Our New YARD!! YEAH YEAH YEAH!!!!!!!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our yard! What a blessing! It is SO SO SO good for our children! Not only have they been able to thoroughly enjoy themselves in sand, water, and outdoor creativity, but they have also enjoyed good health! While Jon and I worked on getting the garden in it would start to get late, but we wanted to get more done before we took the kids in and cleaned them up and put them to bed. . . we would set up our TV and let them watch a movie outside with popcorn and drinks! They thought working on the garden was REALLY fun and exciting! I think as they get older and have to help us, the excitement of garden work might die down, though we could still bring out the TV and put on a movie if it helps!

Here is Mariah and Jonathan playing in the yard.

The kids "helping" with the garden--I couldn't resist Jonathan's adorable behind!

Jonathan ventuing out into an overgrown corner that we cleaned out and planted grass under (it looks great now)!

Aubrey and Jonathan playing in the water and buckets--they really had a lot of fun!

Mariah giving her toys a bath outside.

The kids with their favorite cousins watching a movie and having popcorn outside.

A Beautiful rainy summer day and the kids running around in it.

The kids having a picnic for lunch--we did this many times--it was really fun (and no kitchen to clean up afterward)!!

Another picnic outside--we all ate outside together on the card table many times.

Our first snow!!

Our New House--and the garden Summer 2008

We were very blessed to be able to sell our townhouse and to buy our house! We have thoroughly been enjoying it! The former owners left us a brand new barbeque as a "welcome home" gift with a note saying that they hoped we enjoyed the home as they did--very thoughtful of them. We have had several barbeques and fun events already!

Well to start at the beginning of our new home--we moved in the last weekend of June. We had planted seeds in planters in anticipation of planting a garden. Well, by the time we actually moved in those plants had way overgrown their planters--we had to get them in the ground asap! So we spet the first few days getting moved in what we needed and then got to work on the garden--which turned out to be a LOT more work than we had anticipated. But in some odd way, it was fun. The garden plot that existed was very grassy and the previous owners had one of those above the ground pools that you set on sand--so we had a huge circle of sand in the yard. We cut and moved sod from the garden to cover the sand and removed a LOT of the sand into the garden--a little tricky, but the kids were great helpers--filling buckets of sand and dumping them where we had already moved grass. We ended up doubling the size of the garden and getting all of our plants into the ground by mid-July. I thought the little plants would die, but once again, we were very blessed and the plants survived! We ended up having a wonderful harvest which we thoroughly enjoyed and even were able to have surplus to preserve we are still enjoying fried summer squash--one of our favorites)!
Jonathan loved helping me harvest the squash--he is so adorable--and in his father's favorite outfit (star trek academy) We also have two peach trees in our back yard--which made the yummiest peaches ever! We were able to can what we didn't eat and we are still enjoying those as well!

I had an enrichment in my previous ward about using a pressure canner and we learned how to can dried beans (pinto, black, etc). It was really neat and just what I needed!

I inherited my mom's pressure canner and got to work trying things out! I had a lot of fun learning all about canning different things and perhaps got a little carried away, but hey, I didn't have a newborn and I wasn't pregnant (a new thing for me for the past 5 years) and we have a wonderful backyard that the kids can just go out an play for entertainment--so I was able to make the time to learn how to do some canning!!

Here I am in front of the garden with some dill pickles and tomatoes I canned.

This is a picture of most of the things we canned (I say we, because although I did most of the actual canning, Jon did a lot of the harvesting and took care of other things to allow me to have time to do the canning)--a lot of it was from our garden or yard and some of it was given to us. We were very blessed!

Pumkin Patch--2008

For the first time in Pmkin Patch history we actually found the witch in the maze!! The kids were very excited!

Jonathan really tried to keep up with the other kids and most of the time he actually did keep up with them. It was really cute!

Here are my three adorable kids!

Every year we go to the Pumpkin Patch in Vineyard with Grandma Robertson and cousins. It is really fun and something the kids look forward to all year! There are blow-up bounce house and slides that they really enjoy as well. Jonathan got really brave and actually climbed up a slide and went down it. James (favorite of all cousins) would just launch his body off the top of a pretty tall slide and go flying! It was hilarious and amazng! Aubrey and Mariah were definitely amazed at his bravery!

