So this week was my big canning week. I am so proud of myself, this is my first attempt canning peaches by myself. It really isn't as hard as it seems, I am just hoping no one gets botulism from these. Keep your fingers crossed.

My sister and I also made this home made applesauce. Her husband is a farmer and has an apple orchard so we got these right off the tree. I think we ended up with 17 containers. It tastes amazing with whip cream on top becaue we put cinnamon and sugar in ours. It took us about 6 hours to do it and clean up. I was exhausted at the end of the day.

With some of the leftover peaches I made this freezer peach jam and I also froze some peaches to use later for pies or smoothies. Last night I canned some spaghetti sauce with a friend until about 10 o'clock but I couldn't post a picture becaue it is setting up at her house. It smelled great though.

And, while I was busy building up my food storage all week, this is what my kids were doing. And i didn't even care as long as they were out of my way and steered clear of the large pot of boiling water that was going for hours at a time.

Touchdown!

Tyce has learned a new trick. Whenever we say "touchdown!" this is what he does. His uncle Jeff would be so proud. We took this picture on our camping trip in chelan, they loved it

This weekend we took our first and only family vacation with a good friend and her husband

in Chelan (about 2 hours from us) who invited us to go up their with them and another couple to go camping in her back yard ( it is huge!). It was really fun and there was so much to do there. IT is one of those 100 year old houses that her parents fixed up and they have a ton of acreage and horses and rose gardens and vegetable gardens that all you gardners would drool over. I don't think she would ever have to go to the store. It was really fun for the kids, but you deffinitely have to wathc your kids because there is alot they could get into. The little kids went horse back riding, we went our to eat at this great little shop and then we went swimming at the cleanest lake I have ever been to. It was a great weekend and just the right amount of time. It is so hard sometimes to go camping (or anywhere for that matter) with young children. Of course madi got

a bladder infection and needed to use the potty every 20 minutes and had a few accidents.

Anyway, it was really fun and it makes you appreciate your own bed and schedule you know?

Funny madi incident:
madi was in the bathroom filling up the sink with water ( does anyone else have a child obsessed with water?) and she dropped my phone in it.
me: madi!!!! You broke my phone.....I am so upset that you put it in the water
Madi: (holding her hands up in the air with a shrug) I wish I could help you mom........do you want a towel? but...... I still a nice girl

grandma christensen took madi potty during church and them she went to use the rest room
madi: okay grandma, just be careful!

My big fat anniversary, swimming lesson and birthday

This week was mark's birthday and our anniversary. For marks birthday we went to the fair and then had cake and ice cream with family.

This is madi at her last swim lesons! It took the whole time for her to want to jump off the diving board, but she did a great job. Look at that form! I was so proud of her. She loves swimming lesons and has really come a long way.

I can't believe we have been married for 4 years. It has gone by so quickly, and yet I can't remember a time when I wasn't married! We went into the tri-cities and had dinner and then went to some shops. It was so nice to have time alone together, and getting in and out of the car was so fast! Thanks audge for babysitting!

Thoughts for a sunday afternoon

You know that thing you remind yourself of again and again that you need to buy at the store? And then you get to the store and one kid is eating everything you put in the cart and the other one is crying because he wants to eat everything you put in the cart and somwhere amidst the chaos you come home with about half of what you were supposed to get and you can't believe you forgot to get that thing you went to the store in the first place for? Well that "thing" for me has been camera batteries. I have gone to the store twice now and come home without them, and since it takes me a half hour to get to the store I can't just run back and get it. Which is why this is the most boring post ever because I have no pictures to convince you that my life really is the dream it appears to be!! Right! Anyway, Both of my kids have ear infections in both ears and colds and I think Tyce is teething (it must be noted, however,that I always think tyce is teething. Why else would such a pretty baby cry so much?? This is a rhetorical question......I really want to know!). Also, I feel like the weeds around my house are trying to devour us. I think the weed killer we put on then was actually fertilizer, they are huge!. I feel intimidated by them, and tend to steer clear, which now that I think about it, is probably how the situation got so out of control in the first place. I saw a movie once ( actually if I remember correctly it was a musical) about a plant that wanted to eat people ....... I think it has been reincarnated as a weed. Well, I should now end the most random post I have ever written ( thus far). I will post picture of said weeds.............when I get camera batteries.

The last couple of weeks have been busy ones for us. It started when tyce and I took a little trip to St. George (pictures soon) for a reunion with the girls I went with to Romania ( the second time). We had a blast and tyce was a trooper even if he was attatched to my hip the whole time. He is a momma's boy if I ever saw one. Do you ever get the feeling that you bring out the worst in your kids? when I am around, tyce cries alot and has to be held by only me. But the other day my mother in-law had him for a couple hours and she said he was perfectly content to crawl around and never made a peep. Huh, I am not goint to let myself analyze that too deeply. Anyway, it was a really fun weekend but it is always good to come back home. Next time I want to go without a baby so I can sleep in. Especially when you are up til 2am everynight talking and up at 6:30 every morning. Then I got back and a couple of days later got a really bad sinus infection and was down for the count for about a week. There is nothing worse than being a sick mom. Luckily I had some help from my mom and mother in -law, but it was still a rough week. So now I am recovered just in time for my kids to get sick.

