Garden Goods, Fishing & Fall Festivities

I haven't been very good at posting about our garden this year. We got a ridiculous amount of peaches off our tree this year as well as apples. Lots of strawberries, not many tomatoes, a bunch of green onions, some deformed cucumbers, and a few zucchinis and banana squash. Banana squash has got to be one of the best things to grow since you don't have to do much to keep it going and it is great to use all winter as long as it's stored properly. Plus, it tastes great with some butter and salt & pepper.

Dave has been doing more fishing lately but sadly has only caught one fish. He has taken out the boys a few times as well as his brothers, each trying some different type of bait: worms, power bait, spinners, and mice with homemade life jackets (seriously). He really enjoys it, but would really like to catch something. I told him he should take up spear fishing. 

And finally...

FALL FESTIVITIES!!!

If anyone knows me really well, you know that I LOVE the fall. It is my favorite time of the year. The smell of the air, the sweater weather, the cold mornings and perfect afternoons, and all the fun that happens in the month of October. 

Last Friday we decided to go to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. It's a little pricey but Cruise begged us to go, so I took the two older boys while Dave took Miles to Farm Country & the Dinosaur Museum. 

 We all met up for dinner at the deli afterwards.

Tonight we all drove up to Heber to ride the Heber Creeper. We got Groupon tickets that saved us about $30, so we decided that would be a fun activity for the boys since they've always wanted to go on a real train (sorry Disneyland, you just don't count). They also had a stationary "haunted train car" that wasn't very scary, however, Jett wouldn't go in. He really wanted to see inside, but he just couldn't get past the werewolf at the beginning. They had the Pumpkin Festival going on so the boys got to pick out a pumpkin after the train ride. It was a short ride, about 40 minutes, which doesn't take you into parts of the area that are very fun to look at, but the kids seemed to enjoy it a lot. Miles fussed on and off, as he has been particularly fussy lately due to quite a few sensory needs. But he survived the ride and enjoyed looking out the window. The boys all got pumpkin chocolate chip cookies as we rode the train and even got to get up and dance to Thriller at one point. 

Cruise trying to convince Jett to get on the "Haunted Train Car" 

After we left the train station, we drove a block to Granny's for some burgers, onion rings and shakes. It's always nice to have a full tummy driving to Lehi from Heber. 

The end. 

Chore Jar, Mt. Laundry & The Great Towel Wars

My therapist has been helping me think of some ways I can get the boys to help around the house as well as helping me find solutions to the constant, disastrous mess that is my house. I decided to do a chore jar, which is a giant pickle jar with balls, each with a number that corresponds to a chore. If they do a chore, they get a marble, however, Cruise has lost all interest in marbles, so we'll be moving to a money system soon (which will also help him in math). Jett's been racking up the marbles, saving for some toys from the museum.

I also purchased some baskets for Cruise & Jett for their clothes so they can put their clothes away themselves. Cruise has green, and Jett has blue. They actually do it with minimal complaining, and I made it easy for them long ago by putting pictures of what type of clothing goes inside on each drawer. 

As far as the towels are concerned, the boys take out a new towel EVERY. DAY. and they pile up, get thrown all over the floor, and get walked on, dog hair, etc. It was driving me crazy! So we locked up the linens closet and I purchased the boys two towels each of their color of choice. Cruise: green. Jett: blue. Miles: yellow (I had to pick his). They get one towel at a time, they are responsible for keeping track of their towel and keeping it off the floor. And if I find a towel on the floor, I know whose it is! "It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Genius I say!" It's worked quite nicely.

Grandma & Papa Greer Come to Town

A few days after Miles' birthday, my parents came to town and we got to spend a little time with them. On the 26th of September, we went to lunch with them to Cubby's and then later we all went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity so Cruise could show them all the amazing things the museum had to offer.

Even though it was just for a day, it was fun to have Grandma & Papa in town! I kept wondering why it's taken me so long to post this and then I remembered, Cruise & Miles got super sick for a week from putting the water in their mouths from the Water Works area. Miles was especially sick and couldn't keep anything down. So yeah, I completely forgot to blog. 

Miles' 1st Birthday

Oh wow, it's already been a year. For Miles' birthday we had the family nearby come and have cake & ice cream at our place the Sunday before his actual birthday. I requested no gifts because quite frankly, we have wayyy too much stuff in this house. Not to mention toys. We decided to have a Sesame Street theme since Miles LOVES Sesame Street. His favorite video is Sing Yourself Silly, and yes, we have it on VHS (although I bought a backup DVD since our VCR started eating some of the tapes).

Here is the invitation for the party:

And of course I did my usual themed cake. I decided to do a 2 tier banana cake with whipped cream cheese frosting and chocolate ganache between the layers. The bottom tier was 3 layers of cake that I covered in green fondant and then cut out a Sesame Street sign with Miles' name on it. That proved to be pretty tricky and a little frustrating. 

The second tier I decided to make into Oscar's trashcan with Oscar peering out. It sounded easier than it actually was. I bought small little round pans and stacked 3 layers of cake and then wrapped it in grey fondant. The Oscar was green modeling chocolate with modeling chocolate eyes, and then I piped green royal icing on him to make him look furry. The lid I made out of cardboard covered in fondant. I had to use a few dowels to keep it all together, but it worked out. I was just glad that the trashcan was supposed to look lumpy and dinged up because it was not looking to great. I dusted the whole can with silver dusting powder so it would look more metallic. 

Just as I was finishing, Miles climbed up and grabbed a fistful of cake, so I had Dave cut out some fondant stars and we covered the hole right up! 

Then I made Miles his own little cake in case he wanted to dig in (which he didn't). I just did a small layer covered in chocolate ganache. It tasted like chocolate covered bananas. 

Honestly I have to say, this was one of the hardest cakes I've ever had to do. It took me 10 hours from start to finish. But it tasted awesome!

Once we got Miles all situated to sing to him and let him at his cake, he looked so confused and was wondering what all those people were doing singing at him. Cruise & Jett blew out his candle for him and Miles sat there without even touching his cake. He chewed on a spoon for a half hour. His favorite part of the entire party were the balloons. 

Mom & Dad Ybarra broke our rule and got Miles some gifts (I guess if anyone is allowed, it's Grandparents). They got him some cute, fuzzy jammies and a TMNT nap mat with memory foam. I must admit, I've been enjoying that quite a bit as I hang out with Miles in the playroom. Thanks Ybarras!

On Monday, his actual birthday, we gave Miles his birthday presents! I got him a fun book called Heads and then we got him a little Disney Planes ride-on, which he is loving!

Today I took him to his 1 year check up and shots. He did so good with the shots! Hardly cried at getting 3 big ones! He is doing awesome as far as development goes. His stats are as follows:

Height: 29.5 in. (36th percentile)

Weight: 22.9 lbs (75th percentile)

Head C.: 18.5 in. (76th percentile)

At that was Miles' birthday!