Keeping the Doctor away...

with an apple a day!

We were lucky enough to go to the Apple Orchards twice this past fall. This particular orchard is just south of Amish country, so it's always a scenic trip. The first time we went was for a class field trip. Sammy and I went to help wrangle children and got a fun tour in the process. We learned all about how Johnny Appleseed was a real person and that he planted a lot of the apple trees in our area. (pretty cool if you ask me)

  They also took us through their sorting house. Daniel is obviously paying rapt attention. ;)

We ran into Daniel's friend Isabelle, who lives down the street and is in his Primary class at church. You'd think they haven't seen each other forever. lol.

We had so much fun picking the apples off the trees. 

They were Golden Delicious apples, and honestly, the best apples I've ever had in my life! (and this is coming from a Washington girl!)

We need a little work on our form.... you're technically not supposed to take the branch with you ;)

Sammy took his job as overseer very seriously....

We also went back out with a group of girls from the ward.  This picture is missing two kids and one adult, me!

We found the cutest little apples that were just Sammy sized, he held them all day. Too precious. 

We slipped around back of the apple orchard where there was also a pumpkin patch to explore. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get a Fall picture of the boys, but they had other plans. This was as close as it got to perfection:

Because this is what all the rest of them look like...

We stopped and had a picnic, but the kids preferred to wait it out in the car where they were parent free and warm!

We had a blast and were fully stocked in apples for almost two months! No small feat with Daniel around, I think he honestly thinks that eating apples will keep the Doctor away. ;)

The Man in Red

While Bryan's family was all together during the Christmas season we took all of the grandchildren to see Santa!! On the way in the kids got to pose with Gru and his minions. (If you haven't seen Despicable Me, it is so cute and worth your time!) I love the super cheese!

The line was long, but the kids were excited to meet Kris Kringle! I don't know if he was as excited to be accosted by 8 kids under 6 yrs. But we made it work. (with help from Aunt Amy ;)  I think this is a picture we'll love forever!

Four Eyes..

 Daniel has been squinting for the longest time so I set up an eye appointment for him. The soonest they were able to get us in was 7 months later! What is this? Canada??? (lol, just kidding, I love Canada) But miracle of miracles they called and were able to fit him in a whole month earlier. Yay. I had 20 minutes to get ready, pick him up from school and get over there. Daniel was a bit worried about the appointment and I was too, since I hadn't gotten a chance to prepare him for it. But we really shouldn't have even given it a second thought. They had him looking at hot air balloons and other fun things, while he kept giggling and saying, "this is a fun Doctor's visit!" Finally the Doctor gave his verdict: Daniel is "very, very far-sighted." I never would have guessed, I totally thought he was near-sighted. That's why we pay Doctors the big bucks! ;)  We ended up buying a pair of glasses through their office (they forgot to put the anti-reflective coating on, which makes pictures very tricky!) and we ordered 2 other pairs through Zenni Optical , which was awesome. We paid $15 a pair and got them in 2 weeks. (I highly recommend getting extra pairs with little boys! We're already down one pair and it's been 2 1/2 months!) Daniel has loved his glasses. Our drive home from picking up his first pair was so funny! He kept reading all the signs and saying, "I didn't know that was a book shop!! Mom, let's go buy some books! There's a Toy Store!!!! Mom! Can we please go to the toy store?!?!" I had no idea how much of life he was missing out on. ;)

Tears...

The other day I was busy in the kitchen when Daniel said some unkind things. I called him in to talk about it and with tears running down my face and dripping off my chin, told him how hurtful his words were. He looked at my face, got really quiet, said he was sorry and went to time out. (I think he was scared straight.) Then I went back to chopping my onions.
Some people call it manipulation, I call it brilliant parenting. ;)

YIKES!

It was a crazy non-stop  holiday season for us. We are still just trying to catch our breath and recover from it all. Add on top of that pretty-much never-ending computer issues (yes! MORE!) and you have a pretty good reason not to blog. ;) We now are set in the computer department, (knock on wood.... knock knock knock! ) And are back and almost into the groove. Interview season for residency is nearing an end, Daniel is back at school and we're all over the flu! Yay! Anyways, I just wanted to say... I'm back!!! (and I've got TONS to blog about!)

Sammy's first REAL swing ;)

A Fun Way to Spend a Saturday!

My friend Kacey asked me if I'd be willing to help her with the flowers for stake conference. I jumped at the chance because I've always loved arranging flowers. I especially love it when my creative outlet can be on someone else's dime ;) We met early on Saturday and started whipping up some arrangements. She'd bought a lot of flowers and cornucopias and we foraged in the trees out back for branches of berries. We arranged the two cornucopias, one tall center piece and two smaller arrangements that were farther out to the side. I had a blast and I LOVE the fall colors. Just wanted to document. :)