Meaning of Christmas

I overheard Vince & Aubrey's conversations today about the meaning of Christmas and I love it.

Vince: "Aubrey, what will you be thinking about on Christmas day?"

Aubrey: "Santa Clause."

V: (buzzer sound effect) "Buzz! Wrong answer! Try again."

A: "Santa's reindeer."

V: "Wrong again."

A: "Frosty the Snowman."

V: "It starts with the sound J."

A: "I don't know."

V: "Alright, it looks like I'm just gonna have to tell you. You will be thinking about Jesus Christ...even if you don't get any presents. That's what you should think about. Okay?"

A: "Okay."

2007~Nativity by Vince, Aubrey, & baby doll.
Apparently Mary had a blue blanket for the manger.

If You Build Them, She Will Fill Them...Really!

So, it's official! Josh finished our shelves a few weeks ago in our storage/fruit room. Well, at least one side of the shelves. The others will have to wait for a while. Can I tell you how excited I am. Every time he put in another screw I would clap and say "one more down". I even took a picture of the last screw...which I won't be posting because it looks lame. But, here's some pics of the handyman (aka my hubby) at work. Thanks again to my mom and dad for the great Christmas present and for helping Josh and I with the AWESOME project. Can you tell I'm excited? Josh working hard. The last shelf was TIGHT working conditions. Josh had to use a screwdriver to get the screws in a little bit so the drill would even fit. Finished! Now my work begins...or my fun begins.

Amazingly, it took me a while to get to the point of even starting to put our stuff on the shelves. I think it was just such an overwhelming task that I didn't know where to begin. I was so consumed with getting it organized just right that I didn't know what to do. So, I decided to just start and see what happens. Well, many hours later, I still had this much food to put on the shelves. You can't even see it all in this picture.

Here are some pictures of the process - the longer than planned process.

Notice Marty's bouncer. My poor boy had to sit there for hours while I put stuff on the shelves. Good thing I was throwing snacks his way or he would have never made it.

Here's the finished product...with bad lighting. We still have to finish the electrical. Pictures do not do it justice!

The cases under and to the side of the shelves are bottled fruit that wouldn't fit on the shelves. Like I said, we'll have more shelves eventually.

These are the cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and paper goods. I just noticed that the paper towels are upside down. I'll be fixing that. Yes, I am CRAZY!

I know that I am completely consumed with my bottling and that I probably have a clinical addiction to it. Josh always says that if the house was on fire or a tornado was heading straight for us I would stay in the house to bottle what was ripe. During bottling season my famous words are, "I know that I didn't have time to bottle today, but the (insert whatever I am bottling at the time) were ready. I had to." So, although Josh appreciates my bottling, he celebrates the day that I take my canning supplies to the basement for the last time of the season. I decided that I would see how far this addiction had taken me this year. I didn't count the bottled goods that I so nicely (remember that Cassy) did for my sister or the stuff that my mom kept to give as Christmas present. Well, here's the final tally (minus the pumpkin I still have to bottle and the frozen peaches I am making into peach syrup). Just don't tell Josh I'm still not done. Okay, he knows but just don't remind him. Please!
Drum roll please.......

442 bottles!
(pints and quarts)

I couldn't believe it when I counted up the numbers. It made me realize I am crazier than I once thought. Here's the break down. Are you even interested? Don't lie, I know that you're not!
Beets = 39 pints
Peaches = 117 quarts
Raspberries = 18 quarts
Jam = 20 pints
Pears = 73 quarts
Peach Salsa = 28 pints
Apple Pie Filling = 24 quarts
Applesauce (regular) = 59 quarts
Raspberry Applesauce = 12 quarts
Strawberry Applesauce = 14 quarts
Cinnamon Applesauce = 38 quarts
(Total Applesauce = 123 quarts)

Here's to another successful bottling season that is almost over. Que the music. I would like to thank those who give away their delicious fruit, for an awesome raspberry patch to pick amazing berries, my garden for being great and productive, my hubby for putting up with my excessiveness, my kids for being neglected during it all, pinching your pennies for helping me fill my shelves with cheap food, and last but not least my mom for helping in times of overwhelming fruit pile up.

At the conclusion of this year's bottling season I have decided that bottling is like childbirth. You forget how bad it is and do it all over again!

Blog Retarded

Okay, I am officially blog retarded. I just posted a draft I was working on and it posted below the one I posted earlier. How can I get it to not post on the date I start the draft but instead on the day I actually post it. Does that even make sense? So, if you want to see the new post scroll down past the Christmas Tree hunting post. Annoying!


