It's Autumn Time!

this past week feels like fall has arrived. we had our first big, frost and so i harvested the tomatoes and ben and the boys helped me get out the last of my pathetic potato crop the nite before it froze. bentley and i also picked raspberries while bridon got to ride in the ripper disk. they take so long to pick, but are well worth it in the morning for breakfast! pre-school has started and has been going well until this past, thursday when bentley freaked out and wouldn't go to the "new girl's" house, so after trying for 45 minutes, we gave up and i did my dreaded all-in-one seasonal shopping trip. struck out for me (my 'bigger' wardrobe is atrocious), but found some much needed long sleeve shirts, pants, and boots for the boys. i do try to hit a sale, but i must admit, if i can find it all in a couple places for an un-insane price, i just get it! we found all the stuff including jdeere shirts at fred meyer and d&b.

ben's sisters all came into town for a weekend of fall festivities. we celebrated cousin sarah's b-day, canned apple juice, hosted a fall game party here at our house, and of course, ate many delicious meals. ben's mom is a pro at feeding the masses! give me the games anyday, i say...i would freak out trying to feed all those people and have it be so delicious!!! we canned the apple juice one morning with a pickup load of apples. ben's aunt has a press and several of her grandkids and kids were there helping us, so it was quite a production. i would never in a million years attempt to do it myself! bentley and bridon got to play with all the kids and bridon's favorite was the puppy. he loves animals and will follow them around anywhere! bentley really didn't play much; he was too interested in helping load the apples and watch the press work. the juice is delicious and i'm sure it will be handy to have during the winter!

on friday nite, we had wonderful weather and all the men were able to join us for a fall party starting here, at our house. they have been super busy with 4th, bean, corn, and teff harvest...and were trying to beat the rain which came on saturday! but, we had all of us usuals, julie and jenny's family, brad's,
and the thompson family over. we set up donuts on a string, three-legged races, a costume relay, bobbing for apples, and pumpkin bowling. the weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time together! afterwards, we enjoyed dinner and decorating pumpkins. the weekend ended with a full, uninterrupted day of conference yesterday. the boys stopped tearing the house down when the choir came on and
'led' the music. there was so much that i learned, that i'll have to just pick a couple of things to start with and try to do them better and then move on to something else. hope everyone else got a chance to enjoy!