Butter

This will teach me to leave the butter on the table after lunch. She gets her desire for butter from her Aunt Laurel, or maybe it's her Aunt Cathy - it's been too long, I can't remember.

First Day of Preschool

Katie started her second year of preschool this week. I am involved with a co-op of 7 mothers who take turns teaching every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Katie really wanted to pick out her own clothes for her first day. Although the outfit does match I cringed when I saw how short her little skort was (sorry mom). If you look closely in the first picture you can see a yellow house in the background, just to the right of our white home, that's where her first and second day of school was held (convenient eh?).

Birthday Party

Last week we attended a birthday party for Byron's brother's son, Austin. He turned 1 year old!! You'll have to click on the collage to see any of these pictures in detail (Thanks Collette for the tip on Picasa 3). Included in the pictures are my kids, Kaitlyn & Madison, Austin (of course), and Peter & Janna's kids, Anna & Carter.

Blogging Made Easy

Does anyone have a simple, easy way to add posts with pictures? The typical "Create" method seems to take so long between adding pictures and fixing formatting. Also, how do I get my pictures to be 'clickable' (redirecting viewer to a larger version of the image)? I've just been adding them directly from my hard drive.

Catching Up

I’ve been terrible about keeping my posts up to date so I’m going to do a bit of catching up for the month of August. This will probably end up being a post full of pictures and not much text.

Our garden began producing this month. The cucumbers have been TERRIBLE but luckily I can pass the blame off on the weather, soil, neighborhood cats, or something nonhuman - most of my friends are having similar luck with theirs. Thankfully, our sugar peas were amazing. Byron planted a ton (you can see them behind Madison in the first picture. The girls love those peas and I love sending them outside to pick them for snacks (it makes me feel like a good mom – peas for snacks rather than chocolate granola bars).

We took the girls to the annual North Plains Garlic Festival. Honestly, I don't know what great connection North Plains has to garlic, they must produce it. I'm pretty certain Gilroy, California holds the title "Garlic Capital of the World" just drive by and you'll be convinced too. Anyway, a festival held in a town of under 2000 is quite the event. Below are pictures of the highlights so you can truly grasp the magnitude of this event. I loved the amazing garlic mashed potatoes and I think Byron's favorite part was picking and eating delicious blackberries along the path as we walked back to the parking area. Mabye next year we'll be brave enough to taste the garlic ice cream.

Something I am really learning to love here in Oregon are all of the berries. We've picked strawberries, blackberries, and recently blueberries. The girls spent a great deal of time eating with relatively little picking. Oh well, I just love that this kind of activity fits into two budget categories - entertainment and groceries.

On the 15th, Byron and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. We decided to stay close to home, by "close to home" I mean close to Byron's parents' home. Our hotel was literally 5 minutes away. Byron's mom met us at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) where she took the girls and we headed off for dinner and an Omnimax movie. I love OMSI, it's a great place to take kids on hot or rainy days. The first few pictures below were taken at OMSI.

This particular Friday turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer (in Oregon that means high 80s to low 90s) so we called up Byron's parents and had them meet us at our hotel with the girls so we could all cool off in the pool.

I tried my hand and canning peaches for the first time this year. I had two big boxes of them sitting on my table one afternoon and walked in to find Madison enjoying them all over the kitchen. It was a sticky mess.

Madi and Daddy enjoying peaches (with a fork, thankfully).

Katie gave her first talk in Primary recently. She did a great job.

Does anyone remember the Pot Belly Bear Santa gave me for Christmas? Mom can't find the bear but she did find his clothes - Katie thinks they are great for playing dress up.

My Sweet Madison

My Madison (20 months) must be the sweetest little girl on the planet. I tucked her in for her first nap today and she just giggled with excitement. For some strange and beautiful reason this little girl loves her naps. When she's ready for one she pops in her plug (pacifier) and drags her blanket to my side then looks up at me, makes this funny "uh-uh-uh" sound as she nods her head a few times, and then waits to be carried up to her crib. She always says "b-bye" as I'm leaving the room - it's a little tough to make-out with that plug firmly gripped between her teeth but I'm the mom, so I know what she's saying.

I love this shot of her, you can almost hear her saying "cheeeeeeese." My favorite is the spacing of her teeth - at 6 months she knocked out one of her bottom teeth so you can expect to see that gap for a few more years. It just adds to her cuteness.