One Year Older and Wiser Too!

We are now the proud parents of a 7 year old. I think I say this every year, but I can't believe 7 years have passed already. Parker's birthday celebration started a week early when my parent were down for a quick visit. We went to Kevin and Candace's for Sunday dinner and then celebrated my Mom's birthday and Parker's birthday. My parents gave Parker a new basketball and he has absolutely loved it. In fact the night after he got it, Lynn and Parker were shooting a few hoops and then Parker came in and told me that he needed to get to bed so that he could do his basketball homework the minute he got home from school the next day. Well, the next day I was busy canning peaches with Peggy and at about 2:50 I was wondering where Parker was because he usually gets home at about 2:40. I hurry and get my shoes on to go look for him and there he was in the driveway doing his basketball homework. Even though it was really cute, I told him next time he needs to at least come and tell me he was home. Parker's birthday landed on a Sunday this year and we decided last year that we were only going to do friend parties every other year so it was nice to have a small get together with Lynn's parents and Kevin and Candace the day of his birthday. He woke up very excited that it was his day and made the request that we all call him "Birthday Boy" the whole day. Parker wanted a Lego cake this year, but didn't want to have marshmallows as the little nobs on the top so I got brave and decided to give rolled fondant a try. I was amazed at how easy it was to use and I love the bright colors that worked great for the Lego's.

We have being doing quite a bit of golf lately and Parker has decided that he can hit Nike balls the very best so Lynn wanted to get him his own box of Nike balls. Go Tiger!

And of course more Lego's. He is still a huge fan and plays with them practically every day. I've become a big fan myself.

Thanks to everyone that made this such a special day for our boy. Parker is such a great kid, he is always so truly caring about others. As Grandpa Dahle says he has a tender heart. He makes friends easily and is such a good big brother to Madilyn. His favorite things are Mac & Cheese, Lego's, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, spending time with his family, golf, basketball, fishing, playing the Wii and pretty much any sport. We are so glad we've had the opportunity to have him in our family and look forward to many more years.

Canning or Nesting?

This past week I have been a little domestic for some reason. Lynn says I'm just nesting, but I've been having a lot of fun canning some food. On Tuesday, Peggy helped me bottle 1 bushel of peaches. Wednesday I did Plum Jelly and Raspberry Jam (frozen and cooked). Thursday I made Chili Sauce and then Friday of the next week I made Jalapeno Jelly with Candace. Everything turned out great and I only had one bottle of peaches that didn't seal and one bottle of chili sauce that broke when it went in the hot water. Other than that, everything went very smooth.

I know I am a dork for taking pictures, but for some reason I find canned food to be so pretty. I finally had to take a break from painting doors that I mentioned in a earlier post, but the nesting has definitely continued between canning the food to painting our kids dresser (pictures to come soon), to cleaning out our cold storage, and more. I wish I could always have this energy and motivation to get things done. However, it has helped that work has been a little slow as well. I'm now starting to get a few jobs coming in so I guess the projects will be on hold again for a little bit.

Raptor's Game Again

Thanks to a friend of Lynn's, we scored some tickets to one of the last Raptor's games in Ogden. Carley, Grayson and their kids were able to meet us there and we all had a fun time watching the game. It was especially entertaining watching Carson get so involved in the game. He was really upset when the Raptor's ended up losing. However, the game was a little dangerous. When we first arrived, there was a gentleman sitting in our section that had just gotten hit right in the face by a foul ball. It looked pretty awful and they were just waiting for the Doctor's to get there to help him. Then after we sat down, part of a broken bat went flying into the stands (a section over from ours) and hit a lady walking to her seat. She didn't seem to get hurt too bad, but it made us a little jumpy each time a ball was hit. Luckily the Ogden Police Department was giving away free bike helmets to the kids that night so our kids had a little protection for a while. :) We had a great time at the game and as always it was fun to see Carley and catch up with her and get filled up on the delicious garlic fries. Madilyn, Parker, Carson and Alivia - it is very difficult to get 4 kids to look at the camera. Carley is due about 5 weeks after me. It was fun to be able to compare pregnancy woes and of course we had to get a picture. We are really excited because Carley and I have literally been friends since we were babies. Our families were neighbors and Carley was born on my due date of May 5th and then I was born 16 days later on May 21st. We even have a picture of our moms holding us as newborn babies. We played together as kids and then when her family moved out of state, we were great pen pals. Then our senior year in high school she moved back to Newton and we finished off our last year of school together. We have always been close and were even roommates for a year and a half before we both got married. She is a great friend and will always be my BFF.

Wellsville Founder's Day

Along with Labor Day comes the classic Founder's Day celebration in Wellsville. It is pretty much the only parade we go to all year and is always fun to catch up with old neighbors and friends while we are there. This year, we were able to have the Schmelter family and Kady tag along with us. After a delicious breakfast at Kady's house, we all ventured out to Wellsville for the parade. We had to introduce the entertaining/politically incorrect Sham Battle to someone new this year and as always it was great fun. Thanks to Phil and Julie for going the night before and setting up chairs in the shade. For some reason, I didn't pull out my camera much, but here are a few pictures of the festivities. Parker, Ewan and Silvie watching the parade. Madi and Parker enjoying some cotton candy. Madi is definitely Lynn's daughter with her love of sugar. I couldn't ever get her to look up in the picture, she was way too intense on getting the cotton candy eaten.

After the fun times out in Wellsville, Lynn and I were able to get in a round of golf with Val and Lannis. It was a great day!

Time Full of First Days

This time of year always brings about a lot of first days for everything the kids are involved in. We've had the first days of school, Madi started her first day of a new dance class, Parker had his first day of piano lessons again and Madi started Story Time at the library again. It is nice to get back on a schedule and routine, however along with all the first days, comes some busy times of running around. I wasn't on the ball enough to get pictures of all these first days, but I did get one of Madi and Annie on their first day of dance class. Don't they look like two cute ballerinas?