From the Block

Carpet Picnic

2009-11-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, I let the boys eat their lunch on a blanket in the family room. We call it a carpet picnic. For some reason, they think this is just fantastic.

I like it, because they always stay sitting down and actually eat all their lunch! I'm sure, though, that this wouldn't be the case if we had carpet picnics every day. The key is to space them out, so it's still a novelty when Carpet Picnic Day rolls around.

Anyway, carpet picnics: try it! You'll like it.

The big 3

2009-11-09T10:13:00.000-05:00

My baby turned 3 this week!

His birthday fell on a Monday, so for Family Home Evening we had a little celebration. I had told Danny that, since it was his birthday, he could pick what we had for dinner:

Me: "Danny, it's your birthday! You can pick what we have for dinner. Do you want hot dogs?"

Danny: "Um, no. Steak."

Well, allrighty then. Steak it is. Danny ate his dinner on our "You are special today" red plate:

Since he's not a fan of icing, I decorated a little cake with powdered sugar and a template. Very easy!

Danny opened his presents from us, including a wooden food set you can "cut" and a Marble Run. That Marble Run has been a huge hit, all week long.

Friday night, we invited my parents, my brother Chris and his family, and Brandon's brother Kyle and his family over for a little party. The boys (and Leah) ran around like nuts all night long, and we just let them.

Danny got some more fun things, but I must say he has really taken a liking to this little toy dinosaur:

It coos and moves its arms when you stick your finger in its mouth. Weird! But he loves it and slept with it in his bed last night and is carrying it around with him today. I told him he could be the baby T-rex's daddy, and he said no, he can't, because he's just a kid. Such a realist.

Danny's second cake is sort of an inside joke. My boys both LOVE to play games on the internet, including this game called Random Defense. It's a strategic game of sorts, where you earn and place guns, research centers, etc. around the board and try to beat the advancing foe. Remarkably, they are both quite good at it! Danny loves to play Random Defense, so his cake is a Random Defense cake.

Danny was excited to blow out his candles one more time.

Daniel is just a joy to have in our family. He is sweet and funny and full of light. We couldn't imagine life without Danny. Happy birthday, baby boy!

Father/Son Campout

2009-11-08T14:00:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, our ward had a Father/Son Campout. Our boys are a little young to camp overnight (in our opinion, anyway), so Brandon just took them for the evening and then brought them home to sleep in their own beds. Still, they had a blast! Or so I'm told.

Here are our little campers, gathering 'round the fire:

I believe the menu included chili, hot dogs, and s'mores. Mmmm. S'mores.

I'd love to tell you more about it, but I wasn't there, as I am neither a father, nor a son.

I went shopping and bought a cute scarf. Thus, a good time was had by all!

5!

2009-11-08T10:00:00.000-05:00

Mason turned five years old at the beginning of October. I can't believe we have a five year old!

He was so excited for his birthday this year. We celebrated as a family and had planned to have a (stoplight themed) party with his friends from church. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the party at the last minute, due to illness. Mason was sick and running a fever the day before (and day of). In the current H1N1 climate, I had no choice but to cancel the festivities. We were all so bummed! And then we had waaaaay too much cake on our hands.

Mason requested a stoplight cake this year. I did my best to oblige, but it didn't turn out quite as I had hoped:

Mason loved it, though, and that's what matters. We opened presents and blew out the candles and celebrated five whole years with our sweet Mason.

Oh, I love my Mason! He is such a funny, creative boy. He is almost always humming a tune (although he doesn't like to sing anymore). He asks a million questions and is curious about EVERYTHING. Danny and Mason are the best of friends. Macey dearly loves his brother and can't wait for him to get up from his afternoon nap. He is so loving with smaller children and babies and even very sweet to me when he knows I'm not feeling well. When I hurt my back in September, he was so concerned and would ask me from time to time if it was feeling better yet. Now, if you know Mason you also know he is a strong-willed, emotional little kid! Still, I think all that spunk will serve him well throughout his life. I'm so glad he's in our family.

Happy birthday, my sweet boy!

School days!

2009-11-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

In digging through my pictures, I realized I never posted pictures from the boys' first day of school this year. let's fix that!

Mason is in the Frog class this year at his preschool. He was excited for his first day!

Here he is, outside his classroom:

I peeked in, as things got underway, to see Mason getting situated at his table. I must say, his teacher this year is fantastic. She is so creative, energetic, and loving. I can't imagine a better preschool teacher - Mrs. W. is the best!

First day of school, our tradition is that we have homemade chocolate chip cookies after lunch and talk about the day. Mmmm - cookies!

Danny started school two days later. He's in the Tiny Turtle class!

Outside the door, getting ready to go in:

Danny ran right in - he was so happy to finally go to his class, after two years of watching Mason go to school. His teacher is just as amazing. She also does the music classes for the whole preschool - she's very talented!

