This is how I spell P-E-A-C-E

Another harvest season is at an end and my pantry shelves are full again. It is such a good feeling to know that my shelves are stocked and "all is safely gathered in". I love to just go downstairs and admire them! (The OCD part of me hates that I have green beans on two different shelves instead of all grouped together but I will try to overlook that.) Notice the vacuum handle in the picture? Everyone should have a vacuum in their year's supply of necessary stuff. If you don't believe me, try not vacuuming your house for a year.

I need to be better about buying more of the things that we need and don't grow but I was pretty busy this fall. There were times that I wondered if I would get through canning season with my sanity but I made it. We canned 85 quarts of green beans, 77 quarts of peaches, 14 pints of mustard pickles, 43 pints of salsa, 36 pints of spaghetti sauce, 32 quarts of pears, 16 gallons and 13 pints of strawberries and jam, 17 quarts of apple juice, and 56 quarts of plum juice.

here are some of my happy helpers

We also bought 10 5-gallon buckets of wheat (about 200 pounds). I made bread with it yesterday and it was delicious! I think we may need to buy some more since that loaf of bread only lasted 10 minutes!

And potatoes! You gotta have potatoes! Now we do, about 400 pounds of them!

I can't help but feel a little like a proud little ant now that my hard work is done and I know that my family will have full tummies all winter long!

Remember Me This Way

So many times I think that I will never forget what my children were like righ tin this moment of time. And of course, I do. So I wanted to record a little bit about them as they are right now.

Porter is my most compassionate child. He does this thing right now where he won't let you hang up the phone from talking with him until he has told you that he loves you and you have reciprocated. Also, he won't let you out of the house to go farther than the mailbox without a kiss and a hug. His dad teases him sometimes and tries to sneak out, but it never works -- Porter always catches him! He gives me at least three hugs at bedtime, but that may be just a ploy to stay up a few seconds longer. I think it is really sweet and I hope he is always that loving. He loves reading as much as breathing and can usually be found in the recliner with a book.


Emily is a little nurturer. She is forever taking care of her little brother and sister. In fact, Aleise calls Emily her sister-mom (no, we are not polygamists) as in "Where's mom?" answer: "She's right here honey." "No, not that mom, sister-mom." Emily takes such good care of Aleise and often has more patience with her than I do. Emily also learned to ride her bike this summer. She didn't show any interest in learning for the longest time. I think she was just lacking confidence. She learned to ride perfectly in two days and it has been hard to keep her off the bike since. I love the self-confidence that it has given her and the sense of freedom that comes with a kid having a bike. Another milestone of note for Emily is that, when we went clothes shopping for the kids this fall, she chose some pants! That might not seem significant if you don't know Emily. She has worn dresses and skirts exclusively for the last four years. Skirts to ride scooters, skirts to the playground, skirts to the beach. She would even tuck her dresses into her snowpants to play outside! People would comment on this all the time but Emily didn't care. I love it that she is not afraid to be herself, regardless of what others think or say. I hope she keeps that trait.



This is my Noah. I know that you are laughing right now and that is what Noah makes us do every day. He absolutely loves to dress up and pretend. The other day he went to WalMart with me and he wanted to make his Christmas list. Guess what aisle he wanted to make his list from? Yep, the Halloween costumes. He is a spy (see above), a cowboy, a jedi and his favorite of late, a knight. He loves to read books about and learn about medieval times. He has a better work ethic than most adults. It is what he does for fun. One weekend he wanted to go play with Papa. I went outside after awhile to see what they were playing and found them weeding the flowerbeds. It was what he wanted to do. He is always saying, "Can I help you work? Can we go cut down trees or something?" and he never wants to stop. That is a trait that I hope he keeps! He learned recently to say his prayers all by himself and I love the things that he thinks of like, "please bless us that no bad guys will break into our house with guns." One thing that makes him uncomfortable is large groups of people. Every week in sacrament meeting he will put his hands on both sides of my face and say, "Promise me that you will be outsid my door when I get out of class." Noah always livens up our house. He is never quiet and can be found singing or chanting or pretending at the top of his lungs.



And this is Aleise, also known as Princess Leah. She loves to play dress ups too and is always a princess. She is changing from my baby-faced toddler to a little girl. I love the way my kids always speak so precisely when they first start to really talk. Aleise enunciates so clearly and uses big words like 'absolutely and 'probably' and 'fantastic'. Whenever Aleise is crying and sad, Noah will say, "She's sensitive," very sweetly as if that should explain away any naughty behavior. Aleise will give you a kiss on the check and then press her hand against the spot she kissed and say, "stick it on!" When she gets tired, Alei comes to me and says, "Lay by me?" and we go lay in her bed until she is asleep. My favorite part of our bedtime ritual is when I tell her that I love her and she answers, "I love YOU a hundred pieces." And I love you a hundred pieces, too my sweet Aleise.

Back on Board

I'm back, folks! My camera is fixed, some of my pictures have been recovered (thank goodness!) and now I have TONS to catch up on. So look out, there is going to be some serious blogging going on right here.

Autumn Nostalgia

I am always somewhere else during this week of each year. I am back in Logan, Utah moving into Continental and looking forward to another year of school in the beautiful Cache Valley. I am eating tomato sandwiches and tortilla chips on the balcony. I am driving up the canyon, watching the fall leaves put on their spectacular show, especially loving that one bend that looks like it is straight out of Anne of Green Gables, with the trees leaning over the road on both sides. I am climbing up the hill to classes in Old Main and the English Building, grabbing a big slice of homemade bread in the TSC basement for lunch. I am playing at the park on the island with the cool swings that swing toward each other, hung in a circle. I am "studying" on the quad, soaking up the last few days of sun, falling asleep on the fifth floor of the library in the honors lounge, staying up all night with new friends at Continental. I am eating up every word of fabulous lectures by Norm Jones and Lynn Meeks. I am taking Book of Mormon classes at the Institute from Curtis Jacobs and going on free dates to the Tuesday lunch devotionals. I am gathering up my laundry from the table in the laundry room where someone threw it because I forgot again and left it in the washer for five hours. I am fighting over who has to do the dishes and then laughing all night with the same girls.

Then I remember the old days of the BC bench and the 70s fireplace. I remember Ben hiding under Wendy's bed to listen to us girls talk and then to scare us to death. I remember late night pranks like taking all the milk from five or six apartments and putting it all in another apartment across the parking lot. I remember huge games of fugitive, playing baseball and volleyball and laying out with my roommates in our secret spot. I remember being able to identify individual's cars by what they sounded like as they drove into the parking lot. I remember beautiful weather, incredible friendships, an unbelievable education and undeniably one of the best chapters of my life. Every fall I really miss my days as an Aggie.