Rain = Soup!

I am not a big fan of the cold wet weather we have been getting and they fact that we are headed into that season!  But I am not really sad that it is raining right now, because there are a bunch of soup recipes I have been looking at and can't wait to try.  So the Swensons are having soup tonight!

Books!

This past week Lucas has wanted to read a book 24/7.  The other night I wanted to sit down and turn on the t.v for five minutes, but Lucas had other plans, he turned off the t.v looked at me and said, "read book".  What do you say to that?  Lucas and I read the book, and have been reading books nonstop since then.  This is not a bad thing, I just feel guilty that I can't read to him 24/7.  Right now we're obsessed with a book call, "The Doghouse."  We went to the library today so hopefully we can branch out a little bit!  Side note, we were able to find another Dora DVD, thank heavens, I have basically memorized the previous Dora Halloween episode.

Caramel Apples

On Monday for FHE we had our friends over (the James Family) for Caramel Apples.  I have never made caramel apples it just sounded and looked good, and it is the season!  Honestly can you go wrong with apples dipped in caramel then smothered in a topping of your choice and drizzled with chocolate (white and milk)?  By the end we were wondering where the apple was!  This was very successful, almost too successful!  Lucas seemed to like it, he basically licked his apple clean.

Pumpkin Picking!

Saturday afternoon we went pumpkin picking!  There was a fun festival going on at a fruit farm that we go to.  We took a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch and picked a pumpkin.  That is what we planned on doing, honestly, but really Craig picked the pumpkin while Lucas and I were busy stepping in a huge pile of pumpkin goo!  Yuck!  It smelled awful, thus we smelled pretty bad until we got home to wash our shoes! (I think Craig was relieved that I was so willing to leave so quickly, he thinks I take to long picking the pumpkin, but it takes time to pick the perfect pumpkin for our dinner.) So not our funnest trip to the pumpkin patch, but the most memorable trip so far!  And we did end up with a beautiful pumpkin for our traditional dinner in a pumpkin!  Thanks to Craig!  Lucas also rode on this train car ride.  I thought he wouldn't like it, because he had to go all by himself and during part of it we wouldn't be in view.  This was not a problem at all he liked it so much I think he would have gone again!  Instead of riding it again we went and saw the bunnies, which Lucas seemed to enjoy!  He spent most the time trying to pick one up, much to the dismay of the people running the bunny petting booth (Lucas has not learned the concept of being gentle yet.)

 

Football!

Friday night we went to a Penns Valley High Football game.  A young man in our ward is the quarter back, defensive end, and the long snapper.  Basically he is the team!  (He also is also a starting forward on the Basketball team and plays P/1B/SS on the baseball team.)  It was way fun!  The weather was wonderful!  Unfortunately they lost, but our wardie did awesome!  We went with our friends which made it way more fun!  Lucas seemed to enjoy it!  He left the game on a sugar high, at one point he was carrying around a bag of pretzel M&M's.  Yeah that's responsible parenting for ya.  Oh well, isn't that one of the reasons to go to sporting events; to eat junk food!

Penns Valley is the Blue and White

A newspaper shot of Sam

Dora

Lately Sesame Street just hasn't been holding Lucas' attention and he gets bored easily with it, not that this is a bad thing.  We started checking out the old Disney movies, "Robin Hood", "The Jungle Book," etc...  We let him watch them in the evening while were making dinner.  He has really been enjoying them.  Last week when we went to the library, Lucas picked Dora the Explorer.  We haven't ever really watched Dora before, but WOW!  Lucas is a Dora addict.  He loves it, he is so captivated by it.  He has watched the same Dora DVD over a dozen times this past week.  He is even to the point where he starts to interact and respond to her questions.  We have also heard him saying, "oh man," at random times, or when he drops something (A phrase said by one of the characters on the show).  I have also heard him said, "oh man", "Swiper, no swiping".  As a matter of fact while I am typing this he is watching Dora.