I love that my boys are doing well in preschool, having fun, and learning to be a little independent. At the same time, seeing my little ones all dressed up for school on the first day with their backpacks always makes me tear up, just a bit. My babies! They're getting so big!

Halloween wrap-up

2009-11-07T09:53:00.002-05:00

The boys were really looking forward to Halloween this year, so we celebrated all week long! Monday night, we invited our friends the Claytons over for Family Home Evening. We had a quick lesson, and then got to work carving pumpkins. We ambitiously purchased one pumpkin per child, and then quickly realized that was just not going to happen. We ended up carving one pumpkin per family, and even with that, the kids lost interest and left to go play. But the moms and dads persevered to the end, and we all had a super fun night.

Here we are at the outset, when the kiddos were still interested in the carving process:

And here we are at the end, having been abandoned by the children:

Brandon and I used one of the templates from the carving kit to make this cute ghost:

The night before, I had made this tasty pumpkin pie, which we enjoyed for our treat, along with some pumpkin chocolate chip bread. It was certainly a pumpkin-themed evening.

Halloween day, I made the boys a fun lunch - I cut the sandwiches out with a pumpkin cookie cutter and made little bats out of cheese and teddy grahams. Spooky!

That evening, we ate dinner with our friends the Yoders, and then Brandon went home to hand out candy while Lien and I took our boys out trick-or-treating. They had such fun!

When I asked the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween, they answered without reservation. Danny wanted to be a tiger, and Mason wanted to be a fireman. I must say, they looked cute. I found Danny's costume at Old Navy. Look at my cute tiger tot!

I wanted to draw a better nose on him, but he wouldn't let me. As soon as I got out the eyeliner and started to work on him, Mason exclaimed "Mom! We don't write on people! Only on paper!" Daniel started to cry hysterically, and that was the end of that. I did get a little bit of a nose drawn on, and that just had to suffice.

I made Mason's costume out of a black sweatsuit from Wal-Mart, felt, and yellow duct tape. I thought it turned out pretty cute!

We trick-or-treated in Lien's neighborhood for awhile, then headed back home to hit our court and the neighboring street. Let me just say - these guys would have kept going! They were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Finally, we called it quits and went home to examine their haul:

Of course, they ate too much candy and were bouncing off the walls at bedtime. But that's what Halloween is all about, right?

Odyssey in the Odyssey: Coming Home

2009-11-06T22:35:00.003-05:00

Note: I am terribly, horribly behind in my blogging. Accordingly, I'm going to start cranking out posts here, which will mostly consist of photos. But that's what people really want to see anyway, right? So, without further adieu, here's the condensed version of our two-day drive home from Lake Winnipesaukee:

We stopped in New York City, hoping to make a quick stop at Ground Zero. It seemed like a good idea at the time. As it turns out, it's completely impossible to make a "quick trip" anywhere in New York City.

Here's Ground Zero:

You really can't see anything there, as they have it surrounded with a temporary barrier of sorts:

It was rainy and we paid something like $20 to park for less than a half hour. We basically jumped out of the car, ran through the 9/11 Memorial "Preview," and snapped this picture in front of St. Paul's Chapel:

But hey - I finally made it to Broadway!

The traffic in NYC is crazy, even on a Sunday afternoon. Here we are, about to enter the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey:

We spent the night with family of family (Anne's brother's family) in Pennsylvania. They were very kind to host our rambunctious crew! The next morning, we continued on our way home, stopping at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Let me say this - I wish I had 2 days to completely explore Gettysburg. There is so much to see and read, I would have loved to have taken it all in. But at this point, we had two tired kids on our hands and we were pretty ready to be home in our beds. So, we purchased the CD self-guided tour and breezed through the sites in just a few hours.

There were actual, original cannons!

The Eternal Light peace memorial:

Danny and me, sitting atop Little Roundtop. My mind can't quite wrap itself around the horrors that took place on this little piece of land.

When we'd had all we could take, we loaded up our crew and headed off to Ohio. We rolled in somewhere around 11 pm. Man, we were glad to be home. We traveled nine states in 8 days, saw church history sites, old friends, Niagara Falls, Lake Winnepesaukee, the Atlantic Ocean, New York City, Ground Zero, and Gettysburg. Whew! I need a vacation from my vacation!

Absent

2009-10-23T00:54:00.002-04:00

Yes, I know I've been absent. Here's a quick run-down of why:

Back problem, complete with trip to the ER and IV morphine. Kids sick. Kids still sick. Kids STILL sick. Lack of sleep. Primary program. Appeal brief. Freedom to practice opinion. Budget proposals. Now I'm sick, but at least it's not swine flu.

I'll be back soon. I hope.

Odyssey in the Odyssey: Days 3-7

2009-10-06T10:49:00.007-04:00

I'm back! I'm sure you've been waiting with baited breath to read more about our exploits in the Great Northeast. So without further ado, her we go:

Right off the bat, uncle Steven took us out on the boat for a tour of the lake. It's such a beautiful place! It was a little chilly out in the wind, but kids enjoyed the boat, for the most part. We wrapped them up in towels and snuggled them up to keep them warm.

