Canning Utah Peaches

Start with:

A box of Utah Peaches.

Blanch

(only takes 10ish seconds)

Peel

The most perfectly blanched peach.

Cut in halves or slices.
(I like them sliced best)


Put in jars with sugar water and give them a gentle boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

And give some away!

Any takers?

I need to go to the bathroom!

(Ellie all ready to go to her friend, Livvy's, princess birthday party on Sept. 1st)

While at Stake Conference this past Sunday-

Ellie: "Mom, I need to go to the bathroom."

Mom: "Are you sure you really need to go?"

Ellie: "Yes, I surely do."

Another Animal!

Taylor couldn't have picked a better day to beg for a hamster,

than the day of her baptism.

While I was cleaning the house and making food for a few guests to come over

after her baptism, Chris took the kids to the pet store

"just to look."

(or so I thought)

Taylor has been wanting a hamster for a little over a year now.

She would beg off and on for one.

We always said, "No, our house is already a zoo."

While at the pet store she begged and begged and Chris finally said,

"a guinea pig would be so much more fun...and durable."

So she begged and begged for a guinea pig.

So Chris called me and asked if they could get one.

I said, "NO."

Chris said, "OK."

Then he told Taylor and I heard the crying and the whining so I said I gotta go.

Meet Chloe

I know you are probably confused now.

I was too.

I had been crying (long story) and Chris walks in the door and says,
"you need some cheering up so we got her anyway."
Somehow this actually worked.
Crazy I know!
It should have made me more upset and given me the right to give him

evil death looks

for at least the rest of the day.
I asked him later that night why he got her anyway when I said no.
He said, "well, this was Taylor's special day and I didn't want her to be upset on her special day and always look back on her baptism day and remember how her mom and dad wouldn't let her have a guinea pig."
I rolled my eyes and then leaned in to give him a kiss and told him he was
rediculous and a big softy!

(Heather, I hope you are not offended that we named our pig Chloe!)

Oh, by the way, I made him get rid of the lizard.

Taylor's Baptism

It's a strange thing when your oldest gets baptized.

I imagined it was, but now I know.

The day was full of stress and anxiety, you know, the usual stuff .

(and some not-so-usual stuff)

But then when it came down to the actual baptism,

it was lovely.

The talks were great.

Short and sweet and to the point.

Taylor and Chris practiced how they would hold hands

and how he would dunk her nice and slow and make

sure everything went under including all strands of hair.

The practicing paid off cuz they got it on the first shot!

After the confirmation Chris bore his Testimony to Taylor.

(I was too chicken to do it in front of everybody)

The spirit was so strong.

Her baptism was my favorite one I've ever been to.

I love you Taylor!

I am so proud of you. I know Heavenly Father is so proud of you for choosing to be baptized. You are such a wonderful daughter and I am proud to be your mother. Thank you for being such a great example to us and your brothers and sister. Keep it up! You have many wonderful things to look forward too!

Love,

Mom

Ellie's first day of Preschool!

Today was Ellie's first day of preschool!

She was so excited!

She went right in without any hesitation.

I was worried that she would be clingy cuz on meet Miss Peggy day she got all nervous and didn't want to leave my side.

She quickly got comfortable when she was asked to do a few fun

evaluation activities.

She says Miss Peggy is her friend.

There you have it.

Her first successful day of preschool!

And who better to go to preschool with?

Her best friend Brooklyn!!!

(who happens to be her cousin...lucky girl!)

Finally she's old enough!

(Taylor is telling me what to type)

I got my ears pierced last night and I was very excited

and kind of nervous.

(Before)

Uncle Ivan got a marker and made little black marks.

Then he got the ear gun.

And I was very very nervous.

I brought my Cheeky Monkey to squeeze.

(After)

When he was all done it stung a little, but I looked very pretty!

Thanks Ivan!

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Taylor turned 8 years old at exactly 2:01 a.m.!

To celebrate she decided she wanted to go to dinner

at Red Robin and go see Shrek the Third with some of her friends.

They all ordered from the kids menu and got their own chocolate shake!

After dinner we headed over to the dollar theater and didn't make it in time for the 7:25 showing.

Luckily High School Musical 2 was premiering on the Disney Channel at 8.

Everyone was super excited to go back to our house to watch it...

except for Taylor.

She was sad.

She really really really wanted to see Shrek the Third.

So the whole way home her friends tried desperately to cheer her up.

She is one lucky girl to have such great friends!

We had about 15 minutes to spare so it was a good time to open

Presents!

Yay! A Bratz Art kit!
Thanks Lynae!
Yay! A Cheeky Monkey Webkinz!
Thanks Gwen!
Yay! A Hippo Webkinz!
Thanks Sydney!
(I missed the hug)
Yay! A Littlest Pet Puppy Nursery!
Thanks Bailey!

Yay! A Cat's Cradle book of tricks!
Thanks Mom and Dad!

Then it was time for the show!

All the candy we were planning on sneaking into the theater.

This is WAY better than the theater!

On a commercial we took a break for some

ice cream cake.

Make a Wish!

When the movie ended the girls went wild and danced!

and jumped,

and climbed,

and had a pillow fight

all on my couch!

