Philadelphia Chickens

Have you ever heard of this book? It's actually a song book with a CD of the songs included. Jaysen's mom bought it several years back for the grandkids. Now that most of them are "old", or at least thinking they are "too old", for singing and dancing through the living room, Grandma Burnham passed on the book to Mackenzee on Sunday.

We popped in the CD while we were there and Mackenzee fell in love with the songs and the pictures in the book. She even got her older cousins to play along with her. I wish I had taken my camera so I had documented footage of the little boys shaking it with Kenzee. :0)

Since bringing home the book, Mackenzee has taken over the CD player downstairs and cranks up the volume while she twirls around the living room.

Obviously, she has taken a liking to this book of silly songs about cows, and puppies, and chickens. So, thanks Grandma! She loves it!

Just Peachy!

I have wanted to more "homemaker"-ish for a long time. I don't sew, though I really want to learn. My mom is an amazing seamstress and my grandmother is the Queen seamstress of them all. And then...there's me. Sigh.

Though this is the third year I have planted a garden all on my own, this is the first year I have produced more than a few green beans. Bugs ate everything the past couple of years at my old house. :0( This year...I've finally got tomatoes, corn, squash, and jalapeno peppers! The watermelon plant still died...but hey! It's a start right?

I picked more strawberries this year so that I could make more freezer jam. I think Jaysen would die without it. :0) But beyond that, I have never canned ANYTHING all by myself before. I helped in the process growing up, but haven't ever done it alone.

Well, Jaysen's mom has a peach tree. And she wasn't going to can them. And so they would be FREE! My mom....she has about 40 million quart canning jars and said she would give me some....for FREE! So how could I NOT can some peaches? Seriously! FREE!

So, yesterday I went out to Jerome and with the help of Mackenzee and Rita I picked two ginormous bins of peaches. Sadly, though I grabbed my camera on the way out, the memory card was not in it. So, no pictures of my little one picking them. :0(

After picking, we went out to my mom's house for a crash course in canning. Fourteen jars and two hours later, I had it down. I had only made a slight dent in one of the bins of peaches though. :0)

Today...

today was the day I pushed up my sleeves and finished off the first bin without my mom's help.

I did have others helping though. :0)

Notice how thrilled Jaysen was to come home to a messy kitchen and a pleading wife. Isn't he so nice to get his hands all peachy for me?

And look! Another 14 jars! I did it! I know...It's sad how excited I am. But it's my first time! And they turned out...and the lids sealed and everything! {That was my biggest fear}

Now....only one ginormous bin and about 30 jars left.

Anybody want some canned peaches? :0)

Happy Birthday Rita!

I'm a couple of days late posting this....

Wednesday was Jaysen's mom's birthday. Kenzee and I thought it would be fun to take her out for lunch for her special day and so we made a date with Grandma to eat at Johnny Carino's. I took Mackenzee shopping for Grandma's birthday present and she had so much fun looking at all the things in the store trying to pick what she thought would be best for her grandma. She finally decided on a bracelet. She was very excited. And, when we went to another store to buy a present for my neice, Whitney, and she saw some princess bracelets, she HAD to have them so that she could be like grandma. :0) Humorously, as soon as she showed grandma that they were the same, she didn't want to wear the bracelets anymore. Go figure. :0)

So, happy birthday Rita! I hope you had a great day. We really enjoyed having lunch with you. Especially Kenzee. She thought it was pretty special that we got to all go out together.

Thanks Grandma!

Today, Grandma Burnham took Landon to get his baptism scriptures. I had already bought him the bag for them and was going to take him on his baptism day to get the scriptures, but found out that it is tradition in the Burnham family for Rita to get the kids their scriptures. So, we decided to just all go together to get them.

Since there was no option for RED scriptures (burgundy was NOT going to be sufficient), Landon chose the blue ones. And, he also went for the quad vs. seperate books. Grandma even got him a scripture marker and a book mark so he's totally ready for church on Sunday!

And not to be outdone by her brother...Mackenzee gave Grandma the "PLEEEAAASSEE" look and ended up getting this pink teddy bear which she has name PINK. Sigh.

Seriously though, he is so excited to have gotten these. In the car he said, "Mom, this is silver on here!" My favorite though was, "what does H-o-s and J-u-d mean?" Yeah...I had to explain a little to him about how the books worked. But I am truly enjoying these one on one moments we are getting to have because of all of this. It's such a special time for him, and such an important time all at once. I'm so glad I get to share in it with him.