Peaches and Pirates . . .

I'm kinda "well pleased" with myself right now! (oh, who am I kidding? I'm PROUD of myself. I know it's evil, but dang it, I'm full of PRIDE!) Move over Betty Crocker and Molly Mormon - there's a new Peach Queen in town! (coincidentally, for those of you who know that there actually IS a Peach Queen or 'Miss Brigham City', the new one is T.R.'s cousin!)

I canned 9 quarts and 12 pints (could've done more, but I didn't want to go back to the store to get more bottles!) made 3 pies, and a month's supply of 'puree' or as we call it here 'baby food'! Not bad for free - - thanks Grandma! And . . .

Every year some friends of ours celebrate September 19th, International Talk Like a Pirate Day (yes, that's a real thing!) by having a Pirate Party! So, here we argh!

Sara looks a little boy pirate - ish, but still super cute! T.argh even rented his costume this year - complete with boot covers! And, what you can't see is what you should appreciate most . . . . I have fishnet stockings on! Yikes! But I was trying my hardest to be authentic, and I figured that most sea worthy wenches would be wearing fishnets! How else are ya gonna catch enough dinner to feed those swarthy mates?!

Holy cow . . .

I can't believe I'm doing this, but it's been pretty slow around our house lately, nothing new and exciting to report - so I thought, "I know, I'll find the scariest picture I have of MYSELF, and wow all my faithful readers"! No, actually, T.R. finally put all of the pics from Sara's first days on our home computer and I stumbled upon this one (taken a week and a half before giving birth to my 9 lb. 3 oz. - 21" girlmonster!) and decided to post it as a way to further motivate myself to become an 'after' picture! I measured my so called "waist" the same day, and it had grown 15 inches! yah, that's not coming off without a fight . . .

Anna's Turn!

Anna started Preschool on Wednesday! She told me she couldn't put her arms down because they were "awake and excited" - - thus explaining the JAZZ HANDS! Tommy and Joey never went to preschool, so this is new to us . . . but our neighbor 2 houses away does it in her home, so how could I not send her?! She has a 10 second walk to and from . . . not bad! Not to toot her horn or anything, but she can already read and do math, and use scissors without cutting her fingers off - so the preschool thing is mostly for the social experience! (mom can only be so fun for so long!) In her primary classes and at home there's just boys, boys, boys, so I'm hoping this will somehow help her to see that she's NOT the boss and that there are other princesses in the world who also need to be heard! Here's hoping!

Strawberries are sour . . .

My cute Sara in the high chair for the first time - - seriously, can we please slow time down somehow?! I feel like I'm sending her off to college already, for pete's sake! (Please notice the Puma sneaks . . . a gift from one of my Laurels!) So STYLIN'

Now to feature what I believe to be a GENIUS invention . . . the thing in Sara's hand is a "binky" like contraption. The handle comes off and there is a little mesh bag that can be filled with fresh food (today it was strawberries) that baby can practice biting/sucking on without the danger of chokable chunks! Brilliant! Her favorite so far has been watermelon and cantelope - - the strawberries were a little too sour as manifested by her face! Luckily she doesn't seem to be allergic to anything so far. HMMM . . .What to try next . . .

What a weekend!

T.R. took the boys for a quick trip to Yellowstone this weekend! (well, Friday and Saturday!) What a good dad!
The girls stayed home 'cause mom's not really ready to "vacation" with the whole brood yet!
It actually turned out to be a good thing we stayed because . . .

Sara spent the weekend with a cold AND a sore mouth from cutting her two bottom teeth! NO FUN! The "ice sticks" helped, but the poor thing couldn't breathe! She seems better now - in fact at this very moment she's sleeping (has been for 3 hours!) because she can breathe again! Phew. She's such a little angel . . . even though she was misserable, she was SO good at church yesterday! (yes, we had to take her - TR and I both had to teach, plus I was being released from Young Women :( so we needed to be there.) What a trooper! I just wish there was some way to explain to them why they feel so rotten at this age! Poor thing!

World's Best Big Brother!