An Apple A Day

We bought a ginormous box of apples from the same lady that sold us the peaches and went to work last week. All of her fruit comes from Utah so you know it's good! We made applesauce, applesauce for babies, apple pie filling and apple butter (a special request from Grandma). It was a lot of work but it sure is tasty!

We made four quarts of regular applesauce, about 40 ounces of frozen baby food, two pints of canned baby/George applesauce, four pints of apple butter, and 3 quarts and 1 pint of apple pie filling. We borrowed a water bath canner when we did the peaches and we just haven't given it back yet... It's so fun!

My Baby: Six Months!

Oliver was six months last Friday but we didn't have an appointment with the doctor until Wednesday. Here are his measurements:

Weight: 16 pounds 5 ounces (25th %-ile)
Length: 27 inches (50th %-ile)
Head circ: 17.5 inches (89th %-ile)

I don't know where our boys get their big heads... Oliver is so dang cute! I can't stand it sometimes. He has the sweetest smile and the calmest disposition. He has no teeth yet but he has tried a few different solids. He has tried green beans, sweet potatoes, peaches and grapes. His favorite are frozen grapes in his little mesh feeder. He also really likes peaches but he will still eat the veggies when offered. I add a little oatmeal to the green beans to make them a little more palatable.

He is not trying to crawl at all! He is content to just lay or sit on the floor. He can pull himself up but he doesn't do it unless we tell him to. It's pretty cute because he gets a big smile on his face knowing how much we like it.

He wakes up twice each night; once around eleven/midnight and again around 4/5 am. He goes to bed at the same time as George around 8 after a bath and story time. I love seeing these little boys in the bath together! He sleeps until 8 am usually. He adores George and will also smile when he talks to him. I always tell George that Ollie is his best friend. George has adjusted really well to being a big brother. He loves it! 

Conversations with George M

While going potty (standing up, this helps it make more sense...):
George: Peepee this way, peepee that way. Oh, it's bigger! (the peepee stream) Bubbles! I make bubbles! (boys!)

Mom: George, let's go!
George: Okay, Mommy! Let's go! We go play with da kids?
Mom: No, it's time for a nap.
George: (dejected) Ohhhhh... I wanna go to da store!
Mom: Nope, it's nap time!
George: Take pants off!
Mom: Wait and take them off in your room.
George: Ohhhhhh-kaaaay

Daddy: K, George, give me a hug and a kiss!
G: No, no go!
Daddy: Come on, George!
G: I wanna go in da car!
Mommy: You can't go in the car, you're not wearing any clothes (he took them off as soon as he woke up)
G: I want clothes!
Mommy: Daddy's leaving, give him a hug and a kiss.
G: Ohhhhhhh-kaaaaay

Mommy: George, get off your brother!
G: I wuves baby bruver!
Mommy: I know you love him but you can't strangle him! He's just a baby!
G: No a baby! Baby bruver!
Mommy: Yes, he IS your baby brother but he is little and you need to be soft and nice. Say sorry and give him a kiss.
G: Okay, Mommy. Sah-wey (Sorry) baby bruver, give you a kiss! *kiss*

I love this boy more and more every day. Today he was getting on my nerves just a bit but I could tell he was really bored and just wanted to play. Unfortunately, I can't play much during work hours. He kept asking me to dance with him. I did once but not as much as I should have. He's so dang smart and extra special polite. I taught him to say, "Okay, Mommy" whenever I ask him to do something or tell him something. I remember my mom always telling me, "Just say okay!" because I always had something else to say. I would always talk back. I am trying to get him to get used to just saying, "okay". Hence it being one of his favorite words!

The Zoo!

My little sister is in town so I took the day off and we headed to the zoo! There were six kids, ages three and under. It was so fun! I love that George and Ollie have cousins so close to them in age. My sister Jaylyn brought her three kids and my little sister Caitie brought her little girl. Jaylyn has twins that will be four in January and they love George and vice versa. It is so fun to watch them play. At one point, George and Addylyn were holding hands and singing the alphabet song as they walked along. It was so cute!

Stopping for lunch... at 10:30... Lightweights!

We stopped to see the stingrays. George would not touch them but he thought they were cool. 

This is a picture I got after I told George not to turn around and smile. Kids are too easy!

George's favorite animal was the giraffe. It is all he can talk about. If anyone asks what he saw at the zoo, he will always mention the giraffe. He had show and tell yesterday at preschool and told all the kids about it. One kid said, "Oh, the virgaffe!" and George said, "No, giraffe!" and they went back and forth a few times before the teacher intervened and really made that little boy mad!

Mommy's favorite animals were the monkeys, of course! They have a monkey village and it's a huge cage where you can walk in and the monkeys are swinging through the trees all around you. It was so awesome! And Glen was able to join us after his class ended. ASU is just ten minutes from the zoo!

They also have a splashpad which was a must do because it was 104 degrees. IN OCTOBER!

We had a great time! Thanks, Grandma Robin!

Millions of Peaches!

