Canning Green Beans!

I have 64 pint jars of canned green beans, for hopefully the next year to come. My parents so graciously came over and picked my green beans for me. We have grasshoppers in our garden and they just freak me out, so I asked my mom if she would come pick them for me, and she said yes. Also since I am pregnant, I knew bending down and picking beans for that long would drain me, since bending over for a few minutes to pick weeds would make me light headed. So, my mom and dad came over and picked my beans, the first time they came and picked and I didn't get too much, the next time I got a half a bucket full, and that was enough for one batch of 16 pints of beans. This batch I canned myself, it was the first time canning beans without the help of my mom. And lets just say, I was a little stressed out, had the water boiling before I was finished cutting and washing the beans and washing and cutting the beans took longer than I though it would. I will just say I was STRESSED and not happy. Luckily Rob was very patient with me and calmly started to help me out. In all, it ended up okay. We used the camp chef and it was hard keeping the temperature at a steady temp, but it was my first try.

And waiting for the temperature gauge to go down after turning off the heat took forever, do you see the time on the clock on the next picture, that is PM, I started the whole green bean process around 6:30.

 Call me weird, but I love the green bean smell after opening the lid of the canner, it just reminds me of when my Mom would can beans when we were younger.

 My Mom and Dad picked beans for me two more times, and both times I got two canners full of beans. This was the beans to fill 24 pint jars, and the time before that I got I think about 24 also. 

The washing and cutting of the beans took the longest amount of time, so the second time I did it at my parents house(so I could have the help of my mom) and I washed the beans and then she would cut them, and then the actual cooking of the beans and cooling took about an hour and a half. And the third time, I washed and cut the beans before going over to save time. I think I have the process down now, but who know, I might forget by next year.

So, after picking the beans three times, I got all my beans for our coming year. It feels good!

All though I don't like watching all the rest of the beans in my garden getting plump and going to waste, I will have to control those grasshoppers next year so that I can pick them myself. I do still have 4 tomato plants(they aren't too huge, but they have a good amount of green tomatoes on them so far), a buttercup squash(which is doing really well, I am going to have to research how to use and eat buttercup squash), and a yellow and green zucchini plant that I have gotten 3 zucchini's off of so far, and 6 onions. 

I love gardens, hate the bugs!

It's a Bump!

I have a bump and it keeps on growing! Haha, a lot faster this time too!
10 Week Photo

 We are expecting another baby, due date is February 28, 2012(its a LEAP year, so hopefully this little squirt will come right on or a few days early), and we are excited! Kind of, sort of, not planned, and kind of, sort of, planned. Took about 7 months with Julie, and this time, just once, didn't think I was ovulating, but apparently we were wrong. I think Heavenly Father was like, here is my chance! Wanted a spring baby, but getting another slightly winter baby. Which is fine, because then I can use all my pregnancy clothes from before.

This pregnancy has definitely been different, I started feeling sick around 6 weeks(with Julie it was at 7 weeks and lasted a week and a half), and never have thrown up but have to eat something every 2-3 hours or I feel like crap(which isn't awful, but not a feeling I like to have). And I am now 11 weeks and feel the same way, maybe a little less crap feeling though. Although, it really isn't bad. My mornings are super slow and if I sit down on the couch, I am bound to end up there for a while to take a little rest or snooze. Julie usually just sits there right with me reading a book, playing with her toys, or whatever. I love that she wants to be so close even though I am not doing anything with her. And in the evening I have been getting awful gas bubbles that get stuck right under my ribs, SOOOO not fun. I feel huge already, I feel and look like what I was at around 17 weeks or so. 11 weeks with Julie I didn't look pregnant at all. 

Had my first doctors appointment and everything looks great. Heartbeat was 177, I am measuring right on, and we even got to see the baby. With Julie I got an ultra sound because they couldn't hear the heartbeat, but I guess they do it for the first appointment at my doctors office now. Here is a good profile shot of the babe, the babe was moving around quite a bit and doing somersaults. We only get pictures, so this is a picture of a picture.

 It was so fun to hear the heartbeat while seeing the beats on the screen also. She also told me to drink a gallon of water(liquid/milk and juice is included in the total), that is like drinking a cup of water every hour of the day I am awake. There are 16 cups in a gallon, I don't think I have quite hit a gallon a day, but I sure drink when I think about it, and leave a full glass on the counter. Drinking, drinking, drinking, oh and peeing, peeing, peeing! I wake up once a night to go pee, and this started pretty early in my pregnancy. With Julie I think it started around 13 weeks, and I actually woke up from wetting the bed(so NOT cool), so from then on I set my alarm to wake me up during the night to go pee, so that would not happen again. But, this time I am happy to say I have not wet the bed, but I sure pee a LOT during that night time bathroom trip.
11 Week Photo

And now, here is my 12 week photo.