Most of the time Danny wanted to sit up front and see the sights:

But sometimes it was a little too much for him and he hid his face!

Mason took at turn at the helm with uncle Steven. It took awhile for him to get up the courage, but once he did, he had a great time steering the boat.

The next day the weather was a little warmer (a little!) and some brave souls ventured into the water. Brandon took the boys out on the tube and they had a good time. I was surprised they did it, but they did! Way to go, boys.

Brandon, Kyle, and Anne all took turns on the skis. I stayed put in the boat. After all, someone had to hold Leah, hang onto the tube when not in use, hand out snacks, and snap pictures!

Back on shore, the boys were excited to find a sandy area near the dock where they could play with their shovels and buckets.

One day (and I can't remember which - at this point they were blurring together!) - we fished off the dock. We caught lots of sunfish and tossed them back in. It was so easy, it was hardly sport! At one point, I accidentally dropped my line in and caught a fish in about .5 seconds.

Here's Danny, with his first fish!

And Brandon, with another giant catch:

Long about day 6, we took a day trip up the coast to Maine. We stopped in the town of York and visited the Nubble Lighthouse. You can't actually go inside - it's across the water on a little "nubble" off the coast - but it was fun to look at. The waves were impressive and the boys discovered you could taste the salt that dried on the rocks.

After lunch at a somewhat touristy place that also had big taffy pull machines to watch, we headed to the beach.

I should say at this point that I never anticipated anyone would actually get in the water. It was 60 degrees and breezy! But never underestimate the power of little boys to get wet. I thought I'd packed enough extra clothes, but clearly I did not. That's why my two year old ended up dressed like this, sopping wet in 60 degree weather:

There weren't too many shells to be found, but they did have fun flying kites, throwing sand in the ocean, and getting very, very wet.

Our last day at the lake, Anne and I walked with the kids to the nearby public beach, Brewster Beach. It was small, but the kids truly had a blast tossing sand in the water, climbing the lifeguard chair, and getting their feet wet. We had the place to ourselves, which was fun.

Brandon and Kyle kayaked over to the beach and met us there.

That day was actually our wedding anniversary - 11 years. Here we are - do we look like we've been married 11 years?

We had a wonderful time at Lake Winnipesaukee and were so grateful to Steven and Jan for their generosity in sharing their home with us. Thanks for having us! We had such fun.

We interrupt this travelogue...

2009-10-02T00:20:00.002-04:00

So, you may have noticed that after I began to laboriously detail our nine day Odyssey in the Odyssey, I suddenly dropped off the face of the earth.

Last Friday my back began to hurt and by Saturday I was in excruciating pain and spent the better part of the day on IV morphine. Yikes! And after three doses, I was still in serious pain. Bizarre!

The general consensus is that it was some disc malfunction. Thankfully, I'm feeling nearly back to normal now. And I have a lot of people to thank for it - my husband, my sister-in-law, and my wonderful friends from my ward who sprang into action and overwhelmed me with kindness. Thank you, everyone. I can't recall ever being the recipient of so many acts of service - dinners, watching my kids, calls to check in. I feel blessed to know so many thoughtful people. You rock, man.

Also, I shall now redouble my efforts in the call-making, meal-taking, kid-watching realm. I owe you all big time.

Odyssey in the Odyssey: Day 2

2009-09-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

Day Two brought just as much adventure as Day One! We departed bright and early from the Wests' and headed straight to Palmyra, New York. First stop: Hill Cumorah.

Our faithful group of eight hiked up the hill to get a closer look at the monument at the top. It was a gorgeous Sunday morning, and if we couldn't be in church meetings, at least we were someplace beautiful and sacred.

My sister-in-law, Anne, with our niece Leah. Cute girls!

Our kids were already fatigued with all the picture-taking, but we forged ahead anyway. As Kyle says, "once you leave, your pictures are all you take with you" - or something like that. So we have lots of pictures, many with our kids looking rather grumpy. Like this one, at the top of the Hill Cumorah:

Leaving the hill, we headed to the Sacred Grove. Here we are, in front of the recently reconstructed Smith farm house, which sits in the exact location of the original:

It was a beautiful day to explore - which is just what our boys wanted to do. It was all I could do to keep them from sword fighting with sticks in the Sacred Grove. But really - with kids this age - you can't expect a very solemn visit to the Sacred Grove.

Our niece and nephew were doing much better picture-wise than our guys, as is evident in their family shot in the Grove:

Even in the midst of the wonderful chaos four kids under the age of five bring with them, it was a special experience to be able to visit these sacred historical spots and think about all the spiritual things that took place there. I am grateful for a Church that provides beautiful places to visit, learn, and strengthen testimonies.

