September

Bensen really likes volleyball, I wish the rec league last a little longer. It seems like it only goes for a month. I need to try and find him another place to play.

Mike took me on his favorite bike ride which for now is Mueller in Bountiful. It was beautiful! The leaves are turning and it really was stunning!

We did some night swimming at Joy and Lance's.

I joined a Dr. Mario club...we usually meet after Cookbook Club, but occasionally we meet in the middle of the day.

I made and canned salsa, and I will probably have to do it again. There are still so many tomatoes out there!

We went on another bike ride. Spork and 360.

Wesley got his braces off on the 22nd. Viv gets hers off soon. Also, Wesley can almost legally drive!😬

Jaycee loved Switzerland, she has always wanted to travel the world, now she wants to even more! She had a job interview on the 22nd with America First. Which she got! Knowing Heather definitely helped her along. I think she will do great.

We liked Mueller Park so much we took Amber and Jaime back with us. The leaves were even more amazing this ride! Everyone except Mike fell off our bikes, some even feel more then once...Amber! To her credit, her bike was not working well, it wouldn't shift and the brakes were barely working. I think this is the first time in our lives me and Jaime had to wait for her. It helps that we both have pedal assist bikes.😏

Wes has been playing some Fall lacrosse, it has been fun to watch him and his cousins play. Cousins on a team are just fun!

Viv is also in the middle of her fall soccer season. I don't know if I mentioned it early, when we were in Costa Rica they had their tryout for her extra team. I talked to her coach about her not making it to tryouts. He said she would be fine and she could still be on the team. Well, when we got back I never heard from him, I tried contacting him. Finally he got back to me and said his daughter decided to try out for a comp team, along with several other girls from the team so Viv's team dissolved. She was pretty sad. I signed her up for regular AYSO and she ended up getting the coach she had before she joined the Extra team, so she was happy to have him and a couple of other girls she knows.

This months Temple trip was at Syracuse again. It might be easier to get in there because they have two baptismal fonts. Some months it is hard for Mike to get an appointment and he has to check several temples.

 

Celebrating the Allreds! and stuff

Happy Anniversary to the Reds!

We spent most of the day at Swiss Days today. It was crazy busy! I wasn't as fun this year as it was last year, way too many people. Then we were able to head up to Grandma and Grandpa Allreds 70th Wedding Anniversary!

How crazy amazing is that? 

I am so lucky to still have both of them in my life. We don't make it down to visit them as often as we should. But we do love going to visit.

Grandpa isn't too thrilled about his new home, but Grandma loves it.

It's always fun getting together with family.

We truly are blessed.

When we got home we played with the treasures we found at Swiss Days.

Wesley bought a monster puppet and we picked out the lincoln logs for Bens and Viv.

On another note my garden has given us a lot of tomatoes this year. The last several years we haven't had any work out, so I planted A LOT this year.

Mike has been hard at work finishing the basement for the kids bedroom. They are really pushing him to finish, they are so excited. Every one helped with the floors.

Today there was a fire that started on the mountain by the U. 

The wind was over 40 mph and the fire was moving so fast!

I sat and watched it for a while. It jumped highway 89 and followed the freeway almost to the freeway entrance in South Weber. It was pretty much across the street from Spencer's house! Too close to home for comfort.

School was evacuated, so the kids got to help me can tomatoes. I am so glad they were able to help me. It took me half the time with their help!

Jam Jam Jam

We were able to get some strawberries pretty cheap from the BDO, so I made jam. Nothing fancy, just followed the instructions from the sure jell packet. But it is yummy!

 I am the messiest cook.  Whenever I make anything my kitchen ends up in a disaster! One of the many reasons I hate cooking. Canning is the worst tho.

I just had to document how messy I am. :)

Jamming

We bought a case of raspberries this week.  We decided to make some jam. We even had all the stuff we needed at home.

Wesley loved helping.

 The recipe called for 1 2/3 cups of prepared fruit, 2/3 cup of sugar, 2 TBSP instant pectin.