Update: I fixed it myself. I am getting it...maybe!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Be warned! This may be the longest post in the history of blogs. Seriously! But, again, better late than never. We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents house in good 'ole Esky. We missed half of the family that couldn't be with us this year. We really did miss all of you. Although it wasn't as hard to fight for pie. Of course, I didn't get many pics of the celebration because both hands were involved in eating...the entire time. Pics of that will follow. I did manage a few shots of Aubrey making turkeys. They loved it. Good job grandma. Her crazy hair always makes me laugh. I think she managed to use a whole bottle of glue on her cute turkey. The next morning it was stuck to the table.

The day after Thanksgiving we went Christmas tree "hunting". Yes, most things revolve around hunting in my family. We went up Main Canyon and ended up with a little bit of snow to play in. The kids loved it although it was only about 30 degrees. On the way up the mountain.Finding a good tree with me is a NIGHTMARE! I am so stinkin' picky that it is annoying even to me. Every year we are the last ones to find our tree and by then it is getting dark and Josh and my dad are saying, "Cally, you have 5 more minutes to find a tree or you're not getting one". So, I end up running around frantically to find the perfect tree. Well, this year was very different. Yes, very different. Josh and I walked around for about 5 minutes

(count them...1...2...3...4...5...)

and a miracle happened. We found a beautiful tree. I started screaming that we were the first ones to cut our tree. I was so excited that we weren't searching for forever. Or maybe it was the competitive side coming out of me because we won...not that there was a competition in the first place, but everything is a competition in my family. Even though we don't admit it. :) But, in all reality it was just nice to not be hunting the entire time for a perfect tree.

She LOVED her big snowball.

Josh holding our 5 minute find.

Aubrey was tired of walking.

Vince, Grandma, and Aubrey

Cassy, Cort, and Justin

Me and my super cute kiddos.

Cute, cute, cute!

My hip, hap, Daddy-O...a little inside family joke.

This is the look we all got when Josh stopped the piggy back ride.

Jordyn having fun even though her shoes were waterproofed with plastic bags.

We Allen's can fix any problem. :)

Helping everyone else find trees...because remember, we won.

Cort-a-licious

This is one of those "bring back a memory" picture. I remember LOVING to do this in my dad's old Ford's steering wheel. If you never did this in your dad's truck you missed out on a lot of fun. (You can't see the movement, but you rock side to side for maximum funness.)

Santa always seems to fly over while my family is getting a Christmas tree. He always leaves us a little treat. Vince decided that Santa's toy bag had a hole in it and he didn't notice candy was falling out. When the candy trail ended, Vince thought Santa must have fixed the hole. Lucky us that he didn't fix it too soon. Here's some shots of the kids gathering the loot. It was dark and

f r e e z i n g by this point.

We had to finish the night off with a fire, hot cocoa, and chili. The wood was so wet from the snow that we had to improvise, Allen style, to get it started - gasoline and motor oil. But, it worked and ended the day perfectly. We won't talk about Vince getting sick on the way back to Grandma & Grandpa's. That might ruin the serene setting.

Before we left, the kids helped decorate the tree for Grandma & Grandpa. They had a lot of fun. Too bad Grandma had a bad allergic reaction to it a few days later. It had to be taken out of their house and now it's in Lane's. Poor Christmas with no tree! This is a bell that my Grandpa Ogden used for his sheep.Vince decorating.Aubrey decorating. I love this girl and her crazy hair!

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday with family and are now ready for the Christmas holiday excitement and some more weight gain.

Take Down for 2

A few weeks ago Vince started wrestling. Yes, Candice, my child is wrestling. You would be so proud of me. :) He loves sports and has soooooo much energy so we try to keep him involved in something. He loves it so far. His first match was take downs only. The other kid didn't have a chance against Vince. Vince would take him down, they would stand up, and Vince would take him down again. When the match was over, Vince said, "That was easy!" His next match wasn't so "easy". He wrestled a kid who was smaller than him and who was crying before the match. So, we thought he'd work the kid over pretty good. Well, little did we know, the kid had moves. He knew so much more than Vince. He understood leverage and holds whereas Vince knew take downs...kinda. In the match Vince was pinned 4 times. Yes, 4 times in one match. He still had fun and was humbled a little. Tonight he had another match and he used a half nelson right before he pinnned his kid. So fun to watch him connecting things he learns in practice into a real match. He had fun other than being choked by one of the kids he wrestled. Here's some cute pics of the fun.

Getting ready for his first match

Let's get ready to RUUUUMMMBBBLLLLE!

Take down for 2, take down for 2, take down for 2 take him down for 2!

(I'm not even sure if he's in a scoring position, but that's the cheer that fits best.)

Better Late Than Never, Right?