Amy still exists--she just doesn't have the internet

Wow! It's been forever since I last blogged! I don't have any pictures with me, but so much has happened this summer and I don't have much time, but we love our home and yard!! I have run some races--2 10k's and a half marathon. I have been doing a LOT of canning and storing of produce from our garden--it is really so much fun to create food storage for your family from your own harvest!! Anyway, my kids LOVE our yard and home and we have been greatly blessed in many ways!

Bridal Veil Falls

Some of my friends, Emily and I have been having an "adventure/nature day" once a week. Yesterday we walked on the path up to Bridal Veil Falls. It was perfect for little kids! I haven't been up there in a long time, but the hike was short and pretty and the bottom of the falls is a great shallow place for kids to play in! The kids just had so much fun playing in the water--I got in to with Jonathan. There was no way he was going to just watch the other kids, but he is still a little wobbly on bumpy surfaces. The water was really cold, but you got used to it. It was really fun to see the kids walking together up the trail and talking with each other. It was fun to watch them play in the water and climb on rocks. After playing in the water for about an hour we hiked back down to the picnic area and had lunch. The kids loved that too and hiked around the area while we ate and visited. It was a really fun morning!

5K--Run Against Pornography

I was joking around with Emily, Johanna, and Heather about how it would be really funny to wear a Hooters or Show Girls shirt to this run. Then I thought that it would really be funny to wear a hooters shirt with the "no" symbol over it. Well, Jon had some guys visiting his office from head-quarters last week. They were actually going to Hooters. Jon told them about this run and how I thought it would be funny to wear a shirt and put the "no" symbol over it. When they got back from Hooters, they handed Jon a sack--two shirts. Now I had to find a second wearer. My siblings didn't really want to, though Jay said he would if I couldn't find someone else. I asked Johanna--whom I had originally joked with and she was planning to run the race with me. She, like myself, thought it would be really funny and said yes. So I made the symbol to put over them and we were set! Now the actual race was really fun! It was really nice to have Johanna to visit with while we ran. We did really good, I thought. We were the last to come in from my family--Emily did great, Jeremy did great, coming in right after her!! Way to go Jeremy!! Jay thought the race was an hour earlier than it actually was and actually showed up for it at that time--and he had another committment that kept him from the race. Bec did great and was pushing Grace! I was pushing Jonathan and having Johanna to talk to and stay with really helped keep me at a regular pace. We only stopped and walked once and not for very long! It was really fun to my siblings there too--though I am the slowest of the bunch so I really didn't see them during the race, just before and after. Jon and the girls were at the finish line and cheered each sibling on as they came through--he got everyone on tape and that was fun to watch! Anyway, I look forward to the next race and I like 5k's because that's a normal amount of running in one shot!We packed cold cereal and sippy cups of milk for the girls. They sat in the double stroller with Jon and cheered runners on. They were really cute!

Clue--it's one of my favorite games! Can you play this version?

What is this a picture of? If you are not sure, look at the next one.Still not sure? Well, then look at the next one.
Come on, you should know by now.
Now you really should know!
And here is how my front door became looking this way!
I really shouldn't try to fix things unless I know what I am doing. Now the door really is unusable. The door got jammed--it's been sticking off and on every once in a while. This time I could not open it. I thought, "well I will just take it apart, open the door and figure out what is wrong with it". After unscrewing the inside handle and the outside handle fell outside, which happens to be connected to the main middle section, I tried and tried to get the center out, but to no avail. Jon is gone and will be home soon. I think if he works outside and I work in, we can maybe get it back together and hopefully unjammed!

Memorial Day

I was assigned to bring the dessert to the Hansen Memorial Day luncheon. I think it was pretty creative. Jon and I had a lot of fun thinking it up and making it!

Wheeler Farm

Emily and I and our kids went to Wheeler Farm for Harrison's birthday. We packed up some lunches, got in Emily's car--we all fit, and went on our way!!! We had lunch first thing when we got there. Jonathan felt so grown-up to be sitting this the older kids at the picnic table! It was really cute to watch how excited he was.

AFter eating, we walked around and looked at the animals. The kids LOVED looking at the animals. There were some geese that almost nipped Aubrey's finger! There was one that was really honking at us--the kids weren't quite sure what to think!

The kids even got brave and started petting some of the animals--particualarly the sheep. They touched the baby chicks too--they really were enjoying the baby chicks until they heard a rooster and ran off to find where it was! It was fun to see their excitement!

