Happy Harvest

Our garden produced beautifully this year. We have worked reallly hard and it payed off. The only thing that I think we could have been better at is weeding our garden. The weeds grew just a plentifully as the vegetables. Below is a list of what our harvest produced:

Lettuce
Peas
Grean Beans
Onions
Carrotts
Corn
Potatoes
Cantaloupe
Pumpkins

I did ALOT of canning too!! I made:

Strawberry Jam
Apricot Jam
Apricot Butter
Canned Peaches
Canned Pears
Applesauce
Applebutter
Salsa
Canned Green Beans
Canned Dilly Beans
Canned Pinto Beans

Are you hungry yet? I think I am done with food storage for the year!! Too much work!

You Must Visit this Blog if You are LDS

Announcing My New Favorite LDS Related Blog!!

(With Angel Moroni's Help)

I stumbled across this website and it is great! This girl does LDS Church Lesson Helps and Handouts she has stuff for primary, activity days, relief society, and more. My Favorite: she makes a handout each month to correspond with the visiting teaching message. You can just print it out and it is cute and totally appropriate to give to the sisters that you visit teach. Here it is: http://emmasplacetobe.blogspot.com/ . Sorry, if you aren't LDS and reading this post. Visit my blog some other time to read about our really exciting life on the farm!

My Cell Phone Drowned

About 10 days ago Emily decided to give my cell phone a bath in a bowl of water. The picture below is not of my cell phone I found it on the Internet of someone's phone that had the same fate. I took the battery out and tried to let it dry out with no luck! It is still dead as a door nail. Of course I don't have phone insurance because I am pretty responsible with my phone. What was I thinking? I know that my kids destroy everything that they can get their hands on. Next time, I will definitely be purchasing phone insurance. Does anyone have any tips on how to revive a drowned cellphone? If you need to reach me sometime in the next month or so, you might try our home phone, email, facebook, or this blog. I pretty much check those things everyday.

Grand Nan Visit's Idaho

Grand Nan came for a visit last week. We were busy ladies the entire time. We did alot of chores, went shopping a few times, and went out to eat a few times. We always love having her come visit and we can't wait until the next time.

Princess Polly

A few months ago, one of Darin's co-workers said they had kittens and asked if Abigail would want one. Of course Abigail wants a kitten, what kid doesn't want a kitten? So, before I was even aware of what had taken place we added a new kitten to our house. So, now we have 3 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats & 6 chickens (I have stopped counting the livestock, the number changes too often). Ralphs Ruckus at it's best. Meet Princess Polly.

Our New Family Members

Our family just wasn't the same with out a dog running around, so when I found out a family in Chubbuck needed to find a good home for their Cocker Spaniel and Springer Spaniel I couldn't resist these cute faces. Meet Samson & Aggie.

The Springer - Samson means Service so hopefully he will serve our family well. He is 11 months old and full of energy he loves people and follows us wherever we go. He is still learning good manners and sometimes forgets them when he gets excited and jumps on people. We are trying to teach him some basic commands so he is not so uncontrollable. He loves to chase the farm cats, I don't think he really has interest in hurting them. He just think he needs to chase anything that is running away from him. Mr. O'Malley has had to put him in his place a time or two.

LOOK AT THOSE CUTE FACES!!

The Cocker - Aggie means Virtouous or Good and she is a good girl. Aggie is very loving and will just cuddle up in your lap to be pet. She still needs to learn a few manners too. We have to make it to where she doesn't feel like she needs to jump on people to get attention. Aggie's former owners named her Abbie, but it was really confusing having tow Abbie's around so we changed her name to Aggie in honor of our Texas A&M Aggies.

Soccer Has Begun

Abigail gets to play soccer this year. She is such a cute little soccer player.

I hope she doesn't get her athletic abilities from me.

Abigail's Kindergarten School Picture

Abigail was so excited to show me her first school pictures. She said, "see mom, don't I look cute!" Well of course I think SHE is cute, but WHAT HAPPENED TO HER HAIR???? I was very disappointed to find out that they took pictures after recess and snack. If you look really close, you can see food on her lip. It is definitely noticeable in the 8X10 that we got. Abigail's hair was not in that location when I put her on the bus that morning. Of course, I still think she looks cute, but I probably will not be ordering pictures anymore from the school and just might show up before her pictures are taken next year to make sure that she is still dressed. I will stick to going to my very inexpensive photographer friend Kristin, she does a MUCH better job. My mom took one look at the picture and said, "Well, she looks like a Kindergartner!" She still is my sweet little Abigail with a sweet little smile.

