Pickles, Apples,Gardens, Fall Leaves, Grape Juice, Ultra Sounds.

I keep thinking that I have nothing to blog about. But I realized tonight that I was wrong. We have enjoyed some great things that come with the beginning of Fall and just some funny things around our house. So here is the every day life at the Ward house.

PICKLES

Many of you may know that while we were in P.A. this summer Garrett and his roommate Brandon lived in our house while repairs were being made to Garretts condo. After we had been home about a month or so I finally decided that I HAD to clean all of the junk out of the fridge that they left so that I could put some of our food in it. I took out the garbage twice mostly, expired food. I started to notice that I was throwing away a lot of pickles so I pulled them out to see how many. 8 jars of pickles/relish! Hard to believe? count them.

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APPLES

Our backdoor nieghbor has a great apple tree right out side our kitchen window. They have brought over I think 3 bags of apples this fall. They are soooo yummy and Madeline loves them. the first time they brought some over she ate 3 that afternoon and she eats at least one every day if we have them. In this picture she has chewed a face into her apple. She learned that from the "Lamb Chop Show". Max and Cherie sent me a box of apples that I am going to try and make into apple sauce. I'm a little bit nervous about all the work that it is going to take. If anyone can give me some advise on how to make it easier PLEASE let me know.

The GARDEN

We have really enjoyed the gardens this year. Grandma and Grandpa Ward always has a beautiful garden and this year I had the opportunity to can some things for them. I did plums, peaches and grape juice. Nana and Papa's Garden has given us a lot of tomatoes (of course), carrots and new this year PUMPKINS! We have so loved the pumpkins. Madeline and I go down to the garden every chance we get and we turn them so that they don't get any flat spots. We were hoping to have at least one pumpkin for each grand kid and we did better than that. We had over 20 but they weren't all orange yet and after the snow this weekend I'm not sure that they will but still. It has been so fun. We need to start our own garden. Thanks for sharing your gardens with us we have loved them.

FALL LEAVES

We went for a nice drive up the canyon while the leaves were turning colors. It was so relaxing (except for Garretts driving). We were getting ready to get in Nana and Papa's car to leave while Madeline stood by Hayley with her hands on her hips. I told her to get in the car and she said firmly "I'm going with Hayley." So we rode with Garrett and Hayley. We stopped at Cascade Springs to eat lunch and walk around. A little bat buzzed Garretts head and then hung from a tree the rest of the day. He was cool to see up close.

GRAPE JUICE

I feel like canning has taken over my life. I have dreams about it all the time. I have canned salsa, tomato sauce, sliced peaches, plums, plum jam, grape juice and grape jelly. Madeline helped me taste the grape juice so that we got it just right. I still have tomatoes, plums and apple that I need to do something with. The rate that Jared is eating the plum jam that I made I think that all of the plums Cherie sent are going to be made into jam. I'm going to do what ever is the easiest thing with the tomatoes and I'm a little scared of the apples but I'm thinking apple sauce, if Madeline doesn't eat them all first. I love canning. Everything looks so pretty all bottled up and in a line on my shelf. It is a lot of work especially when you do it alone. Usually Tiffanie cans with me but thing haven't worked out this year. I think that this is the end of it if I can just get these last things done. When I get everything canned I'll take a picture so you can see how nice it all looks.

Ultra Sound

Last, but not the least of things in my post, Madeline and I went to the Dr. to see if we could see if she was getting a little brother or sister. With out a doubt we are having a brother. Madeline is going to name him Elmo. Luckily we have 6 months to talk her out of that.




So there you have it. I got a lot out of nothing didn't I?!