Thursday, July 23, 2009

Skinny Dipping

Its been so roasting hot in our house this week that the boys loved taking a little nude swim in the kiddie pool last night to cool down.

Canning Crazy

Three trips to three different grocery stores to buy the necessary supplies and ingredients, five flats of strawberries to wash, cut, puree, and strain, a kitchen brimming with dirty dishes, strawberry juice dripping everywhere, three rowdy boys (one crying in hysterics at the sound of the blender) causing chaos throughout the house, ninety degree heat indoors, two exhausted mammas......and enough strawberry freezer jam to feed a small army!
Besides our mountain of freezer jam, Liz and I also canned some de-licious fresh strawberry lemonade concentrate. Yum! Tomorrow we tackle green beans!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Book of Mormon Challenge

For Family Home Evening, we set a goal to read our scriptures together as a family every day. When we finish the whole book, we will have a super-duper family party to celebrate reaching our goal. To measure our progress, we will color in one square each day on our reading chart. One square down, 532 squares to go (531 pages + title page and introductory page)!


Pearly Whites

Three days ago Max cut his very first teeth. If you look super close you can see the edges of his little teeth just barely showing above the surface of his gums. Max hasn't let being toothless stop him from chowing down, he just mashes everything up with his flat gums. Since he's gotten his two teeth in, Max likes to make a cute face where he sucks in his lips and closes his mouth tight. Such a cutie:)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

late Forget-Me-Not Friday

Just a few things that have stuck out over the past week:

1. I walked into Max's room one morning to wake him up from his a.m. nap (I have to wake him up in order to coordinate his p.m. nap with Hank's naptime) to find him sleeping on his back, completely spread eagle with his hands stretched apart over his head and his legs laying in splits.

2. Yesterday Hank was asking me questions about why Aaron and I were going to go to the temple that night. I really wanted him to understand how much the temple means to me, but I was having a hard time putting it into terms that he could understand. I think I told him something about how we go to the temple so that we can learn about Jesus. In his sweet little three-year-old voice, Hank asks earnestly, "will Jesus be there?" A part of me just melted to hear his innocence and purity, another part of me felt an increase of responsibility to teach Hank correct principles because I know that he is at the age where he is a sponge, and, even though he is so young, he is beginning to develop his own testimony.

3. Sometimes I grumble about lugging Max around all day--he is a 25lb weight permanently attached to my left arm. This evening I was holding Max, as usual, while we were puttering around the backyard. Max loves to be held and he loves to be outside. Often Max expresses his happiness by shaking his entire little body. His arms flail and his legs kick and he is just joy personified. Nope. I don't mind carrying him one bit.

4. Although Hank has the attention span of a fruit fly, I'm always amazed at what he is able to pick up and learn. On our way home from church yesterday, we talked about his nursery class. I asked him if he had a lesson in nursery, and he said they talked about a book. Exploring further, I asked what book they talked about. He said, "some book about Mormon." Love that kid.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

T-Ball

Today I realized one of my life-long dreams: to be a soccer mom. Technically, Hank is playing T-ball, but same thing. Hank's first T-ball practice was this afternoon and I loved it. It was classic. Very first thing, Hank marches over and joins the group of kids near home base. As the coach approaches, Hank says, "Hey, are you my coach?" The coach responds that, yes, he is the coach. Then Hank says, "Whats your name?" I love that Hank doesn't waste time warming up to people and just makes friends wherever he goes. For the rest of the practice, Hank was the coach's little shadow. I tried to get Hank to follow directions but he wanted to follow the coach, instead. The poor coach had to keep telling Hank to "get back in line" over and over. When Hank stepped up to the plate, he had his helmet on backwards and could barely peak out the bottom to see anything. Coack Kirby had to turn his helmet around and give him a batting lesson.

He's a natural. On his first time up to bat, Hank took a swing and knocked it out of the park. Well, not really, but he did make contact, and thats good enough.

I love that Hank just plopped down on the grass in this picture. I can guarantee Hank will be the kid picking weeds in the outfield. Bear in mind that Hank only made the cutoff to be on the team by a few weeks so the majority of the team is comprised of 4 year olds.

Here is Aaron helping Hank in the outfield. Since it was hot outside and the outfield wasn't seeing much action, Hank just chilled out there. We bought Hank a bat, a Tee, a glove, and a few balls so I think we have some practice to do in the backyard before we meet again next week. Aaron signed on to be the assistant coach so it should be a great season!

