Cara's Blessing

We had Cara's baby blessing this last Sunday. Almost all of my siblings we able to be there and KC's brother and family came as well as my uncle in his family. Only my immediate family needed to stay at our house and we managed to find places for everyone to sleep.

I somehow managed to get some good pictures of Cara in her dress as well.  Enjoy!

Halloween!

A little late on the sharing of the Halloween costumes this year. Our family theme this year was the computer game that has become a sort family obsession, Plants vs Zombies. Andrew wanted to be the Cherry Bomb on the game it looks like this:

 Andrew looked like this:

Isaac wanted to be the giant zombie called a Gargantuar Zombie, he looks like this in the game:

 Here is Isaac as the Gargantuar Zombie. In the game he sometimes carries a stop that he smashes the plants with instead of a telephone pole. Also on his back is an Imp zombie that rides in a trash can on his back.

KC wanted to one the more common zombies on the game. He chose a Cone Head Zombie. On the game he looks like this:

Here is KC as the cone head zombie, notice the detail:

I made a Pea Shooter costume for William that I wasn't sure he'd wear to go trick or treating. In the game the Pea Shooter looks like this:

But he surprised us all and actually wore the pea shooter hat the whole time he trick or treated around the neighborhood. Again he exceeds my expectations.

I was supposed to be a sun flower as seen here:

I didn't get a picture of me individually, there wasn't much to see, obviously my costume didn't get as much attention as everyone else. Here is the whole family just before they boys left to go trick or treating. 

 Cara here is in her leopard/cat outfit, she was supposed to be a bumble bee but she was sleeping and I didn't get a chance to change her... oh well. This picture is of her earlier in the day:

The Return of the Grapes of Wrath

In June I posted about our garden and shared some pictures of our grape trellis and how big it has grown. There is also a picture of the little grape buds that were promising a nice crop. Well the time has come to harvest that crop and here is the bounty.

One vine produces a green seedless table grape. The variety's name is called Himrod. Fully ripened they are quite sweet but I had to jump on harvesting this in mid August because the birds were quickly making a meal of them. I juiced these and then strained the juice to make a white grape juice concentrate that I then bottled it for later use. 

The other vine produces a variety called Catawba grape. (Don't ask me how to pronounce that.) It has seeds and has a sort of slimy insides (I think the concord is similar this way). Not really a table grape, although I guess this variety is good for juice, wine and jelly making. I chose the juice and jelly options.

Grape processing isn't really that complicated. First you have to wash the grapes and remove them from the stems.  Then you crush them with the food processor, chopper, or potato masher. Then you dump them in a big pot, add some water and let them cook and soften up a bit. I forgot to take pictures of those steps, but here is a picture of the pot I used. You can see the level of the crushed grapes in this big stock pot. There were a lot, which became a problem.

I realized my folly when it came time to strain the grapes through the cheese cloth. For that amount I needed a huge strainer or a lot of little ones. I didn't have a big enough bowl to strain all those grapes at the same time so I fashioned three little ones. Doesn't that look lovely in a gross slimy Halloween sorta way?

Anyway after I strained it all off, I ended up with about a gallon of really sweet pink/purple grape juice. I used about 11-12 cups of that to make 22 half pint jars of  grape jelly (8 of those are a grape crab apple jelly mix). Then I used the last 3 cups to make some grape juice. I added about a cup of sugar and boiled it to get it to dissolve then I added 3-4 cups of water. It was better than any store bought juice, hands down.

The awesome thing is that these grape vines have been so easy to grow. All we had to do this spring was to prune it back a little and then let them grow. Next year I want to put a net over it so the birds don't eat up my green grapes too soon.

* I made two posts today, and I  don't want anyone to miss the two pictures I posted of little Cara. So check that out too.

Updated Photos

 She looks so different already! I just wanted to post some updated photos of  Cara that show better how she looks. We went to the doctor the other day and she is already 7 oz over her birth weight. Isn't she just the sweetest thing?

Miss Cara

Our sweet Miss Cara was born this last Tuesday morning, right on her due date (good guess Karen!). She is so prompt and efficient that once she decided to come it only took her 2 1/2 hours from the time she woke up mommy to where the nurse caught her at the hospital. The doctor (not nearly as prompt and efficient) didn't show up until more than 10 minutes after her. She weighed in at 8lbs 3 oz and 20 inches long. We didn't expect her to be bigger than one of her brothers at birth. 

My "before" picture taken a few days before Cara was born. I actually expected her to be born that night as I had been having regular "contractions" about every 10 minutes apart. They should be called "teaser contractions".

Just after Cara was born. We were so busy laboring and trying to get the nurse in before she was born that we didn't get out the camera until 10 minutes after she was born.

KC with his little princess. 

We got to spend the whole day with her and enjoy her.

Just before heading home.

Grandma came a few days before as we thought she was coming earlier. Grandma was thinking about leaving that day. Good thing Cara decided to come that morning.

Grandma likes to make "Birth"day cakes for her grandkids . Happy Birthday CARA!

First bath at home. The boys were excited to watch.

She didn't appreciate when her body was wet and cold but she loved getting her hair washed. Just like at a salon.

