End of Summer.

Sioux Falls schools have been in session for just over a week now and it feels like summer is coming to an end. We don't mind-we've been enjoying these gorgeous evenings outside in the back yard, usually playing until the sun sets. We've made and flown a lot of paper airplanes, and just recently discovered that the empty lot next to us also doubles as a kickball/softball/soccer, etc. field.

Upon Nathan's insistence, we started kindergarten today. He told Matt that it was "awesome". However, we still plan to fully enjoy these last summer days!

Harvest.

Our garden has gone from bustling now to dwindling...all that remains is beans (though I must say, we've got a lot of beans), tomatoes, and a few carrots. But, I've had a busy week of preserving the harvest.

The tomato pile on the counter was becoming too great, so I decided it was time to do some canning. I borrowed my mom's canner (which Nathan thought looked like it belonged to Ma and even asked if I took it from the Homestead), and so far have canned 7 quarts and 2 pints of tomatoes. Since, we've gone back to the garden 2x, and so more canning may be in my future. I love eating fresh garden tomatoes-but there is a limit to such things.

I did the majority of the canning during nap time-but here's Ella and Addie "helping" me in the morning.

Besides the tomatoes, I was also busy this week freezing all of our green beans and some sweet corn (about 9 dozen) from my sister and her husband.

We're looking forward to enjoying our veggies this winter!

Jacob Elliott

Jacob Elliot Knutson-

our newest nephew.

On Monday, August 22-we got to meet little Jacob Elliot. My oldest sister Brenda was induced early in the morning, so when the baby still wasn't born after dinner we figured we go over to the hospital and be there to meet the new baby. We ended up waiting until almost 10:00-but the kids had fun waiting, especially since Papa and Nana were there.

Papa and baby:

Papa and Nana with Nathan, Braden (big brother), Jacob, and Ella:

The next afternoon we went back to visit, Ella was disappointed she didn't get to hold him the first night (and so was I:)

Mommy and the little guy.

It's hard to believe that if we had a fourth child with the same spacing as the first three, we would currently have a 3-4 month old. Addie's definitely a baby lover-but also definitely needs to be watched whenever around babies. When I held Jacob I had to be in defensive position the entire time.

Welcome to the world little Jacob...we look forward to getting to know you!

What She Said.

When I started this blog it was simply a means to archive our lives, for my own sake and for the sake of keeping in touch with family. It still is that, I don't express a lot of personal thoughts, but I did read a post today from a blog that I love-and it really expresses what I want to convey through my blog and also through my life. So, I thought I would share:

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2011/08/good-things-come-in-squirmy-packages.html.

(this was a guest post, but in general this site is great for Biblical encouragement and recipes, and has also been a huge resource in my new "natural" lifestyle...which perhaps I'll blog about sometime:)

Sioux Empire Fair

Following a trip to Target on Monday that went awry and declaring to Matt (and all of facebook) that I would not be bringing the children out in public for awhile, I promptly took the kids to the Sioux Empire Fair on Tuesday:) It was a spontaneous decision...the fair was just opening, and it was free to get in! We met my sister Amy there with her two kids Mayah and Micah, and ended up having a really great time.

Since we got there right about noon, the first thing we set out to do was eat. Though the fair is dramatically smaller than the Great Minnesota Get-Together, you can still find all the good eats.

This was Amy's lunch. I'm a sucker for the gyro.

We sat at some picnice tables near a free stage of music. Nathan and Ella clapped along to the music.
Mayah:

Nathan (eating Mayah's hotdog):

Ella eating the community corndog. We bought a footlong corndog for $5, and all 3 kids shared. (as noted above Mayah bought a footlong hotdog, which also became shared). We packed some fruit and water-so all 3 kids ate for $5...we like to do fair on a budget.

After eating, the kids danced a little on the bleachers.

Next we headed to an exhibit about lemurs. This lady just takes her lemurs state to state educating people.

It was fun for the kids to to get to pet a monkey, and even Addie who's afraid of kittens and puppies touched the tail of the lemur. (Nathan opted to not pet the lemur).

I think this was just suppose to be Amy's family, but Ella wanted in there too.

There's a really great barn at the fair sponsored by FFA that has every farm animal you can think of. It's a nice one-stop fair animal viewing.

Here are my little farm animals:

Addie milked a "cow".

Besides having a fully stocked barn, they also had face painting for the kids.

We headed over to the Expo building to get stickered-up and even get some candy, then we walked to the Midway. Amy and her family left, so it was just Ella and Nathan riding. They each got to choose one ride to go on...they both decided on the tea cups. As they climbed in to the giant tea cup I got a little nervous that Ella was too little. It was the same feeling I had 2 years ago when they went on a ride at the MN State fair.

