Father's Day 2013

We sure love our daddy around here. Father's Day is about one of our favorite days, because we get to celebrate him all day long.

We wanted to make him breakfast in bed, but he got up early to smoke some ribs for dinner. So the boys had breakfast with dad on the patio while he smoked the ribs.

The boys after church with dad. What a handsome bunch of boys.

After church we had our Father's Day dinner. Sterling smoked the ribs and I made mac n' cheese, baked beans, fruit salad, and summer squash. All the delicious flavors of BBQ in one meal.

After dinner, we gave dad our gift. It was a photo book with pictures of all the fun things he did with the boys over the last year. The boys helped me pick out the pictures.

The rest of the day was spent playing rugby with dad. This might have been his favorite part of the day. It's pretty cute to watch these boys play together.

Right before bed, the boys did a bit of wrestling. 

The next morning, the boys all ended up in our bed, by their dad. I think it's safe to say that all of our boys are daddy's boys. I sure love these boys.

I'm so grateful to be married to such a great husband and father. He is such a great example to our boys. He is hard-working, faithful, funny, and the list goes on and on. I hope they all grow up to be just like him. 

GARDEN TIME

 I dream of the day when I can have a huge garden. My mom has one that runs her life, and I can't wait till that's me. Gardening is therapeutic and really fun. I loved watching all my things grow last year. We didn't get much in the way of tomatoes or squash, but we got lots of pepper and herbs. We are trying tomatoes, pepper, and herbs again this year. We are also trying corn and pumpkins. Go big or go home right?!?

I started my seeds about 2 weeks later than I'd hoped this year, but it shouldn't be a problem. This part is always my favorite. After about three days, plants start popping up like crazy. The boys absolutely love it. I do too.

 The boys got to plant corn with their dad on Saturday. These boys are pretty into whatever their dad wants to do and I love it. It's hard to know who enjoyed this more.

 Here are the tomatoes, peppers, and herb in their pots. They start growing really fast at this point and it's fun to watch.

I'm hoping to be eating a whole lot of tomatoes in August, carving pumpkins in October, and having corn coming out our ears by the fall. Either way, it's fun to watch things grow.

OUR DADDY TURNED 35.

Our dad had his birthday on Saturday. He spent the whole day in the car, driving us home from Florida. We had the official celebration a couple of day later.

The boys and I picked out a sweet pair of Nascar tire cufflinks. They were a hit. The boys also make some little cards and things for him. 

He grilled us up some yummy steaks for his birthday dinner. They were delicious. Our dad is the grillmaster!

I snapped this picture of the boys that night with their dad. Here they are reading scriptures with dad. The boys like to pile on top of him. He is so great at teaching the gospel. I'm so grateful for such a faithful, fun, amazing father for our boys. We're all lucky!

Happy Birthday, Love! 35 has never looked better!

The Klondike

Sterling has been serving as the Scoutmaster for the last year and a half. The scouts go on campouts about once a month. We are usually bored out of our minds on the weekends when dad is gone. This weekend, we got to go out and see him in action.
The Klondike is one of the biggest scouting activities of the year. The boys race on a course, pushing a sled, and performing all sorts of scouting tasks. We went out in the morning and spent the day with dad while the scouts were on the course. The boys were in heaven. So was I.

The boys made breakfast in the dutch oven with dad. He even let them crack the eggs. Something that mom never lets them do. They got to stir the eggs and sausage, and did most of it themselves.

We walked over and looked at the course a bit, but spent most of our time around the campfire with dad. It was chilly and windy, but the sun was shinning. It was a perfect day.

I get the feeling that we will be doing a lot of scouting in the the future. And I get the feeling that the boys are going to have a lot of fun with their dad.

Brisket

 I had to post a couple of pictures of Sterling's latest BBQ genius. He has officially mastered Brisket and it is unbelievably tasty. The first one was a test run. It turned out perfect and we served it at our "Meet the Members" dinner that we hosted. Everyone loved it.

The second was for the Super Bowl. It was just as tasty and a total hit. 

We both ate our weight in Brisket. I love that Sterling loves to BBQ. It is such a fun change up to our normal menu. He loves it, and I get a brake from cooking. Win-win.

LIGHTS OUT.

We have had quite a few power outages in the last year. Every time the lights go out, I'm always relieved that Sterling has flashlights for us to use. The boys always want to use dad's flashlights. And so for Christmas, they got their own.

When the lights went out last night, the boys ran and got their own flashlights. It was actually a lot of fun.

It also helped that dad is the fire master and started a big, nice fire for us. That gave us a lot of light. The boys grabbed books and decided to read by the fire. Their idea. Darling.

 

After we put the babies to bed, the big boys stayed up and played an intense game of Candy Land. They play almost every night. I love watching them play.

Thanks dad, for buying us all headlights, making us sweet fires, and playing games with us. We love you!

I married a lumber jack...

 ...and I love it. Every night, Sterling makes me a big fire in our fireplace. It is truly one of my favorites times of the day. It makes our house so cozy and warm. Because we loves to have fires every night, this requires a lot of wood. Luckily I am married to a lumber jack.

We have big piles of wood stacked all around our house. This one was in our driveway for a while. I love how neat it looks.

The boys love it too. They help dad make fires every night. I'm so happy to be married to such a manly man!

Nesting

 To say that I'm nesting with this pregnancy would be a bit of an understatement. I've gotten more accomplished in the last six weeks, than I've done in the last year. This pregnancy has been my hardest so far. I've had some complications and then tack on the hottest summer in history and a power outage (no A/C) and there you have it. The last six weeks have been dreamy with the weather and I've really enjoyed things a lot more. We are beyond excited to meet this little guy. We have just a week left.

