Rocket Cake

Well, we've had an interesting Christmas around here this year.  The whole Anderson clan gathered in Sioux Falls to celebrate.  We had grand plans of gingerbread houses, playing games and light seeing.  And although we did get to see the Western Mall Christmas on Saturday, our other holiday plans were cut short due to what we think was food poisoning.  I'll spare you the details but all I can say is I'm thankful we have two bathrooms in our house.

Finally this morning everyone was feeling a bit more human again and we celebrated Christmas.  We enjoyed a lovely breakfast, a huge turkey & fixins' lunch with a whole lotta present opening in between.  But my favorite part of the day?  Jesus' birthday cake.  Our new little family doesn't have many set "traditions" yet but this one thing we've done for two years now and I would like to keep .... making Jesus a birthday cake.  It seems to be a great way for Brooks to understand the real reason we celebrate this holiday. And it's a good reminder for us too.

We talked with Brooks about the cake a week ago and we asked him what kind of cake Jesus would want for his birthday.  He replied "A rocket cake!".  Mmmm, ok?  Then again this morning as I was frosting the cake he said with emphasis that Jesus wanted a rocket cake.  I was kind of wanting to make a nice Christmas cake, elegantly frosted and decorated.  But then I thought .... we always have fun cakes for Brooks' birthdays - puppy cake, basketball ball cupcakes, a baseball cake.  So why shouldn't Jesus have a rocket cake for his birthday?  It makes sense to a three year old, makes sense to me.  So a rocket cake we had.

I have to credit Chris for the artwork.  And Brooks added his embellishments to it.  We set in a candle, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and celebrated the greatest day in history!  Merry Christmas.

Band-Aid Face

Yesterday while Brooks was doing who knows what, he fell and bumped his face on the floor.  Not hard, but still it warranted many many tears and some screaming besides.  After he calmed down, he told me his lip hurt and he wanted a band-aid.  "On your lip?"  I asked.  Yes, on his lip.  I, in all my adult rationality, explained that band-aids don't go on your lips.  He wasn't buying it.  "You won't like it on your lip.  It will feel funny." I countered.  Still no dice.  He NEEDED a band-aid on his lip.  (sigh)  So I obliged.  The result?

One band-aided lip and one silent kid.   Hmmmm, maybe band-aids on lips are a good idea :)

The Underwear Snatcher

Every morning while Brooks is eating breakfast, I lay out his clothes for him on the couch.  And it never fails that while Brooks is trying to get dressed, Carter comes up, grabs Brooks' underwear (just the underwear) and starts running through the house waiving them like a flag!  Oh, and squealing.  Waiving them like a flag and squealing with sheer delight.  And Brooks is always right on his heels yelling "CARTER, NOOOOO!  Those are MIIIIINE!!"

And I know Carter wouldn't care about the underwear at all, except that he knows it bugs the crap out of Brooks.  It's hilarious!  Well, to me anyway.  Brooks doesn't find it so funny.  He's so used to this routine now that anytime Carter even steps into the same room as him, Brooks throws himself over his clothes to protect them, again shouting "CARTER, NOOO!"  And just so the boy can put on his clothes in peace, I usually try to occupy Carter for a while or I'll send Brooks up to his room and have him shut the door.  Carter definitely has his role as the little brother perfected :)

10 years ago

10 years and 3 months ago I started my freshman year at North Central University.  I went on a tour of downtown Minneapolis with the girls on my floor and the boys on our brother floor and met Chris Anderson for the first time ... and the second time ... and the third time.  (I could not remember that boys name.)

Despite my lack of memory for cute Montana boys' names, I developed a nice little crush.  You know the "he always walks this hallway after class so I think I'll just happen to walk down this hallway too" kinda crush.  And over the next three months we spent time talking, "bumping" into each other, getting to know each other.  (ok, it was more like me stalking him and he not freaking out and running in the opposite direction.  Same thing, right?)

10 years and 2 weeks ago he finally gathered the nerve to ask this girl out on a date.  I. was. ecstatic.

10 years and 1 week ago we went on that date.  We actually double dated with Chris' roommate and his girlfriend (now wife).  It was a lovely evening at the orchestra.  He wore a handsome suit.  I wore an entire ensemble of clothing, of which every piece belonged to someone else (gotta love living in the dorms) and according to him, I looked pretty good too.  He was nervous.  I was giddy.  We held hands (gasp).

