Brodie has recovered well from his surgery. Yesterday was a long day but he was a big boy and handled everything really well. When he got home he put together his new Lego set from mom and Dad (a gift for doing so well). And in the afternoon he took a nice long nap. I am so thankful that is over and he is feeling pretty good today.Yes, I love sleeping photos.

Yesterday I made my first ever butter. So easy. I used cream that I bought the other day. All you do is shake it and pour off the buttermilk. It took about 20 minutes, that's it! So cool.Will and I have also been busy dehydrating herbs. We have dried oregano, sage, basil and parsley. Pretty excited to use our own fresh herbs in our cooking.

I'm antsy tonight. Brodie goes in for surgery in the morning on his boy parts. I know it is a common procedure but the thought of it still scares me. They have to put him to sleep, do the procedure and then the recovery. The recovery is what I worry most about. They said he will be in a lot of pain. That is the worst part. I just hope we can make him feel ok and be comfortable.

Ahhh, anyway today was a busy day. After we picked Jake up from weight lifting we headed north 30 minutes to get chicken feed. This is the only place that carries the feed I want for the chickens. Once they reach 18 weeks there is a place closer to home I can buy their food.

After that we headed 30 minutes west to visit a local creamery. That was fun. We ended up buying some milk, ice cream, summer sausage, raw sugar and cream. I am going to make my own butter. The kids thought it was a really cool place and the people who own it are really nice.

After a few more stops we headed home. This evening I baked 2 loaves of bread, cleaned out the chicken house, worked in the garden (my peas are officially dead and my tomatoes are following), took the family to the neighbors house for a swim, ate our local ice cream for dessert, put kids to bed and here we are. Sigh...

I guess maybe I should get some rest.

Baby Update

We had an ultrasound yesterday. Here are just a couple of the hand full of shots we got of our little one. We got to see our baby in 4D which I thought was cool. I have never had an ultrasound where they did that before.The baby is growing really well. It weighed in at 14oz and is 6 inches long from head to tailbone. The doctor said everything was developing the way it should and it looked "very happy". We are sticking with the due date of November 7, which puts us at 2o weeks 4 days. It wanted to sleep the entire time we were looking at it so the tech had to shake my belly a bit to get it to move around. Baby didn't seem to mind too much it would kick a bit and move it's arms but not flip. Finally at the end it turned so we could get the profile shot you see above.

We declined to find out the gender. It will be a surprise for everyone in November!

Hope all the father's had a nice Father's Day. We had a great day here. I got to spend time with both my father, father-in-law and grandfather. We had a fish fry from all the fish we brought home from the lake and invited everyone over. It was a nice evening. Unfortunatly due to my baby brain I didn't snap any pictures.

The kids and I celebrated with Will in the morning. I made a coffee cake and eggs for breakfast. For his gift we got him an appointment to put a hitch put on his Jeep so he can pull the boat, something he has wanted for awhile.

This will be a busy week for us. We have lots of doctor appointments and we are having a garage sale this weekend. I really need to get busy!

Things have been crazy here since getting back from vacation. Unpacking, cleaning, gardening, just trying to get back to normal. Tuesday I took Brodie to the specialist for his little boy problem. He has been having to go potty alot and never seems to be able to drain his bladder. Apparently he has stenosis of his meatis and is going to have surgery June 29th to repair the problem. Poor guy.

Will had a filling put in this week as well. So much for "I have perfect teeth." His last dentist apt didn't go so well. He has to have another filling next week too.

The garden has been doing well, you can read about it below. The chickens are getting big! I am excited, only 4-6 more weeks and I should be getting some eggs from these ladies.I harvest 12 cups of cherries from our cherry tree. I had high hopes of making some cherry turnovers but by the time all the cherries were cleaned I decided I was tired of looking at them and put them in the freezer for a later date. It was alot of work cleaning them.I have been feeling pretty good. I think I am getting some energy back. I have been so tired throughout this whole pregnancy. Next week is our 20 week ultrasound. No, we are not finding out the gender. Sorry!

Tomorrow is a big day for us. We are going to Will's cousin house to butcher chickens. They have been raising broilers for us this Spring. If all goes well we will be coming home tomorrow night with 10 birds! Should be an interesting experience. I will be bringing my camera don't worry.

Gardening News

With all the rain and hot weather the garden has been growing at amazing speeds. So far I have harvested about 20lbs of strawberries, tons of lettuce, onions, spinach, cherries and some snap peas.

