a painful wire poking out right where her hand is and it would scratch her every time she moved.  I wouldn't like my costume either!  Once I cut it, though, she was okay with it.

There's my princess and my pirate.  Isn't that dress cute?  Wait till I post a picture with both sisters dressed up.  They were purdy fantastic.  Thanks Grandma!!

Looks like that is all my pictures for now.  Will be posting more soon!

Salsa, again!

So, I made salsa this week...

Does this look familiar?  It should.  I took a nearly identical picture the last time I posted about salsa.  It's been a couple of years now.  I did salsa this week.  Do you know why?  Because the kids had a 5 day weekend.    My oldest also had soccer practice the evening that I did salsa, and as we picked up his friend, all the memories came flooding back.  I could smell us all in the car, and so could his friend.  Oh the memories...and the sweet, sweet smell of salsa.



On another note, we received a johnny jumper from our neighbor.  I bought one when my oldest was just a baby.  He never got it, nor did he enjoy it.  When my second child also hated being in it, I sent it to goodwill.  Apparently, we should have kept it.  My youngest would live in this thing if I would let her.  She absolutely LOVES it!  She totally gets it.  It's entertainment for the whole family!  She now has quads of steel.