Tomatoes

I picked all these tomatoes in the last two days, just before it snowed last night.  I'll have to blanch and freeze the red ones, and wait for all the rest to ripen.  We had a ton more cherry tomatoes, but Alyssa and I got too cold to stay outside and pick all of them. 

Fresh from the garden

Some of my kids like their cukes in vinegar, some like them plain.  My garden is brimming with zucchini and squash, we harvest at least one or the other pretty much every day.  Love it!

Change is in the air

My neighbor's tree

 The leaves are changing all around, and it is so beautiful!  We have had some very pleasant weather this fall. 

The kids love hanging out with Dad

 The kids had some time off school this week, so we took a few pictures while they were outside. 

Enjoying the nice weather

Last night I was counting up how many babies we have had born into our ward since I was called as the Relief Society President almost two years ago.  Spencer is one of the twenty-five babies born!  I was released today, and have been called to serve in the nursery.  So those twenty-five babies will be in with me soon!  I think Spencer will get to go a few months early to nursery. 

I think he is ready to go for a hike

 I just looked at the weather for next week, and it looks like it is going to cool off.  I am glad we had some nice weather while the kids were out of school. 

Savoring the last cherry tomatoes of the season

Alyssa is in a preschool that I am doing with four other moms in the neighborhood.  She really enjoyed it at first, but this week she fought going.  She likes to be home and in her own space.  When it is here she participates, but hardly speaks at all. I am also doing a weekly playdate for her with three other girls.  One week she made two bars of soap, one with a spider and one with a frog.  This week she painted a pumpkin (all black). 

Why do you want to go out front?

This week I planted a bit of my garden, and a few flowers in pots. We planted three tomato plants, and one green pepper. I also have strawberries that survived from last year and cilantro. The cilantro never grew last year, and I was pleased that some grew. I will have to make salsa or Sante Fe Lime Rice.

The kids were all excited to help. They were lined up along one of the garden boxes, filling the flower pots with dirt. I thought to myself that I should capture this moment, but did not take the time to get my camera because I too had my hands covered in dirt. I let Caleb and Parker each plant one of the flower pots. We have alyssum, lobelia, snap dragons, and marigolds. Caleb was focused on getting as many worms as possible into his pot. We came inside to put Alyssa to bed and have Caleb do his homework. Caleb went back outside later in the afternoon. After a while he came and found me upstairs. He asked if he could go out front. I asked why he wanted to go out there. He replied, "Because I have a worm in my hand. I want to put it into my flower pot." I calmly replied, "Yes, please go put it outside." I am not a huge fan of bugs, but worms do not even bother me. I would, however, prefer to keep them all outside.