Before we left for vacation most of my plants were still in the beginning phases. Now I have huge leafy plants with blossoms! Here is a picture of my zucchini plant. I already have a few little zucchinis forming. This is my first year with this veggie.My watermelon and cantaloupe vines have really taken off.Here is a look at some of the tomato and pepper plants.Here are my sugar snap peas. They are dying and I don't know why. I am so bummed. They looked so good and now they are all turning yellow and dying before the peas are ripe. Any ideas?? My herb garden really took off. Now I have to figure out what to do with all of it. We planted a few types of basil (pesto...yum), oregano (will dry this), dill, parsley (need to dry this too), cilantro (wanted for salsa, didn't realize it would grow so quickly) and garlic.My cherries did pretty well this year. I have harvested 6 cups so far with another big bowl to clean and freeze today.The raspberries are growing and show hope of a few berries to maybe pick this year. This is my first year having these as well.My mini pumpkin vines are spreading! I think I need to till up some more ground around them and then maybe lay some mulch. Not sure about that yet.

Vacation Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our trip. Will took the first round of pictures off the camera and put them on his laptop earlier in the week. We did purchase a new camera today! We have to try and figure out if we can salvage the rest of the pictures off the memory stick.

We arrived at the cabin at 6:30pm. At 7:30pm the guys headed out to test the water.The boys guns mounted above the fireplace.Drew's first bass. He reeled it in all by himself.Tony's large bass.Mom's bass.Tony's first Northern Pike. He was SO excited.Will's 5 1/2 pound Northern Pike. The fillets off this fish alone will feed our whole family.Jake heading down the slide at the end of the dock. Little did we now it was going to turn out badly. Swimmers itch will come shortly.Drew and Brodie playing in the water.Jake and Grandpa playing bags. Drew is the spectator. One of the many beautiful sunsets. Will post more pictures when and if we get them!

We're Back

We are back from vacation! We spent a week at Ten Mile Lake in Minnesota. We go there each year. I have been going to this same lake since I was a child. I have lots of memories there.

We went a bit earlier this year due to Will's work schedule. The weather wasn't near as nice as it usually is in July but we still had a great time. We had a few rainy days where we spent much of our time inside playing cards or board games.

Fishing was pretty good again this year. Will and Joel went fishing at 5:30am almost each morning. Mom and Jake joined them a few mornings. I am not much of a morning fisherwoman. I went out most evenings. We got a good assortment of Sunfish, Pike, Bass and even caught a few keeper Crappie this year. We brought home about 100 sunnies and 5 Northern Pike. That should keep us fed for awhile.

The kids spent most of their time protecting the cabin from incoming monsters, soldiers, and aliens. They each were able to purchase a new toy gun from Cabala's on the way up and that pretty much entertained them for most of the week. We stayed in a bigger cabin this year, which was really a blessing because there was alot more room for them to run and play.

On Tuesday it was warm and the kids went into the water to play for a bit. Within minutes of coming out they were all itching and screaming. They were exposed to swimmers itch! We spent the next few hours calming them down and rubbing lotion on their legs. We ended up heading into town to talk to a pharmacists who told us there was really nothing we could do but give them Benedry. Thankfully the itching subsided in about 5 hours but the bumps and welts are still present on Brodie and Drew. Tony never did get it.

Well I will post more later, hopefully with some pictures. We had a scare on Thursday night. Will, Brodie, Drew and I were on the dock fishing while the others went out in the boat. Everything was perfect until we heard a huge splash and I turned around to see Brodie completely submerged under the water. He fell off the dock. I jumped in after him and Will followed me in. He was ok, but it was pretty traumatic. Unfortunately I had my camera around my neck when I jumped in. It's pretty much dead now. Will is currently looking online for a new camera for us. I am hoping I can still get my pictures off the memory stick.

Here is what we have been up to lately. Gardening. I planted a large garden this year and have spent much of my time in there. So far we have been harvesting lettuce, spinach, onions and strawberries. Lots of strawberries. I estimate we have harvested about 20 lbs so far. This isn't including what I will be picking today. I didn't get out there yesterday so I am guessing to add another 8-10 lbs. So what do you do with all those strawberries? Well in my family they usually don't last too long. They are my favorite fruit and a favorite among the kids. I have frozen a bunch. So far I have about 2 1/2 gallon ziplock bags full. I am hoping to make some jam one of these days. We have also been enjoying fresh berries for every meal, including dessert...strawberry shakes, yum!