Daddy's Pictures of Our Annual Fall Hike

Oh! How we love this time of year! Warm colors, soft sweaters, cool breezes, puffy clouds, and the beginning of cozying up together for another year's end.

 

We must enjoy every season of life...for each is but a fleeting moment.

Thanks Giving

Here is Bubs' latest creation. He made it for a local Christmas art contest.

And I've been thinking about it in terms of Thanksgiving. Thanks Giving. Giving thanks to God, of course. But how about giving thanks to others, as well?

I struggle sometimes with looking outside myself. It's easy to get caught up in my own life, in how I look, what my kids are doing, what I'm going to make for dinner...

Yet I appreciate when others look outside themselves and really see me. I am thankful for them.

This Thanksgiving, I'm going to make more of an effort to show my gratitude to others, and to give them the gift of really seeing them.

Fall turns to Winter Around Here

Well, I'm in mourning that my delicious, home-grown (at the in-laws) tomatoes are now out of season. I was eating this for lunch every day...

Tomatoes with cheese and loads of basil, sometimes in a warm tortilla, and sometimes not.

Looks yummy, huh? But, on second thought, it's probably good that I'm not eating that much cheese every day. Oh, Tillamook Cheddar, how I love thee.

Tomatoes are gone now, and we've moved on to this...

And this...

The knitting has begun, and the winter clothes are airing out. I've even listened to a bit of Christmas music already. SHHH. Don't tell.

Pumpkins!

Grandpa's Pumpkin Patch was quite successful this year. We came home with a Suburban-load of pumpkins...some for us to paint, carve, and admire, and some to sell.

Here's Bubs...

Welly always finds her 'perfect little pumpkin' that can't be carved or in any way defiled.

Daddy found one to his liking, too. (When I asked him if I could post this picture, he said, "If it makes you happy." Isn't he great?)

Scrub-a-dub, Little Lovies...

I LOVE clouds.

Our entrepreneurial attempts weren't all that successful. We needed our salesman daddy to help. Anyone still need pumpkins?

Pressing Fall Leaves

 Last time we went to the canyon, we pressed leaves into our copy of The Book of Virtues. Weeks later, the leaves are still vibrant and perfect.

You might remember that last year, we took fall leaves and put them up in the window with contact paper. We'll probably be doing that again. I loved the look and feel of it. For details, see last year's post.

Happy Fall!

PS. If you are interested in a very LDS post about teaching your children about the Spirit, you can find my post at Latter-day Homeschooling.

Ahh. The Joys of Autumn.

No words for you today. Just pictures of my favorite time of year. Here's hoping autumn is just as beautiful wherever you are.

Warmly,
Emily

Making Apple Juice

On Saturday, we went back to the apple orchard for harvesting and pressing apple cider. Work doesn't get more fun than this! First, we picked apples. Bubs preferred climbing the trees and plucking apples one at a time.

The rest of us shook the apples out of the trees and placed them in buckets.



Carrying the buckets to the press was apparently a 4-kid job.


This orchard was heaven. I loved this horse tire swing.

After the apples were hosed off, they were dropped down the chute into a chopper that cut them up into small pieces...peel, seeds, and all.

Then, the pieces were dumped into a press and the juice was squeezed out. So yummy! We came home with several gallons of fresh, unsweetened (but amazingly sweet) cider.

Fall Leaves Project: Easy and Beautiful

I'm really proud of this project we did. Really. Ask My Bebe. It was so simple.

Step 1: Take a nature walk. Collect fall leaves of various shapes and colors. (Hint: To make this more educational, identify the trees as you go.)

Step 2: ASAP place the leaves face down onto clear contact paper. The leaves should all be about an inch apart.

Step 3: Cut out your leaves, leaving about a half inch of contact paper around each leaf.

Step 4: Place on window or other surface to beautify.

I have been thinking it would be fun to press some leaves for Thanksgiving. When the holiday gets closer, we could attach them to contact paper and stick them to the table. Wouldn't that be cute?

I think if I was going to attach them to a wall, I'd put contact paper on both sides of the leaf, leaving a longer edge on the side that needed to be sticky. Otherwise some of the color may seep onto the wall.

The Annual Fall Hike and Picture Extravaganza

in photo journal form. Although our hike had a definite lack of fall leaves, there was no lack of love, joy, and beauty...

See you soon, friends.