Pick Your Own

Okay, I have fallen in LOVE with this website. www.pickyourown.org It has everything you need for canning, freezing, and drying food. There are great tips and recipes for canning all kinds of fruits, vegetables, soups, salsas, applesauce, pie fillings, jams, jellies, etc. Also, they have a list of Pumpkin Patches, Corn Mazes, and Christmas Tree Farms for all 50 states. Just thought I would share, my new favorite go-to place for all things produce.

Rockland Homecoming

Last weekend was Homecoming for our little town. It is a BIG deal here. Everyone stops what they are doing to watch the parade (which lasts about 10 minutes). People take off work to go to the football game (which is at 2:00, I guess because we don't have lights). It amazes me how much school spirit this little place has, but I guess when the school is one of the only things you have, you stand loud and proud for the Rockland Bulldogs.

The kindergarten class got to ride the fire truck in the parade.

Abigail was in a little mini cheer at half time at the football game.

This video is dedicated to Grand Nan who was a DHS, UNT, and All-American Cheerleader. Abigail is on the front row wearing jeans. The sound isn't very good and it is kind of hard to see, but watch if you would like. The video stopped before they did their cheers, but you can see part of the dance.

Good Bye Little Albert

We lost our little dog Albert today to a swather. He was no match for that big piece of equipment and we had no idea that he was even out in the field when Darin was cutting hay. We will miss our little friend and all of the happiness that he brought to our family. He loved to play with the cats and was Abigail's best friend. I have never met such a cheerful dog and don't know that I ever will again. Good Bye Little Albert.

Storytime with Elizabeth

Elizabeth has been "reading" the past couple of days. She will just sit down for several minutes and read to herself. You will have to watch the video to see what I am talking about. Pretty funny.

Abigail's First Day of Kindergarten

It's official, Abigail is now a school-age kid. I can't really call her my baby anymore, well, I can, but I just need to accept the fact that she is growing up right before my eyes. She was SOOOO excited. I had no problem waking her up at 6:30 in the morning. When I asked her what she was excited about she said, "I get to ride the bus, eat in the cafeteria, and play outside!" All social things of course. We dropped her off at school for the first day and I got a little teary-eyed as I was driving down the hill to the school. I didn't think, I would, but I guess those overwhelming mom emotions took over. Good thing kindergarten is only 1/2 day here in Rockland, Idaho.


Abigail is so proud to wear her Tinkerbell backpack.

Ready or not Mrs. Taysom her I come!

Getting off the school bus in front of our house.

Albert was ready for Abigail to come home and play with him.

Where have the twins been?

For those followers of the Ralphs Ruckus blog, you may be wondering why there hasn't been anything posted about the twins lately. Well, let me tell you, they are really hard to catch for a picture these days. My friend took some really cute pictures of the twins the other day, so hopefully you guys will get to see them on the blog soon. The twins are 19 months old now. They run everywhere, get into everything, and we are getting to know their personalities a little better every day. I thought I would tell you a few things about each twin to keep our best blog readers up to date.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth loves to play outside. She loves the new sand box and throws a fit when I tell her it is time to go inside. I don't know what we are going to do with her when it is winter time. She loves to chase the cats and they love to run away. Elizabeth's favorite inside toy are Abigail's dress up purses and she gets very angry if you try to "trade" her in Abigail's words. Elizabeth is dangerous if she gets her hands on a pencil, pen, marker, or crayon. She knows no boundaries when it comes to the places that she likes to display her artwork. She is starting to say a few words (that only mom, dad, and Abigail can understand) like, "all done" "out" "cheese" "drink" "side" "hello""bite" and her favorite word is "MINE!" She is a great eater, she will eat almost anything I offer her. She is a great sleeper too, but she still falls asleep with a pacifier, which is something we really need to work on. She is totally weened from her bottle and loves to drink juice. She is a little apprehensive about nursery at church, but doesn't scream, which is an improvement from the experience that we had with Abigail.

