Glue

I have been doing preschool with Madison and Emily over the summer. They love it! Madison especially loves when we do crafts and has found a new love. Glue! She loves to use the glue and she loves to eat the glue. Anytime she gets some on her hands she starts licking them and then she starts to just stick her finger in the glue so she can lick it off.

My trip to the Family History Library

This last weekend I was able to go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City with some friends from my ward. We had so much fun. We left early on Friday morning and then spent the entire day Saturday at the Library. Saturday morning we went to the library about 11 am and left at 9 pm. I had a short break in the middle when I went to see Dean and Amanda who just happened to be in town. It was great to visit with them even though it was so short. Then we came home on Sunday and arrived in Caldwell about 5 pm. I am so glad we were able to go and we accomplished so much. I think I looked at over 30 microfilms. They have so many microfilms of data it is amazing. I was able to find a little bit of info, like Joe's grandpa Neratko's birth record. I was glad I found that because previously I had that he was born in New York and I found the birth record in Michigan. I also finally know where Joe's Neratko family comes from in Poland. Yea! I have been looking for that forever. Now I just need to go back to the Family History Library to find more info. We are planning another trip in the spring.

JJ is One!

JJ turned one on August 14th. I have been waiting to post this until we loaded the video camera pictures because we forgot the camera. I decided to do it without those pictures because we still haven't done it, and I can't find the cord.
I was actually out of town on JJ's birthday and didn't even get to see him. Joe was out of town too so we celebrated on Sunday. We went to my parents house and made french toast. He loved it . We also had cake and ice cream. We make a separate cake for their first birthday so he got his own little baseball cake, and everyone else had a piece of the big baseball cake. He loved the cake and went to town on it. I think he devoured almost the entire thing. He especially loved the frosting. It was so fun to watch him. He also enjoyed opening his presents. He got lots of clothes, a car seat, and toys. He loved the toys the most, I think. He kept wanting to hold on to them and didn't want to let go of them to open another present. Thank you to everyone who gave him a present. His sisters hardly let him play with them. Luckily he is still pretty easygoing right now so he doesn't care too much.
He has grown so much this last month and at his one year appointment he weighed 19 lb 1 oz and was 28 1/2 inches long. That was a 2 1/2 inch and 3 lb difference from his 9 month appointment. He has also started standing against furniture, scooting on the ground, and rolling all over the place. Hopefully he will start to crawl soon and then soon after that walk. I do like having him mostly stationary though because then he isn't getting into everything. We love this little boy and are so greatful for the joy that he brings into our home.

Recipe for Pickles

Here is the recipe I use for pickles.

German Pickles

1/2 tsp. mustard seed
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 C vinegar
2 C Water
2 T salt
1-2 heads of Dill
1/2 to 1 C sugar (optional) (I don't use the sugar)

Combine: vinegar, water and salt. Bring to boil and shut off

In the jar add garlic to the bottom.
Then put cucumbers, eggs, or pepper into the jar (I usually do cucumber spears because I wait to long to pick the cucumbers and then they are too large)
Next, add mustard seed and dill.
Add liquid
Put grape leaf on top and close

Water bath by bringing to boil for 5 minutes. Then remove and let sit for three months. If pickles are soft you may add a pea size amount of alum to retain crispness.

If anyone wants to make these and doesn't have the dill or grape leaves just let me know. We have both in our garden.

Canning

Yesterday, I was able to can; pickles, northern beans, and basil. All three are very easy to can. For the pickles we have a recipe that is by the jar so you don't have to have a million cucumbers to do a batch. I was able to get six jars from the cucumbers in my garden, and we still have more growing. For the northern beans all you do is take, 1 cup of beans, 1 tsp salt, and fill the jar with water. Then you pressure cook them for 90 min at 15 lbs of pressure. The hardest part is waiting the 90 minutes for them to get done. For the basil I just washed it and then put it in my dehydrator. Today I plan on blanching some tomatoes to freeze until all my tomatoes are ripe so I can can them all at once. I love being able to put all this together so we will have food this winter that we don't have to purchase from the store.

Bugs

Madison has recently gained the fear of bugs. I remember that Emily went through this at about the same age. Yesterday, when I was getting Maddie up from her nap there was a fly in her room. She was yelling and screaming at it. I brushed at it which only caused it to fly even closer to her. All of a sudden she grabs her dress and holds it as tight to her as she can and yells at the fly "My Dress, Get Away!" I thought it was so funny she was so concerned about her dress.

