Praise the Lord for cute little old G-ma's who don't can anymore!

I hit the jackpot this weekend at yard sales! I found a ton of stuff, but I was most excited about the 104 canning jars, ginormous bag of rings and 3 pots I found! YEAH!!!
(That gives me at least 250+ jars & 4 pots to work with this season)I figure in my pregnant state, 250 will be enough this year, or if not, I'll just have to let it go!)
My main focus will be on pears, beans & salsa, but I'll want to do a few more peaches, applesauce, jam & pizza sauce. We'll see how it all goes! My luck I'll go into early labor out in the church orchard, up on a ladder and then complain to my Dr. "But I can't have the baby yet, my pears aren't done and I still have 4 bushels of apples waiting for me!"

The garden is growing!

Every time I go out to water the garden, I smile when I see all our cute little plants growing! We will be eating salad for ever- our lettuce is so beautiful! Sadly, we lost most of our cucumbers & carrots due to the TERRIBLE neighborhood cats!!!!! I am still harboring awful thoughts towards those garden-wrecking-little devils! I am so angry they dug up huge holes and left their horrible smelling poop for me to extract! I wanted carrots, darn it! (My lesson today in RS is on forgiveness, but I'm not sure if I can let this go yet!) Anyway, it's really cool to see our tomatoes coming on, our raspberries ready to eat and other things on their way!

Grace & too much testosterone...

Grace cracks me up constantly with the funny things she says these days! Most of the time she is twirling around in a princess dress and acting like quite the little lady (except for when she is jumping naked on the trampoline)but she's had 2 "testosterone moments" in the last 24 hours that made me laugh...

# 1- Last night I was getting her ready for bed when she grabbed her private & laughing she said, " Oh my nuts!"

# 2- She came up to me this morning holding one of Tristin's toy guns and said " I kill you."

(What?! Where did all this male energy come from? Really, did my 2 year old girl just say she had nuts?)

Saying goodbye is hard to do...

How do you say goodbye after the most wonderful week ever? We had such a great trip and we were able to do SO many fun things (except see all my friends, I'm SO sorry guys!) I've smiled so many times as I've thought of the kids playing Bingo with G-ma, throwing the frisbee at the park, eating ice cream for breakfast, watching Mama Mia, sitting on the balcony listening to the birds and just being with my family. I love every moment we are together and as we drive away and I am overwhelmed with tears and temporary sadness, I remind myself- I wouldn't want it any other way.

More family photos...

Grammy, G-pa, Me & Daisy

My brother Eli & his fiance' Cindy

Tristin with his cousin Tyler

Grace was so tired saturday afternoon, there were so many people over and I knew she wouldn't be able to take a nap. She finally fell asleep on Trav's lap while they were playing cards.

My sweet family...

Lunch with the family...

It was so great to see G-ma Lillian- here she is with Brent, Kevin & Tyler

Caleb & his girlfriend Rachel...

My brother Jake & Daisy

My brother Jesse & his girlfriend Sara...

My step sister Tawnya, Billy, Ariana, Kayla & Billy Rose

My Mama & me...

I can't even explain the amount of love I have for my Mama. I completely adore her. My favorite thing to do when I go home, is wake up as early as I can, and sit on the couch and talk with her before she leaves for work. We did it growing up, and now, when I think of visiting- that's what I look forward to- just sitting and talking with my best friend. I cherish the relationship we have and I have never known anyone else to be as blessed as I am. I count down the months, weeks, days & hours until I can see her again. We had such a great time together- She is my world. My peace. My everything.

Foot Spa's & pedicures with G-ma April...

We had a relaxing day on Friday while Daddy & G-pa Brent went fishing. G-ma treated us to foot spa's and pedicures. She even brought us fruit and ice water while we waited- Daisy just loved her pink nail polish!
That night Mom and I had a date and went out thrift store shopping, ate dinner at Aztecka, went to Target and walked around the mall for awhile. It was so wonderful to just be with her for a few hours. I love my Mama...

Spending the night at Grammy & G-pa's house...

We had a lot of fun at Grammy & G-pa's house. The kids had a blast picking carrots & lettuce from the garden. Here they are with Grammy washing off the veggies- we couldn't get them to stop eating, finally Grammy had to tell them all done or they would have picked everything she had!Thursady morning G-pa & Trav played golg while G-ma & I took the kids to our favorite thrift stores. We shopped, ate lunch and then went back to the house to relax. Tristin & Grammy had fun playing Nintendo and it was nice to sit and talk with G-pa for awhile before we left to go back to Mom's house. G-ma spoiled me with her homemade chicken noodle soup, lemon pie & waffles- I love you G-ma. (I LOVE my zebra blanket!!!)

Pike Place market & our ferry ride over to Bremerton....

We spent a few hours at Pike place market Wed. morning and then took the ferry over to Bremerton to see uncle Caleb. We had fun at the market- we bought fun little treats, ate lunch, bought flowers for Grammy, watched the guys throw the fish and walked around and looked inside all the little shops. When we were done, we took the ferry over to Caleb's new apartment and visited for awhile. We went out for ice cream before driving over to Grammy's to stay the night. We had a great day!

Our trip to Northwest Trek...

We had such a great day with G-ma April at Northwest Trek. I hadn't been there in years and it was fun to watch the kids around all the animals. We had a pleasant time on the tram (although Grace was pretty wiggly) and it was amazing to watch the bears, wolves, cougars and other wild animals. We took a picnic and had perfect weather. Although our feet were tired, we had a great day!

Dinner with Dad...

Monday night Dad took us out to dinner at Vinces. Jake wasn't able to make it, but here I am with 3 of my brother's, and no, they are never serious!

More fun at the zoo...

It was a long 4 hours at the zoo, the kids were all asleep before we left the main street!

We were so happy that G-pa Arthur drove over from Pullman to see us while we were visiting G-ma April & G-pa Brent. We had a great time at the zoo (besides losing Grace, of course! Thanks for your help Dad!)

My Papa & me...

My youngest broter Caleb joined us for the day. I love you Buddy!

You can't really see the walrus, but it was pretty amazing to watch it perform...

Our trip to the zoo...

Here's Trav taking a break in the spider web!

Here's Tristin & Grace playing around...

The kids loved the owl (and yes, it had large talons!)

Thank goodness for hand sanitizer. Here are the kids touching the sea life!

Here we are acting silly in the shark mouth!

We're back from Seattle...

Here are the kids at 6:15 AM getting ready to pull out of the drive way. They couldn't wait to get to G-ma's house!

Trav has always felt terrible when the kids would fall asleep in the car because their heads never stayed up straight, they always ended up practically in their laps all hunched over. So this trip Trav decided to do something about it. Here's Daisy asleep with my bath robe tie tied around her forehead and the back of her chair! It actually worked although it looks a little inhumane!