Its been a fun few weeks of canning! I'm not sure why i love it so much - but I do! Me and Natalie and Ashley have had our aprons on and water boiling. Here is what we've each canned so far.

10 jars Raspberry Jam
15 jars Apricot Jam
12 Quarts Salsa - 12 more to can on Saturday
10 Quarts Peaches - 16 more to can on Saturday


I'm hoping to find time to can a total of 40 quarts of peaches, and I'm going to try my hand at canning tomatoes next week. Any other suggestions on what I should be canning?

Fabulous!

I love my girlfriends! Really love them! Tonight we got together to celebrate Paige's birthday. We had fondue (way too much fondue) and mocktails. We chatted and laughed.. and laughed.. and laughed!! Love you girls! See you next month! (Suz sacrificed not being in the picture to take it for us).

Naughty!

23 Months

My Angel baby,

You officially turned 23 months old on the 8th.

Where did time go?

It seems like just yesterday you were born.

You makes me laugh everyday.

I smile just simply thinking about you.

I love that I was picked to be your mom.

I adore you more each day!

I love you so so much my Stella Boo.

kisses and hugs.

xoxoxo

Mom

Apricot Jam

My friend Natalie was given a huge bucket of apricots. She called me up and we knew exactly what to do... we had a JAM SESSION! Four batches of apricot jam was made. We will have more than enough apricot jam to last us 27 years.. maybe even longer! We love to can and its even better when the fruit is free!

Late Night Money Saving Madness!!!

As you already know... I love COUPONS!! My neighbor Natalie got me into it about a year ago and its so addicting and fun! I love getting a good deal and it makes me so mad when i pay full price for anything!

Last week me and three girls from my neighborhood got together and planned a midnight shopping spree to Smiths... they were having Double Coupon Days and we did not want to miss out!! Double coupons means we save even more money!! and you know what they say... A penny saved is a penny earned. Couponing has made me believer in that statement!

We ended up getting our toothpaste for FREE! That's right - F-R-E-E!!

We made ourselves right at home counting our coupons on the floor.

What has become of us?!

A fully stocked car after a night of hard work. Boy was it ever worth it!!

I got home at 2:00 in the morning and I was wired! Saving so much money had my heart racing and I wanted to call and tell everyone! Good thing my mom is a night owl because I had to tell someone (and I did not want to awaken Joe from his slumber)- i called my mom who was of course thrilled for me! And then i had to wake up Joe anyway - he was also very impressed.

I paid $17.79 for everything pictured above!! It may have been my best shopping trip ever!

Natalie scored even bigger... check it out here... also note that i stole her pictures right off her blog!

Babies!!

About a week ago I was one lucky Aunt!!

My niece Rachel was in from Chicago and needed a babysitter for her five week old baby. I jumped at the chance to spend some quality time with my GREAT niece Daphne!

What an angel she was!

(It still weirds me out that I'm only 28 and already a great aunt)

Later that evening we watched Joe's sister Julie's girls. 10 week old Ella Marie and 6 year old Erin.

Ella was a little doll and I was loving up on more baby cuddles.

Stella surprisingly did not care that I was holding Miss Ella. She was having the time of her life with her cousin Erin. When Erin left she just kept telling me "best friends Erin, where's Erin go?"

The "big" girls had so much fun. Playing on the slide, running at the park, playing hopscotch, reading books and just being girls!

We'll be up to visit in Duchesne soon!

Because its Fun

Stella has managed to break the child lock off of the pan cupboard.
I'm just happy she has not broken the lock on the door under the sink.
Her new favorite activity is to take all the pans out onto the back porch and "cook" things.
I get all sorts of pretend food from her. She cooks me ice cream and chocolate on a regular basis.
She has a sweet tooth just like her daddy.
You may ask why I let her take the pans outside and my response to you is Because Its FUN!
She absolutely loves it.. and I absolutely adore her!

All Horse Parade

I am so behind on blogging... I'm going to try and catch up over the next few days.

I'll be awaiting your comments on our super exciting life... i mean whats more exciting that an

ALL HORSE PARADE?

Now that Joe is back in school he has a lot of homework to do. On Saturday mornings Stella and I try to find something fun to do so we can get out of the house and let dad have some quiet study time for a few hours. On this particular Saturday we headed to Sandy for the All Horse Parade.

Stella couldn't have been more thrilled!!! She is still talking about the "forseys" aka horseys for those of you who don't speak Stella.

Stella's cousin Kaya made it for the final round of horses and they had a blast cheering them on. They love horses!

Meatballs!

While I was working this morning Stella was laying on my bed watching a movie. She came into my office and said "Mama, meatballs". We had not eaten breakfast yet so I asked her if she wanted meatballs for breakfast. She said "NO, mama meatballs". She took my finger and let me to the bedroom where i found her diaper laying on the ground surrounded by 5 meatball sized POOP balls! SICK!! She pointed at them and said "Meatballs, there they are!". I tried not to laugh at her - but it was really hard!

Probably more info than most of you wanted to hear, but i wanted to write it down so we did not forget about it.

I dont think we'll be having meatballs for dinner anytime soon!

The 4th of July

A Few Random Shots