Fun on the Farm (err... garden?)

My parents let us plant some stuff in their garden and my grandma gave me an old pressure canner. The result has been learning a lot about cooking and storing tons of produce. We have bottled enchilada sauce, chili, white chili, tomatoes, green beans, and pears... so far. I have also frozen some bags of corn, carrots, pesto and zucchini. As well as dried plums and pears. We eat fresh fruits (from the wonderful Bountiful Baskets program) and veggies all day everyday, and I absolutely LOVE it! Here are some of the highlights of our abundant summer.


I was pretty focused on helping to can the green beans and apparently not being a very attentive parent.





As kids living on the farm, I still remember 'corn days.' There are several steps in getting the corn from the field to the freezer and everyone was always assigned a job based on age and ability. That combination always left me as the 'scraper.' My job was to take a butter knife and scrape the old cobs to get off all the little pieces still clinging onto the sides. This year, I decided to impart my extensive knowledge of corn scrapping onto Corbin. He lasted through about 1 1/2 ears before he got bored and wandered off. But don't worry, Makelle was more than willing to pick up where he left off. She also worked as an unofficial and unwanted taste-tester who ate massive amounts of corn, indigestible by her little tummy. Lovely.


The kids were pretty excited about this gigantic carrot that grew (I guess you really should thin those things out :)



Last year my parents gave me a juicer, which we LOVE to use for all sorts of veggie and fruit juices. In combination with our trusty blender we have been enjoying lots of healthy (and not so healthy) smoothies. Some of us clearly show our love of a good concoction more than others.


We have also enjoyed massive amounts of fresh picked, made from scratch recipes. Our favorites include spaghetti sauce (Corbin thoroughly enjoys squishing the tomatoes), salsa, roasted veggies, grilled veggies, flavored ice cream, pie, stir fry, homemade yogurt and tons of different salads.

Or Not...?

We thought Makelle was growing up and becoming a big girl starting nursery. Then that night we went up to my parents' house for a family dinner and they had the baby swing out for 4-month-old Wesley. She must have thought it looked pretty great because not only did she climb in, but she sat there rocking long enough to fall asleep. Pathetic, yet cute.

Our Big Little Girl

Makelle turned 1 1/2 and went to nursery for the first time. She is a clingy little Mama's girl, so we weren't sure how she'd do, but she loved it! Corbin held her hand and walked her down there (I think he was as excited as we were and definately more so than she was :) and when we got there the toys weren't even out yet, but she ran right in with the other kids and literally never even looked back. So weird to have two kids old enough to go to classes, we are turning into less and less of a young family.

Beat the Heat

We have no central air at our house, but we do have a pool. Thus, we went swimming probably 3 or 4 times a week all summer long.


Not a bad life.

Yay Makelle!

This afternoon Makelle went pee in the toilet! Being only 1 1/2 I am sure we are not ready for potty training, but she patted her bum and indicated she wanted to sit on the potty, so I let her, and walla.






She usually tells me when she needs her diaper changed, by patting her bum, and maybe a week or two ago she started doing it right before she messed her diaper. I let her sit on the toilet one other time last week, but she sat there for a couple seconds and then stood up and relieved herself all over the floor, right next to the potty. But today I was feeling patient and decided to let her have her fun and feel like a big girl again and she actually went where she was supposed to. This of course resulted in a massive amount of praise and a sucker. Good job sweetheart!

County Fair

I took the kids to the Davis County Fair on Friday. We stood in the extreme heat all day for the opportunity to look at a petting zoo. (They wouldn't even let the kids touch the animals, despite the giant "Petting Zoo" sign hanging above them... how lame is that?) At least they had a cool fence that the kids could swing on, so all was not lost.



The kids also went on a pony ride. I couldn't get any good pictures, because Makelle had a death grip on my arm the entire time, but afterwards she started saying, "more, more!" and trying to run back into the arena. I asked Corbin if he had fun and he rolled his eyes and said, "ya Mom." I can't believe he is already getting to the 'talking to my mom about my feelings' isn't cool age.



After the ponies we passed the little carnival area and they talked me into blowing $4 on a little motorcycle ride.


