Party time

My youngest brother Dan came to visit from College Station over the 18th-20th. He is a wonderful guest because he loves to cook and made us fabulous meals 3 nights in a row. He brought us some halibut and salmon from Alaska (he went fishing with my dad and other brothers at the beginning of the month).
He is single - he is a getting his masters in Meat Science so his only requirement in a woman is that she know the proper names of the 4 stomachs of a cow. Totally kidding, Dan.

We went to Marburger Farms in Fredericksburg while Dan was here to pick peaches.
Merry was really helpful and her eyes are sort of creepy - I need to fix that

Mom missed the peaches in the picture entirely

The other peach picker

The peach eater

Then we went to Fredericksburg for ice cream- Jacob chose Krazy Kolors - it looks like melted crayons. Who would think of that? It stains.
Jacob moved too fast for the camera when we picked peaches

Gracie and mom

Another random shot

Just because she is so cute.

What did the peaches become? Peach perserves, canned peaches, and some fabulous peach cobbler. Try this recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Southern-Peach-Cobbler-2/Detail.aspx

I also found a wonderful product that makes Merry's braids stay smooth- unless the braids come out - then it looks like this

This weekend my sister moved to Texas - she spent the weekend with us before migrating on to Kingsville. These are our older hooligans in the bathtub (she has kids the same age as me).
Check out those guns
My sister brought a game called Settlements of Zarahemla or something like that- anywho we stayed up until 1:30 in the morning playing it because it was so grand

Now for something completely different
Grace is turning 3 months this week. She celebrated by starting to cut her 1st tooth
(notice the drool).
P for all you dentists out there

How cute are her dimples?

She also is rolling - that is why most of my pictures ended up like this

We also went to Sydnee's birthday party at Fiesta Farm- it was so much fun.
We also had some to-die-for BBQ at the Zufelt's - I am so glad we live close enough to smell when they are BBQing - Sadly I didn't have my camera at either event.

And now for an explanation of the previous post- It was our modesty fashion show.
We went shopping at Salvation Army (hopefully this explains the extra fancy wardrobe selections). I will be donating my windsuit to the 1st person who says they want it.

Ah Cha Cha Cha

I am sure you are wondering what has been going in on my life- here is a little hint of the fun-ness that has been going on the past week-  Get ready for a more detailed post - I have a little editing to do and a little more xbox to play ( I am busy beating sponge bob with Jacob or rather for Jacob).  Adios and enjoy the picture! ( I know every one is so envious of my purple and pink fantasy leisure wind suit)

Bumper crop and little druggie

I didn't check my garden for a couple of days and look what happened- over grown zucchini

You know what that means- Zucchini Bread

This is the 1st year I have grown poblano peppers- apparently they do pretty well here- so if you have any good recipes using them let me know

Why Merry is a nursery dropout-

  Every week she goes she spends the rest of the week sucking down Xopenex- forget a security blanket -she loves her monster mask

This is the post drug glazed over look

I don't have any Gracie pictures- so I will just tell you what she has been up to.  She sleeps about 18 hrs a day and likes to rub the back of her hair while she eats (a little vain I know)

Life as I know it

On any typical afternoon this is what my family room looks like.
I have no idea why Merry is wearing that hat- I don't even know where she found it, because I haven't seen it in several months

Funny Merry stories-I took away my cell phone from Merry today, she started to cry and said "I am not Merry any more- I am sad."
Merry also has I special dance she calls her girl dance- it consists of her jumping up and down and flapping her arms. Brian started imitating her the other day- she screamed at Brian- "that dance is not for boys its for giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirls." Boys doing the girl dance is a pretty serious crime in Merry's book.

I found some super cute denim at walmart the other day- it has a cool stripey weave. I could not resist it even though I am on a self-imposed cloth buying ban. Now it is a denim jumper for Merry complete with yogurt stains.

4th of July cont.

After an afternoon siesta and some Sonic drive through. We headed to Boerne with some friends to watch the fire works.
This is the motley crew of kids
the fireworks were awesome

this is an interpretive light wand dance by Merry - apparently she moves a lot during a 30 second interval- (Merry is the big blob of light - Jacob is the trail of green and yellow in the background-  the red is a car going past)
and what did little Gracie think of all of this? her face says it all
.

4th of July

The morning of the 4th of July we went to the ward pancake breakfast and bike parade.   We were supposed to take our favorite topping, Jacob wanted to take floof (aka ready whip) and grapes.  I have no idea where that came from because we have never had grapes on our pancakes before. 

Pre-parade on the front porch showing off their 4th of July finery.

Gracie's and Merry's finery was hand-crafted by me-(okay slapped together last minute so that I could get rid of some red and blue cloth in my crap closet)

This is Merry post-parade taking a break on the curb. 

Jacob had the best time of all- he rode around the parking lot of the church on his scooter so many times he wore holes in the toes of his brand new shoes. Note to self- only buy rubber toed shoes for Jacob

2 Months old

Gracie weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 14oz
I love this age when they start smiling- she has the cutest dimples. Jacob and Merry love talking to her to try and get her to smile.
I also love her fuzzy hair.