Happy Birthday Ty!

Ty turned 6 on Sunday! I can't believe I have been honored with being his mom for this long. I told him that I was thankful God chose me to be his mom and he asked me who else would be his mom like, duh mom, you're the only one who could do it! We got up early and opened presents and hung out at the house before cabin fever set in again so we headed out on a bike ride again in Corvallis, no pictures but trust me two hours of fun was had by all! We came home and the kids relaxed and played with legos and the playmobil toys Ty got for his birthday. The cake will be coming along as soon as Don gets home and makes it!

What a fun walk

On Saturday we had major cabin fever so we headed to Corvallis for a hike to Irish Bend Covered Bridge. We had a great time besides the fact that it went from cloudy and cool, to sunny and hot in mere minutes. I love that the kids enjoy hiking, etc.

Summer beauty

Found a cool bug free place to ripen my tomatoes, aren't they pretty, beefsteak, and black prince. Not to be outdone by our humongous amounts of cherry tomatoes, I think I pick about three cups of them per day, good thing we love them, they have been great to snack on.

Posting overload

Okay is this like the fifth post today? I am trying to catch up I guess. Brock came in from "helping" Daddy shave and looked so cute I had to show you all his adorableness!

Not to be outdone by his big brother

In keeping with the competitive tooth loosing thing going on between Cale and Ty, Ty lost his bottom left tooth tonight. I am thinking we may have another loosing streak in about two or three months but we'll see! Ty had his adult tooth already growing in behind the baby one so you can't really tell he lost is except for the little bloody hole, yuck!

Cale lost yet another one

The poor tooth fairy has been making many trips to our house over the past month or so. Cale lost yet another tooth on Sunday morning. Don has taken to calling him "jack-o-lantern" Cale took it upon himself to take some after pictures. Let me add that he lost his bottom right tooth, however taking a pictures of that area must be difficult as you will see in the pictures below.

Our own personal carnival

Saturday was our day to evidently fry new things, haha. We have been wanting to make deep fried mozzarella sticks, which by the way turned out amazing and I don't think I will ever eat another one we don't make again. Then Don decided to try his hand at funnel cakes, I have never had them before, and will admit now in public that I didn't try cotton candy until well after Don and I were married, yes I was deprived of all things relating to carnival food as a child, sorry Mom! I only got a shot of the finished product and my lovely man in the midst of making the funnel cake deliciousness. I must add that on Sunday we made homemade ice cream and Don helped Cale make butter. I felt very pioneerish this weekend. Then yesterday we made homemade biscuits for breakfast with our homemade butter and homemade jam, yummy. Yes I am a granola!

Fun with Brock

Last week Cale, and Ty had a sleepover at one of my friends house and Morgan had her own sleepover at her friends house so it left Brock, Don and I by ourselves. We went out to eat which in and of itself was weird eating with just one kid. Afterwards we didn't feel like going home so we wandered over to the mall and let Brock run free. I took a few quick shots of him on the "rides." I wish we had the ability for both Don and I to take each kid by themselves occasionally but alas we don't, it was great the once to be able to do it.

Some dirty fun

Sunday we headed up to Banks, Oregon for their Truck and Tractor Pull and Combine Demolition Derby. We have never taken the kids to any event like that and I hoped they would enjoy it. Needless to say we had a great time. It was loud, dirty, and great family fun. We decided that regular demolition derbys with cars will be our next adventure as combines don't have as many weak points and it did go on a bit. It was fun cheering for the guys and gals! We would highly recommend it if you have the inkling when the time comes along next year! Our next big adventure will be a race. We are hoping to head to Lebanon or Cottage Grove for some good old down home dirt track racing soon.

Canning Peaches

My friend Angie came down for the day and we took on the adventure of canning peaches for the first time. We had 100 pounds of peaches and it ended up making 54 quarts of peaches along with 8 pints of peach jelly. I will admit it wasn't the most enjoyable experience what with a majority of the pits splitting and having all kinds of unmentionable things inside said split pits. I was so thankful to have a friend to do it with, we grumbled and laughed together. We tried to find the "blessing" in our predicament but I think it was our time together and the many many months of canned goods we will be enoying.


Yes that's my empty chai latte, it was needed after 9 hours of canning.

Fun with smores

We made smores indoors last night. We had a great time as you can see. Messy, delicious fun.

More berry picking

How could my blog be complete without post after post about picking? I kind of made an assumption that my mom wouldn't want to pick this year because for the past few years she has been doing slave labor for us picking, and picking, and well you get the point. So this past week
she asked when we were going and was I ever surprised when she said she wanted to go. Brock and Ty actually picked which was a shocker, we all had a good time and were so thankful for cooler weather and some cloud cover.

Grandma/Mom has a new bike

We have been so busy having fun and relaxing while my mom has been here that I haven't been posting much or honestly taking pictures but while everyone is sleeping still I will update a bit.

My mom bought a new bike last weekend and went for a little ride around the block with Morgan while Cale roller skated and Ty and Brock chased him. It was fun to see all the activity. Right after I took all these pictures Brock took a major nose dive on the cement and still has a nasty scab on his forehead but I decided no pictures of that one!