New Addition to the family!

Yep, it's finally here! My days of jail and confinement are over! I am now FREE do go and do as I wish! Hahahahahaaaaaaaa. Well, within financial and ethical reason, of course. It's just so very nice to be able to get things done when needed. We are now the proud owners of a red Chevy Blazer, ca. 2000.

It just passed the state inspection (after over $600 in work). Next comes the registration and long lines and another multiple hundreds of dollars spent. Gotta love Maryland! They tax you on the sale price. The price we pay for Freedom...
We bought the car off Jim's brother who is moving to Beijing for 3 years. (Generously, only for $1) Unfortunately, they tax us on their minimum purchase price which is $640 give or take. Ouch! Needless to say, nothing in life is free. I am just grateful to have a vehicle and no car payment. We are working on eliminating all our debt. Which is not so easy to do when things keep coming up. And double diapers.
But the kids sure love the "truck"! It has much more foot space for them. And they love to play around in it and figure out all the new buttons. They are noticing new things as we drive around because they are up much higher.

Here they are, loving feeling so big and tall in the world.

My New Nephew

My sister Lauren gave birth to her second son, Adyn Jason Michael Hoover, on August 1st, 2009 at 1:01 am. That's the reason I went to Reno from the 22nd to the 31st of August! (I'll show more of that later.) He was a big 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 20 inches long.

I was so excited to meet him and hold him. He is such a sweet-natured boy who sleeps a lot. I forgot how tiny and fragile newborn babies are; so precious.

We wanted to make our own attempt at an Anne Geddes photo shoot. Here are just a few samples...

Then, on Sunday evening, August 30th, he was blessed by my Dad with the Bishop present in my parents' home.

I am a proud Auntie!

Eternity is in Process Now

"Very often in our anxiousness for the joys of the future we run away from the very things we are wanting and needing today. An appropriate examination of the passing moment will prove it leads to eternity. We need to constantly remind ourselves eternity is in process now."

--Marvin J. Ashton, "The Time Is Now", Ensign, May 1975, 85

This is great wisdom, and an excellent reminder for me to live in the present, rather than look forward to that blessed day when my kids are potty trained and in school...They are growing so fast and it will be here soon enough.

I shall strive to turn all my "somedays" into TODAY!

Laying up in Store...

Thanks, guys for all those priceless tips! I will be using many, if not all, of them.

Here's where our pears ended up:


I got 7 cans of pears halved, and two jars of pear butter. About half my pears went bad before I got to them. Bummer! But still better than the 1 measly pear last year. My first time canning all alone and I am so proud of myself! I feel so domestic. I also made some yummy pear mayonnaise. Tasty on a fresh lettuce and tomato sandwich! Had some today, actually.

Got lots to do before I leave saturday. Laundry, finish the scrapbooks for my mom, get the last blinds up, and so on! Talk to you soon!

Cross-Country

I am flying back home to Reno on saturday! Just me and Aaron- the little guy. I am so excited to see my new nephew and spend some quality time with my family.





So I am looking for any tips, pointers and advice that will help me get through the 8-hour flight this weekend with my almost 2 year old. If anyone has any experience in this area, I would greatly appreciate any wisdom you can impart! Help!

July Harvest

One thing I love about Maryland is how easily everything grows here. So lush and green! Our pear trees were ready last week for some pickin', so the kids and I got to work. Then, this week I harvested the rhubarb and the one lone beefsteak tomato.
We have a lot of bike paths winding throughout our neighborhood, through all the woods surrounding the houses. There are so many wild blackberry bushes that grow, so we decided to get some before the deer did. We came back with enough to make some preserves!

Elena and Aaron had fun picking too until they got stuck enough by the thorns. then they just took them out of my bowl and ate them. We went home and had some yummy berries and cream! (Just some of that whipped cream out of a spray can. Yum!)

They got so nice and dirty!


We even got some wildflowers out of the garden! Here's our haul of harvesting:

Can't wait to can and preserve and dehydrate!

I'm so witty!

One night last week the kids were at the table, supposedly eating dinner, and I was in the kitchen doing dishes or something. I was in my own world until their screeches pierced into my consciouness. They like to play the echo game with one another. Snapping out of it, I said to Elena, "No screaming at the table, please!" Elena's response? "Can I scream at the green beans?" All I could do was laugh, which encouraged her. "Can I scream at the plate!?" She then listed everything she could see. I told her with a laugh that she could scream at the juice, but the name of the game had changed by then.


Hahahaha. My kids are so smart and funny!

Delayed Fourth Post

This year for the 4th of July we hit the easy button. We had a picnic at Rockburn park right next to the playground. It was so nice and relaxing and the weather could not have been better. In the evening we went to an open field in our neighborhood across from the village center. Large crowd, but much smaller than last year, and we actually had our own patch of grass all to ourselves! Woo-Hoo! We came armed with hotdogs (still warm because we only had to drive 3 minutes), and popcicles (still frozen because...yep, anyway), and little flags and sparklers for the kids. Daddy got the Pop-Its.

We started them out in the stroller, but that didn't last long...

We waited for about an hour for dusk to fall, so in the meantime we enjoyed our food, each others' company and especially the show of the bats overhead feasting on the fireflies. Elena sure loved that!

Very modest, I know. Starting to get a little sleepy...

Much, much more relaxing than our escapade last year. We tried going to town center where they do the fireworks at the lake and do live music, sell fair food, and have rides. Needless to say we got there too late and it was standing room only. The look on Jim's face tells a million tales. Let's just say there were no ramps for our double stroller...

We found the one and only ramp as we were leaving to watch the fireworks near-by at the mall. We saw the same fireworks show from our spot this year. Ahhh, much better! And no traffic. It was a lovely weekend, although it was hard to not feel jipped that the holiday was on a saturday instead of a weekday...

Petting Zoo

I'm a bit behind (or a big behind as my Dad would joke).

July 2nd we went with some friends to a local petting zoo (Elioak) to which I've always wanted to take the kids, but never had had the chance to do so in the past. A good time was had by all. It was difficult keeping them next to me. I brought the stroller, but it was such difficult terrain. Lots of uphill gravel and uneven walkways. So, the kids ran rampant and amock. It's run by a family farm who also sell their produce. Smart business! The best part is that they have many pieces from the Enchanted Forest, which closed down a while ago. Makes it a little more magical.



This is the entry way. It is fairly inexpensive as well.
We started off playing on the toys...

Then we made our way to the animals...You could feed the goats and sheep and whatever else stuck its head out of the fence, with the pellets you could buy for a quarter from a gumball machine. One of the machines really ripped us off. Dangit! (I should pay you back Emily!)

All the animals were fenced in, but there was one area you could go co-mingle with pygmy goats and chickens. My kids have aboslutely no fear when it comes to animals. I should have raised them on a farm, I guess.

In fact, Aaron is a little too unafraid, if you ask me. Much to our surprise, he had gone under the fence and ran right up to the big old horse to pet him. I snapped a photo as I was shouting at him to get out, while laughing. Luckily the horse seemed to be very used to kids. Aaron had horse goo all over him the rest of the afternoon...

Elena was so excited to have her first pony ride. She held on tight all the way around the circle as instructed. (She can listen after all! ...When she wants to.)

Here's the footage of her first pony ride:

You can probably hear little Aaron screaming in the background out of envy. Alas, he is still too little to be atop a large animal.

After a little bit more playing, it was finally time to go home and take a nap. Yay!

Three Years Old!

Okay, not quite! But on July 6th she will be! Here are a few of the pics from our photo session yesterday. It was very challenging getting her to stay put on the red dot, believe me! Especially since her brother was allowed to roam around.