Gerrit is 4-Months

I can't believe my baby is already 4-months old. I have no idea where the time goes. He is growing up and getting so big. When I took him for his check-up, he weighed 16 pounds 2 ounces and was 26 inches long. As you can tell, he above average. He checked out to be healthy and fine, not that we were worried. To make sure there is no fighting later on, I have tried really hard to take my kids' pictures at the same intervals. I have taken the other kids' pictures at 3 months. Well the third month crept up really fast and I was able to take these pictures right before he turned 4 months. I think that counts.

Happy Birthday Kaymin!!!

I can't believe I have an 8-year old. Kaymin turned eight on the Saturday, September 20th. I told her she could have a party and invite 5 friends. I had the party all planned and I guess that was the problem. She was not on board. We were going to have the party here so I bought each of the girls matching High School Musical Pajamas and all. But two weeks before her birthday she informed me that she only wanted to invite Courtney and Taylor. I told her then I would take them somewhere and Hollywood Connection was the place. It is an indoor amusement park for kids as well as a roller skating rink and miniature golf. The kids had so much fun. Even Gerrit was able to ride on the carousel. For her birthday she got her ear's pierced. Our friend Susan pierced them for her and told us that we couldn't pay her that it was her present to Kaymin. She was so excited. She is being very responsible and cleaning them herself. She LOVES them and LOVES to show them off. She looks so cute in them. Today begins her first day of activity days. She is so excited to go. On October 11th (Blake's birthday) she will be baptized. Happy Birthday Kaymin, I love you!!!

My Very Happy Baby

I've been trying for some time now to film Gerrit laughing. I swear everytime he is in the giggle mode, I hurry and pull out the camera and he stares at it like it is something to be afraid of. Last night was different. He didn't care and continued to giggle, well not at first. Sorry you have to hear my crazy voice...yes, and it is even in baby talk, but he was being so stinkin' cute.

What a Week!!!

I feel like I have been in a fog this past week. It has gone by very fast and it has been crazy. I have been the canning queen, canning pickles, stewed tomatoes, pear sauce (like apple sauce only with pears and it is to DIE for), and chicken. I just had to break in my new equipment. As most of you know we decided to redo our backyard this summer. Well, it has been quite the long and drawn out process, but we finally poured our last piece of cement to finish off what we wanted to do this summer. We started in March and it has cost us a pretty penny, but it has been money worth spent. WE LOVE OUR BACKYARD!!! Our last piece of cement we wanted to pour was for our future shed and our dog. We moved the dog and his kennel to the side of the house, because heaven knows you cannot put a dog on our new patio in the backyard. Well our $700 dog decided to escape last Thursday night/Friday morning. Blake went out at 5:30 am to feed him and he was gone. He has never done that. Kaymin cried and cried. I was quite happy...but don't tell. We finally found him in the pound on Saturday and $90 later Blake had his dog and Kaymin was happy. As luck would have it, we have never put his license tags on him, nor have we activated his microchip. Well you can bet we have now.

We have been living in somewhat of a jungle. Our lawnmower's transmission went out about 4 weeks ago and it's been in the shop. They told us it would take 7 to 10 days to fix, but here we are 3 weeks later and no lawnmower. Our grass was so long and I truly felt like the white trash neighbors. We live in a cul-de-sac and our neighbor's yards are so beautiful and then there was ours. Maybe since I have to look at it everyday while I am home or maybe because it is just how I am, I couldn't stand it any longer. It was really getting on my nerves when grass would blow in the breeze and would touch my shins. YUCK!!! Well, our wonderful friends and neighbors, Sarah and Jake, let me borrow their lawnmower. Oh yes, I finally feel normal again. Just look at the before and after pictures. It did take me 4 hours to mow it between kids and mowing down a jungle of grass/weeds, but I no longer feel like I am going to lose my kids in the backyard.

My Baby is Rolling Over

You know how you find yourself wishing away your kids childhood by saying things like: I can't wait until they can walk, I can't walk until they can ride a bike, I can't wait until they drive....well you get my drift. Gerrit just started rolling over and he is only 3 months old! I am not ready to wish away his life since he is my last. Even though every stage is fun, I just want him to be little so he doesn't have the choice to snuggle with me or not. He would rather be on the floor than anywhere else so I am sure that is why is already rolling over from his back to his front. He is such a good baby and we are so glad we have him. For those of you that do not know, Gerrit was a complete surprise. Not a surprise as some of you might think, but we found out that Gerrit was going to come to our family three weeks before he was born. By then I had finally accepted (kind of, but don't tell Blake) that we were done. We had given away all of our baby stuff and decided to try to move on. Gerrit has truly been a blessing in our lives and is loved by all. I think the poor kid would like to be left alone sometimes, but it is really hard when you are in this house. He has 3 older siblings all over him as well as a mom and dad. Hopefully he won't grow up as fast as the others...but I am afraid he will.

The Domestic One

Oh, this week has been an adventurous one in the kitchen. I have always enjoyed cooking, but I believe I canned way too much with my mom while I was younger to have any interest in that. Well, this year we overhauled our backyard. I love the way it turned out, but it is not quite done yet. One of the things we did, was move our garden and made it bigger. I planted 36 tomato plants, thanks to our neighbors who supplied about half of those plants. With the price of groceries going up and a ton of tomatoes that needed to be used, I decided to try canning this year. My neighbor and wonderful friend, Sarah, gave me two different types of salsa recipes to try. So this week I've been canning. One of the things I swore I would never do. I canned 54 pints of salsa. One of the recipes was suppose to taste like Chilis salsa. However, the recipe called for 1/4 cup of salt per 25 Roma tomatoes. Needless to say it tasted good, but VERY salty. The second recipe I tasted while it still warm and it didn't have a lot of flavor to it. Was it because I was used to the one with all salt, or could it be it just needed to sit longer. I don't know. I guess I will need to open up a jar and try it again. I really enjoyed canning. Maybe it was because I did just a few at a time and most of them I canned at my house at my pace. Blake gave me the go ahead and I spent $130 on canning supplies so I will have my own stuff and not have to borrow Sarah's or my mom's. Anyway I already have plans on other things I would like to try: stewed tomatoes, applesauce, apple pie filling, pears, pear butter (my sister-in-law wants to do this and I don't even know what it is, but what the heck), and pickles. I guess what they say really is true, I really am turning into my mom!!!