My new favorite fruit

Apples!!

We went to the Fruit Farm (again!) and Jack's friend, Lily was loving the apples. I had never just given a whole apple to Jack to eat, but I did and he would not put it down. He loved it! It was cute to see him work really hard to get a bite. He was not happy when it I took it away because it had got so dirty from him trying to play in the sand and eat the apple at the same time. Gross...

More apples this way!

Yummy!

Lily, in on the action...

Lily is one of Jack's best friends. He is ALWAYS asking for Lily and Lily is ALWAYS asking for Jack. They are really funny to watch. They play so good together. I never have to worry when Lily is over. It is endless entertainment for Jack and she is always so sweet. She even gives him kisses...often. :) Hopefully her dad doesn't mind.

Crew

This is Jack's friend Crew. He is such a cutie!!! As you can tell, he has Jack beat on growing some hair by a long shot! We were able to have him over to our house a while ago and they had so much fun. Jack saw him a few rows up at church on Sunday and kept saying "Hi! Crew....Crew.....Hi!" He doesn't quit understand that we have to whisper in church yet. Oh well, it was still pretty cute!

Out for a Sunday drive

We had an awesome Sunday! The weather was amazing, 75-80 degrees, and we were able to be outside a lot. After church we went for a drive, which totally reminds me of when I was little. My mom and dad used to take us on a "Sunday drive" all the time. I remember not all of the siblings were very excited about it, but I don't think I used to mind. But then again, maybe I was the one throwing the fit in the back seat of our van? Probably not though...that just seems out of my character, right mom? :)

Anyways, we drove to a little park/trail on the way to Chagrin Falls, had a picnic and went for a walk. The trees are amazing right now.

We saw this house and thought that if we were making lots and lots of money, which obviously we are not, then we would buy it. We don't always agree on houses that we like, but this one we were both in love with. If Ohio wasn't so far away from our families then I would live here. I LOVE Ohio. It is so beautiful!!

On our walk we were trying to teach Jack how to skip. He was pretty proud of himself, even though I'm not sure why he thinks he is skipping by swiveling his hips. It was pretty funny.

Patterson Fruit Farm visit #3

Did I mention that I love this place?? Not to mention that it was 80 degrees and sunny. It was the perfect day!!

This time we walked down to a little creek and saw some little fish and threw rocks in the water. Jack would pick up a rock, throw it, and then say "Another one...another one." He did NOT want to stop. He was so sad and cried the first time we tried to leave, so we let him throw the rocks a while longer. He is all boy!

Whoa... don't fall in!

Patterson Fruit Farm visit #2

We finally got a chance to take Justin out to the farm with us. It was a little muddy from the rain storm the day before, but still my favorite place ever! :)

Jack is in love with slides and there are like 5 different slides there, so he was loving it. I will be so sad when they close for the year!

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Reason #357 why I love the Fall

General Conference!!

I cannot express how much I LOVE General Conference!! The whole spirit of the entire weekend is amazing. To be able to hear a prophet in our time who gives us council straight from the Lord is such a blessing. I honestly wonder almost every day why I was lucky enough to be born into a righteous family with parents who love the gospel. I have no idea why Heavenly Father has given me so many blessings in my life, but I am truly thankful that He has. General Conference gives me a much needed spiritual boost that helps me to see and recognize all of those blessings. It gives me the extra strength to be a better person, and a better member of the church. When I was younger, conference was often a time to doze off! I never truly captured the spirit of the messages that the speakers were sharing. Now that I am married and also a mother, I just want to soak it all up!

So far, my favorite talk is Elder L. Tom Perry's on how to simplify our lives. I loved it!! Make room for those things that are most important in our lives and the essentials we need to "survive" and make it back to our Heavenly Father. Such a sweet, simple message.

I hope that as I come away from this weekend, I remember the messages shared and the principles taught.

Patterson Fruit Farm

I think I found my new favorite place to go in the fall. The Patterson Fruit Farm is about a half hour from our house and you go on the most beautiful drive to get there. I swear this area has some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I love that about Ohio. On the weekends they do a family fun fest where you can take a tractor and hay ride out to a big play area. You can also pick out a pumpkin, pick your own apples and pick your own strawberries when they are in season. Brittany and I took the boys there the other day and we loved it!

Jack had so much fun!! He loves tractors and pretty much anything that moves right now. The whole time he kept saying "Ta-tow!" meaning, tractor- while making a very excited, very funny face demonstrated in the picture above. He was cracking me up.
This little guy, Jackson, actually had his first experience of committing a crime. :) Brittany found some candy in his pocket that he had taken from the little store! She made him take it back and apologize, but it didn't seem to phase him at all. How can the store clerk get mad at that little face?

I think I found the pumpkin I want Mom!

We were on our way back to the car from the pumpkin patch and I look back and find Jack just sitting in the grass folding his arms and checking things out. I'm not sure why he was folding his arms, but it was funny. He sat there forever watching the tractor go by and whatever else was going on. I finally had to go pick him up to put him in the car. He was not happy. I think we will be making more trips to the Patterson Farm.

My attempt at being healthy :)

I am the biggest snacker. I love to snack on whatever pretty much all day long. So I decided I need to try an alternative to my usual snack. I borrowed my friend, Brittany's dehydrator and turned this fruit into some YUMMY fruit leather and apple chips (with a little cinnamon). It was my first time doing this and I was so happy with how it turned out!

It was super easy and I actually had so much fun doing it! My kitchen smelled so good the whole time it was running. I wish it smelled like that every day!!

I did apples, pears and nectarines. SO GOOD! Now I want to try mixing different fruits and making a variety of flavors. I want to make more apple chips and try drying other fruits that way, but I'm not sure what fruit to use. Any suggestions?

Now when I get the urge to snack (all the time!), I will be getting part of my daily amount of fruit. Sounds like a win, win situation!

All sorts of cuteness...and trouble

Jack LOVES to go for walks. We try to go for a walk every day but if it was up to him, we would be outside all day everyday. We walk up and down our street and look at the ants, trees, cars, and buses as they drive by. I guess one time he saw me stepping on an ant because now he tries to step on every ant that he sees. He's always saying "Shoo!" as he steps on it. I think it's funny.

Apparently now Jack can reach up and grab stuff from the kitchen table because when I came down stairs the other morning, I found all the crumbs from the cereal box all over the floor. He looks at me and says "No!....Uh-oh!" I went and got the vacuum and made him help me clean it up! He is turning out to be a good little helper, even if he is the one who made the mess.