PEACHES!

A couple of Saturdays ago, Tyler, Emalyn, and I canned 28 bottles of peaches.  Took us about 4 hours.  Tyler and Emalyn peeled, pitted, and sliced the peaches and I helped a bit with that and did the canning.  We are very very proud of our accomplishment, so we had to post pictures of these peaches.

 

In the past, I've just canned by myself.  It was so much more fun with my kids, and it went faster, AND they gained a much bigger appreciation for the work that goes into canning and sense of pride in their accomplishment.  So here's two photos of our canned peaches:

 

We removed the turtle's shell!

Just a random photo, showing off one of Russell's new talents...hair.  He seriously loves doing this.  Just giggles and giggles.

 How to remove a cast:

 

• Turn on a movie.  Baby Einstein is preferable.
• Lay down child with cast in front of said movie.
• Get out tin snips, a.k.a. monster scissors.
• Cut through the chest bar of the cast by using a see-saw motion with the tin snips right next to your baby's skin.  Make sure another person is holding child's hands so they don't get in the way of the monster scissors.  This may seem dangerous.  Having your husband do it, all while repeating, "He's ok, he's ok" over and over, helps to ease your mind.




• Make sure you do not move in front of the T.V. screen.  This will negate the effectiveness of the movie.
• It may seem like it's not going to work for a while.  Just keep on sawing. 
• After you get that one off, move on down to the bar across the lower stomach.
• 
   
• Repeat steps 4 and 5, until you cut through all the layers of the cast.
• 
   
• Have your husband show off his rippling biceps by grabbing each side of the cast and pulling until there is enough room to slide one arm out of the cast.



Do you see the tin snips there on the floor in the back ground?

•  And you're done! Celebrate with a great big hug, and dancing and cheering.  And a great big sigh of relief, that no one got hurt.
• And then celebrate the next two weeks with lots of baths! And outings to the swimming pool!

First day of School!

Tyler might be getting too "cool" for these first day of school pictures...but I'm not.  Sorry kiddo.  He's a big fourth grader this year.  It's weird...I remember fourth grade REALLY well.  How can I have a kid that old?!!!



And our sweet Emalyn is a 3rd grader this year.  And she's pretty cool too-notice how she "magically" got her number 3 sign to stay up?  Seriously, how cool is THAT?!! Again, I can't believe how old she is getting either.  They just keep growing up...and learning...and getting more beautiful everyday...

And this face just says it all about our Krysta.  She started preschool this year.  And if you can't tell, she's pretty excited.  Really really excited.  No tears from this one on leaving mom and Russell behind.

Although, there were plenty of tears from Russell at being left all alone with Mommy.  We're not too sure about these kids just growing up and leaving us alone with eachother...

All dressed up...we're going there someday

Our neighbor hosted a Princess Party the week before school started for all the neighborhood girls.  Emalyn and Krysta love any excuse to dress up and show off how beautiful they are.  This is also the first picture we took of Krysta's new haircut.

 We went to the Brigham City Temple Open house with my mom and my sister and my nephew.  The drove north, and we drove south, and Brigham City was pretty close to the middle. 

It was quite the expedition, once we got there, because we brought a stroller for Russell to use (they lifted their "no strollers" policy for us) and my mom was in a wheelchair due to a broken foot.  We were taken on a wrong turn in the middle of the tour, and skipped the second floor (still not sure how that happened...), but thanks to my mom and Megan's quick thinking, we did another detour and did end up getting to see the second floor after all. 

It was beautiful.  I love temples.  Temples are normally closed to everyone except members of the Church with recommends, but when they are first built and before they are dedicated, there is an open house where anyone can go in and tour these beautiful Houses of God.  Most of all, I love the spirit in the temple.  You can feel a quiet sacredness that brings peace to your heart.

 

After the tour, we took pictures of each of the kids in front of the temple.  Wyatt and Russell wanted to run out into the road you see in the background, so we had to work quick to get these pictures.  Which probably explains why I have no pictures of anyone besides my own kids. :)

I am glad I took my kids.  I think they will remember what they felt in there, and want to go back someday.  Thanks for helping make it possible Mom and Megan!