Wild Days at Home. Aug 2017

We have two rocking horses. They take up quite a bit of our limited playroom space. I am always tempted to get rid of them, especially when I am trying to get out the garage door which they block. But the babies love them. They are horses, snowmobiles, rodeo cows and race cars. So...we still have two, but I may get another so they each have one.

 I love late summer produce from the Murray Farmer's Market. When the peaches are on, we eat a lot of peaches. A lot. No one really complains about this.

 Haha, a saver's treasure, my sweet little mustard as Goose, from Top Gun.

 Preston thought that was the appropriate outfit for stomp-rocketing..

 ...and eating hummus. #heshardcore

 With David and Hayden at school, Preston and I had to spend a lot of time each morning harvesting in the garden... We didn't mind. It was better than pulling weeds.

 Haha, Preston always hated how the bean leaves stick to him.

 It was an exciting day when the power company came with a crane thing. #lifewithboys

 One night as I was scattering eggshells around my hosts to keep away the snails (I promise I'm not a huge granola, this really works!) I called David out because there was this, this thing. I couldn't tell if it was a hummingbird or a moth. Well it was, it was a "hummingbird moth." I'd never seen anything like it. It was pretty cool. It loved the hosts blooms, which, I also learned that night, smell like honeysuckle.

 Brooks climbs wherever he needs to be. This was probably the third or fourth peach that he climbed up and took a bite out of that day :)

 Making Moats.

 Brooks and Dash are just best friends. They make me think of Baby Kate and Pal on Arthur.... I'm sure they communicate with each other...

October 2016.

October seems like a long time ago, and I guess it was. Let's see how much I remember...

I get to stay home with these two hooligans. Brooks turned 5 months at the end of October. What a cutie. He definitely comes from the same mold as the other two, but he looks more and more like Hayden everyday. 

 It was a pretty sad year for our garden, haha, the weeds loved it. With a new little one to snuggle, we didn't get much weeding done.  One of our favorite days of the year is when we go and dig out the potatoes, a real treasure hunt!

 The boys loved to pick and sort the potatoes.

 Another beautiful year for the nasturtiums. These are the one flower that I love from seed! They are gorgeous, last a long time, and if Granny or the boys don't eat them, you have seeds for the next year.

 We planted pumpkins, and we got five, not a ton, but all we needed! The boys loved their "squash wash"

...and this is seriously the only face that I can get Preston to make in pictures now. Haha, he's cute.

 This is a very normal occurrence at our house. Preston fights taking a nap...and then is just so wiped out by dinner, that he falls asleep at the table. Love that Baby Mustard

 And it wouldn't be October without our favorite gingerbread mummy cookies! The best recipe ever!

 Hayden- Six. Brooks- Five Months.

 My precious babies.

 We made the annual voyage to Logan for squash. This year our friend had squash...which was good because Paul's Patch was gone. Totally. I "googled" it, and the original "Paul" passed away in the spring...

 ...Preston wore "deans" ...it was a miracle.

 I swear that we raked about six dumpsters full of leaves this fall. But I had good help and the boys always enjoyed themselves. They love being outside, and they love to work....and they love garbage cans.

 Hayden all gussied up for the Primary Program. He rocked the "John the Baptist baptized Jesus." He usually doesn't like a tie, but he humors me twice a year, Mother's Day and the Primary Program....or if he want to match his Dad.

 I have been so blessed with such sweet boys. Little Brooksie doesn't sleep during the day...ever. But he's not fussy when he's up. It's exhausting to have him not take a nap, but I love him sleeping most nights.

 So look out, make way, it's fire Pres-tan. Haha, he wears his Bob the Builder Over-alls under his fire jacket because those are the pants that "firemen need." He loves to dress up and has such a great imagination.

 Right before Halloween we headed to the cabin. It wasn't too hot, it wasn't too cold, and we found out about carmel sauce.

 Brooks took his first razor ride with Grandpa... I suppose he's too young to know better.

Everybody got a turn on the teeter-totter, haha

 ...and everyone wanted an under-dog

Brooks and I kept a watch-out while the boys brewed in the hot tub

After the cabin, we came home and carved our pumpkins. 

On Halloween the boys and I joined in the fun at Cottonwood...

Hayden got another good use out of his tux, it was a perfect addition to his vampire costume!

 I hear ya, Brooks.

 Happy October.

Harvest Time.

It cracks me up how Hayden refers to the garden as "the fields"..."Let's go harvest the fields." haha love him!

Since the ten pounds of Costco carrots has turned to liquid in the fridge, the boys and I headed out to the fields to dig out a few for our tomato soup. We should have brought a pick-ax instead of a shovel, those babies were in rock!

After twenty minutes of paleontologist-quality unearthing, we had a few, although broken, carrots for the soup.

 We were lucky enough to go to Grandma-Great's with Granny and Carol and get some grapes for juice. If any of you knew my Grandpa Woodward, I'm sure you'd tried his juice. (that said David and Katie weren't too excited, but have now converted...they love the juice!)

 I couldn't get over how gorgeous they were. Seriously, so pretty.

 Our sweet little juicing set up. The only problem was that we started at 8:30pm.... we usually go to bed by 10, but were up until 2.

 Seriously, so pretty.

 Vacuum interruption...
These boys can spot a vacuum anywhere.

 The only thing that pulled Hayden away was the kid-size rake I promised him. Preston was still mad.

 Night two of juicing, this time, we started at 8.

 I can't even imagine how many grapes Preston ate, but he sure loved them.

After two long nights' work, we ended up with 2 pinks, and 12 dark purple.

Grandpa would be proud...and have made 60 more...that were stronger :)