The differences between boys and girls

Benjamin loves, loves, loves vegetables! So tonight after I picked some goodies from our garden he had a grand old time pulling them out of the bucket, handing them to me and then I would hand them back and he would place them back in the bucket. I'm glad that he likes vegetables so much, now if I can only figure out a way for him to eat fruits other than Bananas! Some days he has 2 entire bananas to himself!!

I haven't seen Rachel do this for a long time. To be more precise she hasn't really done it since Benjamin gave up nursing 10 months ago. It was super cute to get her perspective on the whole nursing thing.

Pioneer Parade

On Friday we went to the Pioneer day parade up here, because we really didn't have any other plans for that day. This year we ended up sitting just outside the gate by the Temple and Tabernacle. It was a really nice spot because: 1. we could all be together 2. we were able to get candy when they threw it at us and 3. we had front row seats. The only bad part...we were in the sun and I wasn't planning on that so there was no sunscreen...only one little umbrella and 2 bottles of water that became hot in no time. Needless to say we were all sweating bullets and the kids got a little sunburned.

About half way through the parade Benjamin decided he had enough. He turned his back on the parade and laid his head on my shoulder for the remaining hour. It was so hot out you could see the sweat pouring down Rachel's face and neck from under her cowgirl hat. :( She took it in stride though, dancing to the bands and yelling at the people to give her some candy. At one point we took the hot water (YUCK!!) from the water bottles and dumped them on the kids to try and keep them cooler. Next year, we will be more prepared! :)

Growing Boy

We have had a bountiful harvest already, so much in fact that we are giving away squash left and right! Today I got more apricots from my friend Kalynne and currently there are 4 trays of quartered apricots drying in my dehydrator. Benjamin loves the squash because he thinks they are bananas (his favorite food!!), he loves them until he realizes they don't taste like them! :)


One funny thing he does when you tell him "No, don't climb that bookshelf or No, don't touch the lamp, or No, don't play with that electrical cord!" is make this face at you! Makes me laugh every time :)

He has also added a few words to his vocabulary: Momma or Mom or Ma, Nana (banana) and Doh (this is used for anything that he is excited about). I can't wait to have him learn more and more words. Oh and if he sees a dog he says "Adah" and then he goes "oof, oof!" SO CUTE!!

Do I ever slow down?

NOPE!! I probably should but I don't :) My friend Kalynne gave us a ton of apricots so today my friend Nancy and I canned 21 pints of apricot jam....

and put cucumbers in brine to make pickles! AND tomorrow I'm getting more apricots so I can dry some...YUMMO!!

Now we didn't just do this today, nope, that would be too easy ;) Today we also watched another friends 3 children for 2 hours and of course took care of my two kiddos. What a totally exhausting day...and did I mention it was 96 degrees outside...yep...we're AwEsOmE!!

Attack of the Children!!

Poor Marc! The kids usually can't wait to eat dinner with Marc when he gets home after 6 so this is what happens...

The kids attack him for 2nd dinners :)

Painting! AHHHH!!!

Let me start by saying today...we have done a ton!!!

After having breakfast, we went outside and built this 'sidewalk' in our front strip. Marc's dad gave us some left over bricks from his house, I thought we would have way to many but it actually turned out to be the perfect amount. We started about 8 am, after one trip to Home Depot for more supplies and 3 hours later this is what we ended up with. (I'm so glad we are all early risers!) It was a lot of work, but it turned out great! Now all we have to do is finish the landscaping :)

After working outside, we fed the kiddos lunch, switched the laundry and put them down for a nap. After Benjamin was asleep (Rachel flat out refused to take a nap! - urg!!) we started painting our bedroom. My friend let me know a few weeks ago that Glidden was giving away a free quart of paint in any color you wanted. So I checked out their site and picked out this beautiful steel blue color for an accent wall in our bedroom. Can I just say I love free stuff!! After painting the wall and ceiling this is what our 'new' bedroom looks like.

My roommate from BYU-Idaho, Nancy, is living in Logan and has been down to visit a few times. We told her today we were painting so she offered to come help after a temple session. When she came we were pretty much done with our bedroom but we took advantage of her help and painted the playroom ceiling white as well. She was the best! We couldn't have done what we did without her help and for her 'pay' we took her out to dinner for Chinese! :) When we opened up our fortune cookies, the 'fortune' for all of us were a little...well...uncanny! Especially in regards to today. The first one was mine (I want to get all of the painting done right away), the second one was Rachel's (can we say bedtime anyone?!), the third was Marc's (he hates painting, so he needs the patience), and the fourth one was Nancy's. Crazy huh!? After dinner we came home and while Marc was cutting the grass Nancy helped me give the kids a bath, then it was bedtime. Let's just say is was a long day, but we are glad we had extra hands to help and we are so grateful for lovely, comfy beds!! :)

BIG Helper

Rachel seems to be growing up way to fast as of late. Her newest thing that she loves to do and that I love to see, is her washing Benjamin up after meals. When I clean him up he fusses, so one day I asked Rachel if she wanted to wash Benjamin up for me. She was super excited, and either Benjamin was in shock or he enjoyed it because he was quiet! So now it's a frequent thing in our house to see her washing him up and not me...oh and she does a darn good job too :)

C is for Cookie!