After a picnic lunch at the Sacred Grove (where kind people the next table over generously gave us a pie! Thanks!), we loaded up the cars for the long-haul to New Hampshire. All told, over Days 1 and 2, we traveled through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York (lots of toll roads), and Vermont (never saw a moose, although I tried), finally arriving in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire at about 9:30 p.m. Whew!

Mason, who had been clutching his Moon Sand for two days, waiting to be able to play with it "at the lake," was finally allowed to dig his hands into the sand. After two days of waiting, I wasn't about to stand between him and his Moon Sand. As one might expect from two boys totally cranky from two days in the car and up way past their bedtime, the experience was punctuated with plenty of crying and tantrums. But at least he got it out of his system.

Anywho, we were thrilled to make it to the lake house and happy to settle in to our comfy beds. Our Danny slept in a big boy bed by himself for the first time, and proceeded to fall out at least once per night - usually twice - over the course of 6 nights. Thankfully, we had thought to put pillows on the floor. In spite of all the falling-out, he was so excited every night to sleep in his big boy bed. After 950 miles in two days, we were all grateful to get a good night's sleep.

Stay tuned for more tales from the Odyssey in the Odyssey!

Odyssey in the Odyssey: Day 1

2009-09-21T14:00:00.001-04:00

Just before Labor Day, our family departed on our Great Tour of the Northeast! We were gone 9 days and had lots of fun seeing the sights along the way from Cincinnati to our final destination, Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. It was a LOT of driving - 950 miles each way. Gulp. But our boys did surprisingly well, once we turned on the movies. :-) Here they are, zoning out to "Bolt."

Our caravan (we traveled with Brandon's brother Kyle and his family) left on a Saturday morning, with an ambitious itinerary: lunch in Kirtland, dinner in Niagara Falls, hotel in Rochester. Before we'd even driven 100 miles, plans changed (as plans often do). I had called our good friends the Wests, who live near the falls, to see if she'd be interested in meeting up with us there, and she kindly (crazily?) offered to put ALL EIGHT OF US up for the night! We ended up canceling our hotel reservations and staying with the Wests. It was so fun to catch up, and as certified locals, they treated us to authentic Buffalo wings (yum) and took us right to the falls, where they were privy of places to park for free. Thanks, Wests, for letting us invade your home! We loved seeing you and are ever grateful for your impromptu hospitality!

So, we stopped in Kirtland, Ohio for lunch and a quick tour of the area. We made it to the Newell K. Whitney store, the sawmill, and the ashery. Here is our family, inside the School of the Prophets on the second floor of the Whitney store:

We also stopped and took some pictures outside the historic Kirtland temple, but did not go inside for a tour (no time!). Ever tried to take a still shot of four wiggly kids who've been in a car for four hours? It looks like this:

By the time we made it to the falls, it was very late. We observed Niagara Falls from the American side, so you can see the Canadian side in the background of these nighttime shots.

Note: it's hard to take pictures in the dark. Darkness = long shutter time = everyone has to stand perfectly still. Since standing perfectly still isn't something this crew is very good at, our pictures are a little blurry. They remind me of the picture of Marty's family in Back to the Future, when his siblings start to fade away. Anywho, they prove we were there.

Day 1, accomplished: Kirtland: check. Niagara Falls: check. Fun visit with our friends the Wests: check. Stay tuned for Day 2 and beyond!

Catchin' up!

2009-09-20T21:56:00.001-04:00

Whew! This past month has been a busy one. I've got some catchin' up to do!

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start! (Name that show!):

At the end of August, I celebrated my 35th birthday - yikes! I must say, it was one of the best birthdays in years. My girlfriends from church took me out to lunch and another friend even watched my kids, so I could actually enjoy it! Rachael, our resident cake queen, made this fantastic birthday cake. Seriously, I haven't had a cake this impressive since my wedding! Each layer was multiple layers of chocolate cake with a whipped cream/oreo filling. It was a.maz.ing. Thanks, Rach!

We took the boys and ate out at LaRosa's - one of my favorite places. Also, coincidentally, my first job. I was a hostess there, many moons ago.

I received oodles of birthday wishes from facebook friends, which was also quite fun.

And I got a pedicure! Check out my cute toes:

Brandon gave me a lovely necklace, bearing my birthstone - the peridot. I used to loathe my birthstone and look longlingly at the garnets, rubies, and pearls in the Sears catalog, but now I kind of like it. Peridots rock. You heard it here first.

All told, it was a perfectly wonderful birthday weekend, filled with family and friends and lots of fun. Thanks to all for making me feel so loved.

Blessed are the Speedmakers

2009-08-19T20:00:00.000-04:00

For Family Home Evening this week, we read a message from President Eyring from a past issue of Friend magazine. The topic was being a peacemaker, which we thought was appropriate for our two boys, who lately have taken to pushing each other around. After Brandon read the message to us, we talked about what it means to be a peacemaker.

