Hats!

I realized the other day as Kessa and I were going out to the library that it was cold and Kessa didn't have any hats anymore!  The ones I made her last year were now WAY too small.  So I started poking around on Ravelry to find some toddler hats.  My first attempt failed miserably.  It looked more like a little pink China hat.  Y'know, like these:

So I kept looking and found a promising pattern.  I pulled out my brown yarn (because it just matches so much!) and tried again.  Success!  It was filled with big stitches for most of it, like hdc and dc so it went a lot faster.  At first Kessa didn't want to wear it when I put it on to make sure it fit, but after I showed it to her in the mirror, she loved it and wore it for most of the day!  She loves looking out our bedroom window and I loved the leaves in the background with her hat and sunflower (which I made awhile back).  Isn't it cute?

 And then BJ told me that his coworker's baby was having a birthday party that night.  Of course, by the time he got home and we ate dinner, it was way too late to go.  So we watched Planet Earth while I crocheted another hat, this time in red.  And then I decided to make a flower to go with it.  I had to play with the pattern to make the various sized flowers and totally made up the circle in the center, but in the end, I was quite pleased.  Part of me really didn't want to give it away.  It's just too cute and festive!  Haha.  Guess I'll just have to make another one for Kessa!

It has begun

Which, btw, makes covering a garden for frost and picking all the things you can't save really difficult and cold.  It was like reliving childhood (well, the gardening portion).  Except I was doing it willingly.

Uncle DelRoy

Uncle DelRoy was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier this year.  It's been a very long and hard road for his wife, Alease and his family.  But he's improving a little at a time.  Before my parents went to the MTC, DelRoy and Alease came to visit between Conference sessions.

Here's my mom and DelRoy.  They have always gotten along fabulously.  My mom likes to tell us kids that the two of them have never fought.  Ever.  I think she liked to try to convince us that it was possible for siblings not to fight and that we should be like them.  We figured that we'd all already fought, so we'd ruined our chances already.  :)

Dad and Alease, on the other hand, make up for Mom and DelRoy not fighting.  They have a relationship full of playful dislike.  Even when Dad was coming out of the anesthetic after his triple bypass, Aunt Alease came in and said hi and he responded with something like, "Oh no!  What are you doing here?!"  When he fully woke up, he didn't even remember her coming in.  But we all secretly know that they really enjoy each other's company.  And now we have proof!  Here they are hugging for a picture.  See?  Dad even is squeezing her shoulder and pulling her in!  We caught them hugging like that when they said goodbye and we pulled out the cameras.  Dad didn't want to redo it for a picture.  He tried very hard to get out of it saying that it'd end up on the Internet and everyone would see it!  Well Dad, you were right.  :D

Handprints

Jalin and I had the brilliant idea to make Mom and Dad a tablecloth out of a sheet for their mission, with handprints of all their kids and grandkids.  When Jalin spent the week with me we put all the names of kids and grandkids in crossword form on it, using freezer paper.  We added the handprints while we were all at my parents' house.

Here we have Jalin being the mean big sister and pushing me!  Or rather, pushing my hands into the tablecloth to get all the paint off my hands and onto the fabric.  Whatever.  (And Spencer in the background wearing his Eric the Half-a-bee hat that Travis gave him out of his box of stuff.)

Ahhh!  My hands are bleeding!!!!

And me returning the favor and pushing Jalin's hands.  Bwahaha. 

Her hands are bleeding, too.  But she seems happy about it.  Weirdo.  ;) 

Kim also had bleeding hands.  What crazy people we are!

BJ apparently did just fine all by himself.  He doesn't need any big sisters to push him around.  And since his hands were blue afterwards, we didn't take a picture of his bleeding hands.

Farewell Dinner

After my parents talked in church that Sunday, we ate dinner and visited in their backyard.  We thought it would be appropriate to make dinner (largely grown in their garden) in a milk can and serve it in a (very fancy) trough.

It was super yummy.

Bailey taught Lexi how to play tennis.

While the adults sat and talked.  And Travis took pictures.

And I took a picture of Travis.  Just to prove that his camera isn't actually growing out of his face.  (And so my iPhoto will actually know what he looks like when I'm tagging faces.)

We had our family photo taken.  In the wind.  With lots of dust.

I think we should use this one for the final photo, don't you think?

Oh, and my parents gave their couch to Uncle DelRoy.  They put it in this big, old truck that Uncle Craig was taking back to Utah.  BJ later fell right through (only one leg, though) the bed of this old truck.  Got some great bruises out of it.  And here we thought stuff like that only happened in the movies!

Idaho Cleanup

The weekend of my parents' mission "farewell" most of us kids went up to my parents' house and helped clean out stuff. (Damian and his family moved into my parents' house, so they (being my parents) had to do a lot more to get ready to go.  Namely, emptying their house.)  Mostly we helped by going through all our old stuff that is being stored at their house.  And having way too much fun reminiscing and playing.

Turns out Travis is still really good with the hula hoop.

Even Tamra (and many other kids not pictured here) got into it.

