Amber's Reception....

Here are some pictures from my sister Amber's reception, they are two and a half years old but she just downloaded them onto my computer and I wanted to share some of them.

I love how small and cute Paden and Evan look, these pictures make me miss how small they used to be. By the way look at how huge Evan was he was 9 weeks old and Paden was almost 2yrs. old!

It's crazy how time flies by.

Artist Point!

A few days ago our motorcycle gang and some other wannabes met up at the top of Mount Baker at a beautiful place called Artist Point. Every September for the past three years we have come to hike Artist Point and picnic at the same spot.

I love this fun tradition!

Part of our gang.

Home girl and her family was there too!

Evan's favorite part was picking wild blueberries!

Stopping to eat

These aren't the best pictures of me but they make me laugh

Kai kept grabbing my hair the entire hike and when we stopped to take a few pictures I think he ripped out a fistful of hair.

This is not a sexy pose this is pain!!

Cute picture of Robby

I love this picture of Amber and Lance, notice their reflection in the water.

Can't wait til next year it will be even more fun!

Back to School!

Last Wednesday was Paden's first day back at preschool. I can't believe how big he is getting and that next year he will be a Kindergartner. That is so crazy. I can't believe that I will have a child in Elementary school soon.

Okay, I'll settle down he's still in Preschool.

Anyways, after his first day at school I asked him how it went and he continued to say, "I don't know?" This is pretty normal and the same response I got almost every day last year. This morning when I went to pick Paden up from school I asked him how it went and this was what he said...

Me: How was school today?

Paden: I don't know? (long pause)

Paden: Sophia played cars with me.

Me: Oh yeah!

Paden: If she plays cars with me that means she's gonna marry me.

Me: Is that what you told her?

Paden: No, that's what Sophia told me. Sophia said if she plays cars with me that means she's gonna marry me.

Me: Really!!

Paden: But don't tell dad that. Don't tell dad that Sophia's gonna marry me.

Me: Oh okay.

Paden: Don't tell NO ONE that. That's the rules mom!

Me: Did anything else happen at school today?

Paden: I don't know?

Down, Set, Hike....!

Sunday Dinners at Mom and Dad's!

Here are some silly videos from last Sunday just acting crazy as usual. I love getting together with family on Sunday's and having a great time together.

Scary Trees

We were having some stormy weather for a few days, the wind was blowing hard moving the trees and making scary noises.

Evan would get really nervous and when it blew hard he would stay real still listening to the sounds and then whisper to me what he was hearing.

I love watching my children discover things that are new to them.

Shower Babies

We don't have a bath tub so instead these boys take showers!

When we go to my mom's house or whenever we end up staying in a Hotel they think that a real bath is the best thing ever.

Yummy boys under an Apple Tree

It feels like Fall all of a sudden. The weather has turned cold and yesterday it was so windy that the trees and wind were making "scary noises" at least that's what Evan thought. I even wore my knee high boots yesterday so I guess it is officially fall.

I am so excited for this season. Paden starts Preschool again, the leaves turn colors, Halloween and warm soups. It all sounds so yummy! Here are some pictures of Kai and Paden under one of our apple trees...

Adventures in Canning

We have the yummiest plum tree in our yard and it produces a ton of fruit, this year we picked over a thousand plums!

For the past few weeks we've been devouring these yummy babies and when we saw that the fruit was fully ripe and that we couldn't possibly eat all of them my sister Amber and I decided we would can the rest. Yesterday we spent almost the entire day canning plum raspberry jam and plum preserves.

Robby picking the fruit. He decided it was taking too long so he shook the branches and it rained plums. The boys really loved that part.

The reason I know how many plums we picked was because we had to count out 55 plums for every batch of jam we made.

Here they are being washed and pitted.

My mom's Vitamix, this is the best invention and made our job quick and easy.


Bowls and bowls of pureed plums. If this sounds gross to you it wasn't. Seriously this jam is the best jam ever.

We added raspberries, pectin, and lemon juice to the plums.
After it came to a boil we added 10 cups of sugar. You heard me right...10 cups!


We brought the mixture back to a boil and let it boil for 1 minute. After it had boiled then we took it off the heat skimmed off all that scummy stuff and ladled the jam into the jars.

The cans went in for 10 minutes
Voila.
37 jars of jam
29 jars of plum preserves
12 jars of canned peaches (we canned peaches too)

Yesterday was such a fun day. My sister is the Queen of canning she has canned almost everything and has made me want to follow in her footsteps. We had so much fun together, she is such a good sister and friend. Here's what I mean... she spent an entire day teaching me how to can and only took home a dozen jars while I kept over 50.
Thanks Amber! Can't wait for more adventures in canning...maybe we'll pickle next time!

Another project that Amber and I did was clear off and clean these shelves for future canning projects.

The one and only sad thing that happened was my table fell victim to all of the warm jars of jam. I placed 2 towels down thinking that it would keep from burning my table but this morning this is what I discovered. Any ideas on how to fix this?
The only thing I can come up with is painting the table but that would probably involve sanding and I would have to sand and paint 8 chairs too...ugh!

The other day Paden began yelling and saying that there were, "pretty girls in dresses outside and they wanted to play" after that loud announcement by Paden he was gone within seconds and I had no idea what he was talking about. So, I looked over the deck and saw our friends the Nielsons.

Luckily Paden got to play with the girls for a few hours. These girls are so sweet. The younger one (Hailey) is a little mommy and carried Kai EVERYWHERE that she went. The older one (Kylie) played numerous games with Paden. They are both the sweetest girls and when they were leaving they said, "thank you for letting us come over and play."

Boys will be Boys

I LOVE where I live.

a. huge fenced in yard

b. enormous driveway

c. parks, trail, and lake

d. apple, cherry, and plum trees

e. just wish I had more living space

Here are some cute pictures of Kai and Evan that I took before Church last Sunday! All three of my boys are at the funnest ages and we are enjoying them so much.

Evan is a silly boy and always making us laugh. He has grown up quite a bit lately and I love that he is potty trained and more independent. Evan is also very sensitive and always wants to be close to his mommy even though he can come across as being a little rough and crazy.

Kai is our families little source of entertainment he is SO much fun. He is crawling around everywhere and pulling himself up and walking around furniture. Kai has also learned to clap his hands and shake his head yes and no.

Dear Robby,

This is what we were doing all morning while you were in meetings for 5 hours before Church.

P.S. we miss you

P.S.S can't wait til finals week is over and I get to see you