~ Catching Up ~

Hello faithful blog readers!  I guess you all are wondering why I haven't been posting here of late...

 

 ...In the beginning of October I went to Quebec, Canada on a rode trip with two of my friends.  We went to Montreal and Shawinigan for the weekend for special meetings.  It was great to meet new friends and to hang out with ones we hadn't seen in a while!

 

Back in PA we had a family over for dinner one night who has a baby only two weeks younger than Benjamin.  It was so cute to see the two little men visit :)

 

 

 This past weekend I flew out to Arizona and surprised Joanna for her 16th birthday!  Juliana picked me up at the airport and we drove down to Benson and met up with Joylin and Joanna.   Joanna was really surprised to see me all the way in Arizona! :D We had so much fun during my stay... hiking in the Cochise Stronghold, smashing pennies at the tracks, taking care of horses and dogs, learning to drive manual, driving the quad with four screaming girls in the dark, and so many more great memories!

 

 While I was in Arizona, my Mom's Aunt Joyce and Uncle Jack came over for the day...

  

 ...and of course this post needs a few pictures of our little guy!  Benjamin is growing like crazy! 

He brings such joy to our home with his adorable coos and smiles :)

 

 So that is what we've been up to here lately!

I also have another post coming soon about a recent event our Keepers at Home club hosted.

Thanks for checking my blog!  God bless...

 

~Kaitlyn

 

:: friends are the flowers in the garden of life ::

We've had a few friends over this month for fellowship so here are some pictures...

 



 Sister Mary came from Washington D.C. one morning for breakfast.

 

 David loves showing off his little brother! :)

 

 Brother Al and Sister Nora from Jasper were passing through with the Palmers so we had them over one evening for supper.

 

 Brother & Sister Palmer were on their 50th wedding anniversary trip.

 

 Dad's cousin, Christy, is visiting from Arkansas so we had Uncle Ron, Aunt Carol, and her over one afternoon.

 

 Aunt Carol rocking Benjamin while Chris plays the piano...she is very talented!

 

 She also kept us entertained with funny stories :D

 

 Joshua and Uncle Ron

 



Succulents - Keepers

This past Thursday we had a Keepers meeting at Aunt Jeanine's house.  We learned about succulents and each member got to plant a shell with "Hens and Chicks", (the scientific name is, Sempervivum.)  Aunt Jeanine showed us some of her succulent cuttings taken from a parent plant and replanted, that are now recognizable plants after a few months. She had an Aloe Vera plant and a Christmas cactus plant there as examples of cuttings.  When taking a cutting from off the parent plant you want to choose large, plump segments.  Set your cuttings in the soil just deep enough to stand alone. Place your cuttings in a warm, shady spot, and keep the soil barely moist.  We also learned that all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti.  What makes a cactus a cactus is not the lack of leaves or spines.  The distinguishing mark is a small rounded cushion-like structure called an areole. The areole is what the spines come out from on a cactus. 

Aunt Jeanine showed us these Hen's and Chicks in a boot she uses as a garden decoration...

 

 We filled the shells with potting soil and then planted our Hen's and Chick's.

 

 Hen's and Chicks in a shell...

 

 three examples of succulents - Aloe Vera, Christmas cactus, & Hen's and Chicks.

 

 We had a guest speaker come and tell us about some "special" plants she received from Sister Hattie Wright.  Sister Janet was privileged to go to Sister Hattie's home in 1972.  Sister Hattie shared a few Egyptian Walking Onions with Sister Janet's mother and Sister Janet shared with some sister's in the church.  These onions have bulblets which will sprout and grow while still on the original stalk. The stalk will bend down under the weight of the new growth and take root some distance from the parent plant, giving it the name "walking onion". It's a perennial onion which comes back every year.
 

We also made some "Autumn" themed snacks...

 



Maple leaf tortilla bites...

 



"Acorns" out of doughnut holes with crushed nuts stuck to chocolate icing and a pretzel rod.

 



Another acorn made out of Hershey Kisses, Nilla wafers, and mini caramel kisses stuck on with peanut butter... *Notice the orange leaf napkins? Aunt Jeanine made a leaf pattern then turned her orange napkins into cute oak leaves :)

 



Making fall designs on cupcakes with stencils and powdered sugar...

Thank you to Aunt Jeanine for another great meeting!

:: September Summary ::

A few other things have happened around here lately but I don't have enough pictures to post about each event.  And there are a few pictures from around the house that were just too cute not to post!  So here's a little catch up posting for you to enjoy!  Have a good day :)

 

Joy and Elainah enjoyed an afternoon at Dutch Wonderland with Uncle Steve and Patrick.

Thanks to Uncle Steve for taking them! :)

 

 Remember last year when our neighbors planted over 60,000 onions?  Well this year they planted 10,000 more than last year!  Joshua helped plant all those bulbs by hand this spring and in July they harvested their onion crop.  Unfortunately because of all the rain we got this spring/summer many of the onions had rot in the center.  After sending the sorted crates to be sold, quite a few came back because some of the onions were bad.  The other day Chris and Katie asked us if we would like a crate to share with our church friends.  We said yes and so Sunday we took along the trailer and a crate full of sweet onions to share!

 

We also had a youth get together at our house last week.  Roseanna was surprised to find out it was a little celebration for her birthday :) We enjoyed playing volleyball, riding the ripstick, unicycles, and tandem, roasting hotdogs and s'mores over the bonfire.

 roasting hotdogs...

Last Sunday Lillia, David, and Benjamin were the only ones home because everyone else went with friends or family for the afternoon.  David was despairing over the fact that they didn't go out to eat, so Lillia made a little "restaurant" in the kitchen for their lunch :)

 

David loves being a big brother to Benjamin :)

 

Class of 2013 - My Grad Party

Oh happy day! I've graduated!!! =D

I graduated from High School this summer but with Benjamin's birth it was a little too busy around here to have a party. So last Saturday we rented the Picnic Grove and had a graduation celebration!

 

 We worked on the favors a few nights before the party...

 

 Working on graduation cap desserts...

 

 We had fun celebrating with 150+ of our friends and family!

 

 

I don't have a good picture of all the food but to give you an idea, we ordered 40 Papa John's pizzas!

 

 we also had soup...

 

 Yummy cupcakes for dessert...

 

The picnic grove was perfect for a big group of varied ages. 

There was volleyball and softball for the older ones and a playground for the younger kids.

 

 

 

 Brawn against Brain tug-of-war.

Anyone who had a 4.0 in high school went to the Brain side.

Anyone who didn't know what a 4.0 was or had less than a 4.0 went to the Brawn side.

 The first team to grab their cone which was placed ten feet behind them, won!

Way to go Brawn! lol

 

 We also had a little quiz with questions taken from the Stories CDs.

 

 There was a fire-pit so we had s'mores in the evening...
 

Zoe, Hope, and I all graduated this year :)