Playday

We finally made a playday!!

There have been so many unexpected things or events this summer that I haven't gotten Christian and Rylen to any of the scheduled playdates that are on Tuesday or Wednesdays. I feel realyy terrible that they haven't been able to see friends their ages. But I finally got them to one...thanks for the call Cristi!! So, here is Christian with a few of his friends at the Dinosaur Park. They had a blast!! We will definetly have to make more of them!

Proverbs 22:6

"Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

That is definetly what we are doing when it comes to the kids and our homemade salsa. Just look at Rylen chowin' down...

When I made the comment that I was training him right a picture that hangs in our home came to mind. Amazing how God speaks to us in the little, everyday things of life!

All kidding aside, this verse has been one that Jeremy and I have tried to live by when raising the kids. There was a point a year or so ago where Jeremy was questioning whether or not we were doing the right things in discipling them. We had been talking about it for a couple of days and even on the way to church one morning. When we arrived a woman that we know came up to us in the parking lot with something wrapped up and said "God put it on my heart to do this for you." I was going to wait until we got home to look at it but Jeremy insisted that we look at it right there. When we opened it up the above picture is what we found. This is one of the best gifts that we have ever received! It spoke exactly to what we had had concerns about and was confirmation that we were indeed trying to do the right things. This picture hangs by our computer in our bedroom. I see it several times everyday and it reminds me to just continue on the path that God has laid for us and our children. If we do that then we will all turn out just fine. I have to say that I have also been truly blessed to have this woman in my life. First as an acquantence then as a Mentor Mom with our MOPS group. Lynn, thanks for your humbleness and openness, for being a prayer warrior and for always being there when needed. You are a true blessing!

Reading with Daddy

Rylen wanted his Daddy to read him a book and Christian had just the glasses to help him see the words. They got some 2-on-1 time with Daddy and I caught a few pictures without anyone knowing!

Those glasses by the way are plastic kids glasses and have no lens in them. Christian was wearing them earlier in the evening and he reminded me of Harry Potter. Jeremy looked really silly in them but did a wonderful job reading!!

Our Other Brother

Here are the three oldest boys with their new haircuts. I wouldn't let Jeremy get his hands on Rylen's golden locks!! Joshua and Christian favor one another but we will have to wait to get one with Codey and his twin at a later date. He is still my baby for now!

Thing 1, Thing 2

Joshua & Codey got haircuts Wednesday from their Daddy and he did a great job! Well, on Thursday morning Christian decided that he wanted his cut also. Jeremy, knowing how I feel about Christian's hair, told him there was a mandatory waiting period and that if he still wanted it cut when he got home from work he would cut it for him. Mandatory waiting period? What does that mean to a three year old? Tell him again? Like he would remember, right? Well, Christian started asking when Daddy would be home and he asked on and off for hours. Finally, as soon as Jeremy walked in the door Christian ran up to him and said "Daddy I want my hair cut!". Jeremy just looked at me and I said okay. So, here we have it. We always said they resembled each other in many ways. Now they look like twins born at different times.

PS...Christian keeps running his hands along his hair and keeps saying "Hey Mom, feel!". It is soooo cute!!

Canning 101

Well, we have tons of tomatos so we decided to try our hand at making some salsa. Once we got our basic ingredients it really wasn't that hard and our first batch turned out to taste great and had just the right heat and flavor. We made another batch that was spicier and tasted just as good. We ended up with five jars of the regular (which we have named "The Original") and 6 jars of the second batch (which we named "Salsa 101" for the heat).

After all of the salsa we decided that the canning process wasn't quite so bad so we decided to do some jam. A sweet older lady that Jeremy does work for called and said to come and get some figs from her tree so Jeremy did. He came home with three bags of figs! We made 10 jars of jelly from those 3 bags. It is a fig base but we added extracts to make different flavors. It really worked!! We now have raspberry, strawberry, maple brown sugar and fig jelly. I didn't get a picture of the jellies but they sure were good too. Our next canning endeavor? Whole potatos and tomatos, and homemade tomato sauce for spaghetti. The best part...we are saving LOTS of $$$ by using our garden and doing it ourselves. I can't wait until our entire pantry is our jars!!

The Best Big Brothers

The boys were going to go on a bike ride and Christian got upset that he could not go with them. We told him that when they got back they would pull him around the circle. Well, many minutes later Jeremy went out to check on them and this is what he saw...

Codey had hooked up the wagon to his bike so he could pull Christian around the circle and he could go with them their first trip around. What great brothers!!

My Bambino

Rylen is truly at the age when he is into everything! But it makes it so much fun to watch him!! Here are a few pics from this past weekend. We were without air conditioner from Thursday afternoon to Saturday evening and the heat was horrible for most of us in the house. With temperatures over 100 degrees it was to be understood that most were miserable. Most except Rylen. He stayed in front of the Jeremy's big carpet fan and enjoyed the "breeze". Look at those golden locks and pearly whites. He is so beautiful!

Friday night the heat was so bad, it was 90 degrees in our house and cooler outside, that Jeremy put the pop-up up and took the kids out there with him. They were sweating in their beds so we figured the a/c out there would be better for them. Rylen woke up during the transfer process at 3:00 am and was not at all willing to go back to sleep so Joshua and I stayed up with him in the house with 5 fans blowing trying to keep us cool. I decided that if I had to be awake I would finish my Spring cleaning. Well, while I was busy cleaning Rylen found some vaseline in Codey's room and decided to put it all over himself. When I say all over...I mean ALL OVER!! It was on every inch of his body and his entire head was covered. You probably wondering how long it took him to do that right? Well NOT LONG! It took us longer to get it out of his hair then it did for him to do it. Four baths later and his hair was finely somewhat back to normal. Needless to say, he got one of those baths immediately and had a little fun in the cool water.

T-R-O-U-B-L-E...and so worth it!!!!