Apple Picking

We've been absent from the blogging world for almost a month, but...WE'RE BACK! We had a really fun, really busy October. Keep scrolling...you've got a lot of catching up to do.

We started off the month by apple picking at a local orchard. My hubby was really excited to can applesauce this year and at 10 cents a pound how could I say no? But, holy cow....250 pounds....that's not a typo. Remember, we are planning to can all of these!




What a sweet girl

Taylee kept picking apples out of our boxes, taking a bite and throwing it back

Is this a good one?

The boys working hard

mom and girls trying to pick (key word, "trying")

Self Reliance...check!

Canning applesauce was a family affair! It was an ALL DAY job, exhausting and messy, but we'll probably do it again next year.

Dad worked the strainer

mom sliced and cored and Trey transferred to the pot

Brooklyn and our neighbor buddy washed apples

She still washed even after her friend got bored

Halloween

How cute are they?!

My little ladybug didn't last long trick-or-treating

Trey had to be Saluk this year. Saluk is the bad guy from Aladdin 3. He wanted to be him last year but I talked him out of it. He didn't forget this year so we went for it and tried to come up with something resembling Saluk.

All the neighbor kids went together. They're all good friends and it's so much fun!

Sweet fairy princess was thrilled to have curls and make-up.

Halloween

All Tay can do while carving pumpkins...smile and be cute

Cleaning out the guts

Pumpkins!

Preschool Halloween party

Dark Shadows

My dance company had its first performance over Halloween. We were invited to perform at a halloween concert in the area, so I quickly put together a creepy witch dance, we called it Dark Shadows. I wouldn't say it was my best choreography, but we had fun being creepy and just dancing. It was very different from any other dance there as it was a studio performance with mostly kids, but we actually got a lot of compliments. Brooklyn told me I looked pretty when I was doing my scary make-up. What do you think?

Swingin' Fun

We finally got a swing set (hooray for Craigslist) and it hardly puts a dent in our gigantor backyard. The kids have been loving it (and so has mom)!




Our gigantor backyard (part of it)

She loves swinging

She doesn't really, but I snapped this before she was done

Big brother helping out

"The best is yet to be"

I'd like to take a moment to share some words that have inspired me lately. I've been reading through the talks that were given at my church's general conference last month and have been impressed by many inspiring, hopeful messages. Elder L. Tom Perry, an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints gave a talk about dealing with the stresses of life. He said, "Perhaps when difficulties and challenges strike, we should have these hopeful words of Robert Browning etched in our minds: The best is yet to be. We can't predict all the struggles and storms in life, not even the ones just around the next corner, but as persons of faith and hope, we know beyond the shadow of any doubt that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the best is yet to come." How great to hear such optimistic words. The scriptures teach us that fear does not come from God. During such troubling times, Satan wants us to be scared because fear dwindles our faith and takes away our joy. Another leader of my church, Elder Neil L. Andersen taught that "Faith is not only a feeling; it is a decision." Sometimes we may be feeling fearful, but we need to choose faith, for that is the road that will bring salvation. Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and in His plan, through the Atonement of Christ, His promises will be fulfilled. I know that truly the best is yet to be.

Just call me Kate

I still can't get pics onto my computer, so in the meantime all I have to blog about is quizzes and tags. This one was pretty silly, the questions didn't really make sense, but it's still kinda fun. Anyway, I'm Kate Hudson:

A lovely, loopy free-spirit, you're enjoying life as a fun and fabulous mom bent on working the hard-won reclamation of your bikini bod. Having married young and quickly become a mother, it may be that you're only now growing up, right alongside your kids. Most days, anyway, that feels like a pretty cool place to be.

Take the quiz at: http://family.go.com/community/quizzes/which-celebrity-mom-are-you-qz/

HELP!

I attended my first PTA meeting tonight and signed on for a pretty big responsibility...the Hunter PTA blog! Yikes! I thought it was something I could easily do at home, have fun with and feel like I'm helping out. One problem: I don't really know what I'm doing. I really need everyone's feedback. I"m trying to figure out if there's a way I can just put highlights on the front page and then be able to click on a key word to link you to a page with more info on that subject: For example: Tuesday Nov. 18th: Red Robin Night, click here to find out more. I'm just trying to link to another spot on the blog, not a website or anything. something like that. Could I also put somewhere on the side something like "Volunteer" and then they can find out info. on volunteering? Basically, I need to get a lot of info on this page without it looking overwhelming at first sight. HELP!

a couple hours later: I've spent a while now trying to figure this out on my own. so far, I've figured out that I wanted to create expandable post summaries. This involved copying codes and inserting in my template between tags or widgets or something, but I couldn't find those exact tags, so I kind of guessed and I thought it worked, because it saved them, but it doesn't work. KENN... I know you can tell me what to do!