We played a little game - Brandon and I gave examples, and asked the boys to give a thumbs-up if it was a good example of being a peacemaker or a thumbs-down if it wasn't. We used real-life situations for them, such as "a big brother takes turns with his little brother" or "a little brother bites his big brother because he is frustrated."

While we were playing our little game, Mason and Danny were standing at the couch looking at a page out of the Friend. Before long, Danny started pushing against Mason, trying to knock him out of the way. Mason called out, "Danny's fighting! Thumbs DOWN!" Brandon and I couldn't help but laugh.

Later, while they were enjoying their snack (graham crackers with Nutella - yum!), I tried to get them to repeat the scripture with me - "Blessed are the peacemakers." My little Dan, who still struggles with the letter S, couldn't quite get the word out. He kept saying "blessed are the speedmakers." So cute! They were far more interested in running their Matchbox cars around a gameboard layout included in that issue of the Friend:

At bedtime, the boys and I read out of our scripture stories, as we do every evening:

Sidenote: we count this as our family scripture study, and it is really going so well! Usually it's all we can do to get Danny to sit down for the stories, but at least we're starting the habit. And Mason is always interested in any story that involves fighting and weapons. Go figure.

Anyway, as I left to put Danny in bed, I suggested to Mason that he say a personal prayer while I was taking care of Danny. Truthfully, I didn't expect him to do it - after all, I've never seen him say a prayer on his own before and usually he protests whenever we ask him to offer the prayer. But you know, this time he didn't even question it. I looked back as I left the room and I watched him kneel by the side of his bed, fold his arms, and begin to pray out loud. You can't imagine how my heart swelled. This is the same little boy who, just months ago, flat-out refused to say prayers. I am just so pleased with the progress he's making.

It's definitely hard to know sometimes whether the things we do are sinking in, and it's easy to become discouraged. We've spent many a Family Home Evening chasing these guys down and dragging them back into the living room. As a friend of mine remarked once, sometimes it seems like Family Home Evening is the only argument that starts and ends with a prayer! But tonight I felt such a sense of peace as I watched my four-year-old son pray on his own. We must be doing something right.

Pass the tomatoes, please

2009-08-18T20:08:00.010-04:00

Well, as previously discussed, we have an abundance of fresh tomatoes right now. I thought I'd share some things I've made lately using our own produce.

Have you ever bought these?

They are frozen lightly breaded chicken tenderloins. They're delicious! We eat them all the time, and this is one of my favorite iterations. It's a fresh tossed salad, with sliced chicken on top and Caesar dressing. I like to shred my own cheddar cheese, which I think adds to the yumminess. Delicious!

Tonight, we had pasta with homemade tomato sauce and tossed salad. This is one of those meals I can actually count on the kids eating.

Mason won't touch the sauce, though. He must come by it honestly - when I was little, I would never eat spaghetti sauce. My mom always made me plain buttered noodles. Like mother, like son!

You could make this healthier with whole wheat pasta, I suppose. But isn't it pretty?

We've also had BLTs, tomato and cucumber salad, tomato and cheese sandwiches, and just plain tomatoes. And the vines are still loaded. I am open to your tomato suggestions...

Just call me Suzie

2009-08-05T20:52:00.003-04:00

Suzie Homemaker, that is. Today, I canned homegrown tomatoes.

Given our abundance of tomatoes, I figured I'd better learn to can tomatoes fast, or else start giving them away to everyone I know. So, I borrowed my parents' pressure canner and prepared for the big event.

Luckily, I already had jars and lids on hand, thanks to my mother-in-law, who gave me several boxes of canning supplies when they moved a few years ago. My dad supplied the citric acid and the canner, and I was all set!

Look out, tomatoes. You're mine!

Now, it should be mentioned that this pressure canner is the same one my parents used when I was growing up to can produce from our garden. Check it out:

I especially love the "Modern Guide to Pressure Canning." It was published in the year of my birth! I feel so modern. I also admire the lovely yellow color. I believe it's called "goldenrod."

Whenever I partake in the traditional domestic arts, I like to look the part. Accordingly, I donned my grandma Odene's favorite apron, which, if I am not mistaken, also hails from the decade of my birth. Mason took this picture. It took about 5 tries for him to take one that included my head:

Before getting started, I earnestly studied the directions. In a way, I felt like I was back in the lab again, carrying out an experiment. My greatest fears were (1) scalding someone, and (2) blowing something up. Thankfully, I managed to avoid both.

Here are the original instructions, which came with the 1974 Presto Canner:

I got to work prepping the tomatoes and the jars. I boiled the jars to sterilize and heat them up while I worked on the tomatoes.

First, I cut the stem and tough part out of the tomatoes, then plunged them into boiling water for about 30 seconds. Then I pulled them out and ran them under cold water to easily remove the skins.
Next, I cut the tomatoes into smaller pieces and threw them in the pot. I heated everything up for 10 minutes or so, then started filling the jars.

