More fun...

Have you ever noticed that toys that belong to other people are more fun. I love going over to Mable and Charlie's house because my kids think that they have the coolest toys (well, because they do!). Check out this Barbie jeep. I went over to have a meeting there and the kids brought their suits to go swimming in the baby pool. This jeep was way more fun. Who needs to go swimming when it is like 100 degrees outside when you can ride in a jeep, I mean come on.

I am saving this picture for either embarrassment when he is dating or blackmail. I can't decide which. I wish I had videoed it you could have heard all the Wah-hoo's!

Garden fresh produce

Here are some of the produce from the garden. My poor garden is getting a little sad. I need to replant somethings like my cucumbers and green beans. I will wait a bit and replant my peas. We'll see if anything works. It is so hot I just need there to be more rain. I am just happy to have the produce that I can get. Here is our first watermelon that we picked. I think I picked it a little too early, but I was excited!

The tomatoes are actually my neighbors but the rest were mine.

Aren't these corns cute. I don't know when you are suppose to pick them. I had heard that when the tassels turn brown you should pick them. We shall see, we haven't eaten them yet.

Piping, Piping, Piping!

This Saturday we ( and when I saw we I mean Don while I was the runner) demoed our old plumbing and put in new copper pipes. Also we moved our water heater, put up framing and a little green board in our laundry area. This was a huge project that started in the morning, no wait Don started prepping weeks ago, but we didn't finish until 2am.

We only had two leaks and that was because in Don's prep work he didn't solder all the pipes some he just got into possession he was going to finish all the soldering at once. Well one of the cold water and one of the hot water lines got missed. My husband amazed me as he quickly turned off the water, dried the lines, put some bread (yes, bread) in the lines to soak up moisture and soldered them. Yeah another point done in the basement reno!

Here are our old pipes the grayish ones, boy those ones had some nasty build up in them, and here our new pipes the lovely copper.

Here is the before water heater with pipes coming from the ceiling in a kind of PVC fashion. Notice no framing on the wall behind it. Then our new plumbing and framing. Don put up green board where the piping will be coming in through the wall, actually there will be green board on this whole wall, and insulation and lighting, but that is another Saturday.

Make a splash

Well, I am sure you would never guess where we went for playgroup. The splash pad, but this was one that we had never been to before, we are running the circuit. Holly is here with some friends she so desperately wants to be one of the girls. She loves playing with Brielle and adores Bella. She like girls her own age too like Mabel, but she really wants to be one of the big girls. This whole day she followed them around.

Josh on the other hand loves to play with everyone or by himself. This day he had a great time with Benson (4yrs old) and every now and then made silly faces at Charlie and let Charlie push him or laugh at him (Charlie is 18 months old). The park that we went to also had a park adjoining it. It was super hot and us moms were just trying to stay in the shade with the babies.

Have I mentioned I love playgroup. I am going to miss it when school starts next month. Man this summer is flying!

A look ahead

Josh loves to play on the computer. His favorite sites are http://www.friends.org/, http://www.playhousedisney.com/, and http://www.pbs.org/. Everyday he wants to know if he can have computer time. At first he had a hard time figuring out the mouse, but now he is a pro and he can find the sites by himself. I pop in our computer area often and make sure he is doing what he is suppose to. When I came down the other day this is how I found him. All of the sudden I flashed forward to teenage years. I don't know if it is because of the layed back way he was sitting or because he was playing games (they are all educational) or what. But all I can say are the kids are growing up too fast!

3 going on 13

Today when I was done doing Holly's hair (which these pictures you can't really tell what they look like) I had her look in the mirror telling her that she looked so cute. I had put her hair up in two little buns with butterfly clips in each bun, she looked adorable. She took one look and insisted I take them out she said, "Mom I look silly!" Okay, I thought we weren't suppose to have that kind of objection at least until 9 yrs oldish. She was actually horrified and didn't want anybody to see her hair like that. After her dad and I told she looked beautiful she decided it was okay. Some of Holly's comments crack me up.

She is though not to be out done by her brother; who came into my bathroom while I was putting on my make-up and asked, "Mom are you painting". Thanks Josh.

Holly and Josh have gotten hearts from our music leader at church because they have sang with their hearts. They are to wear them every week and continue to sing loud, clear and with their hearts. I thought this was a clever idea from our awesome music leader, I love Sister Brown!

Oh yeah, I sewed this!

My friend let me borrow a pattern for this reversible purse. I love the material. After rereading the instructions on how to do the handle it was pretty easy. In fact I want to make another with a matching skirt. Of course I will wait until either JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby has a sale on fabric.

Flea market find

This last Saturday I went with my neighbor to a local flea market. I thought that I had never been to one, but I think that I went to one in Seattle. I looked around not really thinking that I would buy anything, but this ring caught my eye. Some of you might think that it is ugly, but I love it. I am really into big jewelry lately. I just love all the colors and it was only $3. So I thought why not. The flea market itself wasn't super impressive. They had a lot of things like soap or shampoo that people had bought and were re-saleing. Like Dove body wash. I was hoping to find art and pottery, oh well maybe next time. That is the fun thing about flea markets you never know what you're going to get.

