Cutie Pie William

Sniff Sniff. William turned 11-months old this week. Somedays it seems like this has been a really long year, and other days I wonder how my baby got so big so fast! He is just a real sweetheart. We have had a miserable couple of teething weeks this past month, but now he is back to his curious fun-loving self! I took these pictures a while ago, all on the same day. He is just on the go all day long! So, first I found him strategically sitting in a booster seat, watching the paper towel roll unravel. Then, he got food all over his clothes so I had to change him. It is not uncommon for me to find William pulling the dishes out of the kids' dishes cupboard, but this day, that wasn't enough. He had to be IN the cupboard throwing everything out. He's always trying to get "up" onto something.

Which brings me to his next messy picture (which wasn't too messy this day, but potentially it leads to flour spilled, pots on the ground, cups, spoons, whatever onto the floor). He loves to climb. The kids sometimes use this ladder to help me cook or to reach something in the food cupboard. They have a bad habit of leaving it out and William is like a magnet to it! He sees it set up and nothing else can deter his mind! He is up in a flash destroying whatever he can reach on the counter!

(He does mix up a pretty mean fried eggplant and spaghetti, so maybe I'll let him keep climbing!)

September Harvest

Look what I picked from my garden yesterday!! Ok, so I know it isn't much, and the eggplant is tiny and the onions are about as big as they were when I planted them, but its September and my garden is still going! I have to admit, our success this year was medium-fail! But, its nice to have a little bit to show for all of the hard work. Oh, and just so you know, I whipped up a mexican omlet with these ingredients for dinner and it was so yummy!

Hurricane Irene

Wow, so blogging has taken a backseat for a while! I thought I would throw a few pictures up on here while I had a minute.


So, the big hurricane came through a couple of weeks ago and it was just a really interesting time here. We talked about this hurricane days before it arrived. When it did come, yes, Bryce and the kids went outside and played in it. Earlier in the day, it was all just fun and lots of rain and wind, but then that wind picked up and boy, it was kinda scary! We don't have many trees around our house, so we were fortunate enough report that our only damage was a ripped off corner piece of the house, and tipped over topiaries (and spilled gravel) on the front porch.

Glad we didn't have this to clean up!

Happy Independence Day!

Our cousins, the Carrs, came in to town to help us celebrate the 4th of July! I organized our neighborhood's first annual 4th of July parade! I really didn't know how the response was going to be, but when I walked outside Monday morning and saw the cul-se-sac filled with red, white, and blue kids on bikes, wagons, scooters, and lawn mower trailers, my heart filled with American pride! It was so wonderful to see! The parade was awesome - we invited the neighborhood over to our backyard for popsicles, volleyball, cornhole, and neighborhood mingling. People stayed for a couple of hours (before the heat melted us away). It was awesome.

The prep work:
We even had a lego float in the parade!



We made firework cookies (and ate them too!) which were really easy and very fun-looking! We "cooked out" (as they say here) and the weather was pleasant enough to enjoy eating outside together.
We did sparklers and snaps and smokey snakes before it got too dark. These 3 boys were brave enough to do some snaps in their teeth!
I just love celebrating the 4th! We sang patriotic songs as we lit the fireworks and talked about our country and how fortunate we are to be living here. We are just reading in the Book of Mormon about the Jaredites being brought to the promised land. We are so blessed to be here at this time in history. God bless America!

(we also did face painting this day and Annabelle had been a "black cat." It didn't come off that well!)

Blacksburg and Annabelle's 3rd Bday

Annabelle turned 3! She got a barbie cake and lots of fun girly presents. She felt so special. She is such a sweetheart! We love her so much!


Bryce went to scout camp last week, so I took the kids up to Blacksburg for a quick visit with friends. We rode horses, went swimming, visited the park, drove by our old home and school and neighborhood, rode on a zipline, made applesauce, played with friends. It was so refreshing to be back with friends. A piece of our hearts will always be in Blacksburg!

Whole Wheat Almond Butter Crepes with homemade Blueberry Sauce and Bananas

With Mangos on the side. Yum.

May, June, July?

Where did the last couple of months go??? I haven't had time to sit down at my computer long enough to upload any pictures in a long time! Isn't that so sad? I finally did today and realized that there are so many fun pics that I need to do something with!

I missed putting up Caleb's 9th birthday (the end of May). He had a bunch of friends over for peach cobbler, slip and slide, water volleyball, and 9-year-old boy fun! He is so much fun. He ordered a carrot cake for his bday cake again this year. Yes, I hand peeled the carrots and everything. I even made it dairy free so I could enjoy all the hard work!

Lucy finished off her softball season in June. She had a lot of fun playing. She was the only one on her team who actually made 3 outs in an inning! Too bad they didn't count outs :) She's a star!
Happy Father's Day to Bryce! The kids made him the enormous tie that he wore to church to show off how much we appreciate him!
He really is a fantastic Daddy! (William was taking a nap during this picture)
Late June we had a fun weekend with our long-time Blacksburg friends. We spent some fun time at the house jumping on the tramp and playing the wii. On Saturday we drove to a cute town called Little Washington that's on the waterfront. We saw sea turtles and walked on the boardwalk, and ate dinner on Main St.


Then we went to a nearby town called "Bath" where we enjoyed "The Promised Land" Pageant put on by our stake. It was a great production telling the story of a North Carolina Revolutionary family and how their generations down traveled west and found the church. The kids really loved it and we were really impressed by the talent!
We really enjoyed the pre-show festivities - they had bobbing for apples (I've always wanted to do this, as unsanitary as it seems!!). Latacha and I had a little competition:

I totally won!!