Build-A-Bear

When I was in high school, my mom made us all bears from build-a-bear with a recording that said "Ashley Fay, I love you, I love you, I love you." (Fill in my brother and sisters names). She did this so when we moved away we'd always have her with us. She decided to do this for all of her grandkids as well, so we finally went and built Oliver a puppy! He was scared of the loud noises, but he sure loves his dog! He's figured out how to push the button that says, "Oliver Lee, I love you, I love you, I love you" with Grandma Jensen's voice. He just beams with pride after he pushes the button, completely proud of his accomplishment. We're glad Oliver has grandparents that love him! 

Phoney

Once again I found all sorts of fun pictures on my phone! So here we go! From left to right, top to bottom. 

I had a cupboard with a nasty old ironing board in it. I had Terry take it out and build little shelves. We'll use this area as our "command center" maybe.... If I ever finish it.

I am attempting at decorating for the seasons, not holidays, I gotta start off simple. 

Oliver got out of the bath and started crawling around and cuddling with his towel. He is such a goof! (Ya dig the nice carpet in the bathroom? It's on our "to do" list. Only a few more things ahead of it).

This kid could be outside all day! He brought his tractor with him when we went to ride the combine, and of course had to play in the dirt!

Oliver climbed under the backhoe to help his dad find a part number. 

Oliver loves the wagon! Grandpa Jensen will pull him and cousin Stryker in it around the block. They have a ball!

Boys.

I opened up the refrigerator this evening and found this:

That's right, a tractor in my ever-so-filthy fridge. I knew I'd have my hands full with a little boy, but I never would have guessed I would find tractors in between my milk and soy sauce! 

I sure wouldn't change a thing.

I even left it there.

Sunday Fun-Day

We love Sundays! We are spiritually fed as we attend church, Terry has the day off, and we mostly just lounge around the rest of the day. Sunday is definitely our family day. We eat, play, sleep, and almost always watch a movie together. Oliver and I love being able to have an entire day to ourselves with Terry, and Terry certainly appreciates being able to have a break and rest from working all week. There are many weeks I wish we had 2 or even 3 Sundays in one week! We can't wait for harvest to be over, so everything can slow down and we can spend more time together!

  We have found that Oliver has a love for books. He likes most books, but he particularly loves tractor/truck books and ones that involve any singing. He will even sit by you and read you the book if he's in the right mood!

I'm trying to be sure that I am in pictures with my kids. There are plenty of dad and Oliver but not so many of mom and Oliver. I want my children to have pictures of all of us to look back on one day!

Update

I thought I was doing better at updating this thing, but I still slack at times! Just a quick update on what we've been up to for the last couple weeks. It has been packed!

• We turned the water off all the fields.
• I've been finishing up canning. Almost there, only peaches to go!
• We dehydrated boxes of plums, pears, apples and made fruit leather!
• Terry worked on putting up a fence around our house. (It looks great!) 
• Oliver helped dig so we could get our septic drained.
• I got a new calling as the Laurel Advisor of our ward, so things are even more busy each week.
• The corn harvest has begun! 
• We have been running to Boise to get stuff for the fence and remodel we'll be doing this winter! 
• Oliver has 4 teeth coming in and not enjoying it. 
• I have been attempting to decorate for fall! 
• We've discovered Oliver loves fry sauces!
• We were invited to dinner by some friends and now Oliver wants to be a cowboy! Not really, total farm boy.
  

I Think I Can

Terry was quite spoiled growing up... His mom canned like crazy. Now, I have to can like crazy! My mom did can while growing up but not quite like Terry's mom. So, since being married I've learned to can salsa, mandarin sauce, apple sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato soup, Italian tomatoes, enchilada sauce, apple/peach pie filling, pickles, and it seems like every year we try something new. My family loved chili sauce growing up, but Terry thinks it's too sweet, so I normally just steal a few from my mom since I'm the only one that eats it. 

So far this year, we have canned apple/pear sauce, sliced apples, salsa, and Italian tomatoes.

Canning for the most part saves us a lot of money and it is the best way for us to build our food storage. It really only gets expensive if we can't get any fresh fruit, and a lot of the time we wait for Ridley's case lot sale and stock up on canned fruit there. It might not be as good, but we want canning to save us money, not cost us more.

My mom always steamed her jars, and luckily that's what Terry's mom does as well, because I have no idea how to water bath! 

While canning takes a lot of time and work, Terry and I find it to be well worth it. We love having food on hand, the fact that it is home made, saves us money, and we can grow almost everything needed in our garden (or bum off family since our garden only produced squash this year and nothing else.) 

Plus, we have plenty of room in our house to store it!

We have a cellar below our house with plenty of storage and it keeps everything cool. We just restock the pantry with all the food we keep stored down here. 

We are grateful that we have great teachers to help us become self efficient, and we love hearing about new foods we can bottle and store. If you have any good ones, let us know! 

A Little Visit

My sister had her sweet baby boy a few weeks ago, so Oliver and I went to visit. Oliver had fun meeting his new cousin but was sure happy to be home. He really doesn't travel well. 

Oliver loved Reese! He wanted to hold, kiss, and hug the baby all the time.
He did get a little jealous when I got my turn.

We had to go to the grocery store and Oliver was so lucky he got to ride in this sweet cart.
Unfortunately, he threw a major fit when it was time to leave the car behind.

Baby Reese in his Duck Dynasty attire.
"I'm only wearing this until my beard comes in, Jack!"

Oliver for some reason loved to squeeze himself between the car and the wall in the garage.
He would do this over and over again, but I was glad he was entertained!

We are so grateful Reese is here and that everyone is healthy and doing well. He is the third grandson and grandchild for my parents. Lots of trucks, tractors, and dirt on the way!