Pumpkin Patch Again....

For FHE Monday night we went to decided to go to the pumpkin patch as a family. The night started out at Brad and Karen's for some yummy chili and cornbread. We were all filled up with yummy goodness (except me of course, blast this diet!) and we headed out to this great pumpkin patch out in the middle of nowhere. The kids were so excited! There was a carousel ride, a haystack pyramid, farm animals, and a corn maze. The real Halloween miracle was that we arrived a little late...it got a little dark, we picked the pumpkins in the dark, but we got our pumpkins for free! It was great. Then we went back to Brad and Karen's for a yummy treat. The best part about it was that Matt was there to capture our trip with his wonderful photography...enjoy!

What have you been doing lately??

We have been working furiously lately on finishing Sims Halloween costume. And this weekend we got it done! It is entirely made out of cardboard. Sims helped me paint and came up with the whole idea all by himself. He is so excited to be Thomas and puts on the costume almost every day! It makes me so happy to see him so excited. Halloween here we come.

Just Chilling

Last night was bath night. Lily for some reason only likes to stay in the water for 10 minutes. Then she gets out and gets in her jammies. But the challenge is once she is in her jammies to keep her out of the water while Sims finishes his bath...she is a very busy girl. So my solution is, put her in the sink. She is still so small that she fits right in the sink! She loved it and had a fun time just chilling.

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

On Tuesday for preschool they headed to the pumpkin patch! Sims had so much fun and loved every minute of it even though it was FREEZING cold!

He is growing up so fast! He just went through a big growth spurt and now is in 4T clothes. He looks like a little kid now instead of a toddler. He is very sweet and has a great attitude. He loves to have fun.

Picture of his whole class.

Mr. Kristin and Ms. Julie (Sims calls Ms. Kristin, Mr. Kristin, he can't quite grasp the ms.) He loves his teachers!

On the hay wagon ready to go get pumpkins!

He found one that he loves!

Totally random: This pumpkin patch had a zebra and a kangaroo! The kids loved to look at them, but to be honest Sims most favorite animal was the plain old pig.

And we can't forget the tower of hay. I am still amazed at how brave Sims is. He climbed all the way to the top, multiple times. He didn't get his bravery from his mom, that's for sure. He had a blast with his friends.

The End.

A little Yummy Treat

So I have been trying to find the perfect recipe for granola bars to use some of this food storage that I have an ample amount of! I used to buy the Fiber One granola bars at Costco. They are super delicious, but had this horrible side effect....GAS! When I ate those, I would have the worst gas of my life and Matt did too, so I set out on a mission to find a granola bar recipe. Here is what I came up with. Both of these recipes are from my favorite recipe site: allrecipes.com Enjoy!

Playgroup Granola Bars
INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup raisins (optional)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.

And this one is a little sweeter(actually I do not know that, I have never tasted either of these b/c I have been on a diet since I found them, but I have tried these on my family, neighbors and sold a ton of them at a garage sale.):

Easy Granola Bars:
INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sweetened condensed milk, butter, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips and cranberries with your hands until well blended. Press flat into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on how crunchy you want them. Lightly browned just around the edges will give you moist, chewy bars. Let cool for 5 minutes, cut into squares then let cool completely before serving.

And the verdict from my family is: Matt loves the playgroup granola bars the best. I found to only cook them for 25 minutes because they are more chewy! Have fun with these recipes. I have loved them!

A little bit about ME.

This is me and my beautiful family. Matt and I have been married for 8 wonderful, blissful years. These are our two cute kids. I am an overly happy stay at home mom. My favorite things to do are to craft and create, play with my kids, love my husband and spend ample time in the kitchen (cooking, not cleaning up).

I was born of goodly parents. My mom and dad continually teach me and inspire me to be the best me that I can be. I love them and hope to become more and more like them.

This is my family. I am the youngest of 7 children. I was adored, and sometimes picked on by my many wonderful siblings. Some of the best moments of my life are when we have all been together.

This is my brother Brian and his family. Brian is 12 or 13 years older than me...sorry I can't quite remember. He is a great brother and is so generous. Our relationship continues to grow. He has a wonderful family. They live all the way over in Iowa, so our family reunions mean a lot to me, because this is one of the only times I get to see them.

This is my sister Teresa and her family. She is one of those big sisters that every girl needs. She was my second mom and continues to be so today. She is dependable and lovely. Her family lives in Utah. Her strength and courage continues to inspire me.

This is my brother Mike and his family. He is a fun loving guy, but also knows how to be serious and we have had many good conversations. I love his family and their energy. His sacrifice and dedication to his family is a great example to me.

This is my brother Pete and his family. He is amazing. He works so hard and always has a great attitude and smile on his face. I know that he often faces challenges, but he has faith. He teaches me to continue to have faith.

This is my sister Debbie. I can't say enough about her. I am constantly reminded of her awesomeness. She has such a lively and busy family, but continues to tap into her creative side with sewing and crafting. We talk often, we laugh often and sometimes we cry often. Her relationship strengthens me.

