Do you know the muffin man?

The muffin man, the muffin man. Do you know the muffin man? His name is Peyton Lovato.

Peyton helped me make some mini blueberry muffins (his favorite). After they cooled, I put them in a gallon zip lock bag for later. Well, Peyton decided that it was later and grabbed the bag off the counter. I keep forgetting how tall he is. I came in the living room and found this lovely display of muffins and a train whistle all lined up. I really think he has some baking skills like his dad. Maybe Craig will make the bread or muffins and Peyton can display them!

Here he is with his muffin display.

With a few casualties. No wonder my floor is always dirty!

Fun with Cantaloupe

I had my apron on while I was canning and Peyton wanted to wear it in the worst way. Then I remembered that I had gotten this cute child's size apron and hat and had never gotten it out of the package. I thought it was so cute. Craig has a chef's hat that my mom gave him that looks just like this one, although it says "muffin man" on it. I thought this might make a cute Halloween outfit. I wish I had gotten a picture further away, but whenever the camera comes out Peyton wants to "see" the pictures before I even take them.

Here is a cantaloupe out of our garden. (Craig is going to be embarrassed that I have a picture of him in his garment top. His fault. He always comes home from work and peels off his work shirt and lounges in his garment top, so here he is!)

I told Peyton and Craig to pretend to take a bite out of the cantaloupe.

Peyton actually tried to, but didn't like the taste or how hard it was!

Mmm... It was really yummy!

Getting Domestic!

So, I decided that maybe it was time I learned how to really use what I have and learn to can and freeze fresh fruits and vegetables. I grew up watching and eventually helping my mom can and freeze many items out of her garden and I swore that I would never waste my time doing something that was so time consuming when I could just go to the store and buy it. Well, that all changed when everyone kept giving us tomato plants and we ended up with 30 tomato plants. I like tomatoes, but really what can a family of 3 do with that many tomato plants. Well, can them. So, I got out my cook book and my phone to call my mom and she walked me through the steps to canning. Not too difficult. After a trip to Walmart for the canner and jars, I was off. Yesterday during Peyton's nap, I canned 6 quarts of tomatoes. Needless to say, I am quite pleased with my self. So pleased that I decided that today I wanted to freeze the peaches that we bought at a produce stand this last weekend. We bought a 1/2 bushel because we love peaches so much, but really we couldn't eat them fast enough. We really wanted to make ice cream and smoothies with them anyways, so freezing them works out great. As you can see, I am only half done, but I made a lot of progress while Peyton took his nap today.

Lots of smoothies and ice cream in our future. Who knows maybe even a pie or cobbler. Maybe.

I have 3 bowls this size of ripe tomatoes. Whew!

First I boiled them to get the peelings off.

Then fill the jars and in the canner.

Tuduh! I really am proud of my self! They all sealed and turned out perfect.

Watermelon

We decided our watermelons were ready to eat, so I picked out the biggest one and brought it in. I should have taken a picture of it, but I forgot. Well, I went to cut it open crossing my fingers that it was indeed ripe and I barely put the knife on the rind and it popped open. It was definitely ripe. I got my melon baller out and balled the entire thing and I went to put the watermelon away. I went to talk to Craig and when I came back into the kitchen I found Peyton on all fours with the watermelon "bowl" with his head in the shell. By the time I grabbed Craig, the camera and camcorder, he had sat down and was trying to eat the watermelon. I guess he really wanted to eat the watermelon off the rind and not in a ball.

He was so sticky. I told Craig that you can tell this is our first child, because we thought it was cute and had to document everything!

See how sticky his hair is!

Needless to say, he went straight to the bath and then I had a floor to clean.

Peyton in the garden

I realized today that I hadn't even turned on my camera in 2 weeks. Strange. So, we headed out to do our daily chores. Peyton loves to go out to the garden. He loves to pick the tomatoes. He picks any color of tomato and usually calls it a ball. We take a bag with us so that he can carry all of the stuff back inside. He just loves to help.

Peyton has watched us go out and tap the watermelons everyday, so he loves to do that too. We have 8 watermelons in our garden. They are just about ready, although they are the smallest watermelons that we have ever grown, we are still really excited. A few years ago in Colorado we had 15 30 pound watermelons in our garden. Not an exageration either, it was crazy.

Here is Peyton actually picking a ripe tomato. Score!

We have a tiny blueberry bush in our backyard, that Peyton has eaten every single blueberry it has ever produced. At least 20 of them.

Yummy!