Camping

This last weekend we went camping again. We had a lot of fun. It was our ward camp out and we camped at the Walker Cabin Campground up by Council. Luckily it was a grassed over area because it rained all day Friday and then Friday night. We still had fun and drank lots of hot chocolate to keep warm. Our tent stayed dry and we slept pretty good. Friday night we made s'mores using a heat lamp. They turned out very yummy. Saturday morning we had pancakes, eggs, sausage and hashbrowns for breakfast. Emily and Madison were able to ride in a paddle boat that they have on the property. Emily wasn't ready to leave on Saturday because she wanted go in the paddle boat more. I would love to go to this same place again sometime when it isn't so wet. They have a creek that runs right next to it that you can fish in and a water slide that runs down a hill. There is also warm springs that are about 2 miles away.

Forever moms

I am part of a group called American Mothers. It is a national group that is interfaith, non-political, and non-profit. We meet once a month and have a parenting lesson. American Mothers Inc participates in several programs and campaigns such as ABC Quilts, Books for Babies, Mothers Against Abuse, 5th Grade Essay Contest, AMI Blood Drive, Interfaith Alliances, and locally we have been participating in the White Ribbons Against Pornography (WRAP) program. I really love meeting with this group and learning new parenting skills. Recently we started a blog called Forever Moms. We post the lessons from our meetings, literacy helps, as well as other parenting helps. We also have a question and answer portion for moms to ask questions and get some help with problems they might be having. Check it out. It is kind of new so there aren't many posts now, but we plan to add more.

Madison

Madison is really starting to talk quite a bit and always amazes us with how much she understands. She is also starting to love the princesses and is constantly telling me "I am a princess" We are hoping that she starts using the consonants "K" and "G". I think it would alleviate a lot of her frustrations. She will often tell me something and I repeat it back to make sure I heard her. Quite often I get it wrong and she just melts into tears or starts screaming. She doesn't like to repeat herself I guess. I have started saying "Show me" and this seems to help some.

So big

This last week since Emily has turned 4 it is like she suddenly decided she is going to act so big. Yesterday after dinner she went to her room and put her pajamas on without me even asking. Then after Family Home Evening she went right in and went to bed. Today, she came into my room first thing and said I am dressed Mom. I couldn't believe it because again I didn't even ask her too. After lunch today she went straight to her room and climbed into bed for nap. Again I didn't have to even ask. It has been so nice and I hope that it continues. :)

It's too bright

Today I was putting Madison down for a nap and she told me to turn the light off. I looked up and the light wasn't on. I told her it wasn't on and she said "Yes, it is, turn it off." I again said it wasn't on and showed her by turning the light on and off. I asked her if it was too bright and she said "yes" I told her to close her eyes and it wouldn't be so bright. I thought it was cute that she recognized she was tired and wanted the light off to sleep.

Emily's Birthday

Yesterday was Emily's 4th birthday. She had such a fun day. In the morning we went garage saleing. (maybe not so fun for her) then we went to my 10 year reunion. She had a lot of fun there because they had lunch, a bounce house, and snow cones. After the reunion we went to the Caldwell Pool and went swimming. She said that was her favorite part of the day. Ben & Sara, Rachel, Jared (he was working) & Kacey, and Aunt Michelle & her kids were all there.
After the pool we went home and had dinner, cake and ice cream. She requested hash browns and carrots for dinner, I asked her if we could include Pancakes and Eggs and she said yes. Her cake was a princess cake that was strawberry flavored with strawberry icing. We also made another cake so we would have enough for everyone. We had just family over for dinner and cake. Before cake she opened presents. She received a lot of fun things. Thank you everyone she loves everything she got. She received many princess themed items as well as ballet things and books.
She keeps getting bigger and bigger and is such a helper around the house. She loves to help her brother and sister as well as help me clean. She is very literal in a lot of things and has a hard time understanding why it is okay for someone else to do something she can't. (i e. when it is time to leave the park why can other kids stay) She almost always has a smile on her face. We love her so much. I can't believe it has already been 4 years since the day she was born.

Here are some fun pictures from her opening presents.

Emily's Husband

This morning Emily informed us that she is going to marry Lucas. We told her she couldn't and she got very upset and said that she wants to marry Lucas. We tried explaining to her that he is her cousin and that you don't marry your cousin. Finally she said she will just have to marry a friend then.

JJ is 11 months

This post is a little late. JJ turned 11 months on July 14. I can't believe that in a couple of weeks he will be 1. He is getting so big and has learned so much this last month. His 1st word is UH-OH. He says this all the time and loves if you mimic it back to him. He thinks it is so funny. He has quite the personality and laughs all the time. He almost always has a smile on his face and has hugs for almost anyone. He also just recently started doing this:Yes he will finally stand on his feet. He thinks he is so funny when he is doing it too. He will often start chuckling. It is almost as if he is saying, Ha ha ha, I could have done it all along, but I didn't want to. We love him so much and are very happy he is a member of our family. The girls are very protective of him and guard him from harm.