Raspberries

One of the things that we love about our home is our raspberry patch.  However, we only had a slight harvest with them this summer - mostly because they hadn't been watered for a while during the moving transition and also because they weren't being taken care of as they should have been.  Mark did a lot of research and we knew we had to change things up.  This is a picture from about a month ago of our raspberries.  They were very overgrown.

Now this is how they look.  Last weekend Mark spent almost an entire day trimming and transplanting.  He cut them down to a good height, spread them out, and added some wire fencing to contain them and keep them upright.  We went from having 20 feet of overgrown raspberries to now having 40 feet!  It is so much more spacious on that side of the house and the berries look much healthier!

We have to do a few more thing to brighten up the area but we are really pleased with how well it looks now.

Cross your fingers with us that we will have an abundant harvest next summer!

Halloween Festivities!

Happy Halloween!  We've had a fun Halloween week here.  The girls only had school on Monday and Tuesday so we've been playing all week and getting into the Halloween Spirit.  They had class parties on Tuesday that were lots of fun and had a ward party on Wednesday night.  We had a chili cookoff and Mark's chili won the prize for best sweet chili.  His prize was an oven mitt filled with candy!  This picture is of Clara holding the big prize!

Thursday we went downtown to trick or treat in the afternoon.  The girls scored lots of candy!  Then we came home and had pizza and then did a little more trick-or-treating.  Clara's costume this year was a fairy - she was adorable but the wings didn't last too long.

Samantha went as a gypsy!

Emma dressed up as a nerd.  She was so cute!

It was a fun day and we have so much candy in the house.  We are definitely ready to move on to Thanksgiving!  We hope your Halloween was filled with fun!

Pretty Girls

I love the fall season.  I love the changing colors and the mountains here in La Grande are full of bright colors this time of year.  We have a really large bush/hedge in our front yard that has turned the most gorgeous shade of red so I thought I would take a few snapshots of my pretty girls in front of it.  They are growing too quickly and I feel like I have to capture every moment!

They are probably so tired of me taking their picture but look at those faces!!!  I am one proud mama!

We hope you are enjoying this season as well!

Service Project

Since moving in to our new home there has been a section of our backyard that has been a huge eye sore!  There is several inches of gravel, lots of weeds, and old railroad ties.  The former owners used it as RV parking but since we don't have an RV we knew we wanted to turn this section into more lawn.  The only problem was that it is a HUGE job to move all the gravel and dig up those railroad ties.  If Mark attempted to do it on his own, it would take forever and it would kill him physically.  Luckily, my visiting teaching companion is the wife of our Elders Quorum President so we put our heads together and came up with the idea of having a service project at the house and getting some help.

We planned it for this weekend - we bought some donuts and juice to share and took some "before" pictures before a couple of guys showed up to help out.

We were expecting a few guys and to our delight we had about 14 show up!!  We couldn't believe it - the Bishop came, his counselor, our home teachers, one of the young men, elders, high priests, and even a couple of wives!  It was so wonderful!  They got right to work and within an hour they were completely done and we were looking for things for everyone to do!

They created our giant gravel pile and got the railroad ties in the trailer to head to the dump!

And stacked a bunch of rock that we want to save for a future project.

We couldn't be more grateful for the help we received and now we feel like we are on track for making the changes to the yard that we've wanted to.  It's such a blessing to see the way the Church works and to have willing hands to lighten the load.  We will do our best to find ways where we can serve and return the favor!

Making Applesauce!

Our family LOVES homemade applesauce so I always make sure to make a large amount each fall.  For several years I have been doing applesauce and borrowing an applesauce maker from a ward member but this year I had my OWN applesauce maker that Mark got me for our anniversary!  It sure worked great and the girls were anxious to help me!

We got our apples at the local farmers market and they were very large and beautiful!

Emma was the super helper and cut up all the apples into pieces to be cooked.....

Then she would crank while Samantha collected the hot applesauce.  It made me very happy to be canning with my girls!

On this day we made 13 quarts of sauce and they turned out beautifully.  The sauce will be a wonderful addition to our meals during the long winter months.

Sure love this season!

Pumpkin Patch

It wouldn't be the fall season without a visit to our local pumpkin patch!  The girls had a day off from school for Teacher Inservice a couple of weeks ago so we decided to take the girls and have a family activity.

You would think that as Clara gets older that it would get easier to take her picture but it hasn't.  She is still camera shy and it is rare that we actually get a photo of her looking at the camera.  Most of the time, if she is sitting with her sisters she will feel comfortable enough so I was glad to get this snapshot of the three of them!

Daddy is always a good sport when it comes to posing with his girls....

