New Shoes

It's that time of year again - school shopping! Today, we needed new shoes - and because the sale was buy one, get one 1/2 off, everybody got new shoes! Talin was SOOOOOOO excited - he even had to take his nap with them on :)
I was laying with him and he kept stopping and saying, "I like-a shoes, Mom!" Cute, huh? He won't even need them until October, so I bought them a little big.

Pickles!

The CO-OP this morning offered pickling cucumbers, so I decided to give it a try! I read on the internet that if you soaked them in ice-water for at least 2 hours they would be crispy pickles - we'll see if it works?!? Aren't they pretty, though?
Getting ready to be canned.......

The ending product....... I couldn't believe how much one box made!

L - R : Dill Halves, Dill Spears, Dill Hamburger Chips, Dill whole pickles, and Bread and Butter Chips. I was only going to make a few B&B but I still had more cucumbers and more B&B brine left, so I made more. I only had one not seal - ahhhhhhh, now we get to try them!!!! Well, after 24hrs. It was fun!

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! (Read as Weeeeeeeee......)

Yesterday, I had gotten out the Wii Fit and the kids kept taking turns on it. Ethan was having a turn and Talin literally stopped and watched Ethan the entire 40 minutes he was doing it. He was glued! He notices video games, but never like this! Then, he decided he would just do the excercises with him, so here's the boys doing push-ups. It was great on the games to here him council and cheer Ethan (Ethan wasn't as excited about it - I thought it was so cute).
He used a floppy flyer as his own little mat, and apparently he thought he needed his own remote, too :) I love the truck.

Monsoons!

I LOVE Thunderstorms!!!!! I wait all year for Monsoon season for the thunder, lightening, wind, dust, and hopefully rain! Last night and Sunday night we got a great dose of Monsoon - beautiful!!! Of course, I don't like it when people actually get hurt or damage occurs and I'm always grateful we were safe, but I do love a good storm. (P.S. - I didn't take this picture, but it was taken in our area of the Valley)

New Pictures

I FINALLY took Kelcie and Ethan in for their pictures - Kelcie for her 5 yr. birthday, and Ethan for his 12 yr. birthday. We do pictures every year til they're 5 and then monumental birthdays after that - 8, 12, 16, etc. I usually go to Kiddie Kandids, but recently they've gotten really expensive and they actually want to know how many picture you're going to buy before they take the pictures - shouldn't that depend on how good a job they do????? Anyway, these are JCPenney and I was pretty happy with them:

Harry Potter

O.k., so the LONG anticipated movie is out, and, no, I haven't seen it yet (not much for midnight showings of ANYTHING!), but Ethan got to see it before anyone else!!! His Orthodontist did a contest for Sneak Preview tickets and Ethan WON!!!!!!! Isn't that cool? So, Ethan and Lafe saw it Tuesday night - Lafe thought it was really great and that Dumbledore - who we haven't cared for because we LOVED the first one so much - actually did an awesome job in this one! It was so fun for Ethan.

Camping

Over the 4th we had a family reunion and then we decided to go camping. Sorry there's so many pictures - it was hard to choose. Here's our campsite - Erin and Ethan wanted to sleep in their own tents, which actually helps the crowding in the trailor!

Playing gamesReady for bedFish Hatchery - SO FUN! We were the only ones there and were there during feeding time - really cool! Plus, they had a pool were you could feed them and it was so fun to watch them go crazy for the food!Fishing in the creek near the hatchery
Playing in the creek - REALLY cold, but so fun!
Cold toes - they were all red from being so cold.
Daddy and Talin on the Hammock
Smores
The Swing - they loved this!
This cool huge log