Then we went onto the booths where some lady was selling cheap (as in cost and quality :) toys out of banana boxes and I once again caved and offered them more money, so they could each pick out one souvenir. (This is why moms shouldn't go the fair on their own, I needed Caleb for back up support when they pull their cute little faces out wanting something.) In typical Corbin/Makelle fashion Corbin went for the most boyish thing he could find and Makelle immediately gravitated towards the girlie accessories. So in the end we went home with some little action figures and a few new bracelets.


We ended the day watching the educational tiger show and seeing some dogs compete trying to jump the farthest off a platform into a pool while the kids ate a picnic dinner. Being a stay-at-home mom is the best.

Playtime

This summer we have spent a lot of time outside playing and riding bikes. Corbin decided it was high time Makelle learn to ride a big bike like him. He is so good at always trying to teach her how to do everything he deems important.

Thumbs Up

Makelle was playing with Corbin's sunglasses the other day. We told her she looked cool and she promptly agreed.

Camping with the Walkers

We went on our annual camping trip with the Walkers up by Causey Dam. They brought their canoe and kayaks up so we got to play on the water all day Thursday. Both of the kids kept wanting to get out of the canoe, so I finally tossed them both in the water. Makelle screamed until her dad pulled her back in, whereas Corbin decided it was incredibly fun to get pulled along behind the canoe on a little rope. It turns out a tiny little 3-year-old can create quite a bit of drag and make a lot more work for the parents left paddling inside. He also got pretty upset that I wouldn't let him dive off of the 20 foot cliffs like all of the teenage boys he saw up there over the weekend. Crazy child.






Corbin caught a couple of fish for the first time. He even felt the tug and reeled them most of the way in himself.


We borrowed the pictures from Harm and Derek's blog, but also couldn't help but borrow this text as well:

Melinda to Caleb: Why did you teach our son to play with fire?
Caleb to Melinda: I taught him the rules.
Caleb to Corbin : Do we poke people with our fire sticks?
Corbin: No
Caleb to Corbin: Do we pull our stick out of the fire?
Corbin: No
Caleb to Melinda: See?

We found our own private little grove next to our campsite, which was perfect for playing cards in and for caging the kids in, since it was virtually surrounded on all sides. Perfect :)


We played with glowsticks after it got dark. Useful, not only for entertaining adults and children alike, but also to ensure you can easily follow your pitch black dog, should she start to wander too far from camp. (This is suppose to say Makelle, you can sort of see it, right?)

Camping

We took the kids camping this past weekend for a quick overnighter up Farmington Canyon. It was a blast. There is something so great about being surrounded by the outdoors, kids just love it. We did everything from hiking to relaxing around camp to cooking over a fire to roasting marshmallows to sleeping in a tent.



To Caleb's great annoyance, I may or may not have been a know-it-all and accidentally landed us wandering around much longer than planned on our little hike. Caleb of course, used this experience as an opportunity to teach Corbin about how the Israelites were forced to wander the wilderness for 40 years as a punishment for being wicked, thanks friend!


Caleb has a long standing love of IBC rootbeer... we like to practice the whole 'avoid the very appearance of evil thing' :)




Corbin and Makelle both had smores for the first time, they definitely discovered a new love.



Corbin has always been a great, deep sleeper and we could put him to bed anywhere. Makelle tossed and turned and whined ALL night long, apparently she doesn't like the rock hard ground. SOO girlie!

Fireworks

We watched/played with fireworks a few different times over the past several days. The Walkers brought the kids some sparklers on Friday, we sat outside the stadium and watched the Provo fireworks on Saturday night and last night we had a bunch of people over for the annual Miller Family Tank Wars.

Pledge of Allegiance

We attended the Andersen Family Reunion this weekend and Corbin worked really hard all week to learn the Pledge of Allegiance so that he could recite it for everyone with his cousins.


Next year we'll work on being in unison :)

New Favorite Toy

I got tired of my wooden spoons always disappearing and of finding long sticks snuck into the house, so I gave in and bought the kids some foam swords--they are both in love.


(If you turn up your volume you can hear Makelle yell "cheese" when she notices the camera and runs off.)