SEPTEMBER 2008-Apples, Peaches, Pears. Babies, Smiles, Lilies, and Mr. Freeze

The growing season was pretty strange this year but our garden finally produced a fairly good crop of corn, tomatoes, and spaghetti squash among other things. We also had the biggest crop of apples that we've ever had. Our Gala tree produced apples for the very first time. We should have thinned out the apples more but this is the first year we've ever had to worry about that so it was a learning experience. We still have a lot to learn about producing good quality apples. Also, I bought 5 boxes of peaches and 3 boxes of pears this year from a lady in Olympia Stake who took orders and had them delivered from the Tri-Cities. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get the peaches canned and the pears canned or dried before Liz had her baby but little Kate didn't come until we were finished with the canning.

Our grandson, Nathanael, was baptized by his dad, Chris, at the beginning of September. He was smiling so much when he went in to the baptismal font he could hardly contain it. He's got a really cute smile with smiley eyes. I'm not sure if it was his smile or that he kind of shivered or made a funny face when he went into the water but he made everyone chuckle.

BIRTHDAY PARTY:

After the baptism we went to Chris and Mandy's house for a birthday party for Benjamin's first birthday. They had a nice lunch for us and then Mandy brought out his cake with a candle on it and we sang "Happy Birthday". Later he opened his gifts. We also gave Nathanael his birthday gift.

BABY KATE:

Kate Lily was born at 4:06 am, weighed 7 lbs 6.8 oz and was 20 1/2" tall.

Big sister, Rachel, holds her new baby.

Big brother, Ethan, gets a turn too.

Rachel wasn't very happy about being up so high.

So she decided to help her Daddy run the lifter instead.

I went to help Elizabeth and family when their new daughter Kate Lily was born. While I was there we went to see their new house that Mark, his brothers and Dad are building. Mark used the Traverse Lift to lift us up for quite a view of the area around their house while we were there. Ethan and Elizabeth also have their birthdays in September.

For Kate's first outing we went to McDonalds. Rachel got a Wizard of Oz toy in her Happy Meal and Ethan got a Mr. Freeze. When we got home I played a game of hide and seek with Ethan. I would hide Mr. Freeze while Ethan hid in the bathroom. Then he would come out and find it. He soon let me know that he wanted me to hide it in the same place, the freezer (a very appropriate place for Mr. Freeze), every time. Each time I hid it he came out and pretended not to know where it was. He would say, “Humm…where could it be?” Then he would pretend to look in a couple of places before going to the freezer and finding it. It was hilarious. It was so funny to see him do the same thing that adults do when they play hide and seek with a little child.