James Alexander

We welcomed our 2nd born son into this world 11 days over due, just like his big brother! :) 

October 23rd at 7:25 pm, James Alexander was born at home after a 3.5 hour labor. The labor was fast and intense but we are so thankful for a safe delivery and a very healthy little boy! He weighed in at 8 pounds 8 ounces and 21.5 inches long. He is quite the squishy little man and we are so in love with him :)

Because of the labor being so short our midwives spent about a grand total of 5 hours at our house. 

We are so thankful for both of our midwives and the wonderful support they are-can't imagine doing any of this with out them!

When Isaiah got to meet James for the first time-he wanted to take a picture of him-but that was it! He was not interested in him at all :)

He is now settling into life with a younger brother. It's not easy and he seems to be getting sick/filled with energy but we know he will adjust :)

Brandon has off work for a while and goes back to work on Thursday! So thankful for this time with him to help out!

Canning apples!

To answer everyone's questions-yes! I am still pregnant. No signs of baby coming any time soon but that's okay-we have a week for him to make his appearance naturally before induction. So prayers appreciated that he would :) Isaiah came at 41 wks 4 days so it's definitely possible!

About a month ago I got a huuuuge bag of horse apples to make into applesauce, fruit leather and dried apples. The weight of my bag was over 70lbs and I only paid $14 for the entire bag!

I finally had a day where I could dedicate to just apples and took the opportunity and got going! 

It was a little rough starting out-I wasn't feeling great and had to take lots of breaks to sit down and rest/eat/throw up etc. oh the joys of being just about 9 months pregnant at the time!

Thankfully though, this year I borrowed my mother in laws Vitamix. Best invention ever and made the apple sauce process SOO fast compared to previous years. It obviously still took me all day since I was working by myself and afore mentioned reasons for sitting down/resting very frequently.

With the vitamix, all I had to do was cut the apples into quarters and dump them into the blender. Once it was full, I turned it on and it took about 15 seconds or less to turn into wonderful, delicious applesauce!

I would then transfer it to a big pot and hear it up.

Once it was heated through, I would put the applesauce into jars and put them into the water bath! It was such a quick and easy process!

This applesauce is even better for you because it's made with the skins and there is not a drop of added sugar!!

I then went on to use a mandolin slicer and did quite a few apples that way-and dehydrated them.

And THEN I made fruit leather out of left over apple sauce that I didn't have enough jars for :) I think I worked off an on for about the entire day :) 

I'm very thankful to have it all stored up-although, the fruit leather is totally gone now, thanks to Isaiah :) it makes the absolute perfect snack! I think I want to get another bag just to turn into fruit leather and dried apples :) mmm!