I filled the jars, leaving about a 1/2 inch of headspace at the top. I added 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid to each jar, then stirred it gently with a rubber spatula to get rid of any air bubbles. Then I put the lids and rings on and placed my precious jars into the canner. Then I said a quick prayer that I wouldn't blow anything up.

I should say at this point that my little helpers were far more interested in playing with the jar lifters. Here's Danny, lifting his teddy bear. They thought this was great fun.

I followed the Presto instructions and set up the canner, carefully exhausting all the air and then adjusting the pressure to 5 pounds. Look! It's working!

I processed my precious cargo for 8 minutes, as prescribed by the Presto, then removed from the heat and allowed the pressure to return to zero. I cautiously removed the lid and used the jar-lifters to place my beautiful jars onto the towel. One by one, I heard the much longed-for "ping!" It worked!

In the interest of full disclosure, I had to re-process one of the jars several times. Three times, to be precise. I finally figured out that I wasn't tightening the ring enough prior to processing. Once I corrected that, it worked like a charm. Presto!

Look at me! I can! I'm a canner! I can!

I am so proud of myself. I called my dad at work just to tell him I canned tomatoes and managed to do so without any major catastrophe. I updated my Facebook status to reflect the same. Exciting stuff!

It's kind of fun to learn something new and add another skill to the mix. I feel so... retro. Seriously, though, it's something I've always wanted to learn. I'm glad I gave it a shot. And come winter, it will be nice to have garden tomatoes for chili and soup and lasagna. At the rate our tomato plants are going, there'll be plenty more to can before the season is over.

Rained Out

2009-07-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday was our neighborhood garage sale. Every year, some lady organizes it and sends a flier around. She puts an ad in the paper, and then everyone who participates pays for part of the ad. We skipped it last year, so this year I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Sigh.

Garage sales are a lot of work.

Brandon and I spent several hours this past week going through our junk and dusting things off. I went to my mom's to borrow tables for the event (my mom's a semi-pro at garage sales!), which also took some time. We ended up going to the temple Friday night (more on that later), so I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to set everything up in the garage. I was counting on Saturday morning to get out there and set up shop before the early birds started to arrive.

Well, I first heard the thunder at 5:55 Saturday morning. My heart sank. Who wants to do a garage sale in the rain?!? I barely want to do one in the sunshine, to be honest! I stayed there in bed, for an hour and a half, on the fence. On the one hand, I was exhausted from being up until 1:00 a.m. after our temple trip the night before. Going back to sleep sounded good. Plus, it was pouring down rain. On the other hand, my dining room was full to the brim with garage sale items. One way or another, it was going to go out the door. Might as well try to sell some of it.

At 7:30, the rain had stopped. I looked out the window and saw our neighbors opening their garage door. Sigh. I decided to git 'er done.

All this procrastinating made for a less-than-organized start to our sale. People were showing up before we even had all our junk - er, I mean, stuff - out of the house!

It proceeded to rain off and on all morning. And when I say "rain," I mean RAIN. It poured!

Complete with impressive lightning and loud crashes of thunder. Mason is not a fan of thunder. Here he is, with my shooting range earmuffs on, to muffle the sound:

The rain definitely affected the turnout. And I suspect a lot of neighbors chickened out as well - only 8 families participated. This, of course, made my portion of the ads a lot more expensive than anticipated! Bummer. I will say this, though - there were still a fair number of people, given the horrendous weather. I guess some people are serious about their garage sales. And I guess I'm not one of those people. :-)

All told, I spent about 10 hours on this project and netted about $90. And now my garage is half full of junk - er, I mean, donations - waiting to be taken to Good Will.

I think I just might pass on the neighborhood garage sale next year.

Fun facts about Danny

2009-07-26T20:54:00.004-04:00

Our Danny is really quite a character. He has such a cute little sense of humor and often tries to make us laugh with his "jokes." And what could be more funny than a swim diaper on your head?

Always fond of hats, here he is with my Crazy Singing Time hat from Primary:

Lately, Mason and Dan have both gotten into this video game online called "Random Defense." For the longest time, they only wanted to sit on Brandon's lap and watch him play. Just this weekend, we realized they can actually both play all by themselves! They don't want any help at all, not even Daniel. Brandon set him up on my computer and he went to town. It's sort of a game of strategy, as far as I can tell - you have to fortify your defense with artillery and research centers and fight off the offensive troops. I'm not kidding - my boys really know what they're doing. Especially Dan! He got to level 20-something yesterday, all by himself! Impressive, albeit addicting for them. Now they want to play all the time. We're working on establishing limits. :-)

A few weeks ago, we got our baby bouncer seat back after loaning it out to cousin Leah, and Dan wanted to try it out. I'm fairly certain he exceeds the recommended weight limit! It was funny to see him climb into it, though. It was almost touching the floor under the weight of him. Seems like yesterday he actually fit in there, my little baby...

