More Happenings

We grew peanuts in the neighborhood garden! When they were ready Dan harvested them and we laid them out to dry on a table upstairs in the light for over a week.  Once they were dry we de-shelled the nuts and laid them on a baking sheet to bake. Once they cooled from baking we removed the skins.

First we put the peanuts in a food processor but the food processor was too big to cream the nuts.

It was still too chunky.

We put it in the blender and that worked great!  We ended up with creamy, smooth peanut butter.  We did add some salt and honey to make it taste more like what we are use to.

Making PB&J sandwiches with our homemade peanut butter.

You have to store homemade peanut butter in the fridge if you want it to last and it wasn't quite as creamy after being the fridge a couple of days. It was harder to spread but delicious!

We had a random pine tree in our backyard that Dan finally cut down.  Charlie and him dragged it to the front yard.  It was good father-son bonding time :).

My cuties!  It was so laughable to see Charlie dragging a branch bigger than him!

Our local fire house had and open house.  Hannah had spent all week learning about fire safety and we had a fun FHE and did several fire drills. Below is pictures from the event.

We decided to go as a family to the State Fair on Saturday.  It was something we talked about but didn't actually decided until that morning and then made a mad dash to get ready! Parking was insane and we ended up packing 3-4 blocks from the fair but had to pay $10 for parking!!!  Ouch!  When we arrived we watched a acrobatic show.  Followed by  seeing 'the farm.' The Farm was fun because they had small patches of just about everything you could grow as well as fish and chickens.  They gave the kids baskets to fill up with produce, which in turn the kids were able to sale for 'money' at the Farmer's Market.  Once the had 'money' they were able to buy an apple, a small serving of mini pickles and a note pad. 
After The Farm, we went and explored the animals, saw a cow milking demonstration and were able see the award winning produce!  They had pumpkins that were over 500 lbs!  We saw a demonstration on artisan bread making given by a French baker!   After the baking demonstration we went to go and see the pig races!  Bella's favorite part!  We had to show up an hour before the show in order to get seats though.  While we waited we decided to share a giant turkey leg and a funnel cake. While waiting, poor Bella was stung by a hornet on her belly!  Luckily she was surprisingly calm and was just complaining about her belly.....turned out the hornet was stinging her belly.  They had pigs, goats and ducks race.  This was Bella's favorite part!
We decided to see how much it would cost to ride the Ferris Wheel as a family to close on the experience.  On our way a lady who was passing by just handed us a bunch of tickets.  When we got to the ride and saw we were short 13 tickets, a family if front of us just gave them to us!  We were amazed!  It was the perfect was to end the experience.

Some other happenings, last Sunday Bella was crying before church complaining about her ear on and off.  I tried to take a look but she didn't want me to so we just headed off to church.  While at church her teacher brought her to me because Bella was crying over her ear.  Dan decided to take her to urgent care and get the antibiotics because we assumed it was an ear infection.  The Dr said she did not have an infection and sent her on her merry way. Bella kept complaining about her ear and started to walk around with it tilted on her shoulder, so after 4 days I decided to take her to see her ENT.  It turns out it was the ear that he had removed the tube from that had fluid that wasn't draining again.  He had hoped she would grow out of it but it looks like she'll have to have another set of tubed placed and he's going to remove her adenoids as well.  We've been talking about possibly having her tonsils removed while he's in there.....we shall see.  Poor thing just can't catch a break on those ears.

I've had a sore throat for about 3 weeks now.  And it has been pretty painful.  They thought it was strep and put me on antibiotics. 48 hours after finishing the antibiotics the store throat came back just as painful and so I went back.  I was tested for Mono, it was negative.  They put me on a different antibiotic.  It's been 4 days and my throat is still pretty sore. I suppose I'll just finish this round and see what happens.  It's really taken a toll on my energy and makes me feel lethargic.  I'm thinking if it was viral it would be gone by now!

I'm enjoying my calling as the Ward Nursery Leader!  Dan's the ward Sunday School President so between the two of us 2nd and 3rd hour are pretty busy for us and make it challenging with Faith!  Dan gets to attend ward council now and I get a bit envious :)  I miss it!   We are chugging along and enjoying life.