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Relish every moment:)))

My father in-law gave me a bunch of freshly picked onions, cucumbers, and yummy apples. Jewel and I set to work making relish and also preserving apples in a mixture that will make apple crisp a cinch!! This was a lot of work as it consisted peeling and cutting 10 gallons of little tiny apples. Ten minutes into it, this morning, I knew it was going to be a long day...and it was. But look at these!!!




Now I get to open my pantry and see pickels, relish, apples, and soon (thanks to Jewel:) SALSA!! Stay tuned for my future post on peaches.

As if that wasn't enough work for today, we sent John and Kendall over to paint our kitchen. Any of you who have been in our home would understand my sense of urgency to get this done:)) In my defense though I had EVERY intention of tackling this project on my own once school started and JOhn was gone. But seeing as I'd purchased the paint and Kendall and John were so bored today... Okay, Okay they are probably both wishing their wives wouldn't volunteer them for things all the time. I am so glad that it is done. Still more rooms to go but I love not seeing yellow wallpaper. When was that ever in style? Anyways we were soo glad to have Kendalls professional expertise.

Before




After




It was a fun day? Well, I think tomorrow we'll be able to say that it was fun.

Just a thought for family

"Life is not about learning how to weather the storm. It is about learning how to dance in the rain!"

Just a cheesy post today for all those that I love. I saw this quote on a wall of an insurance agency the other day and I have thought about it often. It is been a challenging year for our famlies on both sides. However, we have also never had a summer where we have visited with so much family and had so much fun. Not a week went by that we weren't enjoying someones company! Despite the sad reason that has brought many of Johns siblings to Canada we have loved seeing you, and the kids miss you guys already. Summer is almost over (wahhhh), and we don't know what we'll do without the the thought of "family coming" to look forward to!! We've really been spoiled. Love you all...

Green Eggs and Ham!

Jewel and I took our girls to Suessical the Musical tonight. Seriously the funniest show I have seen. The Cat in the Hat was the best character ever and watching him made me so grateful that some people have talent for the rest of us to enjoy! Even better is he is Abby and Ava's swimming teacher right now and they are both thrilled to have gotten to see him perform tonight. Awesome show!



We tried getting a shot of the girls during intermission. By the way I have yet to take a picture of Mya without her doing something silly. Hmmmm. Future actress herself perhaps:))







Abby and Ava with the Cat in the Hat as well as Thing 1 (we grew up with her in Claresholm).


Seriously well done to anybody and everybody who has the ability to show their skills. Life would be so boring without ya!!!!

The past 96 hours...in a nutshell!

We've been up to a lot in the past few days. Here is a recap:



John's Uncle and his family entered the towns annual family softball tournament. John was invited to play with them and he LOVED the chance. They all had matching T-shirts which I thought was awesome, and John always likes being able to play on a team, of any sort. The kids had fun cheering them on...sometimes:)




John has almost finished his work for the summer. He's pretty much transformed this families backyard. It was once a forest of pine trees. Soon there will be a garden, this patio area, a deck and nice fresh sod. Sweet!! He's so good at this stuff!



This past weekend the kids had a lot of fun watching the parade and filling up on candy. Cavities perhaps???

Most importantly, today was Sam's second Birthday!!! My little boy. I've tried extra hard to love him all day despite his busy antics that are so typical of him. He has so much personality in that little body it scares me.

I opted for an easy cake this year. No fun shapes, or moulds. Just circles...busy like him. I like how it turned out.



It was so funny to watch Sam try to blow out his candles. And when I say "try", he really didn't. As we watched and waited for him to blow he took his little hand and with such determination just stamped out the flame. With hot wax all over him he continued to do this, every time. He would literally "punch" the lights out of the candle using his hand. Possible some second degree burns resulted from this. lol. Again...Typical of Sam:)


Hopefully he'll learn to ride this bike soon and stop pushing his big sister off of hers all the time. This boy...I just love him to pieces! Happy Birthday Sam.

Holy Cow!!!

Have you ever woken up from a great sleep and just wondered what was going on around you? That was the kind of morning we had. Bright and early (well 7:00 ish:)) I woke up and layed in bed for a moment in a daze thinking...something is odd. It was so loud outside but we were so tired it was not really registering that something was going on. I remember wishing that the farmer at the end of our street would do something to keep his dogs quiet. Five minutes later...uh I don't think those are dogs....and that is awfully loud...and close....cows maybe? Another five minutes later and I'm awake FINALLY noticing that there are cows ON OUR FRONT LAWN!! We jumped up and ran to our window and there they were. One big bovine in particular, happily stood on our driveway right next to our van. Abby was thrilled. She's been known to pray for a little pet cow at times!! She must have thought she'd been heard:)))) Wish I'd gotten a picture of it but by the time I got outside "Bessy" and her friends had run off to wander in more interesting yards. If only I'd clued in a little sooner. And I call myself a farm girl!

Only in a small town.:)

Stop to smell the flowers...

This is a painting that has sat unfinished by my bed for the past year. Finally worked on it today!

Families are like Fudge...

mostly sweet with a few NUTS!!!

I can't think of a better time then a trip with my siblings and their awesome families.
This past week we all rented a small house in Kalispell for 4 days and enjoyed a lot of shopping, eating, waterslides and games. It was a special chance to get together. I think I have an entire family full of nuts. Luckily I am around to add the "sweet" eh? We had fun you guys. We'll have to do this again sometime soon. Only...more shopping...less kids...more money:)))


All the cousins just before we left for the states.


Give Sam a lake and he is a happy boy.

This is our #1 NUT who happens to be turning 2 in just 6 days!!! Terrible twos? Am I ready for this?

There is nothing like...

attempting to take a family photo with a 2 year old boy who doesn't like to sit still. I realized at the time I was struggling to hold him still but I had no idea how difficult of a time I was having until I saw this photo. Little Sam in a very "loving" headlock. Doesn't it just capture the moment?

Anybody else have difficulty with family photos? Tips...? anyone?