First Day of Harvest

Today was the first day of my annual temporary insanity!

Gala is the first of twelve apple varieties to be harvested.

(oops, got some Amish arms in this clip - Joe was trying to grab a couple of wormy apples without interfering with my kodak moment).

Human resources does floors, too!

After our hired help went home, the Apple Farmer and the boys all had some fun picking and grading some apples too!

Apples getting ready for their bath -

Pulling out the ugly apples so they don't end up on the tables -

The Babysitter Does Hair!

I went to pick the kids up after the wedding while the Apple Farmer picked up some things and headed back to the farm. We decided it would be a lot of fun to tag along with the sitter and her family (great friends of ours) and go to the fair. What was really great was that the sitter had done the President's hair and Her Royal Highness' hair so they would look presentable in public.
Doesn't she show such great talent? Her mom is an awesome hair dresser and I think she has great potential if she were to choose to follow in her mother's footsteps!

Yes!! It is green!!!! It also happens to be the President's favorite color! Coincidence? I think not! (Poor color blind Apple Farmer had to ask me after the crew all went to bed if the president's hair was really green! He thought the boys were playing with his head)!Left to right, The attorney, the sitter's sister, Whitney, Her Royal-ness, The President, Human Resources, the sitter's mom, Ruth, the sitter Cheyenne, and her dad, Lance! Royalty takes a shot with the ball and the bucket! The bucket game guy was soooo sweet to offer me 4 games for the price of one! He kept calling out to my kids to play and so I went up to him and explained that we were on a limited budget and the boys were trying to decide if they wanted to play games or go on some rides. That was when bucket guy was so kind to offer the games for the price of one. Sure thing! The priceless lesson of luck over skill with carnival games was worth paying $5.00 bucks for and the President REALLY wanted to play so he could win a stuffed animal. After each one of the kids had their turns and no one made it into the bucket, the teaching began! Mean ol' Mama that I am to go and spoil an exciting evening at the fair with a darn lesson on some of the many facts of life! $5.00 bucks well spent!

And to my awesome sitter: Thanks a million! You're the best!

The Apple Farmer Performs His Second Wedding

The wedding was held in a lovely church building full of incredible stained glass art.

The lighting wasn't great so I cranked up the Levels in my version of PSE so you all can see how great the Apple Farmer looks in a suit!!


There's the lovely couple. I have one picture of the groom watching as the bride was making her way to the front. He kind of had the panicked deer in the headlights look on his face! He was so nervous! The bride was just lovely as she could be and it was so fun to see young love and a new family created!

The Apple Farmer was nervous too! He's pretty relieved in this picture. (Almost looks like he is doing a happy dance, doesn't it)! It was low lighting and my poor cheapo camera was shooting at a really low speed!


I caught this one through glass. He is studying the marriage certificate and license so he can make sure he signs it right!

11 Blue Ribbons

11 blue ribbons

3 red ribbons

2 white ribbons

I'll find out Sat. if I won enough cash for our Taco Bell dinner. Maybe I won enough to go to Pizza Hut for dinner! This is just too exciting!!

Holiday ideas category

Infants Dress Category (you can see a part of the blue ribbon red and white fuzzy lined cape I made for her Spoiled Rotteness).
Orange Cinnamon rolls

My Cherries on the left, Jessicas peach and blackberry pie filling on the right!




And, Lucy's new friend, Genevieve! She was entered in the "Doll, Original design" category.

Oh! And I now have Blue Ribbon Bread!

Now, if anyone complains about my cookin' I'll just point them to the blue ribbons that will be hanging on my kitchen wall and tell them that its their problem that their palette isn't refined enough to appreciate it!!

Camo in the Kitchen?

I made a deal.

They could wash dishes or they could cook French Toast for breakfast.

It was a tough decision for them to make, but they decided on making French Toast.

Of course, this meant that I would have some great photo opps!

First batch is burnt. Cause... must be the camo shirt?

The rest of the toast... FANTASTIC!

They CAN cook breakfast!

The Apple Farmer's wife has just scored future points as the "Awesome Mother-in-law."

Photo 'Phun!'

I've had the opportunity to spend some time with Camille! These photographs are from Tuesday of this week. Camille is the daughter of some friends of ours and she has just finished her first year at BYU. She is home for break and while home was hoping to be able to compile a portfolio so she can apply to BYU's art department. She really enjoys photography so she has asked for my help!

I'm really thrilled she has asked me for help and it has been inspiring for me.

I really need to get my cameras out again.

It is Camille's first time working with black and white film. She is shooting with a manual Japanese version of the Nikkormat FT2 (I have the US version of the FT2, which dear Uncle George gave me)! She is doing a great job and we are both anxious to develop her films to see what she got!