The begining of potty training

A couple of weeks ago I decided I wasn't going to push Lucas into potty training until he was ready.  I have not been looking forward to this milestone and I didn't want it to be completely miserable for the both of us.  However, we have been trying to teach him the concept by putting him on the toilet in the mornings and at night.  This was less than successful, after a few seconds he would look at us, and say, "mommie broken, it's broken."  To say I was surprised Monday morning when Lucas said, "mommie potty" is an understatement.  I will admit I did not want to put him on the potty, it was early and I had not even put my glasses on yet.  In the end I figured I better, because what if he actually went.  Sure enough he went, and we praised him a lot.  I have never been so excited, which is pretty sad, and goes to show that our world revolves around Lucas and his small successes.  That night Craig put him on the potty and sure enough he went pee and poop.  At this point I figured we should probably follow through and make an effort to potty train Lucas.  So it began, and we are still working on it.  Lucas will go in the morning and at night, when we put him on the potty, but during the day is hit or miss.  If I put him on the potty he will usually go, however, he has yet to tell us he needs to go, which is evident by the pile of wet underwear and jeans on the dyer.  To give Lucas some credit, we have been kind of busy, and though we have been doing the best we can at the moment, we just haven't been able to hunker down at home and get it done.  Will see how it goes.  We are proud though that doesn't seem to have a problem with going poop and pee in the potty, though I worry that he thinks every time he goes potty he has to go poop.  (Editor's Note:  Katie actually took pictures of this momentous occasion, which shows how sad our lives can be sometimes.  Unfortunately the pictures are not rated for public distribution.)

Punxsutawney!

My friend Alyssa and I decided that though we have thought about it and even attempted once to go experience the groundhog festivities, we finally realized that it is not worth it, to wake up at the crack of dawn, trek up a hill, and stand in the cold with our children for hours (it is really cold in February), just to find out that there will be six more weeks of winter!  However, Punxstawney was still something we wanted to see. So on Monday we packed up the kids and headed to Punxstawney.  Other than Groundhog Phil and Gobbler's Knob there is not much to see in Punxstawney, so this was a quick day trip!  It was fun and the weather was pretty good!  We went to Groundhog Phil's burrow and saw him sleeping, he did briefly wake up to eat and Lucas was able to see him.  We drove up to Gobbler's knob took pictures and called it good!  They did have several of these Groundhog statutes around town, they were pretty cute.  Lucas seemed to enjoy it!

 

Fall

The other day I was driving home and I looked around and realized that the leaves where changing and we are in the fall season.  It has been raining so much, and I have been busy I haven't been able to appreciate the fall season.  I haven't even baked one pumpkin thing yet!  Wait, I did make creamy pumpkin soup the other day! But other than that nothing, I have to fix this, and since this week the weather is looking warmer and better, I think Lucas and I will start enjoying the fall!  We're going to need to bake something with pumpkin in it and take a walk to look at the leaves changing colors!  Were also going together as a family to a high school football game and picking our pumpkin this week, what is more fall-ish than that!

Conference Weekend!

We didn't do too much the weekend before last, because it was conference weekend!  We did have brunch with some friends, it was pretty fun, and we had plenty of yummy muffins!  I bought M&M's for our conference bingo, which has been tradition, but we never got around to getting the cards out and didn't even open up the M&M's till the last session.  Though I still felt like we had plenty of sweets this past weekend!  We watched all four sessions of conference, though I am not sure I could tell you what they said, Lucas was not terrible, he just wanted to be right in your face and talk the entire time.  The only couple of hours that we got to really listen was while he was taking nap.  I am just going to have to read them instead!

Fall Festival!

 This past weekend we took Lucas to the fall festival they have down town!  I was really looking forward to this and was bummed when the weather didn't hold out for us!  It was really cold, but didn't really rain, so I guess that is a plus, and it could have been worse!  Lucas picked out and decorated a pumpkin!  Rode the carousel, loved it, and was quick to find where the places where people we handing out candy! Since the festival he has been obsessed with pumpkins anytime we see pumpkins he is quick to point them out!  Every time we take Craig to work, we drive past bins of pumpkins Lucas is sure to let us know when we pass them!  I am excited to take him to the pumpkin patch this week to pick out our pumpkin for dinner!

