Apples!!!

I asked around to see if friends had extra apples on their apple trees this year but the drought seems to have been tough on them. I was blessed when a neighbor brough over a large sack of apples for me from a vacated parsonage. Here is what I did with them:
(1) Admired the nice apples and my skills at getting free food :)

(2) Peeled/Cored/Sliced Apples:

 (3)Found and tried 2 new crockpot recipes for apple products. Apple Butter and Applesauce recipes found by clicking on the name. The applesauce turned out a GREAT color and is SUPER sweet so it would be great for a topping for pancakes/waffles, icecream, other desserts, or with oatmeal! I believe I doubled the pumpkin pie spice on the applesauce.

 (4) Made an apple crisp.

 Here was what I was left with after eating the apple crisp and Levi eating MANY apple slices:

Not bad for one sack of apples but not worth actually canning so I just refrigerated it to eat. Yum!

Turtle For A Day

The three of us were on a walk yesterday and found a turtle about to go in to the road. I was afraid he would get hit so I rescued him and asked a neighbor if they were missing a turtle. (The only one in the immediate vicinity that had kids) It wasn't theirs. I went home and researched it and found it to be a Western Painted Turtle. They can actually be just a local wild animal , so today I took it out to a natural water source to have a better life. Good bye Turtle George. Levi wanted to call him Levi  :) .

 Its one of the few turtles that can right themselves when they flip over. Here you see he cranes his neck to flip over,

 His new home:

The Mimis and the Papas

 We really enjoyed having both the Crandall & Balsley Grandparents come to visit in July. Alan & Jan came 1st and helped us remove old carpet, scrape floors, and pick out new materials to finish our bathroom.

We also wandered over to the "Music in the Park" night and enjoyed Levi's dancing to the music. Whenever we get together I love to get a picture of the "Three Georges".

We were all excited when Mimi showed up with Levi's completed I Spy Quilt. He loves it so much at this age and works on identifying and matching things on it most days.

Alan & Andrew spent their free moments between projects playing scrabble.

(Above) The guys working hard in the bathroom, followed by "What is wrong with this picture?"

Alan & Jan gave Levi his present early since we won't see them again for awhile.

Alan showing Levi how to check air pressure:

When Mom and Dad Balsley arrived, we visited the "beach".

Mom & Dad really helped us whip the yard in to shape. Here Levi & Grandma are digging together.

Levi & Andrew enjoying family time.

Mom & I reminisced about old days when we used to love reading Bill Peet books. We giggled and read one aloud together.

Papa and Levi spent a lot of time playing trains.

Mimi taught Levi about cars on ramps. What a fun game.

After everyone left, Levi spent a lot of time looking at pictures of the Mimis and the Papas. Here he is matching the Papas.

22 Month Update (Finally!) & Bathroom Update

Levi is such an active 22 month old. He has a vocabulary that is topping 200 words now. He chatters all the time and loves to make jokes and giggle. Favorite words: Funny, Walk, Milkshake, Pop pop, "Oh Yeah", Water Tower, Dirty, and Train. He has become very independent lately and likes to walk all the way to McDonalds and back. (6-7 blocks from our house).

Our newest mode of transportation. Levi seems to like it and I can bike to the store with Levi and bring back 4 gallons of milk in one trip.

Levi loves the fresh local summer foods available.

Levi LOVES watching, touching, playing with, and talking about "Nee-nahs" (Firetrucks).

Here is our basement bathroom/laundry room redo. We had a carpeted bathroom (YUCK) and we decided to choose a new flooring. The project got WAY bigger way faster than expected but as you can see, it got so much nicer!

Once the carpet was gone Jan & Alan helped us scrape the old glue and other grody things away. We love how it turned out. There are still a few things we aren't sure about (like painting the shutter , etc.) We put a new light in, laid vinyl tile, put up wall bead boards, base boards, painted, restuck old wallpaper, and sanded and painted the cupboard. Thanks, Andrew, Jan and Alan!!!!