Happy Fall Y'all!

Conference Weekend!

Hooray that General Conference is here again!  We love Conference Weekend and look forward to it with great anticipation!  This time around we were lucky enough to have Jon and his family come up for the Saturday sessions to watch with us and enjoy some fall activities.  The pumpkin patch opened up for the season and the kiddos were anxious to check out all the different pumpkins.  We went there after the Saturday morning session.

Then we came back to the house for lunch and to watch the afternoon session.  Everyone was sprawled out over the living room doing various quiet activities.... Clara was really enjoying coloring, IJ was checking out a church activity book, and....

Hinkley did some file folder games with the help of Samantha.  He did great!  Jordan did some with his mommy, too.

Emma and Eliza were very engrossed in some fun coloring books!

So much going on in the house, but here lies Uncle Jon getting the MOST out of conference!

After the second session we headed over to Cove to an antique fair that members of our ward were putting on.  The kiddos went on a hay ride while the moms and dads did some looking around for treasures.

This was a great find for us - we love this beautiful desk.  Now we just need to find a place to put it!

I saw this adorable fall creation - I didn't buy it but I am hoping to recreate it someday with our own flower pots....

After the antique fair we came back to the house so the dads could watch Priesthood session which was being broadcast on TV for the first time.  I made a couple pots of soup and then us gals sat down to work on a fall craft while the boys stayed outside and got some energy out.

Emma and Eliza really had their creative juices flowing...

Jordan loves playing basketball so Samantha stayed outside with him and they bounced the ball around.

Hinkley found the chicken broom and thought it was great......

While Isaac played around with the bouncy balls - only one of the balls went over the fence. 

It was a great day and a wonderful way to spend conference weekend.  We were sad to see them leave! 

No Work.....No Play

I know I have inundated you with pictures of yard work, but I'm just so proud of my husband's efforts to turn our new yard into something really beautiful for us.  He works really hard and even sometimes he can get Emma and Samantha to help him, too.  A few weeks ago we tore out several large bushes that were growing into the fence, in order to make more room in our garden area.  Mark and I tore everything out but then we needed to put the girls to work in order to get all of the debris over to the other side of the property to get ready for a trip to the dump.

As you can see by their faces, Samantha was a little more willing to work than Emma was....

In the end.... we had a VERY large pile to take to the dump.  It took three loads to get it all hauled out of here!

Mark needed to make room for my new peach tree!!!  He planted it, cleared the area, and trimmed the big green bush way back.  We are definitely looking forward to having a harvest from this within a couple of years.

He also made a decorative flower bed to have near the garden - these flowers don't look so great now since it is fall, but in the spring it will be very lovely!

 He also dug a rock path that separates the lawn from our other vegetation - it looks so nice!

Maybe someday I will be able to post pictures of a completed yard but for now, this is a great start!

Our First Egg!

We had some exciting news at the Perry home today!  Since we brought home our three chicks back in April, we have been patiently waiting for them to grow and begin laying eggs.  Recently Mark built a nice laying box for them because he knew the time was near.  The past few days he noticed that one of them (Della) was starting to act a little different.  He watched her carefully this morning as she found her way to the laying box - he gave her some privacy and within a half hour, we had our first egg!  It's a little small but Mark says that's normal for the first couple of months.

Here is our Della.  She is quite the rascal and can be ornery at times but today she is a beloved member of the family.....that will probably change later tonight as the girls go out to feed and water.  She will most likely lay three or four eggs a week so when the other two hens begin laying, we will be receiving about a dozen each week which is great!

Thank you Della!

Random Samplar....

Here are just a few random pictures that we've taken lately.....

Because we planted extra grass seed this summer, we have had to do a good deal of extra watering on the lawn.  Combine that with several thunderstorms that have come through our area and the inability to mow the lawn regularly to let the new grass grow, it was a perfect breeding ground for mushrooms!  We had them all over the back yard and this bunch was huge - the Smurfs could have lived under these suckers!  Fortunately, our lawn has since been mowed very nicely and the giant mushrooms were dug up and thrown away.....

This is just a cute little diddy of Miss Clara posing before church.  Her hair is getting longer so we are finally able to put clips in.  It's only taken two years!

Emma is pretty serious when it comes to her school work.  On this day, she was very intently working on a class project while listening to her favorite tunes.  At this moment, she seemed so grown up to me so I had to get a picture.  Where have the past almost eleven years gone?

I couldn't resist posting the picture of these two cuties - Clara and Brittain.  Our families got together to have a picnic and FHE on Labor Day and the girls had great fun together.  They played in the water and danced in the parking lot.  Love these girls!

Fun times in the Perry Family!