Here, in the start my 12th week, I think my nausea is starting to fade a little. And I got a hair cut today, just a trim, but it is nice to get rid of all those split ends.
We announced it to our parents over the 24th weekend by sticking a "I am going to be a Big Sister" shirt on her.

 Made it pretty easy, I am not good at making announcements. We got the shirt from zoeysattic.etsy.com, ours was the whimsy bird style shirt, they have lots of fun big sister and brother shirts on there, I will have to post a picture when I get her in it again, keep forgetting.

That time of year again!

The spiders are out(or should I say in), and they are huge and so we did our annual garage cleaning, by moving everything away from the walls and sweeping all the dirt. It is amazing how much dirt accumulates. Once that was finished, Rob sprayed the outer edges of the garage, by the doors, and all around the foundation to keep those nasty things out. Julie was helping with the buckets, moving them around and just carrying them everywhere she went.

 Cleaning out the garage also keeps it mostly organized as well!

Pioneer Celebration (Findlay side)

For Pioneer Day on the Findlay side, we go all out and have a major good time. We start out the day with a breakfast at 8:00a.m. at my Uncle and Aunt's house who live through the block from my parents. Everyone helps by bringing food. And then after breakfast we pack up all the chairs and take them over to my parents house, and we set up chairs for the parade that goes down the street in front of my parents house.

Julie looks about ready to fall asleep here, luckily there was good cloud cover during the parade, but then the sun came out and it was hot and humid feeling.

My cute new nephew who was only 2 1/2 weeks old!

We did a carnival with the little kids and some big kids too, I guess. There was a bean bag toss, water balloon darts, a fishing pond, a cupcake musical chairs, and more. I am not sure of all that went on. We also borrowed Rob's parents snow cone machine, which was a HUGE hit, there was always a crowd around Robert and my cousin Nicole. After everyone had enough of the games, we got the barbecue and all the salads ready to go. The barbecue was awesome, lots of good food, there is always too many choices to choose from, so you have to have a little of everything. After everyone had eaten and chatted for a while, it was time for the Relay. 

Kerri was the brains behind this, and I think it turned out awesome. It started by getting all the games ready and named a few days before. Here we are sanding the cows down for one of the relays.

 And I just love my mom's day lilies so I just had to snap some pictures of them.

 There were three team captains and then they had to choose who they wanted on there teams. We tried to make it so there was an even number of older kids to younger kids on each team. After all that was taken care of, Kerri explained each game to them. Each game had a name and I don't remember all the names, I will have to fill those in later.

And here is the first group, Anna, Jessa, and Ryan, brothers and sisters. They were to eat a saltine cracker and then blow a bubble with a piece of gum. The nice people from the parade supplied the gum for us.

Chew and Blow!

Chew, chew, chew, Jessa had a good idea to stick the gum in her mouth before she finished the saltine cracker, but ended up swallowing most of the gum with the cracker, so wasn't able to get enough gum to blow a bubble. So, it is probably a good idea with this game to swallow the cracker first and then start chewing the gum.

Hanky Panky!

Next was the Kleenex game, where you pull all the tissues out of the tissue box using one hand as fast as you can.

Udder Relief!

Milk the cow station, there was a mason jar on the ground, and you had to squeeze the rubber glove filled with water and get enough water to fill the jar up to the line marked on the jar. Next time, I think we need to make slightly bigger holes.

Messy Dresser!

This next one, they had to put on some pants, a shirt and button at least three buttons, some gloves, a hat, and some shoes. Then run to the table and carry an egg on a spoon back to your group. (we didn't tell them before hand that the eggs were hard boiled, haha).

Lic it Up!

Long piece of licorice, stick one end in your mouth and without using your hands, get it all in your mouth, chew and swallow and head back to your group.

Mayci did so well with all that licorice she had to chew.

Movin' on Up!

This next game, they had a stack of cups, one of the cups was colored around the rim, and they had to get that cup back to the top of the stack by removing one cup at a time and moving it to the bottom of the stack. Nicole had some good concentration on this one.

Feed the Birds!

This one was funny! Each team picked someone to be a momma bird and two baby birds. There was a pie plate on a chair with 6 gummy worms hanging out of the tin. The momma bird had to grab a worm with her mouth and feed it to her baby birds. The baby birds had to finish the worm before they could get another. The momma bird had to rotate between giving the baby birds their worms. So funny! There was also supposed to be whipped cream in the tin, but we opted not to do that.

This was one hungry baby bird, hehe!

Junk in the Trunk!