Tomorrow we are having a girls night and someone requested that I bring my famous cookies (well famous to those who know what they are missing!). Since tomorrow is full to the brim with meetings for me I did all of my baking today. Today I made granola bars, banana bread and cookies (I was going to make wheat bread but they had a sale on it at the store so I just bought it this time). The kids loved 'helping' me make the cookies.

I promise:

1. No fingers were hurt in the making of these cookies.

2. The kids are not sick.

3. Tasting of the dough did occur by both of them :)

4. The cookies are super yummy!!

Camping Cousins

This last weekend we had a great camping trip with Joseph, Amy and their kids. It was a blast! We camped up Hobble Creek Canyon down near Springville. It was close enough for mom and dad to come up in the evening for dinner and so dad could make a double batch of peach cobbler - Yummo! Our campsite was in the shade right next to this great little spot the kids enjoyed climbing way too much (in fact that was the first thing they did upon exiting the vans), and a little area the kids dubbed as "The Pit."

Rachel was a pretty darn good climber going up but not so much coming down. She would get to a certain spot and yell "Help! I can't get down!!" So I would go up and help her walk back down the mountain. Eventually I told her that she couldn't go up there unless she could get down. I thought it would keep her from going back up but I was wrong. She found a way to get down...sliding on her bum the entire way down. I guess that kind of backfired huh?

We had an interesting time setting up the tent (it could have been worse if Brook and Benjamin hadn't of slept in the vans). We reserved a double site so we could put up our two tents but the area for the tents was kind of small. Either way we made it work. We had to move some big rocks for our tent to fit but we did it. Marc enjoyed taking the hatchet and chopping some firewood. Rachel had fun disappearing. I made the mistake of putting her in a shirt that blended right in with all of the leaves, There were several times I would say "where's Rachel?!" It was kind of like playing "where's Waldo."

For dinner we had tin foil dinners thanks to Joseph's mad cooking skills and the kids had a blast roasting their own hot dogs. Benjamin enjoyed the fruit salad more than anything. After dinner the kids had more fun playing around in "The Pit" with their sticks.

While the adults had 2 helpings each of dad's divine peach cobbler the kids were able to make s'mores. Rachel was the only kid who actually ate her s'more put together, the others ate their pieces seperatly. Let's just say it was one big ewey-gooy mess. After our treat, we said goodbye to grandma and grandpa so they could go sleep in their comfy bed at home, then we bunkered down for stories around the campfire. Aunt Amy told a pretty cute story called the "Blue Heron" which all of the kids enjoyed. Then it was on to PJ's, pottys and teeth brushing. All of the kids slept relatively well. Brook had a hard time going to sleep so she was up with the adults for a while. Joseph was holding her with her head on his shoulder when all of a sudden we heard this 'ping.' I hurried and got our flashlight from our tent (waking Benjamin up in the process) so we could find out where her pacifier went. As you probably guessed, it went straight into the fire pit (luckily it was only hot coals) but it was in there long enough to melt a little and become unusable. We always have 2 pacifiers with us for Benjamin so Brook used one of his for the remainder of the trip.

Other than Benjamin having some bad gas (he stayed in the sleeping bag with me because it was just easier that way) and Rachel rolling out of her sleeping bag and onto the rocks during the night, the kids slept well. Rachel woke up grumpy (as usual) and insisted on Aunt Amy getting her dressed. We had a yummy breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausages, chocolate doughnut holes, juice, milk and fruit. Dad was the best and rescued us twice. Somehow in the packing Marc and I forgot to get propane for our new cook stove and the eggs for breakfast! I made a list but still they were left behind! While Marc made the eggs over the fire, I used our new cook stove and griddle to make some yummy banana pancakes and sausages. We sure ate well that morning!

Before we could leave though we had to take one last trip to Cherry Creek so the kids could throw rocks in the river. On our way to the river there were a ton of kids from the other campsites riding their bikes and Rachel got run over by a kid on his bike! Luckily she wasn't hurt bad, but what really got me was the kid was still trying to go when Rachel's ankle was under his wheel!! Anyway, after getting her settled and happy again we finally made it to the river. When the kids were done we loaded them up and headed to Joseph and Amy's where we let the kids play together some more, and bathed them all really, really, really good!