After we rubbed her hair dry it looked sorta curly.. then it straightened out... we'll see.

The boys with their long awaited little sister. 

Welcome to our family Sweet Miss Cara!

Incoming Call

I think for fun I'm going to call everyone I know just to say HI.

Then I get to hear that pause of anticipation or expectation to see if I'm going to say... "I'm in labor!" ... or "I'm in the hospital and just had the baby!", followed by the disappointment in their tone when I don't.

It sorta funny. I don't remember it being like this at the end of the other pregnancies. Maybe I just have selective memory.

Right now I am 39 weeks and 1 day. I can't imagine how disappointed people will be if I call them at 40+ weeks without having this baby yet. Don't blame me though.. this baby will come out when she is good and ready.

Andrew predicts she'll come on Sunday. KC hopes in the next day or so, or tonight even. I have no prediction, although I'd prefer for her to be born in the middle of the day or the afternoon.

Whenever it is, I promised my sister I'd take a belly picture before she's born. That will hopefully be the next post.

T-Shirt Design

(obviously this girl isn't really pregnant, her belly looks too soft and the rest of her body hasn't grown to match)

I'm about to pop. Please be careful.

Do you think this t-shirt design could sell? I wonder how quickly I could get it made up for myself.

With a Matching Diaper Bag

Though the kids, house, and dinner were thoroughly neglected, I made a messenger style diaper bag to match the mei tai that I made. I used a tutorial that I found online called the Hip Mama Diaper Bag. I made a few changes, but basically followed the directions.

• I omitted the velcro on the pockets
• I made the elastic 12 inches instead of 10
• I changed around the style a little and added a couple strips of patterned fabric on the flap and back piece among other things.

There are a ton of pockets inside and out. 

The back of the bag has a zippered pocket.

It probably took me about 7 hours total to make including the various child interruptions.

Mei Tai - Made!

One down.. how many more projects to go... we'll see. I finished the mei tai this morning. I sorta followed this tutorial especially with the basic body design and the straps. I decided against the hood. Instead I decided to make it look more like a Baby Hawk mei tai with a top that can fold down, so I extended the top part a few more inches and added padding to that part.

Now I just have to get one of my neighbors to try it out on their babies to make sure it'll work... anytakers?

33 weeks and counting by the way!

Long Awaited Day

The long awaited day has come. Isaac finally got to start kindergarten. Ever since Andrew started school Isaac has been wanting to go to school too. He is excited to be able to walk home with his brother and he loves his teacher. The only thing is that he doesn't like how he has to wait until after lunch everyday to be able to go.

End of Summer?

Despite the continuing heat summer vacation is almost over, for our family anyways. Being on a year-round school schedule has it's benefits but also it's annoyances of course. I'm still not sure which are which. Andrew and Isaac will start school here soon but then have a couple weeks off at the end of August. It's not like we were going to be doing much in August though. We had to get get all of our trips in as with KC's newish job, August is a really busy month and he can't really take time off. The baby "should" be coming just a couple weeks after things slow down again for him at work. Perfect timing. I think there was some divine intervention in that. Also now that I'm towards the endish of my pregnancy I don't know if I want to be too out and about anyways.

So I wanted to share some memories we have made so far this spring/summer in all of our comings and goings. Get ready for a picture dump.

First, birthdays... I've been a bad blogger and neglected to share the boys birthdays back when they happened in late winter and spring.  Starting in February through June we have 1 birthday from our family a month. It keeps us drowning in cake. A good thing I suppose. Will's cute cake was made by Grandma, the one I made at home wasn't even a cake.. just cupcakes, we LOVE Grandma! Andrew had a party with family this year and Isaac got to have his first big friend party.

In May we did a little vacation in Southern Utah with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa took us flying and shooting. We went to Zion's National Park and went hiking too. The weather was perfect.

Grandpa has a nice collection of fun old-timey shooters. KC really enjoyed being able to shoot these.

Compliments of the shotgun.

On Memorial Day weekend Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us. We took the opportunity to visit the zoo while the weather was still nice. The boys were really excited about the bird show.. at least Andrew and Isaac were. William only stopped covering his eyes after being there for 15 minutes. (Some birds were really loud)

In June KC participated in the local triathlon, Andrew played soccer (no pics, all I have are videos and you don't want to see those), we did some local sightseeing, and we went up to Snowbird for a few days with KC's Grandma. This year was the first time we could go sledding and then go swimming on the same day. This was the last weekend in June! The ski resort was open through the 4th this year. Crazy. Also

Notice the big pile of snow still melting in the swimming pool area. (upper left of photo)

Finally the 4th of July weekend came and we got to go camping with Grandma and Grandpa and cousins. Our campsite had a fun rope swing on which we tied a stick for the kids to sit. That was the main entertainment along with the 4-wheeler. We went to the Fillmore parade and enjoyed those festivities along with their cool fireworks show. We also got to spend time with extended family where they had a huge slip 'n slide set up.

 We were driving VERY slow, otherwise there would have been helmets and less kids.

 William didn't appreciate the sirens from the fire trucks very much.