It's Apple Picking time!!

And what fun we had! My friend Kay, has 4 trees that were just overloaded with apples.



So we came to help ease her load. Tabitha and her mother-in-law, Mary came too.


A little tree climbing involved to get the "sun kissed" ones.



Just ignore that crazy person in the back! She was just jealous that I got the PERFECT apple. And I even climbed (a step ladder) to get it too. It was promptly devoured in the car. Pure, fresh picked yummy-ness!!


My helpers!


Amber was the main apple core/peel/slicers person for the apple pie filling. Yes, that is 9:00 at night!

THE FINAL RESULTS

15 quarts of apple sauce
11 pints of apples sauce
22 quarts of apple pie filling

The only thing about doing this is a new project has been created. I have to find a place in the pantry for them!

Next? PEACHES!!!

It's YOUR Birthday!!!

The BEST son

The BEST Brother

We love you!
We miss you!
We are SO proud of you!!

And you never fail to put a smile on our face.

Hint, Hint!

So David and I went to weed the pumpkin patch and look what we found!!






Yup! Those are 3 separate pumpkin "balls". So don't forget to enter your guess over here because it's looking pretty hopeful that we'll get more than one pumpkin.

http://nwandersonfamily.blogspot.com/2009/07/first-seed-and-then-vine.html

A guarantee that makes you go hmmmm.....

Actually Amber and I laughed out loud in the store. Yes, you now know what we were shopping for. Just getting a few last minute items for Amber's pioneer trek she's going on tomorrow morning. Perish the thought of having to show proof that you need your money back!!

Yes! It's the great Wedgie Free undies guarantee!!!

Tis the Season!

And we're not talking Christmas. We are talking

RASPBERRIES!!!!

Oh, sweet, delicious, raspberry goodness!! The smell! Aaaaahhh! We LOVE this time of year when the fruit is so fresh. We can get a flat of raspberries for under $15! Niceness!!!! One of our favorite things to make is a recipe that was printed years and years ago in the Lynden Tribune (our small town paper) that came from the Lynden Dutch Bakery. It is the BESTEST ever!!

So here you go.

VERY RASPBERRY PIE

6 cups fresh raspberries

Topping:
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Cream Filling:
1 pkg. 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup cool whip
1 cup powdered suger

Crust:
Originally calls for a store bought graham cracker crust or shortbread crust. But we have a "secret" recipe that we discovered in a funny way (that will be told people in private conversations only). But I'll give you that recipe since it's not a "secret recipe" since Kim found it on AllRecipes.com.

1 pound butter
8 oz. cream cheese
3 3/4 cup flour

1. Blend together softened cream cheese and butter. Combine with flour in mixer on low. Divide into 6 equal portions. Wrap the ones that will not be used with plastic wrap and freeze. Chill portions that will be used in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

2. After chilling, roll out on a lightly floured surface and form into pie pans. For pre-baked crusts (like this one), prick fork holes all over crust and cook at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until golden.

Topping:
Mash 2 cups of raspberries to measure one cup. Place in sauce pan. Add sugar, cornstarch and water. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Cook and sir two minutes longer. Cool to room temperature.

Cream Filling:
Beat cream cheese, cool whip and powdered sugar. Spread on bottom of cooled crust/ Pool cooled raspberry sauce over the top. Refrigerate until set ~ about 3 hours.

Whipping Cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
1/4 cup unsifted powder sugar
1 tsp. vanilla


Combine all ingredients and mix until fluffy.

FINAL PRODUCT:

We used small ramekin cups which were the perfect size. And since David & Rob both ate a pint EACH before I started making the pie.


Enjoy! As you can tell, we did!


PS - The recipe also works wonderfully for fresh peaches!

First the Seed and then the Vine...

..then the flower very fine. Tabitha sang that song SO much that she learned in Kindergarten I STILL remember it. And she even had her little hand drawn pages too. But now we have the real thing!!

PUMPKINS!!!

Well, soon to be. We have never grown pumpkins before and thought it would be fun except they take up so much space. So we thought that since the majority of our tulips on the side of the house have stopped coming up, let's give pumpkins a try.

I'm in the mood for a giveaway. Take your guess as to what you think our harvest will be. How many pumpkins do you think will come from this.

What's the prize? Guess correctly and if you are local (and we get more than 1 pumpkin) you can come over and pick a pumpkin. If you are not local, then I can mail you a cute little something pumpkin-ish.

So what's your guess?

Yowza!!!!

I'm SO grateful we purchased central air conditioning 5 years ago. It comes in handy when the weather is like this!!

Right Now for
Lynden, WA

Updated Jul 27 04:05 p.m. PT

Sunny

102°F
Feels Like
116°F

Humidity:41%

A Sneak Peek

Here's a few shots that Cassie is teasing us with. I can't wait to see the rest!!!

Time to catch up ...again!

Sorry for the delay in posting. We've been in a whirlwind of activities around here.

4th of July was a nice, relaxing day.

Favorite part of the day ~ picking out the fireworks


Amber hasn't been home for 4th of July in about 4 years (she's always been off at EFY) so she's REALLY excited to go buy fireworks.


Rob is making his traditional Vanilla Ice Cream. This year he also added an new one ~ chocolate ice cream With HIS chocolate in a ganache. Boy!!! That was heavenly!!




Trying something fun with sparklers :D

We then rushed off to Utah for an ultra fast visit with Robert, Jessica and Lizzie.

Waiting for our flight


One happy little girl to be in her Papa's arms


Our cool chica w/her Auntie Amber


Lovingly abusing her Uncle DayDay. And he's enjoying every minute!


Our beautiful eternal family


Lizze LOVES flowers. She can't get enough of touching and smelling. And she even pulled one out of the ground that we promptly replanted :D


This was one of those shots where Jessica saw us sitting and talking with each other. So she came and took a picture of us. This is now MY favorite picture of me and my son.

Our "family photographer", Cassie ~ of CLG Photography flew in too and took some family pictures and senior pictures of Amber. STILL WAITING to see the sneak peaks. But from what I saw from the camera screen, they are going to be amazing!!


Cassie had never been to SLC so it was a lot of fun to play tourist and take her to Temple Square and show her around.

The night we flew home, my friend Lynette was coming into town too. She was here for her niece's wedding. So we had a wonderful house guest for the weekend.


Giving Lynette a taste of summer in Washington


On Monday morning, Rob and David woke up at the "before crack of dawn" to head out for Scout Camp. Followed by Lynette heading home and then taking Amber to the meeting place for girls camp. What did that mean? Amy was ALONE for 2 days!!!!! What a treat!!!

Amy then headed off to Girls Camp where she was in charge of Humanitarian Service projects. And to shock everyone ~ I spent 2 nights AT camp. Slept in a tent with 3 other gals!!! I still don't "enjoy" camping but I LOVED being with the young women in our church.


Amber, Tabitha and Liz (my other daughter for the camp)


Tabitha and Amber in the talent show singing "Sister" from White Christmas

Then time to come home and get clean. Woohoo!! Sleep in my own bed again!!!!

We've also been harvesting from our garden. The yummiest lettuce EVER!!!


Needed to thin some of the carrots but the kids wanted to eat then anyway. And peas.

Happy 4th of July

As we sit here in our comfortable homes, let us remember what this day is REALLY celebrating.

In talking with Amber and David I learned that they have NEVER had to read the Declaration of Independence at school. A big mistake on our parts as parents thinking that this is something that is commonly done. It used to be!! I'd really like to know what is taught in their various history/government classes that they are required to take in middle school and high school.

I know what we will be doing tonight!