Old Tyme Boys!

Liam was quite the handful that day as we tried to get pictures done. I was literally sweating bullets by the end of it, because I was terribly embarrassed at the way he was acting and throwing a fit!! Caden cracks me up on his "not trying to smile" face. And well Elijah couldn't get it out of his head that he didn't have to look "mean", but that he just didn't have to smile. Oh what an experience!

Canning Salsa

I am terribly upset with myself that I didn't get more pictures of this event, but alas I have only one picture!! This morning Erica Gutwein and Maddox came over. The boys played so nicely while Erica taught me how to can my own salsa. We used my mother's tomatoes, my green peppers, bannana peppers and we used Erica's spicy peppers, cilantro, and garlic. She arrived at 9am and by noon she was walking out the door. We got a total of 14 pint size jars. Perfect. Now I can't wait to try it with some lime chips:). YUMMY!!!!

Thanks Erica!! Sure appreciate you showing me the ropes. Will have to do it again next year.

Canning Tomatoes

So my mom has always canned tomato juice as long as I can remember. Well, this week she is on vacation and told me to use her tomatoes, plus my tomatoes and can some juice if I wanted. So that is exactly what I did yesterday. For the first time I canned (by myself) tomato juice!!!!! Here they are all cut up and simmering away on the stove top. The larger pot I did twice.

The jars in the oven on the lowest setting getting warm for canning. Such an easy way to do it.Juice is ready to hit the stove again and bring to a boil. Got the spices in and it tasted wonderful!!
The finished result: 14 jars of my very own tomato juice. I started the whole process of picking my mom's tomatoes at 10:30 and by 3:30 I was finished!! They were all sealed too by the time it was dinner:). SUCCESS!!!

Labor Day Camping!

What a wonderful labor day weekend we had. It was extremely hot on Friday when we arrived. Saturday was beautiful out so we hit the beach and several (actually everyone at some point) went boating. The morning the adults took turns since the water was smooth and people wanted to ski. The afternoon was reserved for the beach and the kids tubing. Liam sure enjoyed the beach area. His diaper was FILLED to the rim with sand. YUCK!!

Us ladies had a nice time sitting in the sun while the men took out the older kids on the boat.

Saturday night we had a very intense lightning storm. Needless to say Liam was terrified of it. Soon though he fell asleep in this chair and I was able to tend to the other kids with s'mores. Thankful the storm went right around us and we barely got much of a sprinkle that night.

We went camping with four families. Westfall's, Gutwein's, and Leman's. We unfortunently were the ONLY couple with a tent. So here is our site! Gutwein's were right beside us and Leman's and Westfall's were across from us.

Sunday night the kids put on a skit for us. Can you guess what the skit was about?? It was pretty cute!

We were packing up and the entire weekend if liam wanted his blanket he had to stay in the tent with it. So while we were packing this is how I found liam....precious!!!

This is the kids...minus Laney. What a great group of friends these children are...and to think...soon they will be teenagers...oh how I hope their friendship lasts a life time!!

Looking forward to next year!!!!