This is what Addie looked like most of the time they were on the ride. (she did not think it was fair that she did not get to go on).

It's probably for the best, but it didn't seem like they were really turning the table in the middle. They didn't know any different though and thought it was great.

After this I was pretty ready to go home, but we took a quick walk through the Arts building to see some exhibits, and then sat for some more live music.

Getting them to sit on the bleachers was the only challenge...they wanted to run to the top. (which mainly is bad because baby sister likes to follow.) It was a wonderful afternoon. Following the music we walked back to the van, taking a detour through an arena where a cowboy was riding a horse and there were a few horses in pens. I told the kids I liked the gray horses the best. Nathan asked why and I said, "I don't know, they just look soulful to me." To which Nathan replied, "Mom, horses don't have souls."
-Nothing gets passed that kid.

Return of the Mustache:

What is it about mustaches that make men think they are clever and funny?

OK-it's probably not a man thing, I think it's just a Matt thing.

I love him, I love him, I love him...but the stache cannot stay.

(he kept it for a day-and claims he was bringing smiles to everyone's faces:)

Bountiful Harvest in Progress.

Now that it's been nearly 2 months since we planted our garden, daily trips are almost necessary to check things out, weed (which Matt has done about 95% of), and water (it's also been super hot and humid lately). But, the results have been lots of yummy veggies on our table. I didn't take pictures of everything, but so far we've eaten about 5 meals of green beans and frozen 3 meals worth (with more still on the plants), and we've had about 2 weeks worth of sugar snap peas for snacking, but I think these are pretty much done now. Also in late June and early July we enjoyed a nice harvest of lettuce...which unfortunately we just pulled out when we picked it, so there will not be a second harvest...oops (we're learning as we go).

Nathan was super excited to pick carrots, and since the tops were peeking out, I let him pick some last week. Since then, both of our mothers have told us that you're not suppose to pick them until fall, so we'll wait to pick the rest of them. But, the ones we did pick were yummy and are already eaten!

Our two little love carrots:
Last Friday we grilled pizzas, so we picked our first green pepper of the season to have as a topping. It too was super yummy, though the kids wouldn't eat it. There are still 3 left on the plant, as well as 3 red peppers on the other plant. (I didn't tell Ella but she stepped on the red pepper plant tonight, so those may need to be picked sooner rather than later).
Our tomatoes are a complete jungle. It's a big tangled up mess of our 5 plants, or is it6 plants-no one can really tell. But, there are LOTS of tomatoes on them. We've already picked about 50 cherry tomatoes, and I'm guessing there will be 50-100 more, and that's on one plant. Here are some of the "big" tomatoes that we picked tonight, mainly Early Girl and some Better Boys. I'm looking up recipes for spaghetti sauce and salsa, and may need to call my Aunt Margie to come canning! Most of the tomatoes on the plants are still green-but I'm sure soon will have tomatoes coming out of our ears! (not complaining though...this is what I wanted, right?)

I forgot to give mention to our zuccinis, which we've eaten 3 of and have 3 in our fridge, with hopefully more to come...tonight we discovered the plant was covered with squash bugs, so I think we either have to get rid of the bugs quickly or get rid of the plant so they don't spread. We've also enjoyed about 4 cucumbers with at least 3 more on the plant that we'll pick soon. And our pumpkin plant has lots of blossoms, but many have been eaten by something, and the leaves are looking a little sickly, so we'll see if we actually get a pumpkin or not.
OK-that was a lot of detail-but mainly we are loving to watch everything grow and change so quickly. It's so amazing to me that what started as a few bags of seeds and some tomato plants has turned into this overgrown garden bursting with vegetables. It feel so worth while. I'm so thankful to our Wonderful Creator God!

Black Hills::Quick Summary

I've decided that since it's now been one-month since our trip to the Black Hills, it may never actually fully make this blog...so many pictures, so little time. But, it does deserve a mention. The kids had a great time, and it's a trip I look forward to doing again, hopefully with Matt next time. We stayed in Spearfish, SD and during the long weekend we also went to Rapid City, Hill City, Mt. Rushmore, and Wall (to go to Wall Drug of course).

My highlights were just hanging out as a family in the lodge and traveling to Hill City to eat at the Alpine Inn (authentic German cuisine...yummm). The kids most enjoyed doing the slip-n-slide at the lodge and going to Old MacDonald's Farm...I love how we drove 6 hours to do things we could have done at home:)

As you can imagine, vacationing with 8 children nearly 5 and under can have its ups and downs, but it was fun-and hopefully we'll get to do it again!

grandkids with Nana & Papa

This is the best I could get at Mt. Rushmore (which Mayah called Money Mountain) ...sometimes it's better to just enjoy life and not photograph it:)