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| We grew 9 varieties of tomatoes and had 30 plants altogether. |
Fall for our family is garden harvesting, preservation, school, and a few great times with family! The pictures in this post are in chronological order and I feel they represent our autumn adventures well. You'll see garden goodness scattered throughout the other posts, because we were hauling in a blessed harvest. With the Covid19 pandemic, we were blessed to have a garden and to be able to share with our family, friends, and neighbors some of our produce when items were sometimes limited at the grocery stores.
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| It was our first year growing these varieties of squash: Bennings Green Patty Pan, Lemon Summer, Mini Spaghetti (look like little yellow pumpkins) |
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| This was a new tomato variety we grew called "Pink Stuffer." It is so beautiful sliced on a sandwich, tastes sweet, and can be easily hollowed out if you care to stuff it. |
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| This may be my favorite. Amara is dancing her "cape" in the air as we took Pippin for a walk, Amara on her hoverboard. It was a moment that was special because it reminded me that my kids won't be kids forever. They find joy in simple things. |
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| Can you ever get sick of a fresh slice of tomato. Pictured are 3 varieties (pink stuffer, purple Cherokee, and big league), plus one of our serpent cucumbers. |
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| My friend Dona Rae told me she likes to batter and fry her squash, so I thought I'd give it a go. WINNER! |
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| Fried Patty Pan stacked with tomato and fried green beans! SOO GOOD together! |
Amara's Birthday Chair!
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| Amara wanted a certain gift for her room, and Grandma Debby ordered it for her, wrapped it, and sent it up with April so Amara could have it for her birthday. |
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| Cute chair! |
More Garden
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| This is one tiny tomato |
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| Bounteous pepper harvest (and fairytale eggplants in foreground) |
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| Beautiful cabbage heads grew under a netting all summer and were super successful in keeping them from being eaten by all the cabbage moths & caterpillars. |
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| Beets the size of my head! I believe our biggest was 3 pounds! |
Pandemic Fun
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| Amara and Pippin and I went on a date to Vernal. We ate at KFC and watched a parade that just happened to be going on. |
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| Part of our home Sunday school we made reminders and goals. |
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| Favorite scriptures |
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| My Title of Liberty |
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| Steve's Title of Liberty |
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| Amara's Title of Liberty |
Some More Garden Goodness
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| Every few days I'd bring in loads of garden readies! |
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| These beets got huge. They were planted together in groups of 3-5 seeds next to each other and grew all summer until I was ready to harvest and preserve them. I was so surprised to see their huge size! |
Family Photos!
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| Our time was limited as the sun was going down just as we arrived at a place off the road with some Fall colors. |
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| Lily took the pictures of Steve and I. Steve took the other pictures. |
Making things...
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| Amara made this awesome earring tree using hot glue and popsicle sticks. I love how it turned out. Here she is showing it off at one of our Teams for Teams classes. |
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| I made pickled beets and they turned out so pretty with just a light pink since the beets were not the dark red varieties. |
Micah and Mandy's Halloween Party!
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| What a beautiful day for this party! Most everyone came in costume, we had games, crafts, and dinner. |
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| Mandy's dad, Bill, and my mom, Bobbie, have a go at the table top quidditch game. |
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| I love this picture of the kids creating their hanging halloween paper lanterns. So fun to see their costumes. I wish I got a picture of them all in costume. |
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| Check out the lanterns hanging in the tree. |
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| OHHHH BABBYYY!!! There's the infamous spud nuts Micah and Mandy make each year for this! I think I had 743% more than I should've, but worth it! |
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| A closer look. Aren't they cute? Shaped like ghosts. |
April Visits :)
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| Time for tea! |
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| My favorite thing about this picture is the adorable Bridger looking up from below! |
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| So many lovely herbal varieties! |
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| Tommy didn't want his picture taken I guess, but I couldn't resist a powdered sugar pout. |
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| Lily sold her earrings at the Allred's Yard and Garden Swap Meet. Amara and Sarah often joined her. |
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| We went to the Constitution Park where there was new disc golf baskets. |
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| Sisters at the park! |
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| Before April left we gifted her a HUGE CABBAGE! |
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| Steve dressed as a wizard for school. |
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| Lily sold her earrings a few weeks in a row at the swap meet. |
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| My mom also set up shop at the swap meet. She created a very large display, very welcoming, by draping sheets under everything and layering other textured and contrasting items over it. She sold her homemade decor items along with cookies, and some packages she put together. |
Vernal Holly Days
Because of the pandemic, Holly Days this year was a checklist of things you could do to participate. It included watching a family holiday movie, enter a gingerbread house into the contest, online bingo, etc. Lily, Amara, and I entered the gingerbread house contest, and that was a lot of work. Amara won 2nd place for her bakery entry, and she got a dinosaur toy from Walmart, which she exchanged there for clothes she liked.
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| Getting the gingerbread made |
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| My creation was based on a book about a little house in the country, and I used Vernal's dinosaur to tie it to where we live. |
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| I like the way mine turned out in the end. |
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| Doing this reminded me of the many gingerbread houses I helped create growing up, as my family would donate the creation to the Festival of Trees every year to benefit the Primary Children's Hospital. |
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| Lily's house was beautiful with the coordinating color palate. I like how she used hot glue to make a waterfall and lake for the Swedish fish to jump out of. |
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| Amara's bakery complete with gingerbread tables, donuts made from cheerios decorated with icing, and colored coconut for grass. Amara said, "If I don't win a place, I'm going to be mad." She knew her house was better than most that were there. |
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| Front view of my house. |
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| The display at the Western Heritage Museum |
Thanksgiving At Home
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| I can't not drool when I see this picture. I love these foods! |
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| Amara did the table decorations. |
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| Steve, me, mom, Lily, Amara |
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| Amara also made us each a place card with a conversation prompt. |
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| The crow on the table is one Amara bought years ago. She saw it at the store and had to have it and spent all $12 on it. The pumpkin is also one she made by wrapping a sweater sleeve over a toilet paper roll and decorating it. She also made stacks of wood and added fall colors with her scrunchies. |
More Holly Day Fun |
| This was Steve's winning bingo entry for holly days. He had to make that exact pattern. We sat and watched the bingo on Vernal's channel for 3 hours. I'm glad Steve finally won. He ended up with a gift card to Jimmy John's Sandwiches in Vernal. |
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| We had to build a snowman, but there was no snow, so Steve went out and built this little guy. |
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| Mom made her own "snow man" |
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| We also made ornaments. |
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| Selfie with the ice sculpture |
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| Picture with a dinosaur |