And lastly, not pictured is my truly wonderful sister Kari. She was delivering her first baby about the time we took these pictures. I am so grateful for her and her excitement for motherhood. She reminds me what it is all about. She has a wonderful little family that has joy and happiness in their home. I love her spirit, she is so caring.

All these people are what make me who I am, they have all inspired and sculpted me in some way. I love my family very much. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for putting me where he did in this family. It has been a blessing and will continue to be one. I love you all!

He really is just that wonderful

I have an amazing husband. He is patient, he is funny and he is the best dad on the planet. He just has a love for life and helps keep me going. There are days when I feel lost in despair that he just takes my hand and puts me back on my path.

We laugh.

I cry. (Matt doesn't cry, but he gets teared up every once in a while)

We play.

We love.

It is perfect.

What takes my breath away still is how amazingly talented he is as a photographer.

He is so creative.

I love to have a chance to share with you my pride in his ability. Here, as promised, is a slide show from the wedding we went to in San Fransisco.

Enjoy.

Erik and Nicole - Wedding from Matt Johnson on Vimeo.

Current Craftiness

First off: The pajama pants. Are they not the cutest thing in the world. I guess it helps that the cutest model in the world is wearing them...hmmm

Lily loves her new pajama bottoms and looks like such a "big girl" in them. It makes me a little sad to see her growing up so fast!

Second: Wall art. I brought some mount board with us from the studio. It is just little 8x10 and 4x6 mount board, but I got this ingenious idea to mount scrapbook paper on it and do a little distressing to make this:

My nephew Spencer was over and was so nice to pose in the pictures for me! He was enjoying some coloring.

My craft area is now complete and I have been in it almost every day doing something creative. I love it. The wall art just adds to the creativity of the room. My favorite part is that Sims has his craft drawers in the same room, so you can find him in there coloring and doing playdough. I love to see him explore his creative side too!

Weekend with Grandma Boise

We had a fabulous weekend when Grandma Boise came to town and with her she brought more cousins!! It was Sims dream come true. We played, laughed, crafted and did it all. She came on Thursday last week and stayed through Sunday. We pretty much lived at Brad and Karen's house (thanks guys for being so patient with all of us and opening your house and food to us!). On Friday we went to this playground called the playground of dreams the kids loved it and we had a blast. They ran around, swung on the tire swing and even Lily went down the slides. It was great. Linda helped me learn how to make pajama pants for Lily, I will post pictures of those soon. She made bean bags for the kids out of cute Halloween fabric. Matt, Brad, Karen and I even got to go on a date to the high school homecoming game! So it was a fun filled weekend, now I am just trying to rest up from it!

Lily Rocks

There are so many things that I love about Lily. Her personality is the thing I love most.
She is the happiest baby and loves to explore. She has a strong personality, but I like that about her. She is always willing to help me out too, she loves to close doors for me and pick up the toys. I cannot believe how much she can understand. Today it was just the two of us and she was needing some mommy time, so I sat down with her and told her to go get a story to read and off she toddled and came back with a story. I love it.

Simsography

Another afternoon spent in the backyard. Sims loves to take photographs and I am really contemplating getting him his own camera for Christmas.

While we are on the subject

Courtney was born 5 years ago this December. She was stillborn, at 38 weeks. We later found out that she had a genetic disorder called Turners Syndrome that was part of the reason she didn't survive. All I know is that she was perfect, absolutely perfect.

When something like this happens to you, you have a choice. You can choose to celebrate the life that was so preciously given to you or you can choose to mourn the life that was so preciously given to you for the rest of your life. I have chosen to celebrate.

Matt and I looked for a way to help celebrate her life. The first couple of years we bought expensive presents (along with many of our family in Boise) and donated them to the local kids who are without families and without homes. Don't get me wrong, this is a NOBLE thing to do, it just didn't feel right to honor my baby.

So a few years ago, inspiration hit. We decided that we were going to start photographing one family a year who had a child with special needs to celebrate Courtney's life. Courtney would have been disabled if she would have lived.

What we do:

We photograph the family, and take individual pictures of the kids.

We give the family their portraits: For FREE. This is our gift to our baby, so we are so happy to be able to do this for the family. We usually give them a 30x40 canvas portrait with a smattering of smaller prints. So far in the past, the families have been so wonderful and great to work with!

Here is the problem. We are in a new area and don't know anybody with a disabled child except for Tiffany Harker. Well, Tiffany is due to have a baby in 9 weeks, so we thought that next year will be better for her so she can enjoy pictures of her baby and herself too, so don't worry, Tiffany will get done. But I need your help my little Tri-city friends (I don't have many yet).

Please send this link to everyone you know. I want to hear stories and I want to meet inspirational families so that we can decide who to photograph this year in memory of our daughter. Please just post a comment or you can email me at jen@jonballphotography.com.

Check out our old website for the studio we ran back in Boise, all these portraits are done by Matt (my husband). www.jonballphotography.com

I hope this gets to a lot of people. I want to be able to give this gift to another family this year! Thanks so much for you help.

This is the family we did last year. They have a beautiful son who has down syndrome.