Beans, Beans, Beans!

Ryan was late in getting the garden out so we just now got our first picking of green beans. I picked yesterday, we snapped them last evening and I canned them last night. We ended up with 50 pints of beans! It's alot of work, from plowing to planting to picking to canning, but so worht it!

Abigail helped me and hung with me until 1am!! She was a huge help!

snapped and ready to go


washing the jars


Abigail putting salt in the jars




Blanching the beans




Filling the jars


Abigail filling a jar




waiting for the lids and rings


Abigail counting the lids and rings and bringing them to Mommy




ready to go in the pressure canner


loaded and ready to go - 20 pints


Under Pressure


Glad that Ryan got two of them! :) Made it go quicker.


Finished product


Abigail conked out. I made her lay down at 1am and she was out in minutes.

The P family

We've been trying to get these pictures done since Spring and was finally able to get it done tonight...just in time. Their son gets his head shaved for school tomorrow. They were so much fun to work with, and loved to laugh together. :)

Here's a sneak peek:

Happy 5th Birthday to our sweeties

WaterPark with Jennifer & Avery

We were so happy to get to spend the day at the waterpark with Jennifer and Avery before Avery had to start Kindergarten full time.

We had so much fun, and Caleb & Avery had a blast together holding hands and sliding down the tubgoat. They must have done it about a hundred times.

Abigail overcame her fear of the waterslide and the big water bucket dumping water on her head. Once she made it up the steps and down the slide, she didn't want to stop.

Thanks Jen & Avery for such a fun day!
























all three of them have STUNNING blue eyes






It was overcast all day so when they got out they were cold. Caleb wrapped up and laid down on the table.










We took lunch with us. Caleb loved Jennifer's yellow carrots.

Abigail & Caleb in Orange

I am sooo behind on my blogging. My newphews were with me for two weeks and I haven't caught up since then. Hopefully this week...I have lots of fun pictures from when they were here, plus a newborn & his big brother.

Here's Abigail & Caleb from today....jst because they looked so dang cute this morning.

Caleb's new favorite color is orange so I found Abigails dress and his shirt from our local Christian Outreach center yesterday (think HUGE thrift shop - the money they make goes to help local families in crisis). Hers was new with tag and I loved it, then was thrilled when I found a shirt to "match" for him.