 Brandon got shot in the forehead with a dart and got a nail put through his head.

Here is Jalin and Travis going through their stuff together.

"Oh my goodness!  Guess what I found!  IAMSOEXCITED!"

"My baby blanket!"

Travis was a good boy scout.  He was also very generous and gave a lot of of his old stuff to Jalin's kids.  (Poor Jalin and Brett had their car stuffed to the max to get all of that stuff, plus much of Jalin's old stuff, plus all the stuff they brought with them, plus 6 kids and 2 adults.)

Brett also helped out with the cleaning.  

By stuffing more and more and more into the garbage can.  

Tee hee.

The cousins had a great time together, too.

Here is Tamra helping Kessa drink her bottle.

And eat her spaghetti.

Though, Kessa decided that she could do it herself.  

But it's much better with two forks.

Tamra was worn out after all that work.  She had her bed in the closet. 

 Hmm… this cousins' section is turning into a Tamra section.  She's just too cute!

Here she is making friends with Taegen.  Aren't they just so cute together?

It was fun getting together with siblings and cousins.  (And grandparents' of course!)

Let's all do it again soon, k?

Canning

Ok, so I love to can.  My 12-year old self continues to hate the current me.  It makes me laugh how much I've changed since then.  I've even taken to canning at home.  Without my mom.  (Except periodic phone calls, of course.)  It's pure craziness.  I didn't do a good job of keeping track of everything I canned this year, though.  Sorry.  (Mostly I apologize to myself, who thinks that list could be quite impressive on a blog.  Perhaps not keeping track is good for my pride.  Keep myself more humble.)  But there were lots of pickles.  (Tragically those take 2 months to sit in a jar and finish pickling before they're ready to eat.  So I haven't eaten any yet.  I have no idea how they taste. I'll let you know how that goes.)  There's been spaghetti sauce.  Beets.  Peaches. Pears.  Applesauce (for my neighbor, Kristin).  Apple pie filling.  Apricot jam.  Just all sorts of yumminess!  And a few pictures, of course.

This is my neighbor, Kristin, and her very first jar of peaches ever.

She was super excited.

Kessa was being needy while we canned, so while I peeled peaches, I plopped Kessa in the neighboring sink.  Which she loved.  She also tried to eat the green tomatoes I had sitting in my windowsill, but found they were much more fun to plop in the sink of water and watch them float.

And in non-peaches, these are my very first ever beets done by myself.  In fact, they are the very first non-jam product that I have canned all by myself.  I was quite proud.  And yes, they are quite tasty.  (For all of you gagging yourself right now, they are Harvard beets, which have a very sweet sauce on them.  Making them divine.)

Dinnertime photo shoot

I mentioned that Kessa loves to eat corn on the cob.  Well, last post you only got to see her eat raw corn.  She loves it cooked, too.  We invited Travis over for dinner one night and had some corn on the cob.  My camera was handy, so he grabbed it and they had this impromptu photo shoot.  He got some super cute photos that I love.  Here are some highlights.  (Though, I just realized that she's not actually eating corn in three of these photos.  Mostly just her bread.  She loves both, though.  Either way, they're still way too cute.)

Idaho Canning 2010

Aunt Grace and I went up to Idaho for our 2nd annual canning extraordinaire.  This year was crazy because my mom wasn't going to be around to enjoy her harvest this year, thanks to a mission.  The story was the same for Aunt Grace (who just left for the Laie Hawaii Temple mission).  So Mom basically planted the garden for everyone else.  I requested a lot of beans, spaghetti sauce and peppered cabbage.  And boy did I get a lot of all of that.  We helped we everything that was ready in the garden.  It was also different this year in that Kessa was old enough to not be content sitting in a playpen for most of the day.  We had a lot of fun with her as well.

We discovered that she loves corn on the cob.  Raw or cooked.  (I can't blame her.  I used to snitch raw corn, too.)

"Look Grandma!  I got my corn!"

"Nom nom nom"

"Oh man.  This is just soooo good!"

This picture I thought was just way too cute.

Kessa liked to be helpful.  

She'd use the magnet to get the lids out of the hot water.

Then help Grandma and Grandma Grace put them on the jars.

She did her fair share of cuddling.  She loves her Papa.

And her Grandma.

And Grandma Grace that bought her her very first ice cream cone.

It was so tasty!

And in a non-Kessa note.  I went outside to pick beets.  I found a beet green that was so ginormous, I thought for sure the beet was gonna be huge.  So I got a good hold and braced myself to do some expert pulling and maneuvering to get it out without just breaking off the top.  Imagine my surprise when it pulled out as easy as can be.  I was shocked to find the "beet" at the bottom tiny, skinny and shaped like a carrot.

We watched lots of movies.  I bought the Anne of Green Gables boxed set.  (Did you know there are actually four movies?)  And we just played and loved spending one last week with Grandma and Papa before their mission.  It was nice to have them all to ourselves for awhile.  (Although, we did miss Daddy something terrible.  Thank goodness for Skype!)