Emily Emily also enjoys playing outside. She loves the teeter-totter swing, LOVES the cats, and loves to ride wildly on the rocking horse. Emily loves to play with baby dolls. She carries one around almost all of the time if she doesn't have a cat in her arms. She loves shoes. Dress up shoes, her shoes, my shoes, Abigail's shoes, but she never keeps the ones on her feet that I want her to wear. Emily says words like "go" "mine" "sis" "baby" "kitty kitty" "moo" "cookie" "dada""go". Her vocabulary is not quite as extensive as Elizabeth's and I think that this can be attributed to the fact that she is too busy getting into EVERYTHING in reach and climbing anything that can be scaled. I am sure if Emily could talk she would say, "but mom, there is no time for talking when there is so much exploring to do." Emily is a pretty picky eater, I never know what she will be in the mood to eat when we sit down for a meal. If she doesn't want to eat something she just simply throws the food item on the floor to let me know that she is displeased with what I have served her. Emily is weaned from her bottle, but struggling with being away from that comfort item. She has decided to make bedtime quite difficult because she is protesting having to fall asleep with out her bottle. We hope that this will end soon, but she is very strong willed and has continued her protest for several weeks now.

Family Photo - Better Late Than Never

Last December (2008) we had family pictures taken just before Shane and Heather got married. We finally got the pictures back. I am so excited to have an updated picture of the Stocker family. I think the last picture we took together was at mine and Darin's wedding. There have been four people added to the family since then, so it was time for an updated picture. It is exciting to watch our family continue to grow. I wonder what Harrison's future wife is like? I wonder how many kids Heather and Shane will have? I wonder if Darin and I will have more kids? Only time will tell. That makes life more exciting.

Papa with Emily, Grand Nan with Elizabeth, & Abigail (happy to be with Grand Nan & Papa)

The NEW AND IMPROVED Stocker Family

(Minus Lonny & Tonya and their kids - maybe one of these days we will have everyone in the picture all at the same time. Wouldn't that be amazing?)

Ballet - Spring 2009

These are dance pictures from this Spring. I finally got around to scanning them in. Abigail can't wait for another year of dance!!! She did a ballet dance to Allegro in G Major (Mechanical Clock) by Beethoven. I don't really think there was anything "allegro" about it, but she looked beautiful.

Disco Diva - Jazz

Abigail is the second one from the left.

Abigail is the on the far left.

Cat In The Hat - Tap

Abigail was so cute in this tap routine (notice that she is the only one actually moving her feet in this picture - this is an improvement from last year).

I am going to put these pictures up in Abigail's room. They will go perfect with the Dr. Seuss theme.

Lemonade Anyone?

Today Abigail and her friends had a Lemonade Stand at our house. It brought back alot of memories of when I would sell lemonade after school. They had alot of fun and had quite a few customers for the not-very-traveled road that we live on.

Making Crayons

So, we have 500 gazillion broken crayons, and they aren't really fun to color with. I mean, Who wants to color with a broken crayon? So I gathered up all of the broken crayons and found a recipe for making circle crayons from old broken crayons. Abigail had so much fun "cooking crayons." We made 24 circle colors and didn't even make a dent in our broken crayon collection. I will have to find a time when there are a lot of kids at my house to make more crayons. I think even older kids might enjoy this activity.

What You Will Need

Broken crayons
An old muffin tin - don't use a nice one, the crayons will ruin it.
A knife

Here is How

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.
2. Gather up all of your broken crayons, and cut them into small pieces. (Peel the paper off of the ones with paper still on them).


3. Fill the muffin tin with an inch-thick layer of crayon pieces.

4. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until the wax is melted.

5. Allow the tin to cool; then pop out the crayons, and they're ready for use.
I used my refrigerator to cool off the crayons quicker.
To get the crayons out of the muffin tin, just turn the tin over and bang on each crayon with the end of a knife and they will pop right out.

Tips:
1. If you don't have a muffin tin to devote to crayon making, you can line your regular muffin tin with foil cups.
2. Candy and soap making molds can also be used to create fun, shaped crayons.