Halloween

There are so many things to catch up on - like Carter's first day of preschool, and Beckett crawling, and Beckett's first words, and I am so behind. I figured I'd start somewhere though. Halloween. 

We all got a pumpkin to decorate that we grew in our garden. They all made it to orange!!

Carter had so much trouble deciding what to be for Halloween. He has so many dress-up costumes that he loves, it was hard to chose. 

First, he wanted to be an Auto Shop Teacher. I happened to have his costume from when he was 2, so I dug it out:

It still fits him 2 years later! (just a little short)

Or, should he be an astronaut?

What about Charlie Brown?

He ended up choosing to be a BYU Football player at the church Trunk-Or-Treat.

And and astronaut when we went to the mall to get candy there:

Beckett was a Cabbage Patch doll:

I recently found out that I was able to wear last year's costume again this year. I figured, why not get my money's worth out of it huh?

Squeeze Pouches

For Christmas last year, David got me the Infantino Fresh Squeezed system. I have not been able to use it until now. But, I love it. 

Disclaimer: It is not without mess!!!! 

I harvested my Asian Pear Tree this year and borrowed an apple saucer - The Victorio Strainer - from a friend at church. It made my saucing go SO MUCH EASIER than last year where I did it by hand!!! And, Carter got to help. (Ignore the too small jammie top and the falling down shorts - I didn't want him to get his clothes apple saucy, and he chose this...

We got 18.5 quarts of sauce out of our tree this year. I mixed up our sauce in two batches. I made Broccoli/Kale and Spinach/Kale. I cooked the Broccoli, Spinach, and Kale. Then, I threw them in the food processor that David got me for Christmas the year Carter was born, and pureed the heck out of it. I poured them in the little cups and squeezed it into the pouches. 

David wanted me to try the stuff out on Carter before I filled all these pouches. "What if he hates it?" he asked. So, I poured some in a little bowl and handed him a spoon. NO WAY. He absolutely refused. I got one bite in him after a while, and he said it was yucky. I turned around and handed him the same batch in a pouch, and he ate 3. I think it is all about delivery. EVEN THOUGH THE POUCH IS CLEAR. He could still see that it looked the same in the bowl as it did in the pouch. Silly boy.

The caps on the right are Broccoli/Kale/Asian Pear and the left are Spinach/Kale/Asian Pear. 

I have 175 in the freezer. I didn't count the number of pouches Carter ate while I was squeezing them. Probably 8 or so.

They have spots to mark on them what they are. Do that BEFORE you fill them. If there is any wetness or perspiration on the package, the marker won't stick. 

Also, they say that these pouches are NOT reusable. They are very durable, and thick. The reason they are not reusable is because there is no way to get them dry after cleaning. There could be bacteria that gets in, that you can't fully clean out or dry off. I am on the fence about this. When I let Carter eat them during the process, I just kept filling the same pouch over and over. I looked into the reusable ones, and they were 10 TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE. They come in packages of 2. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I do my baby food with too much volume to buy them 2 pouches at a time.