A kleenex container with 6 ping pong balls inside tied around your waist, you had to jump, twist, do whatever to get all those ping pong balls out. Luke was flipping over dancing around, awesome job!

Clarissa was awesome doing the junk in the trunk, got a nice action shot of her here.

Face the cookie!

The last game was to put an oreo on your forehead and get it in your mouth without using your hands.

The lovely Tash, and Matthew, trying to get there oreos to there mouth.

Way to go everyone! Even with some teams being a little behind at times, they seemed to all catch up pretty close in the end. Each team got a prize. I think first place got Ring Pops, second place got otter pops, and third place got air heads. Everyone's a winner and it was so much fun to watch. I was able to take video of the whole thing and snap pictures at the same time.
 And here is another picture of my sweet nephew(2 1/2 weeks old), just ate and there little family was headed back home. What a little sweetie, just love this picture. He just has the cutest face.

One with grandma!

Here are the proud parents, love these guys!

Mom and baby!

View from on the deck, after the relay, everyone divvying out there prizes.

Here is one of my sister and I before she left, my sister and my brother look like my dad, and the rest of us kids look like my mom, so I am told. I thought my mom had the camera pointed down really low, so I was kind of stooping down. Thanks Trina and Ren for coming up!

After the relay, we played the M&M game, where you put some m&m's in a bowl and everyone gets a straw, then you also have a set of dice, and if you get doubles or the equivalent of 7, then you can start sucking m&m's from the container and fill your cup. This game is so fun. We had two teams, one with the younger kids, and then an older group. In the older groups container there were also Peanut M&M's which I have been wanting so bad. This game can get pretty crazy, and fast. Sometimes you will have the bowl for awhile before someone else gets doubles or 7, and sometimes you can hardly get your straw in there before the bowl is grabbed away from you. Those Peanut M&M's are hard to get, you have to suck really hard and keep sucking like that or it will fall back in. I was able to grab a few. I ended up with 58 m&m's, Kerri beat me by a few. It was so much fun.
During the game, there was some action and Conner flew back and nocked the table with the water jug and cream soda jug over, spilling all the cream soda on the ground, everyone was like "Oh, no, the cream soda", and Conner stood up from off the ground and was like "Don't worry, I am okay", kind of funny but sad that we lost all that cream soda, even the slushy yummy stuff at the bottom. Oh, so good!
Then we all just chatted and had a good time, until it was time to clean up and go home. What a fun day!

18-Month Measurements

Julie's 18-month measurements are:

Weight:  26.6 lb     (80%)

Height:  33.75in.     (96%)

Head:   18.75 in     (80%)

She is doing awesome and the Dr. was very impressed. Said she was acting her size, not her age. He was also telling us that she should be speaking about 50 words in the coming months, um, she already does that. And he also said that she should be forming 4 word to 10 word sentences in the future, and she already does that! He was kind of shocked when we told her she knew her alphabet, she can point to a letter and tell you what it is. She has even started trying to sign them herself. She got her 18 month shots, which she hardly cried. Right after they gave her the shots we asked if she could have a sucker and she was good. When the doctor left he room, Julie said, "Where did he go?" with her arms in the air.

One funny thing, Julie was sitting in the chair and the doctor started talking like Donald Duck, Julie kept looking around, she got down from her chair and went over to where the doctor was sitting and looked around his chair trying to find where this sound was coming from. The doctor still in his Duck voice was saying "it's me", and she still didn't believe him, she just kept looking around the room. He said he has never had a child do that before. We thought it was pretty funny!
We went home, fed her some lunch and then went over to my moms to can beans and she took a nap over there, when she woke up I think she was in a little pain, every time we would set her down she would moved a little and then say "Hold Me", with a sad look on her face. I gave her some tylenol and within a half hour she was happy as could be.

Snuggle Time

This is what happens most mornings here:

We get her up when she wakes up, usually after Rob's shower, and she will just sit and snuggle with Daddy(sometimes she will sit with me but she loves her Daddy's lap). Occasionally she will fall asleep and it is so cute that I just had to take a picture. The pictures were fuzzy because I didn't want to use the flash and wake them up. She sleeps with her Pooh Bear, Dolly, and Blankie. Gotta have all three.

I think it is just the sweetest thing, especially since she was not cuddly when she was little!

Julie's Favorite Place

When Rob is watching Julie, he is usually in the garage working on one of his toys. And Julie's favorite place in the garage is on Daddy's four-wheeler, she loves pushing all the buttons, grabbing both handles and getting up on her knees pretending to drive. 

 Clapping at herself!

 Do you see the board and boxes and ropes he used to make it easier for her to be up there by herself, we still watch her pretty close, but she loves sitting up here and HATES it when we take her off. This is definitely one of her favorite spots.