I made a long nesting list about three months ago and almost everything has been checked off or is in the process. I'm going to brag about a few on them so that in a few months when I'm getting nothing accomplished, I can look back and feel better about things.

It all started with the boys Halloween costumes. I made these capes for the boys one weekend when Sterling was gone on the Father and Sons campout.  They are double sided with a different hero on each side. I finished their masks and shirts this week. So costumes are totally ready.

I started these little bootties for the baby this summer in Florida and only got one done. I threw in the towel when the summer heat hit in full swing. But after finishing the capes I was really motivated and finished these. So glad I did. I love them. I've made lots of pairs for little girls but these were my first boy pair.

With all the fabulous boy clothes my sister Becky gave me, I really needed to organize and sort everything I had. I bought a ton of new bins and spent two nap times sorting. I have everything perfectly sorted form 0-3 months up to 6 years. Before I had three bins that were all mixed and scattered. I got rid of anything that was worn and gross. This got me really excited for the baby to get here.

I was about to buy a new carseat canopy and decided I could make my own. This project took 25 minutes and I love it. It's blue minky on the inside and it matches my Bundle Me that my sister Marilee gave me when I had Sterling Henry. This little boy is going to be comfy and cozy all winter long!

We took two weekend nights last week and completely cleaned out and organized our basement. We have an unfinished/storage that has been the one room we close the door on. Now I love it. It has a few things left but it's almost completely organized. My food storage finally has a place that I can get to and see what I have. When I say we cleaned this out, I mean Sterling. I sat on a chair and he did it all. He rocks like that.

We're switching the boys rooms this weekend and moving the big boys both into big boy beds. Then we'll have a big boy room and a baby room. So fun to think of Gouverneur getting to share a room with the baby. He's going to love it!

I got my Romney sign out. This wasn't on my list but it should've been. Feels good to have it out. 

I went to the ballet with some friends over the weekend. We saw the Russian Mariinsky Ballet's Cinderella. It was a modern version, but very enjoyable. It was fun to be out since I'm pretty sure this won't happen again for a while. Or ever.

I did plan on having all my Christmas gifts done as well. They are not even close to being finished but I'm not too worried. Now that all the other stuff is done, the Christmas gifts and holding a sweet new baby is all I need to accomplish in the next two months. My mom gets here on Wednesday. We are all looking forward to her arrival.

We are all overly excited to meet this little guy. He cannot even get here soon enough. There is something so sweet and special about having a new baby in the house. They bring such a strong spirit with the home. We can't wait to meet you baby boy!

Apple Mania

We have gone apple picking every fall since we've lived here. It's a fun way to get out of town and get some really yummy apples. We usually go to a pick-your-own orchard and spend a ridiculous amount of money of apples but have a really fun time.

Last year was the first year I made applesauce and we went back to the orchard twice to get more apples. This year we decided that we needed to find a way to get a ton for a way better deal. We found the perfect place, Richard's Orchard. They have a huge selection of pre-picked apples. Their seconds were half the price of what we paid last year. We were amazed at just how great the seconds were. I don't think we'll ever buy "firsts" again.

We ended up getting seven bushels. A bushel is about 40 lbs. I probably would have gotten 3 or 4 had I gone alone, but in true Fillmore fashion, more is better and usually the right amount. We got a selection of Fugi, Golden Delicious, and York. All perfect for sauce.

 

The boys loved the whole thing. They also had a darling market where we picked up a few pumpkins as well. The boys eating their first of many apples that day. 

I use to be pretty stressed about babies eating apples but Gouverneur is a pro. Plus, the boy is addicted to apples. Not a bad addiction to have.

 We put the boys to bed that evening and sorted them all. In all seven bushels there were only 3 or 4 that we threw out because they were bad.

Here is a picture of why some of these apples are seconds. The skin discoloration makes them less desirable. The flavor is amazing and perfect for eating or sauce.

Here is what I did all week, prepared batches to go into the crockpot. I crockpot my applesauce for 5-6 hours and then bottle it. We bought 2 additional crockpots this year to speed it up. I add cinnamon and nutmeg to my sauce. It gives it a real golden color and tastes delicious. I don't add any sugar and they are plenty sweet since they cook down for so long

 

Here is a close-up of the finished product.

 

Here the boys are with all the finished sauce. We ended up with 63 quarts. Seems like a lot, but with 5 boys in the house, I hope it's enough!

Until we have apple trees of our own, I think we'll be buying seconds. I'll still amazed that they were such a good deal. Thank you Richard's Orchard!

Smores

We had a family BBQ over the weekend and followed it up with smores. Not sure why it took us all summer to do smores in the backyard, but we might be doing it every weekend from now on. The boys loved it and it was a lot of fun.

Little Man and dad roasting the mellows.

Dellin was our official mellow man. He consumed most of the bag, but who could say no to that face. 

We strapped Gouverneur in the highchair since he has not learned fire safety yet. He was happy as long as we kept the graham crackers coming. 

The big boys with dad. Sterling Henry's face is so darling in this picture. 

Time to chow.

 Leaning over their plates so they could contain the mess.

Dellin was real serious about the whole thing.

Case in point. This picture made the whole night worth it. Darling boys. 

We invited Ellie and Kendall over from next door. They are our darling neighbor girls. They could fit into our family nicely. We love these girls.

Smores were a hit. The boys had a blast. Mom and Dad are still fun. It was a great time for everyone.