Exactly 10 years ago to the day, Chris Anderson asked me to be his girlfriend.  I said yes :)

And 10 years, a wedding, 2 college graduations, 7 homes, 4 cities and 2 kids later ..... here we are.

I'm so glad he asked me on that date :)

Our little zoo

Last week was Halloween and, like most Christian parents I'm sure, we debated with what to to about it.  Ignore it?  Embrace it?  Do an alternative?  Last year I was working and we just kinda skipped it.  I didn't want to spend the money on a costume, didn't need the extra sugar and Brooks was none the wiser.  And this year we probably would have done the same except that our church was hosting their annual Trunk or Treat outreach.  We've only been attending Brandon Valley Assembly of God for a few months and figured this would be a good way to start getting involved.  So we signed up to decorate a trunk.

Which sounded all well and good except that we had to ..... decorate a trunk.  And given my iffy feelings on the holiday to begin with, I just wasn't that into it.  We ended up going with a zoo theme.  I found Carter a tiger costume at a consignment sale a few months earlier.  Then Brooks decided he wanted to be a zebra.  I couldn't find any zebra costumes in Sioux Falls and was getting a bit worried that I'd have to spend hours making him one.  But, eBay to the rescue!  We found a perfect zebra costume for him and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg.  He loved it!  So given that we had a tiger and a zebra, I naturally went as ..... the zookeeper.  I figured it was fitting.  I feed the animals.  I wash the animals.  I clean the animals' living space.  I deal with the animals' poop.  Pretty much sums up my life.

Jesus answered my prayers and I found all the things I needed for my costume at one thrift store!  Khaki pants and shirt with "Zoo Staff" printed on the back and pair of rubber boots made me look pretty official I think.  And Chris went as Indiana Jones.  Not because it really fit, but because he already had the costume from our kids ministry days.  The final result??

Not too bad, huh?  And for the trunk (I feel bad saying this) we just kinda threw it together.  We put in some wire crate shelves and tossed in a few stuffed animals with a sign that said "Welcome to the Zoo".  But despite the lack of effort, the kids loved it.  I mean, they really loved it.  Whodathunkit?

And I'm not gonna lie.  We pretty much had the cutest kids there.  I think several others thought that too  given how many times Carter had his picture taken :)  And about the candy ... Brooks was thrilled when he was able to eat one sucker (we rarely do candy in our house) and would have been satisfied with that for the evening.  When we told him he could go around to all the trunks and collect more candy, he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself.  More???  But it didn't take much convincing, and soon he had his bucket filled.

He LOVED that sucker!

Cutest. tiger. ever!

All in all, we had a good night.  The weather was actually pretty warm for being the end of October - 40ish degrees all night.  And they said there were between 1200 and 1400 kids there.  Wow!  What an impact made for the kingdom of Heaven.  Even though my heart wasn't always in it, I'm really glad we got involved and that God can work through us, despite ourselves.

But I Just Wanted a Mustache!

So yesterday afternoon while I'm cleaning up dishes, Brooks comes out of the bathroom looking like this and says "Look Mama.  I have a mustache!"

Not gonna lie.  I was speechless.  I was so torn between yelling at him for smearing whatever that black stuff was on his face and applauding his initiative and creativity that I did nothing ... at least for a minute.  Finally I asked "What's on your face?"

To which he replied "A mustache!"

Yes, I see that.  What is the black stuff on your face?

A mustache!

(sigh)  Ok.  But where did the black stuff come from?

The garbage.

Then I became a bit worried.  Until I remembered that I had thrown away an old mascara that morning.  Apparently he found it in the garbage, opened it and proceeded to apply his mustache.  And when I asked why he put the black on his face he said ...

"But I just wanted a mustache."

Guess I can't argue with that.

Saturday Adventure: Pumpkins!

This last weekend, we drove out to Valley Spring, SD (or is it in Iowa?  I don't know) to a farm called Garden of Weeden'.  I had heard about it from  few friends and since we didn't have any pumpkins (and didn't have anything to do) we made the 20 minute drive to the farm.  It was really a low key place - but they had a bunch of pumpkins and a ton of produce!

Carter kept calling the pumpkins "ball ball".  I guess it's close enough :) 

Then inside the produce barn they had a ton of little gourds.  I mean, a ton!!

