Rainy Days

Winter weather has made an appearance the past few weeks. We had rain/snow last weekend and once again it's raining/snowing here in the SLC valley. I guess I'll really have to work and get the rest of my tulip bulbs planted this week. Finley and Bentley are happy as can be. Both of them love this weather, though Bentley is more disappointed about the lack of sticking snow as he loves to roll around in it and eat it. Finn just likes to get his galoshes on. Here he is fresh out of the bath looking like the Jolly Green Giant in my galoshes.



With a Fall fading fast, I've spent the last week canning some peaches & pickles we picked up in Brigham City (Yummy!). I have many pleasant memories of watching my mom can fruit growing up. She always did pears (my fave), peaches, and cherries. Even home-made applesauce every now and then. Ryan's mom (Renate) also canned various fruits and pickles, and he cherishes those memories as well. Silly as it sounds I want my kids to remember me in the same positive, nostalgic light. Being my first solo canning attempt (is it really solo when you call your mom 100 times in the process), I was pleasantly surprised when ALL 26 jars of peaches sealed perfectly. I even attempted to can pickles using Renate's German pickle recipe. This was not quite as easy as the peaches, but once all was said and done we got about 12 jars of pickles that sealed and 5 that didn't, so we'll be eating lots of pickles the next little while. I've never had home-canned pickles and they turned out so YUMMY! Tomorrow I will be helping Ryan's sister Teresa can some more - hopefully I'll learn some tips & tricks from her. All in all though I thoroughly enjoyed my canning projects and can't wait to do it again next Fall.

Berlin had an eventful couple weeks as well. Two weeks ago she cut 4 teeth (all on top) at once. So she's my little nibbler with 6 teeth in all. Teething has been harder on her than I think it was on Finley, so we are just trying to survive and get thru it with her. I just hate not being able to make the pain and discomfort go away. Here I caught her playing peek-a-boo with Ryan using Finn's pirate hat. Arrrgh!