Harvest Time

You know it's harvest season when, within TWO hours, your friend, mother, and mother-in-law all offer to give your their tomatoes. It's really a fun time of year. In fact, since peaches went on sale at Harmon's, my mother-in-law taught me how to can them. When I finished canning peaches, I stopped by my mom's, only to find her baking zucchini bread. I enjoyed a slice, but didn't take any home. Good thing, because the next morning, my good friend left a loaf on my door step. Yep! and it was delicious! So much goodness and so little time. Last week, I made a "Harvest Soup," which means, I made up a soup that contained home grown corn, zucchini, and onions. Not too bad for an invented concoction. We ate it for two days.

And now for the peaches . . .

We turned these:

into this:

And here's how:

First we blanched the peaches (blanch, as I learned is a fancy word to describe the process where you stick peaches in boiling water to make the skin come off more readily.

Here are the jars, sitting in the oven to remain sterilized until we cut the peaches.

Here are the jars filled with peaches, just before we put them in the canner:

When the peaches were done boiling, we took them out and waited for them to cool. It's fun to listen for the "pop" that lets you know the lid has sealed.

Thanks, Karen. I had a great time! Now I know how to can peaches. I wonder what I will learn next. Any ideas anyone?

Sleeping Like a Baby

So, as I peeked into the crib today, this is what I found:


She was holding still, sleeping just like it looks!

Babies at the Zoo

Here is a picture of me four week before Emma was born:

And here is a picture of Emma and me this week:

We went to the zoo for a playgroup activity with the med wives on Wednesday. It was so much fun! I thought it was very interesting that I have had a baby since I last went, and so did an elephant, giraffe, snow leopard, and tiger (three baby tiger cubs!). Emma was very interested in the mama giraffe when she stuck her neck out over the railing to look down on us. I can't wait to take her again and again!

Camping with the Cowarts

Two weeks ago, Andrew, Emma, and I went camping with our friends Tyler, Michelle, and Ethan. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Spruces and had a great time! We played lots of games, ate too many sweets, and went for a great hike the next day to Dog Lake. There were lots of dogs up there, odly enough. We had a great time. Check it out!

Here are Emma and Ethan playing together. Michelle and I brought the exact same baskets to sleep them in:

Here we are at Dog Lake:

This was one of our moose encounters. We saw four of them during our hike and they were REALLY close at times. I was afraid they might charge at any moment. They did NOT seem at all afraid of us.

This was taken about 45 minutes before the end of the hike. Emma was so good the whole time!

Andrew Came Home! (though I'm sure you already knew that by now)

The last three weeks of summer were super chaotic (and fun) but September has brought a bit of normalcy with it, so I will attempt to catch up on all the blogging I've failed to post.

First of all, Andrew came home from Ghana. When I saw him coming down the escalator in the airport, I thought he had turned into a mountain man. Check out the beard he came home with and everything else:


These are African dresses Andrew had made for Emma and me. He picked out the fabric in Juaben, the city where he lived for most of his stay.

These are the cool things he bought:

And here I am sporting Emma on my back like a Ghanaian woman:

I am so grateful to have him home. He had life-changing experiences that were worth all the sacrifices we made. Emma is so happy to have him home, too!