 We bought a 32 pound box of Utah peaches last week and did what we could with them. We canned 12 quarts, made about 70 oz of baby food, made some peach popsicles, peach muffins and still had peaches left over for George and I to snack on.

We also have been experimenting with different Pinterest recipes. One day I made a yummy cake that reminded me of Fall. We have also made chicken Caesar sandwiches, many types of cookies, playdough, colored rice, and I even made my own empanada dough that was pretty dang good and could work for a pie (I think a peach pie is in my future). I really enjoy Pinterest and I enjoy it even more when the things they tell me are true...

5 Months!

Oliver is five months-old! He is finally rolling both ways and enjoying every minute of it! I don't know why it takes my kids so long to roll over. I think they just don't see why they would need to until they start really wanting that toy way over there. Lucky for me he is not cutting any teeth yet! George had like four teeth by now and the end of nursing came shortly thereafter. He is a happy jack. George loves him to pieces... literally. I am waiting to find Ollie bits strewn about. He hugs him and kisses him and jumps on him and so on. But he also give him his pacifier when he is sad and pats his back to help him burp or fall asleep.

George has started to dress himself. He has never had the confidence and I just started making him do it on his own. He doesn't like to fail so he gets really frustrated if he can't do it perfectly. He is loving preschool and making some friends. For that I am truly grateful! Thanks Mrs. Brianne!

Pests

It seems I have a pest on my hands. This is what we found this morning:

I recognized the signs right away and I was able to get a picture of the rodent in his natural habitat:

...

Those with a weak constitution may want to stop here

...

AHHH! My eyes!! In all seriousness, we did find evidence of a mouse. It wasn't half-eaten apples but there was definitely evidence. Glen set a trap last night and I found the monster dead this morning. Gross. Glen is gone all day at school and I wasn't going to let it sit in my house until late this evening. Therefore, it was up to me to dispose of it. I was unable to finish my breakfast. I still can't think about it without getting a little nauseous.

Cars

A friend's post about her car breaking down inspired me to share our most recent car troubles. Some time last winter, when we were in Utah, our fuel level gauge started being funky in the Santa Fe. After a day or two of weirdness, it stopped working all together. We had no reason to fix it since we still had at least six months before our next inspection so we were just tracking the mileage and getting gas when we had gotten close to what we were used to getting on a full tank.

Well, July rolled around and it was time to register the car. Because the fuel level sender was out, the check engine light was on and we failed inspection, of course. So we took it to our mechanic and he replaced the fuel level sender only. Another option would have been to replace the fuel pump along with the sender since a new pump comes with a sender. But he was trying to save us money so he just replaced the sender. Meanwhile, our driver's side window was making a lot of noise when you rolled it up or down. We tried to ignore it but it started to get difficult to roll it up. So, a few days after the sender was replaced, I was driving around Mesa after meeting with a naturopathic doctor about my hives. I turned onto a busy street when the car started acting like it was out of gas... I putt putted just long enough to get onto a side street. We were in direct sunlight and I had little Ollie with me. I called Glen and he didn't answer. Luckily we did have a second car at the time because my dad had let us borrow a little Chevy he bought from my uncle. However, Glen was not answering so I called my Dad and he was able to get out to me and told me to call the mechanic to get the name of a tow company. While we waited for the car to be towed (we didn't want to leave the keys with the car in the neighborhood we were in... not a nice one) Dad took me to get an ice cream cone and I fed Oliver. I cried a little when it first happened and I realized I would be in a very hot car with my little baby. I think Dad felt bad...

Turns out the fuel pump went out... So, we had to pay to replace the fuel pump which comes with a brand new sender. I now have a barely used sender in my garage not being used... This of course happened during the month we started to budget really seriously to prepare to live on only my income.

A few days later I went to the pool with my mom and we stopped at Chick-Fil-A on our way home. I rolled down the window and it would not go up. This would almost be okay if we didn't live in AZ. Our neighbor was able to prop it up with different wedges so we could order the parts needed and still have a closed winder for our drive to UT for graduation. Well, on our drive to Utah, the car started shaking a little bit which caused the window to slowly fall down. By the time we were about an hour from getting to our destination, the car was shaking so violently that Glen had to stop driving and my mom got in our car so he could drive hers. It was giving him a headache among other things. Glen took the car to my brother's house who said the issue was not alignment as we had originally thought. The tire on the driver's side was separating on the inside... So glad we didn't die. Of course our tires are at least $200 a tire because we drive an SUV. Luckily they were under warrantee so we got a free tire but we had to pay for the neighbor tire since you really shouldn't change just one tire and we had to pay to mount them. Miraculously, Glen had been paid one more paycheck than we were expecting. Since he was a teacher, he gets paid through the summer but I wasn't expecting this last check. Within a month's time, we replaced the fuel level sender, fuel pump, two tires and an automatic window motor. We also had to pay the $350 registration fee and the insurance. I pay insurance once every six months so that was $400. We spent about $2000 on our car that month.

Now we just have to replace the brakes and flush the engine. No big deal....