Jones Family Reunion

My mom's cousins have been planning a family reunion for a year now. They haven't had one in 60 years, pretty much. My mom threatened all of us that we had to be there. Grudgingly we all went. We ended up having SUCH a great time! In fact, we decided we would do one again in 3 years.

My pictures from the reunion didn't turn out, so I'll post those later. After the reunion we went to my mom's house and hung out. We took Isabella over to the barn to see the cows. She loved them! She thought they were funny and as soon as she saw them she started to moo at them. She spit at the horses (that's her way of doing the horses sound). She's a genius, I tell you! Travis was out there laying pipe, Frank offered to help him, so he got to drive the 1953 John Deere.

The next day, Isabella, my sister Stephanie, and her kids all went swimming. Frank opted to stay at my mom's house and help the contractor finish up her remodel.

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Last year after Halloween I pureed the pumpkins that we bought. I never carved them, I just used them as decorations and then pureed them. It was quite the process.

First I cut up all the pumpkins and put them on cookie sheets.



Then I baked the pumpkin in the oven for 2 hours.

After the pumpkin has cooled you peel off the skin and put it in the blender. Mine ended up making 6 gallons of pumpkin.

I didn't really know what I was going to do with the pumpkin, but I was pretty proud of myself for doing it. When I went to Stephanie's house for Thanksgiving they made pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies, they were heaven! And they are only 30 calories! It took me 6 months of looking for spice cake mix to find it, I couldn't ever find it in CA, I had to buy it in UT.

Here they are. They are YUMMY!
Recipe:
32 oz. pumpkin puree
2 boxes spice cake mix
1 bag chocolate chips

bake in the oven for 12-15 at 375*.

Fairyland

A group of my friends are doing field trips with our kids every Friday. This Friday we went to a place called Fairyland. It was a lot of fun. They have all the fairy tales and their "houses." It's made for little kids, all the rides are for kids under 54". Bella loved the train. She was so excited and pulled her "seizure face" the whole time. It was great to be at a place where you could just let the kids run and not have to worry about them. You could see them from about anywhere and they only let people into the park with children, so it was pretty safe.

Carousel. It only went around, not up and down. Bella really enjoyed it.

Bella just wanted to climb on everything. She wouldn't go back down the slide, just up and down the stairs.

I'm ruining my reputation

With my mom being here, she's inspired (or forced, depending on who you asked) to try to broaden my domestic skills. Not only did we make apricot jam, but we've also tried pizza on the grill, I made some new cookies (pumpkin spice) and we ever tried our hands at rolls. They were very yummy, especially with the homemade jam on them! I didn't roll them thin enough, so they turned into very large french rolls. They were still yummy though!


Bella has started climbing up on the chairs and getting into the fruit basket on the table. She'll pick anything out of it and eat it, skin and all. She picked up an apricot and took a bite, then she picked up a cherry tomatoe (they are yellow ones) and took a bite. I think she was expecting it to be another apricot. She pulled the funniest face, I missed it with the camera though.

Happy Anniversary!

I just wanted to say happy anniversary to my amazing husband! The last two years have been interesting to say the least, but I couldn't imagine going through it with anyone else. We have managed to grow as a couple and love each other more every day despite the huge obstacles that have been in the way! Thanks for the last 2 years and here's to many many more!

Apricots already?

My friend Stefanie lives on a very cool piece of property. She has all kinds of land and trees. Her apricot trees ripened up this week, so we decided not to let them go to waste.

We picked four bags of apricots and ended up making 31 pints of freezer jam with the help of my mom. It was quite the production. Frank was making fun of us, we couldn't remember if we had the sugar in, the pectin in, the day sounded a lot like this:
"Okay, this one's ready"
"Oh, it's tart"
"Oops, I forgot sugar."
"Wait, this one now has twice the sugar."
"This one needs to sit for 10 more minutes."
"No, it's done."

It was very funny to say the least.

Virgina Trip

I'm finally getting around to blogging. I've been too tired and too much playing to blog lately.

We've had a busy month. The first week in June, Frank, Bella and I flew to VA to see our nephew, Paul graduate from high school. He graduated Cum Laude and has a track scholarship to Georgia Tech. We are VERY proud of him! My mom met us in VA and we took the week to sight see. I won't bore you with all the pictures, just a few.

Butterfly at the exhibit at the Smithsonian. Do you see an owl's eye or a snakes profile?


Inside the butterfly exhibit, my mom, Bella, Me, SIL Renee and Nephew Brian
Mount Vernon. Notice Bella is sleeping (she did a LOT of that in the stroller), excuse the hair, it was HOT and humid!!
Bella with Grandpa Frank
Bella loved all the attention she got. She had a ton of fun with Paul in this box. They were determined to get her to walk while we there, no such luck, she still isn't walking.

Paul receiving his diploma

Panda at the National Zoo

Bella slept in her stroller, A LOT!

Thomas Jefferson's house. I have to admit going there, I wasn't really sure who he was. I knew he had something to do with the starting of this country and he was a president, that was the extent. Seeing his house and learning more about him was VERY interesting. He is definitely someone I would like to have dinner with, if I could.