It's Fall Ya'll!

"Where's the Smy Flacker???"  This is what I hear from Libby constantly!  We have SO MANY flies and box elder bugs IN our house and the kids keep trying to kill them all.  I'm talking TONS.  I think I've got a weather stripping issue....the bugs are constant!  However, every time Libby says Smy Flacker, it makes me smile and think that the bugs are ALMOST worth it....

Well this harvest season we have harvested a lot.  My list is apples (dried, canned, leathered) plum leather, dried prunes, dried nectarines, canned pears, grape juice, frozen raspberries, frozen peaches, frozen grapes, and walnuts.  It's fun to do the things my momma taught me growing up, and it makes me feel more self reliant!  And I honestly couldn't do ANY of this without my mother's bounteous harvest and generosity.  Thankfully her fruit trees went bezerk this year and I get to benefit from it.  Ty has proved an INVALUABLE helper and I love to have him working next to me washing and cutting produce.  I still have more apples to leather in my fridge, but they are waiting for things to slow down. :)

I made Ty a clothes folder out of cardboard.  The kid wanted to fold his own clothes so I JUMPED on that.  Now he has no excuse.:)  The folder works amazing and I LOVE having him do AS MUCH helping as possible.  It's fun to see him gain confidence and pride in his work.  

Chris rented a mini excavator and trenched behind all of our retaining walls.  The man did a great job!  I love his ambition:)

Ty and Libby got turns driving it in the backyard with daddy.  These kids both loved it!

Because it's fall, I had to make pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  These two helpers were eager and happy to join in on the fall fun. 

Ty got to go elk scouting with Chris last week.  Ty has a talent for bugling and he ended up calling in a bull who responded to him quite a few times.  We videoed it and it was AWESOME.  Love my outdoor lovin' boy!  And I'm grateful for Chris to foster that.  I think we could all use a little more outdoors in our lives!

My momma and I picking grapes for grape juice!

I stopped by my brother Travis's house on Saturday where my dad was helping him sheet rock.  I just loved how they both sat in very similar positions and we visited. They have had a fun couple of months building out Travis's basement before baby boy (Gotham is what they call him now, but I know that will change once Gotham arrives....)comes this weekend. 

Terrible fat face pic of me - cute pic of Libby!  We went to Jaker's Pumpkin patch and had such a blast!  I mean seriously, I could have stayed in the corn pit for a lot longer than the hour we were in there.  It was so fun!

I love seeing the kangaroo each year:)

We went with our friends, the Weavers.  As you can see, the kids get along great.  I LOVE how little girls hold hands....so cute!

Hay Ride!

I let the kids each pick out a pumpkin.  We will probably carve them in a week or two!

I can't get Ty to smile for pics anymore.  He just makes crazy faces.  This was him helping me dehydrate the Italian prunes.

Libby loves her pumpkin so much that she carries it around (and drops it a lot) and just can't seem to leave it alone.  I'm surprised it hasn't been broken yet.  She is a lot of fun!

The kids were excited to "help" me make some bread today.  I'm trying a natural yeast start and hoping to start making our family's bread!  I like this start because it's not sour and well it tastes really good, so....here we go!