Frank at his best

Frank after his father's day steak grilling event at the in-laws.

Experimenting with foods...

We made these cookies with white beans from a can to replace the oil (fat).

No one could tell the difference, including Frank.

Who knew?

Next time I will do the beans from stratch instead of a can.

These strawberries came from our front garden in one day's picking.

We love them.

A couple of short demos of how strong our kids are.

Food Storage

I went to a food storage class taught by some women that have a blog all about simplifying. FoodStorageMadeEasy.net It was really good to get excited about it again. They talked breifly about the different road blocks we have to get our food storage and then some advice to overcome them. Then they talked about suggestions of things we can do to get motivated. I wrote down some goals, but this is the one I want to post to my local neighbors. They suggested getting a food storage buddy. So, here is my call out. Would anyone like to get together now and then to try new recipes, like making a cream sauce from ground up white beans? Just think, a cream sauce with fiber and without the fat, they said it even tastes good too. They talked about buying things in small quantities when trying something new to see if you even like it. That is why they like WinCo and Kitchen Kneads. So, if anyone is serious about trying to do something bigger and better with their food storage, I would love to get together.

Fun Friday

We got to have my sister, Becky's, kids over on Friday. This gave us an excuse to go to the park. Daniel loves to climb. Most mom's might get nervous watching their two year old climb the things he can climb, but he has done these things since last sumer.
Abby really enjoyed doing something different at this park (hanging upside down).

I used to watch him closely, but now I am confident of his abilities.

Abby could get herself across this zip line, that isn't really a zip line. It doesn't slant down, it is parallel to the ground which makes it hard to get to the other side.

Cousin Gabe enjoyed playing with Daniel on the climbing section.

We have other pictures of the cousins having fun on Abby's blog.

Abby and Daniel wanted to keep playing on the tramp after the cousin's left because we had it upstairs for part of the day.

It is hard to show how much Daniel is such a "boy" on video, but here is a little glimps.

Silly Faces

Abby lost her first tooth.

Daniel fell asleep while watching TV.

He put on his hat by himself. When I asked him to smile, he did what Abby has been teaching him.

Now, there is that smile.

He is a "natural", don't you think.

This is for the grandparents who wonder what they are missing. I got the camera out to capture on video how much Daniel can fit in that mouth of his.

Five days a week we eat dinner without Frank because he works so late. This is what is like to do it by myself. Daniel is extra tired tonight, and it gets really loud.

Whoever said boys are not as temperamental as girls, didn't know my son.

Daniel was in the middle of a tantrum because he couldn't get his fork to work the way he wanted. When I pulled out the camera he froze and smiled. Then when I told him he couldn't see the videos I was recording until after he finished eating, this tantrum came on.

It was about ten minutes of unreasonable tantrums during dinner. Sending him to his room would not help too much, since he was cranky because he was hungry and tired. It just would have made it worse.

Mother's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ME!!!

I picked pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.

Frank made these beautiful pan cakes.

What a husband!!

Daniel enjoying his "cake" for breakfast.

This is one of Abby's many mother's day dances for me.

She enjoys making up dances.

This is Frank during the third dance, maybe the forth or fifth.

Just a fun mother's day moment or two.

A little update

This is my latest craft.

I got a scrap of black vinyl from Regional Supply and cut it into these three chalk boards. My hope is that I will see less paper on the table if they are using the wall. Here is hoping big.

Aunt Beth gave Abby these cute Melissa and Doug wood cookies and frosting with velcro for her birthday. Daniel has discovered that he can put the cookies together like a log and cut them apart to put them on the cookie sheet. Now that he has discovered this, the frosting never makes it top of the cookies.
This is his new favorite pass time, all day long. He only stops to eat and sleep with much protesting.