(not usually EVER allowed, but this was a special occasion)

They all had so much fun!

Chris and I even did too!

The things these girls said were enough to crack up the grumpiest person!

They were hilarious!

I am so glad Taylor has such a great group of friends!

I'd say she had a GREAT Birthday!

Happy Birthday our sweet little Honey Bunny!!!

We love you so very much!

Do you like our new Do's?

Tonight we headed over to Aunt Lisa's house for some much needed hair cuts.

Preston went first,

and he turned out handsome as can be.

Peyton was next, but while he was waiting he dug through Lisa's bag of hair tricks and practiced straightening his hair.

He was such a good little boy even with all of his wiggiling.
Trust me, this pose only lasted about 30 seconds.

Ellie got to be next. She's the reason for the emergency hair cutting session.
Since she hacked a bunch of her hair off in the front, the back no longer looked very cute. Mullets just aren't my style! Nor will I allow them to be hers.
So we decided to go drastic and chop off a bunch to even it out.

Before:


After:

I'm so glad we did cuz look at how cute it turned out!

We took her in the bathroom to look at it in a huge mirror and she couldn't stop looking at herself!

She was so cute about the whole thing.

So, seeing Ellie with such cute short hair, Taylor decided she wanted to go short too...but not quite as short.

I'm so glad we did cuz her's turned out so cute TOO!

YIKES! That's a lot of hair cutting!

Thanks Lisa for being SO great and making our kids hair match their cute little faces!

You are the best Aunt EVER!!!

Love you tons!

MU-WHA!

Why?!

Why did she have to use her brand new scissors we just bought her for preschool on her hair?!

Why did she do it even though we JUST had a talk about NEVER cutting hair with scissors 2 days prior?!

Why did we not stay mad and start to laugh 2 minutes after we discovered the new do?

Because when her dad said, "Well, now you look like a boy."
Ellie screamed, " I'M NOT A BOY! I'M ELLIE!"

The First Day of School!

The day I have been looking forward to for the past 2 weeks finally came!

I was done with summer 2 weeks ago.

I am still a little in shock that I have 2 kids in school ALL day!

It's crazy!

Where has the time gone?!!

I drove them to school today so I could get some pics and see them off to their classes.

They both did great!

I then went and ran a couple of errands.

It's amazing how when I only had 2 kids it seemed like a death sentence to take them to run errands.

Now it's like a dream come true to have to only take 2 kids!

If only the heat wasn't such a KILLER it would be even more dreamy!

I got Peyton down for a nap and Ellie set up with a movie

and then took a MUCH desired NAP!

I loved it!

A feeling I've been waiting for all summer!

Yay for school to be back in!

Yay that they love it too!

My new nephew!

Isn't he so cute?!

The Best of the Best!

Oh my freaking heck! Season 5 was AMAZING! It really really really sucks that season 6 doesn't come out till December! And then season 7 starts in January and I just don't think I'll be able to handle watching one episode a week! They end each episode with serious suspense and leave you going, "What the crap?! You've got to be kidding me!"



Still so happy I have Eclipse to look forward too! I've done really good not obsessing over it. Which is really weird since every blog I go to says something about how great it is or was (for all those freakishly fast readers) Monday's a big day for my two oldest and ME! Ahhh! I can't wait!



Oh! Last but definately not least, my sister had her 5th baby today! Congratulations to her and her family! His name is Adam Keith and was 5 pounds 3 ounces and 17.5 inches long. Which isn't too terribly bad considering he was 4 weeks and 2 days early! I can't wait to meet you on Friday night Adam!

Biggest TOSS UP I've ever encountered!

So most of you know that Eclipse came out today! Yay!

I have been waiting a year! Like most of you...and well...surprisingly I've decided not to start reading it...just yet.

I know! I'm shocked too! I wouldn't have believed anyone a year ago if I was told I would make this choice.

But as you know I am soooo invested in MY 24!

We have one disc to go on season 5! I am dying to see how it ends!

So from 9pm to 12am tonight we will be finishing it!

So bitter sweet.

A little while back I didn't think we would get through all 5 seasons of 24 so quickly so I went ahead and pre-ordered Eclipse knowing it would not come until about a week after it's expected release date which was totally fine cuz I was so wrapped up in 24- nothing else mattered! You heard me right, NOTHING else mattered!

Unfortunately, my copy of the most anticipated book of the year is not due to be on my door step till Monday the 13th!

I really had no idea I would be willing to miss out on a TON of sleep this summer and watch 24 till the wee hours of the morning.

I have decided however that it is a good thing and I will not go out and hunt down a copy so that I can concentrate on being ready for the first day of school.

I know what my house looked like when I couldn't put the other two books down and I feel that it would be a mistake to do that just days before school starts...seriously. I know you other moms know what I am talking about! Don't try and tell me your house and kids did not get totally neglected!

So there you have it! The biggest TOSS UP of the year!!!

(in entertainment anyway)

Such a boy and such a girl!

I was wondering where they were and what they were doing when all went quiet.

The bathroom is always a great first place to check!

The Next Pamela Anderson?!

I sure hope not!!!

This little girl never stops entertaining us!

You gotta admit she's pretty dang cute!

I think they are bigger than mine! :(