Okay, I know that Halloween was FOREVER ago, but since I'm new to the whole blogger thing I thought I would share some of our past fun. I thought my kids looked adorable, so here's the post with some pictures. They had so much fun this year trick-or-treating. Aubrey would have been okay to just hit our neighborhood, but Vince got the great idea to go to other neighborhoods. So, while Josh took Martin home, I took the other two to "other neighborhoods". After neighborhood #2, Aubrey was done and I was carrying her. I thought we'd be good with two neighborhoods, but Vince kept saying "just one more Mom". Who can turn that down? So, by neighborhood #3, Aubrey was in the back seat extremely tired...walking in princess shoes is exhausting...and I was driving the car, following Vince. He was practically running from house to house. I had to make him stop finally.

But, as I was following him in the car I was taken back to my childhood. I remember my mom taking us to Circleville and dropping us out on the street and following us as we walked from house to house. On short streets she would just wait for us to come back. On cold years, we would run to the house, get our candy, run back to the car (with a blaring heater), Mom would drive to the next house and it would start all over again. I love to reminisce about fun times in my childhood. Especially when those memories are sparked by experiences my children are having now in their lives.

Martin was a cute little puppy dog. Thanks to my friend for the borrowed costume! Martin kept moving while I was painting his face. He couldn't figure out what I was doing.

Aubrey is really into princesses and pulling funny faces right now. But, at least she's cute enough to get away with it. She was Sleeping Beauty this year. I know, that's not a Sleeping Beauty dress, but she was happy with it. The crown didn't actually make it to trick-or-treating.

When asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, Vince emphatically said, "Nacho Libre!" We LOVE that movie in our house if you can't tell. So, a few days before Halloween I actually started to make his costume. Good thing I have a really good friend who is a really good seamstress. I'm sure I couldn't have done it without her help. I wanted it to look great, so we made sure to include lots of details. We did burn a hole into his mask with the iron the day before Halloween, but after I stayed up until 4 am that night working on the final touches, it was finished on time. When I saw the finished product it was worth the effort.

They had so much fun and Vince and Aubs took turns carrying Marty's candy bucket (through all of the neighborhoods) so that he wouldn't miss out. They really do love each other...sometimes.

Beautiful Bottled Food

I wanted to share a few pictures of some (not even a small amount) of what I bottled this summer. This was my first year to bottle pears so I had to document it with some fun pictures. I know I'm weird, but aren't the bottles of food beautiful?

Some pictures of a few of my bottles of tomatoes, peaches, and pears.

Sweetie Pie (aka Josh) finished my shelves (on one wall) in my fruit room today. I guess it's "our" fruit room but I'm the one most excited about it. After every nail or screw I would cheer...seriously. I'm way more excited than a normal person should be about shelves! In the next few days I hope to get all of my food storage on the shelves. You will not believe how much food I bottled this year. I also have a TON of food and household "stuff" that I've accumulated since I started doing Pinching Your Pennies - highly recommended. Thanks babe for finishing the shelves. Are you going to help me fill them?

My Life Can Continue!

Did you know there are actually 5 seasons in the year? Winter, Spring, Summer, Bottling Season, and Fall. For those of you who bottle fruit and veggies, you can really relate to this post. This year I have been bottling since July and it is finally over! Bottling season is such a love hate relationship for me. I love to be able to fill the bottles with food, but by the time it's over I wonder if I'll do it again next year. It consumes your life for months. You are at the will of your fruit or veggies. When they're ready to be bottled you put your life on hold for them. This past weekend my mom came up for a few doctor appointments and helped me finish my apples. It was wonderful to finally say I'M DONE! This weekend we bottled about 110 bottles of applesauce and 25 bottles of apple pie filling. It was quite the endeavor. The first night we stayed up until 4 am. The second night we were up until 2:30 am and the final day we worked from 9 am until about 6 pm. Then we were up until about midnight cleaning up the mess. I think I slept for about 5 hours total on all of those nights! So, besides my pumpkins (which can wait for a while), I am done bottling for the season. Josh is building shelves in our fruit room - that my mom and dad helped us with also - and when that is done I will be able to get a full tally of my bottling season. I'm sure it will surprise even me. So, with the end of bottling season comes much needed time to spend with the kiddos, clean my house, get ready for the holidays, catch up on my calling, and especially catch up on my sleep and sanity. If you have never bottled your own food, it is such a nice feeling to see what you have accomplished. I love the fact that I know how to preserve my own food and that I know what is in it. So, with no more apples in the basement calling my name, I can officially begin to blog. Hopefully updates will come more often now. After I clean my house today I will add updates about our kids and our life. But for now, I'm just glad to be done bottling!

My mom and I took some pictures in the middle of the night...me being silly.

My mom being a saint and helping. This is exactly how I felt too!

Hallelujah! This is the last apple to be bottled at my house this year!

(remember, we had been bottling for days with little sleep...we were delirious!)