canning season 2012.

Canning season has come to a close in the Fulton household as the weather changes and a new babies' arrival is near.  The whole family and great grandma pitched in this year.  The results include 58 quarts of carrots, 80 quarts of tomatoes/goulash, 10 quarts of pickled cauliflower, 12 pints of pickled spicy peppers and about 24 pints of salsa.  My husband is in the thick of hunting season now and between his meat and all the canning we can be proud of all the homemade goodness we can share with our family this winter.  Thanks to all of our extended family who has shared and carried on all these recipes and traditions that we can now teach and share with our children. 

arizona, nebraska, tennessee, south carolina family visit.

My mom and grandma

My brother (visiting from NE) and son

My sister-in-law, brother (NE), cousin and her boyfriend (TN)

Some of the most important women in my life after I had the chance to host my sister-in-law and brother's baby shower at my home 

(LtoR: my daughter, my mom, my little sister, myself, my cousin, my sister-in-law and my grandma). 

My dad and my kids

My beautiful parents and I (visiting from AZ)

My mom and dad (sunny AZ)

Uncle Scott and Aunt Robin (SC)

Jackson and Matthew (cousin from TN)

My husband and brother

I believe everyone who was visiting is pictured above (we also had the chance to see family we do not often see at my sister-in-law's baby shower).  Summers are a special time for my family and especially my kids because much of my immediate family lives out of state.  All of my husband's family and a large majority of my extended family live right close to us at home in Michigan and we are blessed to see them often.  During the summer we enjoy the large chunk of time we get with "mom's family".  This summer was no exception and we fit in so many delightful memories.  We were able to visit lots of family together, go shopping, ski, be on Lake Huron from multiple, loveable Michigan towns, work together on grandma and grandpa's farm, have a family reunion, have a baby shower, enjoy being together in my home, do sewing and craft projects, go antique-ing, garage sale-ing and estate sale shopping, find out the sex of both mine and my sister-in-law babies and celebrate one another.  It was exceptional! It is also why my blog has been sparse and I will be playing catch up for a few weeks.  I have a long list of blog topics and photos to share.  Thank you to my few, loyal followers who enjoy my updates.  As I have said before, something inside me has always made me a documenter of life's moments and this is one more outlet I get to enjoy.

kid's country fashions.

It has been awhile since I did a kid's fashion post and this past weekend's wedding pictures of my two children and niece left me inspired to update that.  Our families attended a country themed wedding for a family ceremony and the result were some adorable photo opportunities.  My son wore a handsome cowboy button down, fitted jeans and great cowboy boots.  He thoroughly enjoyed the outdoors, wagon wheels and country music.  My daughter wore a cotton printed dress, hand-me down cowgirl boots from a family friend and a huge head of curly hair.  She especially enjoyed running outside, posing for the camera and playing with her brother and cousin.  My niece wore a sweet, cotton gauze cream colored dress, brown boots (later white sandals) and a 5 toothed smile.  She enjoyed the pink balloons, food and dance floor. 

our baby girl is 2.

Emilia Jane turned 2 this past week and we had a sweet party to celebrate. I love having her birthday so close to Valentine's Day because love is in the air and pink is in the stores! She wore a beautiful outfit that fits her fun loving personality and we decorated the house in her baby Anthropologie, pink style! She had a great day! She wants to thank all her family and friends for so many great gifts and her mom and dad want to give all their thanks to God for this sweet angel baby!

boys of fall.

I am so proud of my boys. My husband is a true outdoorsmen and loves using his hands. When I see RJ and Jackson working on a project together outside, hunting, being handy or using their imaginations on the living room floor I am so happy. I love that RJ does the things with Jackson that I do not do with him during the day. I think RJ is an incredible man and when I see our son working by his side and emulating his hard working ways I am filled with gratitude. Thank you RJ for being such a great influence on our son and teaching him to be a good man, like you are. I love you both so very much.

trick-or-treat success.

What a beautiful night. The weather was great. Our street looked beautiful and the neighbors were delightful.

to great grandma's house we go.

This past weekend my kids, my mother-in-law, my little sister-in-law and myself made the 2 1/2 hour drive to Northern parts of Michigan to visit my husband's grandma (did you get all that?). It was a great weekend full of shopping, retracing family roots in small town America, eating, visiting and sifting through buried treasures in great grandma's basement. What a treat! My husband stayed at home to hunt while the kids and I rode along and I am so happy we did.

Pictured are a few beautiful items that Great Grandma Roma sent us home with. I especially love the large dressing mirror, old Avon bottles, tea tablecloth and old purses. She even had a Fenton shoe to add to my collection ( I should blog just about that collection one day). It was wonderful! We had a great time and my favorite thing was hearing all the old stories that accompanied where we went, what we did and what we found downstairs. Thanks to my mother-in-law and her mother for sharing so much with me...what a great memory.

michigan fall-highlighted: atwood park.

I did not grow up in a small town. I did not grow up in the Midwest. I did not witness trees changing colors, cider & donuts or football games outside until college. I grew up in Goodyear, AZ and had an incredible upbringing. Now I find myself raising my own family in the small Michigan hometown my husband and many past generations of both of our families grew up in. Some things are a negative tradeoff (e.g. lack of shopping/eating choices and having my parents and sister so far away) but some things are an incredible positive tradeoff (e.g. this incredible thing they call "Fall" and experiencing small town America with my kids).

As I think is apparent from my blog, I try to find appreciation in all the little things in my life. This cute little park, Atwood Park, is just a block from my house and a great view from my front yard. Live music permeates the air on cool summer nights and the beauty of fall is highlighted among store fronts on State Street. The lighting and colors were perfect one night this week and my family and I strolled down for a photo shoot. These pictures are the result.

midland antique festival.

This last weekend was a local antique festival that my friend, Sarah and I have been looking forward to since the spring. The weekend was a great chance for me to share my new home with the friend I knew would appreciate it the most, hear about her new job and share in our love of all things old while downing many Diet Cokes...it was incredible!!

At the antique festival I found two vintage Pyrex I had been looking for to finish my mixing bowl set, old kitchen utensils in an awesome chipped mint finish, and a huge pink glass jar for our 1/2 bath redo. Sarah scored an old window, a purple jar, a metal cake stand and 8 lunch plates. We were very successful and of course left talking about returning next year. This is the great start to an annual tradition...bring on the antiques!