Father and Sons' Campout 2011

The boys went with Taylor to camp out and had a blast! They were the only ones to catch fish...because they ran around catching crickets for bait. That night it rained a ton and their tent blew over and got rained in so all the sleeping bags and gear got soaked. Then Taylor got soaked saving it and Matthias got soaked too so they packed up and got home at 9:30. They had a lot fun fishing though. The boys were really disappointed. And so was I...my quiet night of reading was shattered. But it was okay and the next morning we all went out to breakfast so it was okay.

Hannah and I also had a great night together, playing games, doing puzzles, yummy dinner and ice cream, and watching a "Cary movie!" at Hannah's request. (*scary)

Racket Guitars & Haunted Houses

What my boys do for fun and entertainment. James is obsessed with tennis right now. They made the haunted house from all my sewing scraps. Love these kids!

Houston Temple

Went out for a baby blessing and stopped at the temple along the way.

Princess of Egypt

Hannah and I read the story of Naomi and Ruth tonight from the picture scripture book. So at the end there is a picture of Ruth with her baby Obed. Obviously Hannah's favorite part. She had to keep look at the picture forever and I finally got her away from it by saying...

Me: Your baby can be Obed and you can take him to bed.
Hannah: Ok. (she cradled him softly as we walked to the bathroom).
Me: Set Obed down so we can brush your teeth.
Hannah: That's not Obed. I'm the princess of Egypt.
Me: Oh. So is he baby Moses.
Hannah: Yes.


She loves the story of baby Moses and looks at a book of it ALL the time.

So funny.

Jam and Garden

Strawberries were on a good sale so we bought 22 pounds and set to work. The boys are preparing strawberry for jam; we made 10 freezer jams and I canned 5 pints of regular jam. Hannah is laying out strawberries to be individually frozen. We've already gone through 1 of the 3 bags we froze (probably 2-3 lbs). I washed strawberries and took pictures. The kids are actually really good helpers and sped up the process considerably.

Also our garden is doing really well. We've had tons of swiss chard, good crop of beans thus far, peas are already dead due to the 99 degree temperatures, but we got a few. The yellow squash is coming out in force. Zuchinni and corn are slowly getting there. Haven't seen any cucumbers starting to form yet, but some flowers are out. Tomatoes are green and growing...hopefully will get some ripe red ones soon. We planted 13 tomato plants so we should be swimming in them soon. I hope to can salsa, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and eat them by the handfuls. Mmm. We're so glad our garden is doing well and feel really blessed every time we see all the beautiful green plants.

Random Coldness

A week before we went to the Splash Pad for the first time (incidentally, the day the splash pads throughout the city opened) the temperature dropped into the 50s. It was freezing! My kids got all bundled up and we had some soup. Brr. Glad that was just a freak of nature.

I Love Kids That Talk

Sunday...
Hannah: James will give his tithing to the bishop. And the bishop will put it in his pocket so the turtle doesn't get it. (our bishop has a giant turtle in his back yard as a pet).


Today...
Matthias: The dad is smaller than the mom because the mom had faster birthdays than the dad. (when we were playing house...he was the dad, I was the mom)