Making Jelly

We started with A LOT of peaches...We sliced and boiled them and added in the other ingredients...
We boiled the jars...
We made a pretty big mess...
After a few hours here was the final product...
36 jars of peach jelly! Yum!
Last night reminded me of the this...



Nikki and I grew up together. My parents lived next door to her grandparents. We probably spent every day together as kids, until her family moved to Vegas. I went and visited her though and she would come back to visit her grandparents. A few years ago she moved back to Phoenix and two years ago we introduced her to Sean's best friend from high school, Jeremy, and now they are married! Last night, Nikki, asked Sean and Jeremy if they ever thought in high school that their wives would be in the kitchen together making jelly! 

Farmer's Market

My friend Nikki found a local farmer's market that is open every other weekend. We went on Saturday and for $17 look at all the goods!

*Peaches
*Asparagus
*Green leaf lettuce
*Plums
*Apples
*Bananas
*Homeade bread
*Tomatoes
*Bell peppers

We started eating the fruit right away!

Funny kids

Friday morning: Carter came into my office and sat at my computer. He then said, "Bye Mom, I have to work."

Friday afternoon: Caitlyn (my 7 year old niece) called me and said, "Do you still want me to spend the night tonight."

Of course we want you to spend the night Caitlyn--anytime!!

HOT Pneumonia

No the Pneumonia isn't hot, but Sean is feeling hot and so is the house. Yesterday, I forced Sean to go to the doctor after starting week 5 of being sick (sore throat, lots of coughing, fevers off and on, etc...). Turns out he has pneumonia. The doctor gave him lots of meds that seem to be helping already. Yay! Although, I must say, he has been quite the trooper for how sick he is. He has been out mowing yards, staying up late studying, and helping to clean the house. I was out on the couch when I had pneumonia--it wasn't fun. So anyways, I came home from work today and walked into a very warm house. I checked the AC and it was on but not working. Sean was still a few hours from being done at school, so Carter and I quickly ate dinner outside, (yes it was cooler outside in Phoenix than in my own house!) packed our stuff and headed to my parent's house to the igloo. I packed sweats and long sleeves as we usually freeze over here but it's better than sweating it out right?

The Dingbat's Agenda

Check out this great giveaway at The Dingbat's Agenda. The card's are so cute. I can only wish I were this talented! Instead, it might be easier for me to hope to win the giveaway!

McCormick-Stillman Train Park

Statements from Carter during the last week:
*"I want to ride Grandad's boat"
*"I want to ride the Ranger"
*"I want to ride a tractor"
*"I want to ride a train"

These statements were stated MULTIPLE times!

Apparently the kid likes to ride things! So yesterday I was able to meet one of his requests by taking him to McCormick-Stillman Train Park where we rode the train, over and over again, with a few carousal rides in the mix too. We had a fun picnic and did lots of playing on the playground. It really was a fun day. All night long Carter was talking about the "choo choo ride" and saying "All aboard." Hopefully, this will give him his fill on rides for a little bit!

I'm in love with my crockpot

Have you checked out this crockpot recipe blog yet? A crockpot recipe for everyday? Nice. I am in love with it! I have always had 1 meal that I use my crockpot for, Cream Cheese Chicken which is so good, but anyways with this being my busy season for work, when I get home at night I am in no mood to cook dinner. So to avoid eating cereal every night for dinner I decided I should start using my crockpot more. I have made 3 meals in it this week and am in Heaven! It has been so nice to come home from a long day at work and smell dinner as soon as I walk in and really only have a couple of minutes of prep work for dinner before we eat. Monday night we had this. So good! I also recommend this and this. 

So now that I am in love with my crockpot--I want more recipes! What are your favorite crockpot recipes?

Biking Group

I biked 40 miles this morning with a group of 25 women and I feel great! I usually bike alone so I was a little nervous at first. I wondered if I would be able to keep up with everyone or would I embarass myself? We started out and all my nervousness went away. I quickly found another girl who was keeping my same pace and we led the pack. That was great except for when we didn't know where we were going and realized we had missed the turn-off!

Our Weekend

We spent this last weekend with my parents, Amy, and Keith and Steph with their boys, at my parent's cabin in Pinewood. Here are some of the highlights from the trip:

Baseball at the park!
Great pitch Grandad!!

The newest addition to the cabin--a wood carved bear that my parents picked out while we were there. Maybe this will help Carter not be so afraid of bears. (the last time we were at the cabin and on a picninc in the forest Sean said, "Carter there's a bear" which then lead to the conversation what would we do if we really saw a bear--obviously we would book it to the Ranger and get out of there. Fast forward to later that day--Carter was outside playing and started screaming -really screaming like he was hurt--I run out there and he is running to the Ranger screaming "bear!." It took all my convincing skills to get him to go outside again. That night he had a nightmare-about what? You got it, bears!! And he has had a few since then).

Of course we had lots and lots of fun Ranger rides!

What cute boys all ready for bed in their jammies after their bath. Too bad they didn't go right to bed as we had planned--it's too much fun up at the cabin with all the cousins!!

pictured above: Carter, Spencer, Hunter, and Tyler