My Sweet Little Guy

Need I say anything? I think not! :) I sure do love my little guy.

I Lied

Ok, so I lied when I said that these were alot of potatoes when Robert brought them home around a month ago;THESE ARE ALOT OF POTATOES!!!
A farmer in our stake donated one of his potato fields for anyone who wanted to to come take as many as they wanted. They had both russet and red potatoes, but since I can get russet anytime I want to, I stuck with the red potatoes. It was really great, too because they had already dug up the potatoes, so it was very little work to get so many.

I am planning to give some away to friends, but the others I think I am going to can so that the work of washing, peeling, and dicing are already done and I can just take out a quart and put it in either for mashed potatoes or I can add them to a roast or whatever.

I Did It!

So it actually happened yesterday, but I didn't want to freak my friend out by taking pictures of canning and I couldn't take these babies home until today. I guess you aren't supposed to move or disturb the cans for 24 hours so the seal sets just right, so here is the picture of my first ever canned goods (tomatoes if you couldn't tell). I am so proud of myself! Well, I guess I should note that my friend, Katie, did alot of the work and I watched and learned, but I am still proud that I am putting myself out there trying new things and asking for help. These have been especially hard for me since Kaylie died. Hope you all are enjoying the little bit of summer we have left!

Obsessions

To kick off the spud harvest beginning next week, Robert brought home an example.

This thing is HUGE! It's potatoes like these that give Idaho it's great reputation. And yes, this is one that Robert grew on his farm. He said they dug up a plant to see if the potatoes were getting ready and the plant had 26 potatoes on it! Usually a plant has around 10 to 15, so that's pretty impressive.

This is the 6 dozen or so ears of corn I am cooking up tonight to freeze. The stack on the right are the ears from our garden. I had to take them all because an animal got into our garden last night and ate some, so I grabbed whatever we had and am cooking it along with the other stuff I bought from a farmer earlier today. But thankfully my new visiting teacher has an electric knife she let me borrow to make the process a million times easier and she told me a good idea is to stick the pointy end into the middle of a bundt pan and use the knife to cut the kernels off and they fall into the pan. Man, I wish I had known that before when I did the other two dozen! :)

This is a picture of all the zucchini my friends have given me for zucchini bread. I didn' grow a single one, but I have 30 bags of 2 cups grated zucchini waiting to be used in zucchini bread. I am also going to learn to can tomatoes this next week and how to make and can homemade applesauce. I am so excited about learning how to do all this food preservation to help me in my goal to become more self-sufficient and have a one-year food storage.

This Week

So this week has been pretty fun so far, so I thought I would share. Monday we did our usual routine of errands in Idaho Falls and then were able to have Sammy's friend, Adam over to play for the afternoon. Tuesday morning we went with Josh, Lily and Julie to go pick raspberries. The mommies gathered tons of berries while the boys (mostly) enjoyed getting muddy. Today was just kind of a laid back kind of day, so we cleaned out Mommy's closet and took a load to D.I. After that we decided to go for a walk around the river, only the stroller's tire was flat, so Sam walked with Mom the WHOLE way! It took us over an hour, the tough kid! And Sammy's latest trick is he will grab a tomato off the counter and just start eating it, he loves them! Crazy nut! Hope you are all having a great week!

Harvest Competition

Ok, so here are the competition results between me and my good friend, Ashlee (this is only for kicks and giggles and is not to be taken seriously) *To be taken under consideration: I have never grown a garden before, nor have my parents and Ashlee has experience with both, actually her dad is a pro at gardening* The top picture are cucumbers. Mine are the three on the bottom and Ashlee's the top. Yay, I win!

Next, we have tomatoes. Ashlee's are the gigantic ones along the right hand side and mine are the six in the middle. Yeah, Ashlee won this one.

And last, but not least, onions. Umm, yeah. There pretty much is no competition from me in this department. But I have found a fantastic use for these extremely miniature onions: salads and cooking them with my chicken which I put on top of cooked spaghetti squash with a little Preggo. Yummmmm!

So if anyone nearby needs any tomatoes, this is only half of what I have.

Or peaches, those I have a few of too! They aren't ripe, though. We had to pick them because the big storm last night blew a branch down off the little tree that is half-dead anyway, so a few days in the sun and these babies will be ready for enjoyment!

Hope you all enjoyed the results of the competition and hopefully next year I can provide more of a challenge to Ashlee! :) (hope you don't mind, Ash)

Movie Time

Today I was watching Sammy sitting on the couch with his granola bar and blankie watching Nemo and I cannot believe how much he has grown! Now he will sit for a good half an hour watching either Nemo or Cars and his vocabulary has simply exploded lately. Some of the words he can say are: ishie (fish), Mmmom, A Dad, 'Mo (Nemo), Cack (Cars), peese (please), dey-doo (thank-you), Ooo (cow), and others I can't think of right now, but he certainly does talk alot now!

Idaho State Fair

We were able to take of down to Blackfoot for the Idaho State Fair and it was a great time had by all. Anyone who knows our Sam can imagine the squeals that are going on in this top picture where Sammy got to see "Moo-Moo's" up close.

They had Clidesdale (?) horses there, too. Those things are HUGE! Robert is even standing a little ways away and with good reason. This one was probably one of the biggest we saw.

Here Sammy is showing us the piggies. He thought they were pretty cool and were the only animals he was willing to pet. We were also able to see bunnies, goats, sheep, mini horses, longhorn bulls, turkeys, doves, and roosters.

This rooster looked like he had a crazy blonde wig on! We also enjoyed some yummy food at the fair: tiger ears (really, really big scones), corn on the cob, foot-long corn dog, prime steer hamburgers and a lemonade slush. So so good! We wanted to let Sammy ride a ride or two, but it was between 3 and 5 dollars per rider per ride! Sheesh! So we were just happy with walking around looking at all the stuff people brought to sell, the games you could lose your money on and the items entered to win awards.

Sammy's diaper leaked while we were at the fair, so when we got back to the car, we stripped him down and put him in his sweatshirt and this is what he managed during the hour ride back home. I think he looks like Tarzan!

Revenge is Sweet

So a few of Sammy's latest endeavors for those of you who are interested: playing with this fleece blanket and dragging it everywhere and.........playing in his poop. My parents are laughing heavily right now because that is exactly what I did when I was little. There are stories (of which we will never know the full truthfulness of) of me getting out of pinned cloth diapers and smearing my mud all over myself, walls and my crib. Today for the first time, I let Sammy out of his room following a nap to discover a not-so-pleasant smell. He had stuck his hand in his diaper and shared the rewards with his t-shirt. Thank goodness there were no walls involved - yet. I really hope it doesn't get really bad, but if it does, I will just remind myself that if my parents got their revenge, so will I!

Photography Giveaway

Another photographer is doing a giveaway over at Make It & Love It. She is located in Rexburg, but it IS transferable, soo........... Yeah, I think everyone gets my hint :) So if you feel like entering for yourself or on behalf of your favorite person, head on over and enter before midnight tonight!

Random Pictures

Here are just a few random pictures we took on Sunday when we went with Daddy to check on the water at work. The top is a picture of Sammy and Daddy enjoying the new sandbox - so cute!Sammy and Daddy next to the combine

The combine that Robert drives at work. This thing is huge, even for a combine. It is one and a half times wider than a typical combine head, meaning they get their work done faster.