Each of the boys picked out a few little pumpkins and I grabbed about 25lbs of acorn and butternut squash.  Our whole family loves squash, so I'll put a bunch in the freezer for the winter.

Then on Sunday we let he boys paint their pumpkins.  We thought about carving them, but let's be honest, it's a whole lotta work for us and not that much involvement for them.  So, painting it was.  Yes, Carter tried to eat the paint.  Yes, Brooks eventually covered most of his pumpkin in black paint (despite my urging him to use "bright" colors) and yes, we had a great time!

check out the tongue!

The end result?

Carter's on the left.  Brooks' on the right.

our mini pumpkin creations

Brooks D. Anderson, Attorney at Law

Let me set up this scenario for you .....

This morning Brooks was walking through the living room and kicked his blocks across the floor.

Me: Brooks!  Please don't kick your toys.

Brooks: Don't kick my toys?

No.  Don't kick your toys.

Are balls toys?

Yes.  Balls are toys.

Can I kick the balls?

(sigh)  Yes.

So I can kick my toys?

I have a feeling this boy may have a future in law.  Or as a politician.  Or at the very least, the captain of the debate team.  I hate when I'm legitimately outsmarted by a three year old.  Guess I need to choose my words more carefully.  And for those wondering, I ended the conversation with ...

Don't be sassy!  You need to be a good listener.  Don't kick your blocks.

He's too smart for his own good.

Healthy Again

Oh. my. word. this last sickness that went through our house was ugly.  When we've had a tummy bug in the past, it'd lasted 24 hours, tops, and then it's done.  And it usually only hits one member of the family.  This one started with Carter, then made its rounds to Brooks and Chris.  (I, fortunately, never had the full fledged puking ... just an unsettled tummy for a day.)  It started last Tuesday and it wasn't until Monday (seven days later) that everyone was starting to feel normal again.  The puking usually lasted less than 24 hours, but then came icky diapers and um, other toileting issues, extreme fatigue (as in, my 3 year old who no longer takes naps, taking 3 naps in one day) and achy-ness.  No fun.

I do believe that everyone is on the mend, but we're playing it safe and staying pretty quarantined for the rest of the week.  If this illness was what I think it was (Rotovirus) then you should consider your kids contagious for 10-12 days from the onset of diarrhea.  So no playgroups.  No Wednesday night church.  No library.  Nothing.  We're bored.  We're going stir crazy.  But we're healthy ... and being proactive in keeping others healthy too.  Because based on what over half of my friend on Facebook are saying, this nasty ugly sickness is going around.

So what's my reward for cleaning up puke and poop for nearly a week?  Well, just the satisfaction of being able to care for my family and nursing everyone back to health.

Oh, and this pie.  This delicious, made-from-scratch pie from the Cookie Jar (::drool::), bought by my generous and very appreciative husband.

I guess this does make the 12 extra loads of laundry I did seem not so bad.

Watch Me Grow: 13 months

Yes yes, I know.  I totally skipped the 12 month update.  And it was never my intention to do monthly updates past a year, but since the whole month of September literally screamed past me not allowing me time to post an update, I feel I need to finish off Carter's first year (or so) with this.

Carter has grown and changed so much in these last two months, it's hard to remember what happened when.  But I will do my best.  I will highlight in blue the things I know are new to him just this last month since he's turned one.

This was at a friend's birthday party.  Isn't he cute??

Eating:

• Carter still loves to eat, but he's becoming a bit more discerning about his food.  He used to shovel anything (literally, anything) into his mouth.  Now he's starting to develop preferences.  For instance, he loves breads and grains and cereals.  Carbs.  Who doesn't, right?  He still eat his fruits and veggies just fine, we just make sure to limit the amount of starchy foods we put on his plate to keep him from filling up on just that.
• Carter nurses a handful of times a day.  Usually right away in the morning, before nap, post nap and at bedtime.  And sometimes an extra morning nursing session makes its way into our day.  Sometimes I'm annoyed at how often he nurses still, but other times I try to remind myself that this is just a season and to try and enjoy these times together while I can.  Soon he'll be off and too busy to snuggle with me.  Plus, with the winter month coming up, I know it will help keep him healthy.
• Carter pulls my hair when he nurses.  That does annoy me.