Dan is still very fond of his teddy bear, "Soft Ted." When I first noticed he was getting attached to this guy, I quickly went online and ordered a second. After all, I learned through Mason how helpful it can be to have a spare security item on hand. Even so, Dan can always tell the difference between his preferred Soft Ted and the second string Soft Ted. When I try and give him the other one, he says, "No, not this Soft Ted. I want my other Soft Ted!" So much for having a spare!

Finally, Danny still loves to make funny faces. Sometimes, when he takes my picture with the kiddie camera, he instructs me as to which funny face I should make. "No, Mama, do like this!"

As you wish, Danny!

Home grown, baby!

2009-07-23T20:00:00.000-04:00

Our tomato crop is starting to come in! Yesterday, I went out to water the Earth Boxes and picked about 10 ripe beauties. And there are plenty more on the vines, so pretty soon I'll need to start thinking of new and exciting ways to use tomatoes.

Today, I made marinara sauce. I have a great recipe, from an Italian family in a previous ward. It's delicious! I just substituted the crushed tomatoes for our own tomatoes, which I pureed in the food pro. It worked like a charm!

Daniel was my little helper throughout the process. He was anxious to see what I was doing, so I let him pull up a chair to have a closer look.

Here's Danny, stirring our pot of sauce!

Now, if I were really serious, I would have made this in bulk and canned the sauce for food storage. But I guess I'm not that serious yet. I only made enough for about two jars, so I just poured it in and put it in the refrigerator. Here's my finished product:

Sidenote: when I first met Brandon, I quickly came to realize how serious his family was about gardening. One of the first times I ate dinner with his family, I recall my father-in-law foregoing dessert, opting instead to eat a green bell pepper from his garden. In all fairness, there was a time in Brandon's youth when they grew a fantastic garden and ate from it throughout the summer, and then canned all kinds of produce for year-round use. The children helped out - whether they wanted to or not - and there is a lot of family pride in the experience, looking back. If you don't believe me, just ask them about gardening. I dare you.

Anyway, tonight we had homemade marinara sauce with pasta for dinner, made with tomatoes from our mini-garden, and it was delicious. But don't you think everything tastes better from your own garden?

It's true! Just ask a Livingston.

New toy for Daddy

2009-07-22T20:00:00.000-04:00

Brandon got a new bike! My friend at work and her husband are semi-pro cyclists and were able to hook him up with this sweet ride. He loves it! Quite an improvement over the old 1987 Miyata.

He's still waiting on the new pedals and shoes, and then he'll be set. My friend even sent a box of leftover racing gear for Brandon - jerseys, shorts, etc. - so he'll look quite professional. And apparently, my friend's team was sponsored by Papa John's Pizza. Brandon's new bike shorts say "Better ingredients, Better pizza" right on the rear end. Awesome.

He's riding once a week with a group of guys from work and really enjoying it. They rode 52 miles last Tuesday! Wow. That's far.

What a big boy!

2009-07-21T20:00:00.000-04:00

These past few weeks, I've been working diligently with Daniel in the potty training department. I'm happy to report, things are going really well!

As you may recall, my first experience potty training - with Mason - was one of the hardest things I've ever done. He was terrified of using the potty, and I tried everything. Everything! It took a long time, and finally we just had to take away the diapers and let things get a little wet. It wasn't pretty, but ultimately he figured it out and we celebrated like crazy when he finally got with the program.

Danny, however, has been another story. He's really taken to it and has no problem peeing on the potty. We're two weeks in now, and he's wearing his big boy pants most of the time, without accidents. He's even gone #2 on the potty once, which was quite a surprise to everyone. Go Danny!

A few things that have made this round of potty training easier: First, we bought a new potty and new Thomas underwear for Dan - his choice. This little "froggy potty" was purchased at Target for about $12 and it is fantastic. Works great for boys, it's easy to clean, and he can use it himself if he needs to without any assistance. I tend to carry it to wherever he's playing in the house and just remind him frequently to use it. So far so good!

Note: Mason is modeling our old potty here, which is a complete piece of junk. Do not buy that potty. It's a pain to clean and the splash guard doesn't stay on at all. It's also sold at Target, and I'd avoid it if I were you.

Second, Daniel is motivated by Tootsie Rolls. I purchased a bag of 400, and so far so good. Plus, Mason gets one too if he helps Danny get to the potty on time. Thus, it's a team effort. We've had to take more care in our tooth-brushing, though, and in hindsight I wish I'd picked a less sticky reward. But it's working, so I won't complain too hard!And I just have to include this last shot - now that's concentration.

Well done, Danny! We're so proud of you.

Two peas in a pod

2009-07-20T20:00:00.001-04:00

Mason and Daniel are really best friends. Sure, they fight and argue like all brothers do. Each can be quite bossy when he wants to be, but overall, they love each other and play together beautifully. In fact, I am so glad they have each other. They have a lot of fun together.