Funny madi quote:

I caught her sitting on a stool at the counter talking to herself

"jesus says be nice to everyone, and don't....hit....ANYTHING!!!

tyce is scooting all over the house, I can hear him grunting when he is going from room to room looking for me..........and he always finds me. I adore him.

Top 10

Top ten reasons why I love this picture:
1. Notice madi's outfit, green sweater in the middle of july! I have yet to win a wardrobe battle when she puts her mind to something
2. Everytime she wears these blue pajama shorts she reminds me that they were her cousin carson's and he gave them to her, which is not the case, so tiff, if you are missing the set to some blue pajama bottoms, well, here they are
3. We have to sing "row, row, row, your boat everytime either of the kids get in this laundry basket
4. Tyce looks like he is holding on for dear life
5.They played with this basket happily for about 10 minutes
6. Tyce laughed as madi pulled him all over our house, road bumps and everything
7. It looks like that doll in the back ground was a casualty of the "boat" escapade
8. They are both looking at the camera....how rare is that?
9. I am not in it
10. There are no clothes in the basket which means I actually got them all folded! I am gloating even now as I write this!!

You know you can almost feel a catastrophic day coming on when you hear these words from your husband "I have been asked to speak with a high council member on sunday in another city" For those of you who don't know, this simple phrase implies so much.
1. I will battle my children alone on sunday, i will be switching from one- on- one, to zone defense (those of you who don't know me well might actually be fooled into thinking i know basketball.....)
2. mark probably will forget to ask someone to teach his sunday school class so I will have to do it.
3. There will undoubtedly be at least one melt down in which new sunday clothes or shoes will have to be found. (it was the shoes, she lost the matching pair and it was all I could do to find a matching pair that of coure she didn't wear at all during church.

So I knew there would be some challenges today but what I didn't know was that I would jump in my car ( with enough time to get to church on time thank you very much) To find that I couldn't get my car to run. I thought I had a flat tire and pulled off the road onto the bank by our house and then proceeded to get the car stuck in sinking dirt. I was able to get a hold of my mom in the nick of time to come pick us up and change the carseats over to get to church a half hour late. I did end up teaching mark's sunday school class with tyce in tow for half the lesson, and then I had to drag the whole class in to the nursery with me to do singing time ( I am the primary chorister). To top it all off I was teaching our primary kids a new song.............in spanish. I speak more romanian than I do spanish and the two languages have somehow converged in my head so really I don't know which is which. "whats that thing called when everything intersects? the bermuda triangle!" ( if you can tell me what movie that is from you are my hero). Anyway, mark met us at the end of church and drove us home and then went out to see what tire was flat and he discovered that all my tires were fine.........I had my emergency break on. So now it is officially time to end my special day......until next time.
seriously though, who know what movie that is from.......keep in mind it is me quoting it, that should narrow things down a bit.

Firsts

This is one of my bow holders and one of my favorite bows I made for summerfest. I have about 6 more that I am trying to sale. We'll see how it goes.

We had a couple of firsts this week that I thought I would celebrate.

1.Tyce started scooting across the floor!! I am so excited for him and sad for myself because he is growing so fast.

2. had my first "summer fest "booth at our community days event. I sold bows and bow holders just for fun. I didn't make a ton of money by any means, but at least I made something and didn't go in the hole for this little event. Although when I add it up I think I averaged about a quarter an hour.

3. I cleaned my room for the first time in about 3 weeks because that's where I was making all of my bows. It looks so much bigger than I remember

4. The first time I have made a cheesecake and it actually turned out!!

5. Madi's first swim lessons! She is such a little fireball. The girl who teaches her has her jump into the water from the side into her arms and madi is like a little missile and runs as fast as she can and then jumps spread eagle into the girls arms. She has taken her teacher under a couple of times!

6. I think I can officially say that madi is potty trained!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has only taken us about 9 months off and on, but still......it is finished. Now I need to hire someone to clean my carpets! They were sacrificed in this process, but it was a worthy cause.

after the summerfest we went with family to a pond with a huge water slide. It was so much fun and so refreshing after being outside in the heat all day. My brother in law took a picture of madi and mark going down the slide together so I hope to post that one soon. Also, have I ever mentioned how much tyce eats? This kid eats me out of house and home, he wants to be eating all day long!! It's crazy! Tyce also went down the slide with mark(despite my objections) and the first two times it was fine, but then the third time mark lost his grip on him and mark had to pull him out of the water. why doesn't anyone listen to me? Of course the whole time I am hearing the voice from that guy who does the rescue 911 call on tv in my head narrating the play by play of the waterslide catastrophe. Luckily tyce was fine and it wasn't a big deal but still, it goes to show that my maternal instincts to protect my children and avoid dangerous situations is in fact right, .........in almost all situations. Mark just simply cannot be trusted. I will use my veto power next time for sure.