Sleeping:

• Carter's nap schedule hasn't changed.  He still goes to sleep around 1 or 2pm.  He used to sleep a solid 2-3 hours every day, but sometimes now he'll only take a hour and a half nap and he still does ok.
• Night time sleep also hasn't changed.  But that's not so great.  I'm really ready to start sleeping a solid night through.  He goes to bed around 8pm and he'll usually wake around 3am to nurse, and maybe again at 5 or 6.  The good news is then he'll usually sleep in until 8 or so, but I'd prefer to have him up earlier for the day and sleep the whole night.
• Carter has slept through the night once.  Just once.  One night last week (on September 26 to be exact) he went to bed at 8pm and slept until 6:45am!!  It was amazing!  Well, sort of.  My nursing body wasn't used to him sleeping that long and I kept waking up thinking he'd be up at any time wanting to eat.  So I guess it still wasn't good continuous sleep, but now I know he can sleep that long.  The only trick is how to get him to do it again.  Hmmmmm.......
• Carter's bed is still in our room.  Thankfully he sleeps awesome in his bed (and not in ours) but we're hoping to eventually move him into Brooks' room.  But again, that whole night waking thing is holding us back from doing that.

New Discoveries:

• Books.  This topic really deserves it's own blog post, so I won't say much here.  But I will say that Carter.loves.books.  Totally loves books.  And it's so cute to see him toddling toward us with a book in his hand saying "book book".  I can never resist.
• Pots and Pans.  Every kid at some point in their lives totally disassembles the pots and pans cupboard. Carter is no exception.  He pulls everything out piece by piece, throws them all on the floor and then climbs in the cupboard.  It's a fun little fort, apparently.  The funny thing is that Brooks can't stand the mess, so when Carter is done Brooks comes in and puts everything away.  Works out nice for me.

• Shoes.  Carter love shoes.  We often find him carrying them around the house.  And when I tell him we've leaving, he'll (sometimes) walk to the back door, pick up his shoes and tap his feet with them in an attempt to put them on.  Then he'll pick up Brooks' shoes and hand them to him.  So helpful.

New Abilities:

• Standing.  One day as the boys and I were playing on our front porch, Carter just stood up.  He wasn't holding on to anything.  He just stood up ... right in the middle of the porch.  I was super impressed.  And he seemed fairly impressed by himself too!
• Walking.  Carter took his first "real" steps on his birthday.  How fitting.  He loved it!!  The week or so leading up to his birthday Carter was crabby crabby crabby.  And now I'm convinced it's simply because he wanted to walk and couldn't.  Once he became mobile on two feet, he was a much happier boy.  Each day after that he took a few more steps, walking more and more.  And about two weeks after his birthday he became a full time walker.  He thinks is great being able to get around while holding stuff!  And since he's still so little, it's absolutely adorable to see him toddle around.  Now he's really steady on his feet and can catch himself when he trips up a little.  I'm so impressed.
• Hugs and Kisses.  At random times Carter will toddle over to me, throw his arms around my neck and then give me a kiss.  A big, slobbery, open mouthed kiss on the cheek.  And I love it!!!  Sometimes he'll give you a kiss if you ask, but most often it's on his own terms.
• Mama and Dada.  We officially have names.  Carter can both say and correctly identify Mama and Dada.  And it's the best thing being woken up in the morning to a little boy cooing my name :)
• Signing.  We've been working with Carter on his sign language for the last several months.  In August he really started picking up on it.  He could sign more, all done, and dada.  
• Signing.  Since his birthday, Carter has added even more signs to his vocabulary.  In addition to the above, he can sign Mama, eat, sleep, nurse, puppy, shoe, book, tree, fishy.  Now, all of these signs aren't performed perfectly and some of them kinda look the same (shoe, book and more all look like clapping.  Tree, fishy and all done all kind of look like waving)  But the great thing about being home with him all day, is that I can figure out what he's saying.  It's awesome being able to communicate with him.
• Talking.  More "words" are making their way into Carter's vocabulary.  It's of just the beginning sounds of the word, but when I look at what he's pointing to or holding, I usually know what he means.  In addition to mama and dad, some common words are buh buh (book book), duh! duh! (duck duck), bah bah (ball ball) and bbbrrrrmmm, bbbrrrmmm (car).
• Animal sounds.  The cat says "mow mow", the sheep says "baa baa", the cow says "mmmmmmm" and the puppy says "oof oof".  The puppy is my favorite.