Here are some snapshots from our summer so far:

Nana gave Mason this cool inflatable easel last Christmas, and we've finally been able to put it to use. Theoretically, you paint with the special paint and then hose it off with the garden hose. In practice, it's a little more difficult than that to actually get the paint off, and the person in charge of the cleaning step pretty much gets drenched.

Mason and Danny nearly exhausted the paint provided in the kit in about five minutes, but they sure had a good time doing it. And what art! It's a shame we couldn't keep it.

Here are the boys, testing out Brandon's sleeping bag prior to camp. Literally, two peas in a pod!

My brother's birthday is the last day of June, and the boys helped me make some homemade oreo cookies for him. Don't worry, Chris, I didn't put the spatula back in there after Danny licked it clean.

Since it's summer in Ohio, we've spent a fair amount of time outside playing in the water. Fun times! Here's Danny, making a water slide for Mason by pointing the Elmo sprinkler at the mini roller coaster.

It's been a low key summer, so far. Mason's been taking swimming lessons this past week and has another week to go. Danny wants to be in that water with him so badly, but he's not old enough. The first day, he just cried and complained the entire time, he's not used to being excluded from something Mason gets to do. He's settled into it a bit, thankfully, and now we hang out in the sand play area while Mason swims. It's all good.

You know, I have always been an avowed fan of winter. Each year, I'm almost sad when winter ends, I love so many things about it. I know, it's odd. But I have to admit, I am really loving this summer: cookouts, swimming, fireworks, sunscreen, trips to the park, Icees, and sand in between the toes. We are having a great time together and I might even be a little sad when autumn creeps up on us...

Scout Camp

2009-07-19T21:45:00.003-04:00

Back in June, Brandon went off to Camp Chief Logan for several days of Boy Scout camp. Brandon is a leader in our church Young Men's program and the Varsity Team Coach for our ward troop. What an adventure! They stayed in camp tents and had a good group of guys in attendance.

It was a flurry of activity leading up to his departure. For example, I spent about an hour and a half sewing patches on his new Scout shirt:

For those of you who've never had the pleasure of sewing on Scout patches, let me just say: it's not that fun! For one, it's rather hard to get them on straight, and for another, it's near impossible to avoid jabbing yourself with the pin about 100 times. I'm told it's even more fun to sew on the scads of merit badges the kids earn, so I'm glad I have a few years before I need to worry about that.

Brandon had his own tent, chock full of creepy crawlies. *Shudder*

I'm omitting pictures of all the kids in attendance, since I don't really want to post pictures of other people's children on my blog without their permission, but I can report that, from the looks of things, a good time was had by all. And if fun were measured in the amount of dirt found on their persons by the end of the week, then I'd say they had the time of their lives. Seriously, I wonder if some of those kids even brought a change of clothes!

I can also say without hesitation that Brandon was sorely missed at home. The boys just couldn't understand why Dad wasn't coming home at night! He's traveled before, but for some reason, this time they really missed him. Plus, Scout Camp is located in the middle of nowhere, without cell phone reception, so once Brandon hit the road, I didn't speak to him again until he came back four days later. It was so strange! We've been apart for longer than that before, but I've never gone so long without at least talking to him on the phone. I'm not anxious to repeat it!

Anyway, here's to all the dads everywhere who put in some serious hours in the heat, mud, spiders, mosquitos, and sweat that is Scout Camp. My hat is off to you.

Dad's day

2009-06-25T23:00:00.000-04:00

I've written my ode to Brandon before, which still stands. He's amazing. Love you, babe.

Here are some highlights from our day. Brandon, enjoying his oatmeal before church:

Then, a cookout with Grandma and Grandpa Chaney and Chris, Tonya, and Griffin. The boys had a fun time playing on this little battery-operated scooter. Mason liked it, but couldn't figure out how to turn it around. Let's just say it doesn't have the tightest turning radius!

While Mason took his turn on the scooter, these tough guys waited patiently:

Live long and prosper, says Dan:

Danny wanted a turn, too, but had a little spill on the sidewalk. Then he wanted nothing to do with it. I tried to get him back on the horse, so to speak, so he wouldn't be afraid, but he was done.

It was a nice night with good food and family. I'm so grateful for the dads in my life - my dad, my father-in-law, and my sweet husband. My family is truly blessed by these wonderful examples of fatherhood.

Economy sand box

2009-06-24T23:00:00.000-04:00

Every summer, I ponder the purchase of a sand box. I've looked at tons of them, but never really found one I like. Plus, they tend to be a little pricey, so I've always held off. Lately, though, I realized my boys won't want one forever, so I'd better get going while they're still interested!

So, rather than shell out $50, I opted for a Sterilite container. I like this because (1) it has a nice lid that securely fastens, and (2) it cost about $9. Add the sand, at $4, and voila! Economy sand box.

Now, I would have liked one of the fancy elevated sand boxes with a shade umbrella, but for now this will do. The boys were plenty satisfied.

And since Brandon's so handy, he might build a little stand for the box. But regardless, this did the trick. Perhaps the sand will entice them away from the dirt...