To Post or Not to Post

That has been the question for the past week. I am finally sitting down and putting myself to work. Where has the week gone? I know that I have been keeping busy, but I'm not sure HOW.

A big event in our family was Rebekah's 2nd birthday. She wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but the rest of us were! I made her birthday cake the night before while I waited for Chad to return from a day trip to CA. I had a couple of ideas for her cake, but my ideas are always more spectacular in my head than in reality. So I scrapped those and ended up with a big pink ball. I edited and manipulated some bear parts on the computer and ended up with this.
Rebekah had an amused look on her face as I brought the cake over. I captured it the best I could.
The kids of course, were very excited about the presents and got involved right from the start.


I remember when the boys turned 2. Within the same week, they went from sweet little boys to tantrum-throwing terrors! I always thought that was so bizarre. Our girls are different. They are ahead of the learning curves and start the tantrums early. So now Rebekah's fits are at least legal. Let's hope that her tantrums don't last as long as Leah's (we're still dealing with them).









This weekend, we divided the family. Chad took the older three kids to his side of the family for some work and fun. I took Rebekah with me to visit my side of the family. The kids got to ride in Pamela's naked car (Leah call convertibles cars that are a little naked because they don't have tops on) and swing on the rope swing with their cousins in Grandma and Grandpa's back 40.








My mom watched Rebekah for over 5 hours so I could spend some time working in the library doing research on my dad's Swedish ancestors. I made quite a few discoveries, so the time was well spent. Thanks for the baby-sitting, Mom!

Chad met up with us on Saturday afternoon. We drove home on Monday, stopping to buy some peaches along the way. It took us about 5 hours to drive home. It usually only takes 3. We were driving 2 vehicles, so the fighting was lessened.

So yesterday morning, Chad and I put up some peaches. It was our first time doing peaches. We're learning each thing slowly. It's amazing that I did any canning. I only feel like resting lately. I still haven't completely cleaned up the kitchen from that activity.

Yesterday afternoon, we headed to the State Fair. The kids were all very excited about going. We saw lots of stuff, ate some very expensive food for dinner, visited a few (hundred) animals and wished that we could ride way more rides than was permitted. One woman made an effort to compliment our genes. She said our kids were so good looking that we should have a dozen of them. I replied that if they were as well behaved as they are good looking, there would be a better chance of that happening. It was a nice compliment, but I think she was just buttering us up so we'd buy some of her amazing lint rollers. (It didn't work.) Here's a video of some of our "fair fun" and some pictures.




















We've been moderately successful with our garden this year. We've brought in an armful of zucchini, bunches of carrots and multiple bowls of tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes have been SO yummy that I've been eating them by the handful. This baby will either really Love tomatoes, or be allergic to them! Nathan is our most excited gardener. He has been giving us progress reports on the zucchini. Just today he told Chad that there was one that wasn't quite ready, but probably would be in about an hour! He's also keeping track of our carrots. He found this one with "two legs" the other day and ate it this afternoon.