When Brooks was born I remember being nervous about having a toddler.  I had very little experience with kids that age and had only heard aweful things (Terrible two's anyone?)  But I'm finding that I LOVE this age.  Carter's personality has come out so much in the last few months and he's an absolute blast to be with.  He loves to laugh, he loves his family and he still loves cars.  He's learning so much and I love watching his mind work as he processes new things.  And I'm sure every parent says this about their kids, but Carter is so smart.  He picks up on things very quickly and I'm constantly amazed at what he can do.  I'm thankful that God has blessed our home with Carter James and I look forward to watching him grow.

The family that pukes together ....

... is quarantined in their house together.  Doesn't really have that romantic ring to it, does it?

Early Tuesday morning I woke up to Carter spitting up (or so I thought) in his bed.  He had nursed an hour before and it's not unusual for him to spit up (just take a look at all my stained shirts for proof), but when the "splash" was audible ... I knew it couldn't be good.  And thus commenced our day of Carter puke.  Which to be honest wasn't all that terrible.  He'd nurse and then spit it all back up.  It was just a large amount of spit up.  And surprisingly he didn't cry much.  He was just really really tired.  Took two long naps that day.  Finally that evening he was holding down a little breast milk   My biggest fear with pukey sick is the dehydration, so I was really happy that something was staying down.  We sat in the recliner together.  Him attached to my boob, me watching old Julia Roberts movies.  All in all, not too bad.  However, him waking every hour that night to nurse was terribly exhausting.  All I wanted to do was let him cry himself back to sleep so I could sleep, but I knew he needed the fluids so we nursed.  And nursed.  And nursed.

Yesterday he was holding down fluids, but had no appetite and was still really lethargic.  And last night he actually slept for more than a hour at a time.  In fact he slept from 7pm until 5am.  And come this morning he was pretty much back to himself.  Except for those awful awful  poopy diapers.  Oh, I can't even describe to you the smell.  Then starting last night and today I have had this crampy tummy ache.  Not nauseous and probably all in my head, but I was pretty wiped out today.  Probably my turn next, I figured.

Nope.  Wrong.  Next came Brooks.  I went upstairs around 3pm today to get Carter from his nap and when I returned Brooks was crying saying "I spiiiit uuuuuuup".  Sure enough, he puked.  In his lap.  There was more to come and I'll spare you the details, but now Brooks is full blown sick.  Can't keep anything down, sick.  He's upstairs sleeping now, but every 1/2 hour or so he wakes up dry heaving.  I feel so bad for him.  It seems worse than Carter's case.  When your three year old looks at you crying saying "make my tummy feel better"  I just want to magically make it all better.  I've prayed over him, rubbed his back, cleaned him up and have changed his clothes and bed sheets several times, but other than that there's not much I can do.

And to top it all off, now Chris is complaining of a stomach ache.  Probably the same crampy thing I still have but since he has a much more active gag reflex than me, it looks like I'll be on puke duty alone tonight.  Motherhood.  It really is the job you never punch out from.  I'm just anxious for my family to be healthy again.

Oh, and after doing some looking online, I suspect we have a case of Rotovirus going around.  Fits all the symptoms.  And several other people's kids in town have it too.  And guess what?  It's contagious 10-12 days after the onset of diarrhea.  So it looks like we really will be quarantined together.

Not a Crafty Mom

So I've realized that I'm not a crafty mom.  I don't craft things for myself.  I mean, I wish I did.  I tried learning how to sew in high school, but as my mother could tell you I just didn't have the patience for it.  I wouldn't mind learning how to stamp or scrapbook, but I don't have the space for all the materials.  I think photography is neat but I don't have the money or time to learn.

And since I'm not crafty myself, I usually don't do crafts with my kids.  We do have paint and glue and scissors, but they're not used all that often.  I know I should be better and perhaps a book of "kid crafts" would inspire me.

But then I realized that although I don't create things with paper or fabric, I do like to create things with food.  I love to cook.  And I've always loved baking.  And if I'm going to take the time to make something, I want it to be useful.  Like something we can eat.  So the crafts in our house happen in our kitchen.  Today's craft?  Graham crackers.  And Brooks loved helping!!

They were delicious!  Perhaps I'm just a little bit crafty after all.

Carter turns One!

I have so much to write about Carter's birthday, and obviously not much time to write it (hence this being a week and a half late).  So I'll break it up into a few posts.

