Christmas has a contender for "the most wonderful time of the year".

It's pretty darn wonderful right now.

70 degree weather.

Watching Mimi play soccer in that 70 degree weather, I complain about the time commitment but we love the family time, and those 7 year olds are SO DANG CUTE (and fierce)!

Back to School!

and then there is THE FOOD, oh Heckter the food!

The above photo features our home grown tomatoes and basil (store bought mozz cheese and triskets).

I made roasted tomato marinara sauce yesterday, and we have had BLT's a time or two. The peaches, Green River melons, and crisp apples....it's all so good and good for us.

Best of all....there are no gifts to buy.

Move over Christmas.

Last weekend my Mom helped me can 21 pints of green beans.

This is how my Mom operates.

I mention that if my yard were larger I would plant green beans to can for the winter (less sodium you see, and better). Next conversation I have with my Mom, she has planted green beans and tells me to plan on canning in the Fall. She didn't mention them again until a few weeks ago and said they are ready. She and my Dad picked the beans (a job I was suppose to do but didn't make it down in time) and then she walked me through the process. My pantry is now full of very low sodium delicious green beans.

Does "Thank You" even cover it?

I don't think so, but Thank You Mom and Dad.

One of these things is not like the other.....

One of these things is kinda the same.....

Can you guess?

Labor Day Weekend was mostly spent laboring.

Cleaning (all of us)

Installing a new dishwasher (mostly Darin)

Car fixing (all Darin)

Recycling (Darin and I)

Crowd control (me)

But....we did have a little fun.

Julia took Miriam up with her to dance with Ryan Ramirez and Wadi Jones from So You Think You Can Dance. Miriam LOVED it! I was a bit worried she wouldn't keep up since all she has ever taken are ballet classes, but Julia says she did great. Her cousin Ali was there so even if she was overwhelmed she would have loved it. M has worn her signed t-shirt about a zillion times since attending the clinic.

I was watching Tatum and Wyler so after the clinic was over we all drove up to Odgen to the Eccles Dinosaur Museum. The kids played happily in the first 1/3 of the park, which was fine with us adults, but now Julia will have to join us another time to see the rest! I think we will have either Bub or Soren's birthday there so she will get another chance to see it all.

Thanks for coming up Julia, that would have been a fairly drab weekend without your visit!

Sting Like a Bee!

Miriam has a great coach and a team full of school friends.

It's the best case scenario for her first experience playing a sport.

She loves being with her friends, doing the team cheer, wearing the team colors, and water breaks. Maybe by the end of the season she will like playing soccer!

Labor of Love

I canned peaches till midnight on Tuesday because "come hell or high water" (direct quote from me to Darin) I was going to get those amazing peaches preserved before the fruit flies completely took over.

I bought the peaches because I love Utah peaches...

because I love my family and want them to eat healthy,

because I love local farmers and I want them to stick around,

because I love feeling like I can make some small impact on the environment,

because my parents love me they bought me canning supplies for my birthday,

because I love pretending to be Caroline Ingals.

I love seeing them stacked in the pantry.

Trolls

I know I would love my children even if they looked like trolls.

It's nice though, that I don't have to test that theory out.

Brody Dezember photography taken last March by they cutest, most patient, red headed photographer.