Apple Sauce and Apple Butter

Jesh has been super busy with work. He works from home and sometimes I can been a distraction for him. We need him to work so I have been trying to find other outlets. Normally Jesh and I would have some shows we would be watching in the evening and I would focus on our house and kids during the day. I have been kind of stuck in an uncreative rut for a long time. But lately I have been pretty proud of myself for the new things I have tried. Recently I made and canned my own apple sauce and apple butter. I have never really canned before. It was actually really fun. I like knowing that I made the apple sauce with just apples and cinnamon. No added yuckys. And the apple butter was made with homemade applesauce, spices, and fruit juice instead of sugar. The house smelled really yummy too while I made it. We even picked our own apples. I wish I could have made more. I made yummy zucchini bread and muffins that day too. I freeze them for winter enjoyment.

Pumpking Cookies

After Family Home Evening a couple weeks ago we decided to make Pumpkin Cookies to go "Boo" people with. It was fun. We haven't done any doorbell ditching in a while so were kind of nervous and excited at the same time. Funny the things that get us excited these days. Jesh took Christian on one of the runs. I think he like it. I hope he doesn't get any ideas and think he can do it all the time. ;)

Bedding for Collin

About one week before Collin was due I decided that I wanted to make everything to decorate his nursery. I went to the store and bought all the fabric. This is was very silly of me because I don't sew. The last thing I had sewn was a pillow case in Practical homemaking in college. And lets just say it was flawed.

I managed with the help of my mother in-law, Capri, to get the bumper done. I was able to cut out the squares and get some of them into strips for the quilted part of the blanket. But then Collin was born.

Capri sewed the strips together and then the unfinished blanket has sat for the last 20 months. Now that Collin is almost too big for the blanket, I finally finished it! Well close to finished. I feel it needs something more. Ideas? Now for the bedskirt.

2009 Garden

We have really enjoyed our garden this year. I planted seeds and was also donated some plants from Mandy's husband, George who is VP at a fruit stand in the summer. Thanks George. Jesh installed a drip system also. Which made gardening even easier. We had lots of tomatoes, lots of squash, and lots of carrots. I was disappointed with my corn. I got a few ears but the rest were weirdly deformed. They were diseased or something. I'll have to look into what that was for next year. We also had beans, cucumbers, and peas. It was really neat to just go to my back yard to find what I needed for dinner. There is something really satisfying in that. I was able to can some of my tomatoes and make yummy salsa with them too.

Our Spring and Summer

Easter

Playing in Grandma-n-Grandpa's Backyard

Hiking Tubbs Hill

The Hiawatha Trail: A really long bike trail made from old train tracks. It was beautiful with really tall, really long suspension bridges and pitch-black tunnels—some as long as 1.6 miles. WAY too long for kids. Try 7 hours in the heat and nowhere for a nap.

Jensen Family Reunion. We had a Johnson reunion too but I don't have those pictures yet. Another day...

Aunt Kris. She died in a car accident after the reunion. She will be terribly missed.

Christian's 4^th Birthday

I made the mistake of giving Christian this toy before his birthday and he wanted to play with this the whole time. He was afraid to eat his cake because someone might take his new rocket toy.

Jesh and I made the cake with some help from Rachel. Turned out pretty good.

Mandy did an awesome job decorating the party. I left it up for a couple days because I liked it so much. We all want to be "cosmonauts" now.

Look out! No one was safe in the back yard.

Oregon Trip! Yay! We rented a house on the coast with my sister Becky and her family. It was seriously so fun!

Such a long car ride. We got to visit our friends Ethan and Carol on our way. It was awesome to see them again—it's been over two years. Bummer, I didn't get pictures. The following photos are out of order.

Multnomah Falls

Seals near the house we stayed at. There were at least 50.

The beach-house backyard. The kids loved it!!!

A really neat pebble beach. When the waves come in and out you can hear thousands of rocks tinkling around. Very serene.

A lovely lighthouse with only a GAZILLION pestering flies. At least 20 would swarm around me constantly. Sorry, no photos of that awful scene.

A very long flight to the top of the light house.

We played a lot in the water on the last day. If you look closely behind us you can see the heads of seals in the water. We were at times very close to them—a bit frightening. Under their fins they have sharp claws you know.

Sandy Face

We visited an aquarium.

Brandon at the Devil's Punchbowl. Jesh took this picture. He's soooo proud.

We visited quite a few tide pools and saw some interesting critters, including Spongebob and Patrick. Tip: Don't step on the mussel beds unless you want to get sprayed with icky spit.

Carson and Christian had soooo much fun together.

Seal on a rock at... Seal Rock.

Kite flying on the beach. To this day, Christian says something about wanting to go kite-flying at the beach in each of his prayers. That or to visit his "new" house (the beach house).

Jesh working while on our trip.

The view from our back porch. I saw a man swimming once from this view at 7am—pretty brave for that early. Then I realized he was nude! No wonder he was out so early.

The summer went by too fast, but we enjoyed it!