Wordless Wednesday - Got Books!?

Stocking Up

Last weekend Kristoffer and I decided to break out our preserving book and put some stuff up for the winter. We are thinking of this summer as our "apprenticeship" of canning. Kim and Terry have been doing it for many years and have all of the tools necessary, so while we are living with them we are watching and learning some of their tricks...like putting Crisco around the pressure canner.

Kim is a master gardener and this spring he let Kristoffer pick out a few different things that we would want in the garden too. We were amazed when we saw how many jalapeno plans there were and the different varieties he planted. However, we realized a little too late that they weren't all jalapenos...the long, curly ones are actually salsa peppers. So instead of putting up some jalapeno poppers, we just halved, seeded and froze those to make some yummy salsa when the tomatoes are ready.


Next up was the basil. We have lots of basil!! We love making dishes with pesto, but we can only eat so much pesto at one time.

So we mixed up a big batch and put it in the freezer for later!

The last thing we made was something a little more exciting and new! We canned our very first thing...raspberry jam!! We (Kim) have a very large raspberry patch, and we have always wanted to can something. While Kim and Terry were gone we took over the kitchen (literally, not one more thing could fit on that stove) and took our turn at canning.

We ended up with 12-4 oz jars and 5-8oz jars. We are hoping to be able to make a bit more later this summer.

Good thing I know 2 little boys and 1 big boy who love jam!!

Now to figure out what to do with all of the squash...

Wordless Wednesday - Cute Boys and Their Books

Best Weekend Ever - Day 3

We are a little behind on our posts, but most days it is hard to find the time/energy to post. Finally, here is the conclusion to our "Best Weekend Ever"! On the 4th of July, Kim and Terry heading to OH for the day, so we had the house to ourselves for the day. The boys (and me too!) loved having Kristoffer home for the day and just hanging out in the morning. Kristoffer played with the boys while I did a bit of cleaning and food prep for our afternoon festivities. Before we headed out for the day, we tried to have a little photo shoot with flags. The flags quickly became weapons and we couldn't get a great picture of them together. We did manage to get a cue one of each of them!

Mr. Busy was too busy to look at me!



Mama and her boys!

Daddy and his boys!

I love Kaden's face peaking out from under the flag.

After our photo shoot, we loaded up the van and headed to Chesterfield for their 4th of July parade. We got there pretty early to get a good spot and have a picnic lunch before he parade.

We parked a couple blocks away and then walked to our spot. Turns out we could have parked where we sat, but we didn't know. The locate was great, and the boys enjoyed running around the grassy area behind us.

The parade started right at nap time, so by the time it started Kado's patience were running a bit thin!

We always love a good self portrait!!

Who is this big boy!?

Kaden actually wore his sunglasses for the first time and he looks super cool!

Thankfully the road was shut down, because Kaden kept wanting to start his own parade.

He got really excited when he saw the parade coming and it was a fire truck. His excitement quickly faded when the first 30 vehicles were fire trucks/police cars/ambulances and each of them had their sirens on full blast. Sensory overload!

Karter loved waving his flag at all the floats. And of course, his bucket was always close by in case there was any candy!

We had a great time celebrating our independence at the parade and we were all ready for a nap when we go home!

Every 4th of July since we have been married I have made a flag fruit pizza. (Please excuse the crazy hair and sunburn!)

The flag is not an exact replica, because I had to try and maximise the fruit to crust ratio!

We forgot to document the next part of our holiday, but we all put on our bathing suits and washed the van. Karter was a very good helper, and Kaden was very good at playing in the water!

Kim and Terry made it home in time for us to put Kaden to bed and take Karter to fireworks. We felt that Kaden was just a little young to enjoy the fireworks. Kim warned us that the hill in New Castle was pretty full when he drove by, so we parked down the road and hiked to our spot on the hill.

We brought along some sparklers to help pass the time.

He looks a bit scared in this picture, but Karter really did enjoy them. He watched them the whole time and as soon as it was done he would ask for another one.

I tried out a few different camera settings while they did sparklers.

Finally it was time for the main event! Karter LOVED the fireworks!

All day long we kept telling Karter why we were celebrating the 4th of July and then we would chant "U-S-A" and in response he would chant "I-S-A"! Thinking we were saying "you" instead of "U" he would always say "I"...it was hilarious!!

While we were waiting for the fireworks I figured out how to take videos with my camera...so here is a little video while we were doing sparklers.

We feel our job as parents is to create memories for our boys, and this weekend I think we created some wonderful memories!! I love (all 3) of my boys!!!

Best Weekend Ever - Day 2

Day 2 of our holiday weekend started out like a typical Sunday...Kristoffer making pancakes for breakfast and heading off to church. I had signed up to make cookies for the Welcome Table, so I made some cute patriotic sugar cookies!

Our family has a Sunday tradition of going out to lunch with Kim & Terry and Emily & Zach after church. We had to take a break from going for he past few months, because Kristoffer was teaching confirmation after church. Although Em & Zach were out of town, we went out after church anyway, and boy did we have an exciting time at our first lunch back. The meal started out with me spilling an entire cup of chocolate milk on my lap. Then about halfway through our meal, our waitress spilled my water all over my lap...it was a great lunch...haha!

After the boys woke up from their naps, we loaded up the van and headed to Losantville to take a bike ride on the Cardinal Greenway bike trail.

It is an excellent trail and really beats riding on the bumpy country roads we are used to. We biked 5 miles out and then stopped so the boys could run around for awhile before biking the 5 miles back.


The boys had a great time throwing stones into the creek.

After our bike ride, we loaded our bikes back into the van and headed to Grandpa Kenny's to go fishing!

Grandpa gave Karter a fishing pole for his birthday and he was pretty excited to use it for the first time. It must be a lucky pole...

...because he caught this beauty on his first cast with his new pole!!

Of course Kado was not scared at all to touch the fish...

...or helping dig around for worms!

We all got lucky with Karter's fishing pole...

...Kristoffer won the "best catch of the day" award!

When we finished fishing and catching up with Grandpa Kenny and Joyce, we headed into Hagerstown for a picnic at the park. Of course, Kristoffer and I were the only two that ate anything, because the boys were more interested in the toys. Kaden, who is fascinated with cars, spotted this beauty right away and maneuvered himself inside without any assistance.

Random bear at the park!

There weren't many people at church, so I had a lot of cookies left over. We decided to drop by Gran-Gran and Grandpa Bud's house on the way home to drop off some cookies. It was really just an excuse to stop by! By the time we got there it was 9pm, we had been going all afternoon and were very sweaty and dirty, but I don't think they minded snuggling our dirty boys!!

What a fun, family filled day!!!