Carter's birthday landed on a Monday this year, which also happened to be Labor Day.  So we figured since it was a holiday and most people had it off anyway, we'd just throw his party on Monday.  Which was great in that we had all weekend to prepare for his party.  But not so great in that we spent all weekend preparing for his party.  And the more kids we have and the more parties we host, I find myself having this internal struggle.  Do I go all out and throw this huge birthday bash because that is what you're "supposed" to do and inside that's what I really want to do?  Because although it creates memories and leads to great pictures, it's a  whole lotta work.  Or do I keep it simple and do something small?  It's less work, but a first birthday is kind of a big deal and I don't want to him to feel (down the road) like we just skimmed past it.  So I think we met kind of in the middle.  It was by no means a party that would find it's way onto Pinterest, but I think we did a good job making the day special.

We sort of did a "Car" theme for Carter's party.  I say "sort of" because we just did a few car themed things, but really didn't go all out.  The invitations were shaped like little cars and for the party I made ants on a log "cars" with toothpicks and grapes for wheels.  They were cute.  But I didn't make a "car" cake. I just wasn't feelin' it.  But the car thing fit because Carter LOVES anything with wheels.  More than any other toy, a car will keep him entertained.  He drives the car, spins the wheels.  So fun!  Plus it's fits his name too.  CARter.  Car.  Get it?  (I'm sure you already caught that, but I figured I'd point it out anyway.)  Guess we named him appropriately :)

We had many wonderful friends and family here for Carter's party.  Of course Uncle JD and Auntie Pammie stayed, but Chris's parents also drove in for the party.  A 10 hour drive from Montana for a one year old party shows a lotta love for our special little guy.

I ... er, Carter opened presents.  He received lots of new "wheeled" things to play with.  Oh, what fun!

We all had lunch and then came the much anticipated eating of the cake!!

What is this??

First taste

This is pretty good.

Face first!

Messy cake face :)

Yes, I do indeed like this cake!

The cake was immediately followed by a bath and a new change of clothes.  Then after the sugar spike,came the sugar crash and a nap.  A much needed nap.  (For the record, there was actually very little sugar in the cake, but there was plenty in the frosting.  He ate mostly frosting).

After cake, our friends left, Carter napped, I cleaned the house and everyone just hung out.  I think I even took a nap. For dinner I declared that we were going out to eat.  After preparing food for 20 people at lunch time, I decided I was taking the night off.  After much debate and discussion about where & what to eat, we decided to grab some Pizza Hut and head to the park.

The boys had so much fun playing with Grandma and Papa!

And just like that our boy is one.  (sigh)  We made it.  And I'm really excited for the upcoming year.  I really am.  He's already changing so much and I LOVE seeing him grow and learn new things.  We are so blessed to have Carter in our family!!

Saturday Adventures: The Apple Orchard

I have so many blog posts swirling around in my head right now and I need to write about Carter's birthday still, but I wanted to post this before I totally forgot about it.

Saturday morning we all headed down to Country Apple Orchard just south of Sioux Falls.  It's our fifth year going, so I guess it's kind of a tradition.  The apples are terribly overpriced, but we try to tell ourselves that we're paying for the experience, not the fruit.  Then it seems worth it.  We met our friends Eric and Katie and their two kids, Jake and Celia there.  The weather was 65 degrees and sunny - perfect!  Here's a few pictures from the day!

This year Brooks rode the "train" aka wheeled rain barrels pulled by Santa on a riding lawn mower.  Yep, Santa.  He loved it!  Not the Santa part (he doesn't even know who that is) ... the train part.

This has to be the BEST picture of the day.  Brooks asked for some of Jake's ice cream and like any good friend would, he shared :)  It was so cute!  Oh, and the fact that Jake is dressed in a flannel shirt, bibs and a conductor hat?  Hilarious!  It's like country mouse and city mouse!

After the ice cream was finished, we rode the wagon out to the orchard and picked some apples.

"Look how tall I am.  I can reach the apples!"

"Mama!  Look at my apple!"

We stopped for a little snack break.  We had to sample the "fruit" of our labor :)

This kid may only have eight teeth, but he wasn't about to be outdone by the big kids.  And wouldn't you know, he actually got a few bites off that apple.

Tonight I made my first apple pie of the season.  I. love. apple. pie.  Love love love apple pie!  And really all things apple.  I'm so excited for fall baking!