Peach Canning Marathon

Since our stop at an orchard on the way back from Nauvoo failed we decided to try another one a few days later.  We came back with 1 and 1/4 bushels of peaches and then spent the next few days canning and eating them.  It was wonderful.  The end result: 19 quarts of just peaches, 5 quarts and 16 pints of peach syrup, 8 pints of  peach salsa, 8 containers of freezer jam, 7 quarts of peach pie filling, and a delicious peach pie. Yum!

Everything we canned, minus the jam

Ryan made the pie, it says "Fruit of the Gods" with a picture of a peach :)

It was good...

Really good

We Love Peaches!!!

End of the Summer Fun

    So as part of our celebration at having Ryan back we went on a little family trip to Nauvoo, Illinois.  What seemed like such a trek when we lived out in Utah is now only 6 hours away. We drove out first thing on Tuesday and the six hour drive turned into eight with all the potty and snack/nursing stops.  It was a good drive though and the girls were great.  Ryan and I racked our brains for stories and fun songs to sing to entertained when they got sick of their other books and toys.  We stayed in at a great place called Camp Nauvoo in a bunk house style one room cabin.  It was perfect for us, just a set above camping in a tent (which did not go well the last time we tried), we all got to sleep in a bed and it had air conditioning.   I think they mostly rent out to large family and youth groups during the really busy season, but we had the place almost to ourselves the first night (the only other people were our friends the Clark's who happened to want to come the same week!) and then a soccer team was there the second night but they were pretty quiet.  It was so nice to have a cool place to come back to for naps and in the evening.

 The first night we got there we went to check out the temple.  It was so cool to see it in person, I really wish Ryan and I had had time to go through, hopefully next time we go.  The next day we just took things at pretty easy pace, which was a must with the girls.  We went on a wagon ride around "Old Nauvoo" and checked out the visitor's center.  Then since we only had that one day we tried to pick a few things that the girls would really enjoy and other "must see" things.  The Family Learning Center was one of our favorites.  They had several little stations the taught you various things that the pioneers did: weaving, baking, candle making, rope making, pottery.  It was really fun to learn how they lived.  Lauren also really enjoyed the Pioneer Children Pass Times.  They had pioneer clothes to dress up in and little games that pioneer children used to play. Ryan and I thought the tours of the homes and other buildings would have been really cool but Lauren ran around trying to touch everything, so we only made it through one.  While the girls were taking naps Ryan and I read through some pioneer journals and the Our Heritage book that the Church put out. it was so amazing to learn about what our ancestors went though and their lives and journey to Salt Lake. It made it so much more real to be there and walk the places that they walked.  We didn't get to spend near as much time as we would have liked, at our pace it probably would have taken at least 3 or 4 days. But now we better know how to plan our next trip out there. We had a great time and it was so nice just to spend it all together without any other distractions.  I hope we can go again soon.

Lauren loved riding the sheep

Ryan making us a rope

 

Lauren with our completed  rope

Lauren playing the pioneer games

Rachel the trooper

Lauren loved dressing up in the pioneer clothes

                                    

Daddy on the Weekends

So Ryan moved back home last night. YAY! For the past nine weeks he has been doing an internship up in Indianapolis. We initially had planned on all of us moving up there for the summer, but in light of various issues and all things considered the best situation for us turned out to be Ryan living up in Indy in a hotel during the week and then coming home on the weekends.  Quite honestly when we were looking at all our options this was the very last one on my list of desirable options.  I remember telling Ryan at least a couple times, after very rough days with the girls, that I did not think that I could handle that all day with the only help from him being Saturday and Sunday for nine weeks.  But I am happy to say that I have not gone completely crazy and both children are alive and well.

We've been so blessed all summer, so many things that may seem insignificant but made the world of difference to me and were an answer to many prayers.

• Our Neon lasted the entire time, which is amazing, we didn't think it would make it past May which would have meant no car all week for the girls and me
• Our neighbors loaned us their double jogging stroller for the summer (a stroller may seem like an odd thing to pray about but it was one of the top things on my list, especially with the possibility of not having a car)
• Our Garden : it got us out of the house several times a week, we would walk over about every other day and Lauren would help me by pulling the tops off the yucky weeds and Rachel would hopefully take her nap
• One crazy day when we were out I found a surprise little bag of cookies in our diaper bag (apparently from someone at church) 
• Great friends that would either invite us over to play or come over to our place
• Mother's group - a very welcome activity once a week

Hugs for Rachel

The biggest thing that saved me this summer was Lauren and Rachel. I was so worried about how things would go with both of them, especially at dinner and bed time which is the craziest time of day.  There were lots of times that were pretty crazy but for the most part the girls were really good.  They adore each other, which was a huge help, and they even kind of play together.  Lauren is always so excited for Rachel to wake up and always asks to play dishes with her or read her a story.  I really enjoyed all our time together this summer I feel like we learned and grew a lot.  I, for one, feel very capable at handling things on my own, it's definitely not my favorite way to go but I know that I can handle it when needed.

We are so grateful that Ryan was able to get this internship (especially the paid aspect of it), we think it will help open more doors for him along the way to finding a job.  But most of all we're grateful to have him back home on more than just the weekends!

Ballerina Lauren

The girls playing blocks

I love my girls!

