Time flies

Not sure how we went from August to December with no blog update!  Sorry about that, time flies when you are having fun!  Grace is loving preschool and had her first Christmas program.  She did great! Ellie is walking all over the place and into everything.  It is making the Christmas tree, presents, etc. fair game for her.  We "lost" a present the other day, but found that she had stuffed it under a couch cushion.  :)  What a girl!


I will leave you with a few funnies...

I wish I would have had a tape recorder going during my workout.
Grace: Why does that lady only have a bra and shorts on?
Me: Well, she must be hot.
Grace: I don't think she looks that hot, her hair is kind of ugly.
Me: Gracie, that isn't nice!
Grace: Well, it is the truth. By the way, why doesn't she know your name? She just keeps saying keep it up girls.
Me: The dvd is for anyone that wants to do it, not just me.
Grace: Are you okay? You seem to be having a hard time talking.
Me: I'm fine, just out of breath from working so hard.
Grace: Oh good, well, I think I will go upstairs and watch my shows.
Me: K-I'll be upstairs when I am done.
Fast forward 30 minutes to find Grace with a bag of chips sitting on the couch.
Me: What do you think you are doing?
Grace: Watching Little Einsteins and eating chips is way better than watching you and the happy lady on tv.

Canning and cakes

What a busy day it has been already! My goal was to wake up at 5:30 AM and get started canning right away. That was my goal, but I was up with a 9 1/2 month old teething little girl at 1:30 AM and just couldn't drag myself out of bed. She woke not long after though, then we were all up! Went out and did chores, I have to admit every time I go in the chicken house I start getting excited at the thought that there may be eggs waiting for us very soon!

After the girls ate their breakfast we started on baking today's cake. It is red velvet and will be decorated with monkeys. By this time Ellie was ready for her nap and I quickly started peeling apples. I was about to make my first attempt at apple pie filling in a jar. My first batch of syrup got dumped to the chickens-they enjoyed it, for some reason it looked lumpy to me, like the clear jel didn't mix in with the other ingredients. The second batch was better and tasted great. I was able to do 5 quarts and they all sealed!

By now, Ellie is taking her second nap. The red velvet cake is frosted and looks yummy. So much for quiet time...Ellie is squealing. My hope is more apple pie filling tonight! :)

Holy Apples

The apples are ready at our house! This morning I canned 13 jars of applesauce. We will enjoy those this winter! Thankfully, Ellie napped through most of that, I don't like "playing" scalding jars with a 9 1/2 month old crawling around my feet. These are the days I love, but I don't love the mess!

Grace gets her school picture taken tonight and gets to meet her teacher. I think she is getting excited for preschool, but I am not sure about mommy! I can't believe I am not a parent of a preschooler. I remember teaching preschool and seeing those parents so nervous for the first day-now here I am in their shoes. I admit it I am acting exactly as they did!

Here I go again...

I am going to attempt to keep this blog more up to date! I am not going to recap the last 7 months that I haven't posted, but will just pick up where I am in my life. :)

Gracie is 3 years old and is all registered for preschool at a local catholic school. She is pretty excited and I am a little nervous! I can't believe she is going to start preschool!

Ellie is 9 months old and crawling and pulling herself up to everything! She puts everything in her mouth which makes for a nervous momma! She has recently started sleeping through the night (most nights) she is quite different from Gracie.

Rob and I recently celebrated our 7 year anniversary with a trip to the local race track to watch the horse races. This is something we used to do quite often, so thought is would be fun. We enjoyed our little break from reality.

Yesterday was a very busy day! Gracie and I canned 7 half pints of pizza sauce and 5 pints of salsa. When Rob got home from work his mom came over and we butchered 5 more broiler chickens. We have 8 more penned up for tonight, the 8 for tonight are already sold.

Off to unload and load the dishwasher and need to go to get groceries when Miss Ellie wakes up from her morning nap!

Grace birthday invite

More Canning

Well yesterday my aunt furnished me with enough green beans and cucumbers to make 19 quarts of green beans and 12 quarts of dill pickles. I am so excited to try the dills, as I am experimenting with the best spices. I missed a girls shopping trip today, because of spending so much time on my feet canning yesterday, just didn't feel like shopping all day.

Changes

Wow, have there been a lot of changes since my last post! We found out in February that baby #2 was due in November, we closed on our acreage just days later on March 1, I quit my job effective June 30, 2010, and we moved in to our new house the second week of May. Holy buckets, we have been through a lot! We have since found out that we are expecting baby girl #2, but haven't decided on a name. Grace thinks her name should be Suzie, but I would rather keep looking. :) I am loving being at home with Grace, we have been very busy this summer. I think the reality of being a stay at home mom will sink in more when my family and friends go back to school in August. Yesterday I was busy canning green beans and peaches for this winter and will update more on that later! Until now, I hear punky waking up!