Salt Water State Park

Today was the epitome of a perfect Saturday: enjoying the sunshine in the beautiful outdoors and playing with my favorite people in the whole world. We headed out this morning to visit Saltwater State Park and explored the beach, the streams, and the little tide pools.

Once Aaron tipped over a rock and pointed out to Hank all the tiny crabs that scurry around underneath, Hank wanted Aaron (he didn't want to do it himself) to tip over every rock on the beach. He was fascinated with the crabs, bugs, and hermit crabs.

Watching Aaron hold Hank's hand through the streams, squat down on his knees to show something neat to Hank, or try to teach Hank to throw rocks into the ocean made me just fall in love with my sweet husband. What a great Daddy!



I'm worried that I'm raising a bunch of pansies because we hadn't taken two steps onto the sandy beach when Hank promptly sits down, removes his shoes, and begins brushing the sand off of his feet. Max is no better, either. I thought Max might enjoy dipping his feet into the cool water since it was so warm outside. Not so much. I would keep lowering Max's feet into the water and he would keep raising his legs higher and higher to keep them out of the water.



We had such a fun time together at the beach. We can't wait to bring the boys back again next year.

With a Cherry on Top

The other night Liz and I got together and each canned 30 pounds of cherries! I had forgotten how much work is involved in canning, but I think there is something satisfying about the process, and the result makes it well worth it.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

4th of July

For the 4th of July we took the boys to a little down-home parade near my parents house. Hank loved watching the firetrucks and the tractors--he especially liked hoarding all the candy that was thrown into the crowds. On the way home we stopped to buy a few fireworks. We let Hank throw the pop-its and I can't wait until tonight to light off a few firecrackers. I love my little firecrackers....



Taking a Ride


When we visit my parents, Hank loves to help mow the lawn.

All Geared Up


Yesterday Hank wanted to practice cruising around on his scooter so we put on all his safety gear, just in case. We strapped on his knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist braces and Hank yelled out, "Superman!" He spent the morning running around the house in his safety gear, thinking he was a super hero. If I could, I would make him wear a helmet everywhere. I wish I could dress him in armor everyday for the rest of his life to keep him safe from all the potential harm and danger lurking in the mean world.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Forget-Me-Not Friday

1. Hank loves his tractor/truck collection. He loves his tractors so much that he has them arranged just so on a shelf above his bed--Hank likes to "park" them backwards in thier own spots. After Hank woke up from his nap one day, he pulled out each tractor, one by one, and told me what kind of tractor it was, where he got it, kissed each one, and placed them each back in their spots.

2. One afternoon Hank and I were working through a stack of puzzles. As we would put each peice in place, we would talk about the object depicted. As we were putting a fruit themed puzzle together, I would ask Hank to name each fruit as he put the peice in place. Well, since Hank mainly eats pureed fruits and vegetables, he doesn't really associate a picture of food with the actual food itself. When I showed him the puzzle peice with a picture of a cherry on it, he says, "cherry Poptart!"

3. Max mastered the skill of waving! He waves "hello" and "goodbye" with a friendly flop on his chubby little wrist.

4. Hank learned to do a sommersault by himself and selected the most clever moment to share his new accomplishment. After an hour of Hank creeping out of his room at bedtime and me threatening to punish him if he came out of his room one more time, Hank throws open his door, plops his head on the floor, pushes his little body into a perfect sommersault and says, "Ta-ta-ta-dah!"

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Miracle of Life

Yesterday I had the honor of witnessing the birth of my brand-new nephew, Jasper True, who was born at 4:35 p.m, weighing 7lbs 2oz and measuring 21 inches long. I had the privilege of keeping Amy company all night in the hospital through her labor, doing my best to coach her through the agonizing delivery process. I got to share in Jasper's first few moments of life, hearing his first cry, and watching his first bath. I even got to cut the cord! I was unbelievably impressed with my sister's strength and stamina during the process and can only say that I was relieved to be in my shoes and not hers. Thank you, Amy, for sharing such a precious experience with me. I will never forget 7/1/09 and I'm already in love with little Jasper. I don't want to steal Amy's thunder, but I couldn't help posting just one picture of cute little Jasper--a sneak peak!