Canning Season

~For those of you who don't read my other blog, this was posted over there as well, I just thought you all might be interested too!

I have had a busy couple days. I spent part of Saturday and Sunday canning peaches that I got on sale at the store. (.78 lb) I bought about 40lbs and canned 16 quarts. My kiddos love peaches! I have 2 peach trees but neither of them produced this year. Last year my sister and I canned over 60 quarts! That lasted us all Winter. Here is what my trees looked like last year.

I follow the directions for canning peaches out of my Blue Ball canning book, but I also found this great website with wonderful photos if you are interested. Peaches are on sale at most stores this week. I know Fareway has them for $.88 lb and last I checked Wal-Mart had them for $.78 lb.

We also got 4 jars of salsa canned. We are in desperate need to can more, as we have an abundance of hot peppers and tomatoes now!

Another Drew Post

I got up early this morning to collect some thoughts before the kids got up. I went in to check on the little boys and close thier door and you can imagine my surprise when I didn't see Drew in his bed. I went back to my room to make sure I didn't miss him sleeping in my bed. I started to panic when I didn't see him in my room either.

I headed out to the living room to look for him. Here is what I found.It could be that he was out there since his biggest brother was out there sleeping too.I asked him after he woke up why he was sleeping out in the living room and all he would reply was "cause" with a big smile.

Vacation Pictures

Finally, here are some pictures of our vacation! It was really hard to choose, so here are a few of my favorite ones!

Off we go! We left the house about 6:20 am. We were a little late meeting Mom and Joel in Ames at 6:30 am! Poor Drew had only been up for about 10 minutes.Our home from the lake.This is up at the bridge. Usually we catch lots of keeper sunfish up there, but this year was terrible. We didn't bring home one sunfish from there. We still went up there a few afternoons and tried out our luck though.The men cookin' dinner. Here is a picture of a deer that came into the water right near the guys boat. Jake, Joel and Will were out that morning. It came so close you could have reached out and touched it. Will was quick enough to grab the camera andget a picture of it before it swam across and walked up into the reeds.Pelicans flying over the lake.An early morning view of the lake. Jake, Will, Joel and Mom were the early morning fisherman so they got to enjoy some really pretty sunrises. (I'm not much of an early morning fisher person!)Jake sleeping in the bottom of the boat on a cold, early morning.All ready for the beach.We rented a paddle boat for an hour and Tony, Jake and I had a good time. (This is Tony and me, not Tony and Jake!)The most memorable fish of the week...

Jake and his first Northern Pike.Will and his keeper 21" Bass.Will and his 31" Northern Pike.Sara and the famous Dogfish!Will, Joel and Jake and a great morning of fishing! 5 Northern Pike.The Gang!

I love Summer. Here is Drew helping me shuck corn. Every time he would peel back the husk and see the inside he would squeal "corn"!! He was shocked every time!

I am really not trying to abandon my "mom" blog. Really I'm not. I am just having a little difficulty finding time lately to sit down and actually write something!

Here is a quick update on us.

We had a wonderful vacation in Minnesota. The weather was beautiful, the fishing was great, and we had a very relaxing time. I only wish it could have lasted longer. As soon as my dear husband can find time to transfer pictures I will give you all a little journal of our trip.

The boys are all doing relatively well. Brodie is battling a little problem with his plumbing. He has been having to use the potty quit often. We took him to the doctor Monday morning but there is no urinary tract infection, just inflammation they think. So for now we just have to get through it and hope that he recovers soon. He has been pretty miserable the last few days.

Jake and Tony are trying to soak up the last couple weeks of summer break. It is hard to believe that school will start again here soon. I have no idea what happens to the time.

Hoping to update again soon, for now I need to get some sleep.

Strawberry Craft

(I forgot to put glue in the picture)

This craft was inspired by Stacy. My kids loved doing this craft.

We cut out our berries from the backs of cereal and cracker boxes. We painted them and then allowed them to dry. Next we used glue and drizzeled it all over the berry and sprinkled it with bird seed. They look great! Now, I just have to find a place to hang them up!

Do you think they are excited?

This was the boys with their "Tacker boxes" last week when I told them I was working on my lists for our vacation to Minnesota. They grabbed their tackle boxes and were patiently waiting at 7:30 in the morning for us to leave.
This picture is of the boys and Great Grandpa Campbell. He brought over a tackle box full of lures for the boys to look through and divvy up for our trip. They were so excited!