Sweet Little Ones

These two. 

There are plenty of times when Mary and David don't get along of course, but they are starting to play together more often and it's so sweet to see how much they like each other.

Chocolate Week

This week was chocolate week on the Great British Baking Show and they made babka for the technical challenge. I had a recipe for babka that I've been wanting to try, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity. The babka turned out great. It had delicious flavor and texture and was perfect with a hot beverage in the evening.

 

Applesauce

 I was saving up apples to make applesauce this fall by just cutting a few at a time and putting them in the freezer. I didn't realize how many apples I'd collected until I pulled them all out to make applesauce on Saturday and they didn't fit in my big stock pot. Needless to say, it ended up being a bigger project than expected, but after four rounds through the canner, I got 42 pints of applesauce processed. Now we just need to eat it all.

Fun in the Sun

With the weather rapidly changing and cold mornings reminding us that winter is coming, we've been trying to spend extra time outside. Friday afternoon was a beautiful opportunity to soak up some sun.

David enjoyed crawling around on the grass, but then he discovered the water table and that was a real winner.

He loved splashing in the water with Mary and kept trying to crawl in.

 

Soon he was soaking wet and happy as could be.

Cozy

 The weather changed and fall arrived in full force with cold nights and cool mornings. I switched out the kids' clothes to make sure they had warm clothes that fit. Mary had fun wearing this cozy outfit for a chilly morning walk yesterday.

Bread Week

Heather had some tasty bread at a friend's house recently and got the recipe. She was telling Michelle and I about it, so I asked about the recipe. Turns out it was for a no knead bread with only a few ingredients. I've been interested in no knead bread and have tried a couple recipes, but this was the simplest one yet so I thought I'd give it a try for bread week. It was easy to make, but I had my doubts when it separated and was watery when I put it in the pan.

 Turns out I had reason to be concerned. After baking it for about three times as long as the recipe said, I still had a loaf that was raw in the middle. We threw the whole thing away because it wasn't salvageable. I've baked a fair amount of bread, but have never had this much of a disaster. Oh well. I haven't yet decided if I want to try the recipe again or just move on.

Two is Better than One

 Mary was so excited about the new purple placemat from Grandma that she wanted to use the purple one and the blue one for coloring.

Birthday Visitors

Dad and Mom drove us home again Saturday and stayed to visit for a couple of days. We left early in the morning and got to enjoy a beautiful sunrise. On Sunday we celebrated Joshua's birthday with birthday breakfast and dinner and, of course, birthday pie.

Monday morning we took a walk by the river while Joshua was teaching. It was beautiful.

That evening we finished off the birthday pie and completed the puzzle we started Sunday.

Birthday, Book Club, and Other Happenings

 We spent the rest of the week in Visalia enjoying lots of time with the family. Wednesday we celebrated Michelle's birthday, Thursday we had our first sisters and Mom book club, and Friday we had taco truck for dinner and watched the next episode of the Great British Baking Show.

Princess Mary

Joshua had to drive home on Sunday so he can teach, but the kids and I stayed for the week to hang out with the family. Everyone came over for Sunday dinner and Emery brought a princess dress to hand down to Mary.

Mary put it on and had a ton of fun wearing it around.

Dad's Retirement Celebration

Dad has finally almost retired. He has a few things to wrap up this month, but is basically done. He worked hard for years, and we are so proud of him, thankful for the way he provided for us, and excited to celebrate together.

We drove down Saturday and joined everyone for the celebration dinner that evening.

Heather, Michelle, and I had fun planning the menu and doing something special for Dad. We were planning to do steak and cake and Heather asked if adding some lobster would be too crazy. Michelle and I both replied that nothing is too crazy to party with our dad!

We had a great time celebrating together; it certainly was a festive occasion.

Eight Months

David is eight months! He has six teeth now and a huge grin.

David loves to play. He enjoys exploring toys, but likes playing with people more. Pick-a-boo is a favorite game, so is repeating sounds together.

He loves to laugh, especially if you tickle him.

David pulls up on anything he can get a grasp on.

And he puts in his mouth anything that he can get his hands on.

He is a sweet little guy and full of snuggles.

Salt Creek Falls

Classes started at UO this week, so Joshua decided we needed one last summer adventure before he started teaching there. We headed for Salt Creek Falls on Tuesday; it was a great choice. The drive was pretty short, the hike was easy, and the waterfall was impressive. The first view of the waterfall was right there by the parking lot. Salt Creek Falls is the second highest waterfall in Oregon.

There is a short trail that takes you down closer to the base of the falls, so we went on that. Mary loved hiking and walked the whole way down and back.

It was a beautiful hike through the trees with great views of the falls.

It was so lovely to be out walking through the forest.

There was a little picnic area too, so we had lunch among the trees.

After lunch we walked around a little more and went down to the river so Mary could touch the water; of course she thought that was great.

It was a short adventure because we made it home by mid-afternoon, but it was a lot of fun to get out and enjoy some natural beauty and fresh air.