Officially Fall

My Mom came and picked up baby El and me for a quick trip out to the country to pick some corn from another one of the ward gardens. While there, we enjoyed the old barn, the mist out in the valley, the chickens in the coop - and lusted after the property! We also got a few corn stalks to decorate our respective front stoops.

Plus, the "fall fairy" had already dropped off lots of front door goodies - indian corn, sunflower heads and a few more pumpkins.

When we drove back into town last night we opened the car door to pouring rain. And today it's been raining on and off and cool. Very fallish.

And fall weather makes me want some fall food. So, I went to work and put this soup in the crock pot. It's not originally a crock pot recipe, but I improvised.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, finely chopped, plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce (NOT 2 cans, just two chiles)
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 can pinto beans (drained)
• 1 1/2 cups fresh corn 
• Juice of 2 limes
• Salt and pepper
• 1 hass avocado, thinly sliced lengthwise into 12 pieces
• Crushed tortilla chips

Directions

I basically put all the ingredients into the crock pot except the avocado, the juice from one lime and the tortilla chips. I cut the kernels off of some fresh corn from the garden and a can of pinto beans (drained) that I had just hanging around in the cupboards to make it a little more hardy. This afternoon, after 3-4 hours in the crock pot, I will add additional lime juice, cut up the avocado and put it in at the at the end. Then sprinkle the tortilla chips on top. It's smelling FANTASTIC! 

When life hands you batter...

I was a fun mom yesterday and gave Ella some old pancake mix so that she could practice "pouring" like they say they can start doing. But El had other ideas.....

The first video is a little long, but cute. Also, DEFINITELY watch the second video. Ella turned into an angry bird chef or something.....






P.S. I am putting this out there so that you all can keep me accountable and motivated, but I'm starting a 6 week "Hot Mama Biggest Loser" competition today. Trying to lose 1.5 pounds a week! Wish me luck!

Rocks and Mountains and Lakes

We went on our first little family camp trip. It lasted a mere 21 hours, but it was one for the history books. We had fun, except for the whole part where Ella woke up several times in the night crying and would take 15 minutes to quiet back down (sorry to everyone else at Anthony Lake - however, you only paid $8 - $12 to stay there, so what did you expect?).  Ella also scared away all the fish when we sat by the lake to watch them jump up and eat bugs on the surface. Apparently she didn't think it was as entertaining. She also decided to eat her first handful of dirt. 

The photos are prime, so here we go. 

Ella loved the tent, in the day time. 

I forgot a sunhat, so we made do, with a do-spit-rag.

The ski resort. 

E also enjoyed reading books back at camp.

Where's Lexy?

Happy face. 

Candid.

My favorite shot of the trip! Hot! 

By the campfire.

Morning owl.

She was so happy, she couldn't hold her hands still! 

It was okay, maybe we'll try again next summer, when she's a year older and a better sleeper, too! 

Hillybilly Husband

Eric's been wearing this camo hat every night.
Guess he's trying to fit in with the local folk.
I think it's pretty cute.

Harvest

We lucked out when we moved into our ward; they had a large ward garden that was producing food. We simply had to make time and go pick what we could. 

So, for FHE last night we made a quick jaunt over to the garden. Unfortunately, a lot of the tomatoes were still green and the cucumbers had gone bad, but we got as many tomatoes as we could (for my next adventure in canning) as well as some green beans (I think deer have been eating them), a butternut squash (for which I plan to make some soup out of) and a zucchini. 

Maybe next week we can make another attempt and more of the tomatoes will be ready - hopefully it doesn't freeze before then. It got down into the 30s last night! 

And now for the photos. 

So cute in her little owl hat! 

The garden.

Our bounty. 

I absolutely love this time of year! 

Baby Face & Peach Fuzz

Contrary to what the title of this post would indicate, this is not a post about Mr. Lougee ;-)

This is a post to show you some pretty big achievements in my journey toward becoming a domestic goddess. 

We bought a box of peaches at the Farmer's Market on Tuesday. 

On Wednesday I canned 7 quarts - my first time ever canning (aside from helping my mom with raspberry jam when I was like seven). 

On Thursday I made a peach cobbler, from scratch. And it was remarkably good. 

Wish I earned some badges I could stitch onto something ..... 

Eric made this collage with an app on his new iPAD. 

In other news, my baby turns 8 months old tomorrow. To celebrate, she got her first little tooth poked through the gums this week and one more about to peak out at any second. We also gave her some bread pieces, licks of a fudge bar and her room is almost finally put together! What a lucky girl. 

What else can I tell you about this girl? 

She doesn't crawl yet, though she can scoot backwards when she's throwing a fit. 

She's started to pull herself up and around things, but not a lot. 

She likes to snuggle with mom and get hyper with dad. 

She loves riding in her stroller on walks (I guess I should do that more). 

She hates when we leave the room or even indicate that we might be leaving the room. 

Her favorite place to do the deuce (#2) is in her exersaucer/bouncer. 

She used to loved peas, but now won't eat them. 

New nicknames: Snugglesaurus, Boo boo, Baby Bear (thanks to her growling) 

Eric and I were talking about a week ago and we both commented that we didn't know that a baby so young could have so much silliness. 

She is so much fun to have in our lives. 

Wouldn't trade her for the world! 

(or sleeping in....) 

Squish squish squish. 

Such a sweetie.

Cheeks!

Who's who?

Let's do a mashup.

Here are photos of me, Ella and Eric from approximately the same age (I think), between seven and nine months old.

Tell us. Who does she look like? Who's features does she have?

(Sorry about the caption on my photo, it was scanned from an album.)

Honestly, we think she's a pretty good mix of us, with features from both sides of the family.