Princess Lauren

Rachel kicking back and reading

For Rachel

Our Little Rachel (this is her most common face)

Brand new Rachel

Since most of this blog has been dominated by posts about Lauren and other randomness, this long overdue post is for Rachel.  Rachel is now six months old and bursting with personality.  It's amazing to me how much spunk you can see in a six month old. I love this age! She is so much fun and loves making all kinds of weird noises that of course sends Lauren and anyone else who hears her giggling.  One of my favorite "milestones" that Lauren and now Rachel has hit is when they realize what kisses mean.  They start to like getting them and will smile or laugh - at least for the time being :)  Rachel also loves being on her tummy and playing with or more watching Lauren.  Rachel ADORES Lauren and Lauren likewise.  Whenever Rachel wakes up Lauren gets really excited and asks if she can play dishes, or trains, or whatever with Rachel.  Even though Rachel doesn't do much I get the sense that she loves being included. Lauren can make Rachel laugh like no one else.  They both feed off of each other, I think they will probably cause a bit of trouble.  

For the longest time this is what Rachel would do
whenever I took her picture

Rachel has been a very different experience than Lauren was for me.  When Lauren was born I was only with her maybe 50-55% of the time.  Ryan and I both had class and traded off often.  Ryan spent many hours pacing the floor with Lauren during the day but I rarely ever did that with her.  As a result of this I have noticed that I have a much shorter tolerance when Rachel just wants to be carried and walked around.  I didn't have to do that with Lauren, Ryan did. She has definitely helped me work on my patience.  She has also been a bit more challenging eating wise...or more the regurgitation that comes from the eating.

Lauren really wanted Rachel to ride her bike with Piggy

At around two months we became concerned that Rachel was spitting up a lot, more than we ever remember coming out of Lauren and it seemed to be fairly frequently.  Her pediatricians first response to this was to go off dairy, the spitting up could be due to some kind of reflux and dairy apparently makes it worse.  I was kind of skeptical that this would do much, so I didn't try very hard to stay off dairy.  Of course we didn't see any results, the doctor had her checked for other problems and I saw a couple lactation consultants.  Finally I faced up to my denial that dairy was a problem and went more or less completely off dairy.  We also found a few other culprits namely: chocolate, soy, and nuts. So that's what I've been trying to avoid. I don't know for sure if it is reflux, allergies or just intolerance, I'll I know is that when I eat those things Rachel doesn't sleep well, is congested, spits up a lot and often, and has gas and diarrhea. And hopefully she'll grow out of it. This has been a huge test of self control for me, but at the same time very gratifying to know that there was something I could physically do to fix the problem.  And it really does make all the difference, I'll do it for her.

 I am so grateful for Rachel and love being her mom.

Rachel in her new dress from Aunt Sarah

Tummy time

Rachel and Mom

Big Blue Eyes... to go with the big forehead and baldness
(Sorry Rachel inheritance doesn't always work out in your favor)

A Bit of Awesomeness Growing in the Garden

View of the left half of the garden

Our tomatoes and green peppers

Our garden has gotten huge in the past few weeks.  Even though we have been ravaged with all kinds of bugs and blight on the tomatoes and green peppers things seem to pulling through enough that we are still getting a lot of fruit/vegetables on them.  I think out beans are about done, but we were able to can 25 pints worth!  Now we are just waiting for all the peppers and tomatoes to finish coming on.  Our mutant marigolds have finally started getting flowers on them, which is exciting.  Some how we missed the part on the package that said they grow to be 18"-24" high.  We thought we were buying your typical everyday 5" high marigolds until they kept growing and growing and growing.  They are now   averaging 24"-36" and are taller than any of our other plants.  Who knew marigolds did that?

Mutant Marigolds

These green peppers make Ryan VERY excited,
he LOVES green peppers

View of the whole garden plot

Our first harvest yay!!

Our green beans pre-canner stage

19 beautiful pints of canned green beans.
Planted, grown, canned, and to be eaten by us!

Getting Big

The girls are getting bigger and bigger everyday;  with this constant growing a few changes have been made around our house.  Rachel has grown out of the bassinet and needed the space that the crib would provide, therefore Lauren has been booted out of the crib and has joyfully accepted "the big girl bed"  as her new place of rest.  I had been keeping an eye out for a toddler bed and mattress for a while but everything seemed kind of expensive.  But thanks to Criagslist we got this little bed complete with mattress for $25 bucks.  Not as good as free but definitely more in our price range.  So thank you Craigslist.  Lauren has been really good at staying in it for bedtime and even naps, I'll admit I was pretty worried about how it would all go down, but so far it hasn't been bad at all.

Our next big challenge is far more daunting to me than a bed though.  We've decided to take the plunge starting tomorrow (I have a thing for starting goals or new things on Mondays) and start......potty training.  I think Lauren is definitely ready and now seems to be a really good time to start.  All the same though, it's like standing at the beginning of a marathon:  you're excited for what you are about to accomplish, but at the same time you know it's going to be hard and messy and probably not go quite how you imagine and you already wish you were done with it.  But like a marathon, the best and only way to get done with it is to go forward.  And go forward we will...tomorrow.  Wish us luck.

Fourth of July Festivities

Apparently she was being chased

For the fourth we went to our ward pancake breakfast at the church the went to check out the parade with some friends.  For some reason I assumed all parades were like the ones I'd seen in Utah and on TV: floats, marching bands, horses, firetrucks, people throwing candy, interspersed with various political figures riding in convertibles and the sidewalks are packed with people on camp chairs and blankets.  Fun, right?  So going in with this expectation Bloomington's parade was kind of lame, and as Ryan put it some of the so called floats were at little "kinky."  There were a lot of fire trucks and dump trucks, flat bed trucks with people waving, and various other trucks. Basically it was like one big Bloomington commercial with various businesses riding down the street with their logo on the side of their truck interspersed with a couple flat bed trucks with people shouting out about what ever they feel like. Some of them did throw candy though, which Lauren thoroughly enjoyed.  Maybe most this is how most parades outside Utah are and my expectations are too high.  I don't know.  Here are some pictures though.

Patriotic Lauren giving a pose

Classic Rachel face