today for school . . .

we made salsa!

the kids learned that making salsa is messy, but not very hard.

maria passed the peeled tomatoes to hudson . . .

who chopped them, then put them in a bowl so libby . . .

could stir the tomatoes together with the red onion.

maria saw the juice from the tomatoes and came up with a great idea. "hey, we could filter it and make tomato juice!"

just as maria suggested, we added salt and a pinch of sugar.

and tomato juice was enjoyed by all.

we added garlic, green and red pepper, salt, lime juice, and spices. hudson smelled the salsa then said, "ugh, it smells yucky, like something that's good for you're body."

everyone else enjoyed it.

including lincoln.

now that's dipping (he is holding a chip).

while we were chopping, i explained to the children that autumn is the perfect time to make salsa, picking your tomatoes just before the frost gets to them. maria thought that was a great autumn tradition. she exclaimed that she wanted to do this every year. as i think back, i realize i have made salsa almost every fall ethan and i have been married. we didn't grow a garden this year so i don't have enough tomatoes to bottle salsa, but thanks to a generous neighbor, we have enough salsa to last a little while.

salsa. a wonderful autumn tradition.

not again!

last night, right before the kids and i left for a family thing . . .

libby got into the oats. i blame myself. i needed to refill the oat canister so i opened the oat bucket but then forgot to fill the oat canister and forgot the oat bucked lid was not firmly attached to the bucket.

libby, naturally, discovered the lid was not firmly attached and, naturally, decided to throw the oats all around the kitchen. lincoln was present and the poor guy was attacked by oats.

we had two willing helpers. but in the end, ethan had to clean it up because the kids and i were late for the aforementioned family thing.

we were gone for almost three hours. we got home late and i promptly put lincoln to bed. i changed his diaper and realized why he was so whiney at the family thing. his diaper had oats in it. poor baby.

scripture study

last night, for our family scripture study, we were reading in Alma chapter 5. we were at the section that says, "the good shepherd is calling after you".

i read, " now if ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd, of what fold are ye?" we talked about that for a bit and then i said:

me: so, do you want to follow Jesus or satan?

maria (right away): Jesus!

hudson: ummmm . . .

me: *waiting*

hudson: ummm . . . what was the other guy again?

me: satan.

hudson: *thinking* ummmmm . . .

me: *waiting*

hudson (under his breath) : let's see. i would not follow Jesus.

me: *wondering where's he going with this*

hudson: what was the other guys' name again?

me: satan.

hudson: i think i would follow satan.

it was kind of funny. i didn't think he really knew what he was saying but i figured we ought to talk about it. i told him Jesus wants him to be happy and satan wants him to be sad. i told him that if he wants to live with Heavenly Father again he needs to follow Jesus. so in the end he changed his mind. "i guess i would follow Jesus," he said.

scripture time is often interesting. you never know what will come to hudson's mind.

i wish i could remember all the funny things kids say. if i don't write it down right away i totally forget about it.

a bad night . . .

just got a little worse.

i was already having a bad day. i cleaned up the kitchen after dinner with the plan that i'd make myself a small treat after i put the kids to bed.

then maria came running up stairs. "mom! you have to see what libby is doing!"

*sigh*

by the time i made it down stairs she had already dumped about 1 oz of dried chives all over the counter . . . and floor . . . with some in the drawer and she was in the process of washing her hair in the sink.

*sigh*

i had to document it just so those who weren't here would know how bad it really was. i kept telling her not to smile, that it wasn't funny and i was very mad at her. but she couldn't help herself.

i have yet to figure out what the brown on her dress is from. i have already figured out that she helped herself to more than one thing in the spice cabinet. you see the, i don't know what it is, cumber bun/ribbon type thing around her waist? it was full of black pepper. so i checked the black pepper. she'd poured water in it.

of course the spices she could reach easily from standing on the counter were the spices in the extra-large containers. how did she climb onto the counter? not quite sure.

all over the floor. and it's not dry. oh, no. she had to mix the chives with water. that makes it extra difficult to clean up. see the container on the floor? that's cumin. at least she didn't open that up. or did she? maybe that's the brown on her dress.

*sigh* my counter top.

*sigh* chives on her toes. and all over her dress.

*sigh* there's water all over the stool and floor and herself. i just can't believe that after all that her next point of order was to put her head under the faucet.

it smells very spicy in here now.

and now that i've had a moment to calm down, i'm going to go clean up a big mess . . .

and then maybe make myself more than just a little treat.

summer wrap-up

summer is coming to a close. we've had a busy august so i've missed out on a few posts. this is my end-of-summer catch-up.

we made it to bear lake two more times. once with all the kids' cousins on my side of the family:

(this is my uncle and aunts cabin. the kids were all looking forward to this like crazy. at the cabin all the kids wrote thank you notes and maria wrote, "i'm so glad cabins egsist.")

and the other with all the kids' cousins on ethan's side of the family . . . which is actually just one cousin, but that certainly didn't make it any less fun:

libby patiently waiting to go to bear lake.

lincoln trying to enjoy the sand.

it's a nuttall thing that you have to bring a huge shovel and dig a ginormous pit. hey, did you know that ginormous did not show up as misspelled in the spell check?

chris, kaya, maria and hudson hanging out in the water.

joseph hanging out on the whale.

libby still loves digging!

we had an end-of-summer hair buzz:

some of us were attacked by mosquitos (even though we try hard to keep kids away from the mosquitos):

we painted:

ate lots of strawberries. oh, how we'll miss those strawberries!

and, as usual, had many peanut butter and jam sandwiches:

of course, there was time to play dress-up:

but now, the summer is almost over and we began to have a regular schedule again. school ha started and things are settling down:

special delivery

every now and then i get special mail on sunday.

hudson often draws a picture in his primary class. sometimes he won't let me see the picture when he gets out of class. he keeps it secret all through sacrament meeting and on the way home from church. when we get home he sneaks out to the mailbox then comes into the house saying, "mom, you should check the mail!" so i check the mail and find a wonderful surprise!

this is my favorite picture. the top figure is me and i am holding hudson.

in this picture, hudson is on the left and i am at the top-right corner. the lines in between are toy train tracks that we are building together.

i absolutely love the sundays when i get special mail. and i love my special little mail delivery man!