The tree-house they have built is really neat! It would be fun to build something like it someday. We took a wagon-ride around the farm and that was really fun too. Then we went to Emily's house and celebrated Harrison's birthday. It was a really fun day! Thanks Emily!

Mariah's 3rd Birthday!

We had such busy, but fun day! And Mariah had a wonderful day! She was just beaming and all "grown-up" by bedtime (and exhausted). We started with having three balloons hidden around the house--each one containing a small toy inside. She had me pop them though--she didn't like the sound of the pop (most kids don't, but it is fun to have a prize inside the balloon). Then she got "special cereal" for breakfast (Marshmallow Mateys). Then Grandma Robertson came to pick us up to go to her house for a birthday get-together! I hadn't been able to decorate the cake yet (do to hopefully finding "our house" and making an offer and what not), so I took the stuff to decorate with us--I should have known that there was no way that I would actually get it decorated before afternoon naps--though I tried. The kids had a BLAST together, though they kept the adults very busy! We had macaroni and cheese for lunch (not very healthy, but one of Mariah's favorites--she only eats two things for lunch--peanut butter sandwiches and mac and cheese. It was really fun to have friends and cousins over for her birthday to play! Emily even was able to make it. It was her birthday too--Mariah's middle name is after her--but she got really sick a few days ago and has been preparing for the last 8 months to run a marathon this Saturday, so she was trying to just take it easy and get better, but she decided to stop by and take it easy at Mom's--which was really nice to have her there.


Mariah got such nice gifts from everyone! She is just having so much fun with them right now. After lunch Mariah handed out fruit snacks and toy rings to everyone. Unfortunately I didn't get the cake made before friends had to leave, but I promised them I would bring some cake to them later (which I did--and it's a good thing too--they were counting on it! What cute kids!). Aubrey, Mariah, and James watched Enchanted with Grandma and had popcorn. It was really cute! I was able to finish decorating the cake while they watched the movie. I would have to say that it turned out REALLY cute! It was late enough that we got some pizza and subs and had dinner. Then we sang happy birthday to Mariah and Emily, Mariah blew out the candles and immediately pulled them out of the cake and licked off the frosting! It was pretty cute! The kids all wanted specific parts of the cake, but all were content with pretty much any edge piece with lots of frosting--and that's all any of them ate anyway! When we got home Mariah got to finally open all of her presents. She got a little toy purse and a new doll with hair--she was so adorable with them and felt all grown up! She kept saying how she was now grown bigger and bigger and now could have this or that or she could do this or that--it was really quite cute to see her trying to be so grown up! Here are some cute pictures from her birthday:

Here is the "Annie" cake (from Little Einsteins)--it was actually really fun to make! I used one of my large wedding cake pans (so it's two box mixes). Mariah helped me make the cake and got to lick out the batter after we were done. I printed off a coloring page from the Disney website, scanned it larger and used that as a guide for Annie. As I decorated the cake, Mariah watched on and off. Though James Morrise was extremely interested while I decorated--he would ask questions and was really excited and enthralled about it--it was really cute!

Mariah--quickly taking out the candles to lick off the frosting!
Mariah at home, showing us how old she is turning with her fingers.

She is about to open her presents.

These are some of the cute things she got--she is waving to us with her doll (that she LOVES)!! She was VERY excited about the Star Wars toys as well--yes, Jon is her Dad!

The girls and their "Birthday Parties"

Aubrey and Mariah LOVE to play Birthday Party! It is so cute! They have a toy birthday cake that they love to pretend to eat. Yesterday Aubrey set up a huge birthday party for her doll, Sally. It was time for Mariah to lay down for her nap, but Aubrey asked if Mariah could stay up for a little while for the birthday party. They sang, opened pretend presents, gave their stuffed animals that were in attendance play dishes and served them cake. It was really cute!Sally's presents are in the basket by the table. She opened them before I came into the room. I think they were wrapped in pillow cases and bags.
Sally has the yellow birthday hat on and is Aubrey's doll that is the sister to her baby doll. Aubrey is Sally's mother. She is very serious about that too!
Aubrey told me the names of everyone in attendance--the teddybears were grandpas and she has made up names for them, though I couldn't quite understand what she said their names were.

I asked it I could attend, but was denied attendance because I am not Sally's friend. I am Aubrey's mother and I can't be both, so I can not come to her birthday. It was pretty funny!