Presents and Art

For Josh's birthday he got some money from different people. This last weekend we took him down the toy aisles to pick out what he wanted. I thought he would be trying to fill up the cart. He himmed and haaed over things, and thought about things. I don't need this because I already have an ironman or I don't need any more GI Joes. He did really lean towards the Toy Story stuff, but we told him he couldn't get anything he already had. Plus the buzz that talked cost too much.

Finally he decided upon this transformer. It doesn't transform, but it talks and has a light laser and wings to fly. He really likes it. He also got a Toy Story 3 water paint set and a Toy story 3 coloring book.
Today he colored this, using his toy as the model. I was pretty impressed. It is not the smoothest coloring, but I thought that he did really good for a budding artist!

My boy and his toy. (Notice the Toy Story P.J's).

Attack of the Zucchini

We are still getting alot of zucchini. Last week I made some zucchini bread with a recipe that my neighbor had given me. My kids and Don love it. I kept telling them, "You don't want it, it has zucchini in it." that didn't stop them. I think that I might make a few more batches and give it away. I can't wait until I have an extra freezer, then I can freeze it or freeze cut up zucchini or zucchini choc cake, the possibilities are endless.

Playgroup in the park

This week we went to the park for playgroup. It was a combined ward playgroup. Our ward had an excellent turn out and I loved hanging out with all the moms. We had ages 3 weeks to 13 years old. The park that we ended up at was not the biggest, but that didn't stop our group they were just happy to be together.

They played with bubbles, dumped rocks down the slides, some played with light sabers, others threw sticks in the creek. We ate lunch and as always Lindsey shared cookies. My kids envy her kids lunchables.

There were a ton of babies to be held, which made me happy. I was trying to get a shot of as many mommies as possible in this one, not the best shot. Thanks fellow playgroupers you give me something to look forward to every Wednesday!

Why is it...

Why is it on the weekends the kids are up no later than 7 am? They're giggling and whispering loudly running back and forth from each others beds thinking that they are being so stealth like. But then on Monday morning I go to wake up Holly and she says, " I am so tired. I don't want to wake-up!". This is a picture of Holly on her bedroom floor trying to get a couple of more minutes of shut eye. I love that only her toes are sticking out. You know when she is a teenager and wants to sleep in I am going to come in her room and whisper real loud and giggle and run around with her father. I bet she will love that.

My handy man- updates and repairs

Okay, so two Fridays ago I was bringing in the groceries and when I closed the garage door the stroller was in the way and the sensor didn't stop it which adds up to a bent garage door. I thought for sure that Don was going to kill me, we had just replaced the door less than a year ago. I called up his work crying and apologizing, he didn't think that it was a big deal. In fact he thought that it was better the stroller than a child being crushed. He spent two Saturdays ago replacing the garage door. Putting in a new top panel (now we have three more panels in case anything goes arye), a new motor, and sensor lights. So now no harm can come to the door or any of us for that matter.

This Saturday, part of Don's time was preparing my new room for this coming Saturday day's of crazy. He put the framing for the back wall. This coming up sat. we are turning off the water, there will be sautering, dry walling and tape/mudding, insulating the works. And hopefully we will be at the next step, for that wall at least, when he is done on Saturday. I am so excited!

Salsa time

As I said before I have been wanting to can. Well the Roses gave me some of their bounty this week and I decided to make salsa. I couldn't find the recipe that I love so I tried a new one. If anybody has one they love please send it my way, thanks. I invited my friend Katie over and we canned some salsa. One thing I will say about canning is that is always more fun to can with friends. The salsa came out okay, but the process I enjoyed. I was able to have a taste off with the Roses salsa. I think my favorite was mixing theirs and mine together. This is not the end of the salsa battle! I will find an awesome recipe, oh yes, I will!

A new milestone

I'm so proud of Holly. This week during school time she and Josh had a spelling test. I gave Josh 8 words and her 4. This was the first time that she wrote out her spelling test, usually she just does it orally. Her words were sit, big, it, and tip. She needed help with her G and B, but that was all. Josh always does good on this. Later in the week I took some of his sight words and had him orally spell them to me and I was impressed how many he could do. I am really proud of both of my kids.

Fourth project

I made these quilted fourth shirts. It really didn't take hardly any material. I got quarter flats in red, white, and blue and I still probably have enough for four more years. The hardest part was lettering. I decided to print it on iron transferable and it took me forever to figure out how to make my printer print in mirror image. The rest was really easy. I let everyone pick their shape. Holly a butterfly, Josh a star, Don a bald eagle, and me a heart. Again I stole the idea from my friend Lori. She is my sewing guru. If I can do this so can you. Happy fourth!

Can't wait to can!

While we were at my in-laws, my mother-in-law let me borrow here water bath and pressure cooker as well as so nicely bestowing some jars upon me, thank you, thank you, thank you!



I totally want to can something. My cucumbers were really ready so I decided to can some pickles and dilly beans. After 3 stores I finally had everything. Canning salt was not at every store! I did this one solo, but I still had fun. I have to wait a week, before I can try them and I can't wait! Hopefully, my cucumber plant won't dry up so I can make another batch soon. All I had to pay for was salt (super cheap) and dill seed. For the dilly beans I used dill from my garden. Please let them taste good.