Easy as that!

 We froze some of the berries. I wish we had made more jam! It is so yummy!

I will definitely be making this again.

Be Prepared

We decided to do bag meals again.  I have missed having them.  It is so nice to go into the pantry and know I have something I can make for dinner, and that it will be done in about 20 minutes! The church cannery doesn't sell canned beef anymore, and to tell you the truth, I hated their canned beef! I looked around and couldn't find anywhere around here that sells canned beef. I found a place in Ohio that sell ground beef, but it was going to cost about $90 to ship it here. Yikes!

I have been wanting to can beef since I canned chicken. I loved having canned chicken, and it tasted pretty good. It was a pretty big job, but Mike did most of the dirty work. Canning beef was much easier. We bought about 30 lbs from Winegers for about $3.50 a pound. Mike found THIS tutorial online that I followed.

I just lightly browned and salted the beef, and added water. Mike helped me put everything into the jars. He is the best!

We did pint jars. 

We had enough to do two batches.

33 cans in all and the best part is that every single one of them sealed!

So we were able to finish up with our bagged meals.  This time around we did White Chicken chili, Carmae's Chili, Enchilada Soup, TexMex Goulash (my kids favorite), Taco Soup, Baked Ziti, Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes. These were my favorite.  There were several last time that I didn't like, and wouldn't eat.

It's so nice to have a stocked pantry again.

Wesley took Bensen to the beach while we worked.  They are sitting on the beach next to the water.  He even made the sky, which was taped to the light.  He is so creative.

Later that night me and Jaycee went to The General Women's Conference. Wesley and Mike made food people.

Here are a couple of pictures of Wesley on his birthday.

He got two parties this year one at the Borgstroms.

And one at the Baileys.

Unfortunately he was sick for both of them.  But I had already made the cakes, so the party must go on.  He ended up with croup! 

He still had fun. We sure love this boy.

Welcome Fall

We had an awesome summer, it went by so fast! Jaycee started Preschool on the 30th of August. 

She was so scared the first day, it was cute.  She woke up at 3 in the a.m. and told me she was not going back to sleep because she did not want to go to school.  She loves it now.

Wesley misses her when she is gone.  He is always asking for her.
Wesley turned 2 on the first of October.

  How crazy is that? He is so much fun and we are so blessed to have him.  We celebrated over Conference weekend.  Conference was so good.
Wesley is still sleeping on the floor.  He has done much better the last couple days. Pretty much since his birthday.

For Family Home Evening/Wesley's birthday we went to Toad's fun Center.  That was interesting.  The kids loved the arcade games.  Jaycee and Mike went on the Go-carts, which we had to force Jaycee to go on, in the end she loved it. 

Then we tried to do the indoor mini golf.  Both the kids were afraid of the dark and the weird lights, so we switched for outdoor.  They liked that better. Overall me and Mike decided they weren't old enough to fully enjoy it.  Wesley wouldn't put his ball down so he went around hitting ours or picking it up and handing it to us.  We still had fun.  I told Mike that next time we should do a date night so we could fully enjoy it.  I want to try Laser Tag, Go-carts and maybe hit a bucket of balls. 

We finished the day off with Burger Bar and the park.

My Mom was supposed to go back into the hospital for her last round of chemo a couple of weeks ago.  She has been all sorts of sick so she hasn't made it back in.  We are hoping she can get feeling better so she can continue her treatment. I think they have her scheduled to go in at the end of October.  We're crossing our fingers.

I've also been canning like crazy.

  We've done 5 different kinds of salsa and just plain tomatoes.  It's been interesting.  Every time we eat it I'm afraid we're all going to get botulism.  So far there have been no cases.  Hopefully that continues.  I've enjoyed my garden this year and I'm already look forward to next year.  I've got some different things planned, chili sauce and jalapeno jelly, just to name a few.
I need to remember to post some motor home pictures...next time.

I love fall and I'm looking forward to all that it will bring.