 

All dressed up and ready to go, but wait where is the snow!

As were heading into fall I quickly realized that my child doesn't have shoes to wear, not one pair!  It has been raining a lot lately so I have been able to get away with letting him wear his rain boots, but I knew this would last too much longer, but on second thought we are in Pennsylvania, where I feel like it is always raining!  Lucas also doesn't have any snow gear, and I know when it snows (if it snows this year) Lucas is going to want to go play!  So I went to a consignment sale last week, right when they opened, because things can get pretty crazy.  I was on a mission!  And I am happy to report I had great success!  Lucas now has a nice winter coat, snow pants (three pairs to be exact, because I wasn't sure which would fit him best, because size means nothing, every brand varies), gloves, and boots!  I also found him some shoes, two pair of shoes, in really good condition!  Anyway I dressed Lucas all up in his winter gear to make sure it would fit!  He looked like an Eskimo!  I  felt bad dressing him all up and then there wasn't any snow for him to play in!  Oh well! He was a very good sport about it all!  (I don't know why he looks so tired, I must have just taken the picture at the wrong time.)

mmmmmmmm.... Apple Season!

The trip to the Apple Orchard was a prelude to a week of apples!  At the beginning of the week I learned how to can apple pie filling.  It was very yummy pie filling, though my friend uses it for apple crisp, clever idea.  I don't think Craig would mind having apple pie filling in crisp form!  My friend said her husband called it, "liquid gold".  After having a taste I would have to agree, it was darn good!
Later, during the week after our field trip, we load up on apples, and canned applesauce!  Lots of jars of applesauce!  Alyssa and I are now in such a groove when were canning that by the afternoon we had canned my bushel of apples and her bushel of apples!  We now have several jars of applesauce to eat and bake with this year!  I still need to finish out apple season with the making of apple crisp, this might be done a few times before were out of the season.  I think I am going to try caramel apples, which I haven't been a big fan of in the past, but I think Lucas would enjoy it and the apples we get are sooooo good that adding caramel, you just can't you go wrong!

Apple Orchard!

A couple of weeks ago Lucas and I went with playgroup on our annual field trip to the Apple Orchard!  Before we went to the apple orchard, I took Lucas to story time at the library and ironically enough the theme for story time was apples!  It was really neat and made for a very themed day!  Unfortunately, it had been pretty rainy (surprise, surprise!) so it was very muddy.  The rain did hold off briefly, so we could take our wagon trip through the apple orchard.  Lucas didn't want to sit by me, he wanted to sit by his friend, which is the reason why there are no pictures of Lucas on the wagon ride, hold on... now that I think of it there might be one picture.  After the wagon ride they took us on a tour of how they clean the apples and store them, which includes a trip into the refrigerator!  Of course the best part of the whole experience is that they give us a bag of apples and some apple cider!  Which makes this trip pretty fun and yummy!

Annual BBQ!

Our little group that lives in our apartment complex gets together every year in the fall for a BBQ, to eat, have fun, and get to know those that have recently moved in.  This past summer we had quite a few families move in.  So much so, that I had not met everyone previously and we had to recruit our friends to bring there BBQ since one was not going to cut it.   We weren't sure we were going to have good weather, but luckily it ended up being a nice day!  We had a good time!  As of next year we will have been living here the longest, so the planning of this event is being passed to us.  I don't know if that is a good or bad thing, I guess will find out this time next year!

Stalling

Lucas has recently learned the concept of stalling!  He applies this knowledge when were getting ready for bed or nap time.  What typically happens is we get him already for bed/nap time, and right before or as were laying him down, he says, "book", you read him a quick book, the same book we having been reading him for the past week, next it is "drink" we quickly get him something to drink, then he wants me to sing the Winnie the Pooh song, lately singing it just once is not enough, so after two songs, we close the door while he is still trying to tell us what else he wants!  Bed time/ nap time is getting longer and longer!