We picked blueberries till we were blue in the face...

...not really. We actually picked less than $3 worth since we saw that the already boxed up ones were only $1.50/lb and the pick-your-own were $1.80. Seems so backwards! If it weren't for the boys we would have just bought the boxed ones and called it a day, but we had a good time picking.

We rode on the wagon out to the fields. Caleb was really sweet (what else is new?!) and waited patiently for a taste. Grandmom showed him how to pick them himself and before we knew it he was picking and eating almost as fast as his brother! By the end he was grabbing them off the bushes as we pushed his stroller along the aisles!

Sammy was really funny. I noticed he was eating a lot so I asked him how many he had in his basket. He looked in and then looked back up at me and said "oops!" His basket was empty after about 15 minutes of picking! It's so true that if they were smart they'd weigh the little ones before and after to make more money!

YUM!!

He and I have very different ideas of what saving for winter means!! =)

picking...

...eating...

...grinning because his basket is nearly empty!

Walking back to the wagon (to buy the pre-boxed blueberries!!)

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Fruity Fun

About half what we ended up with

This wasn't posed or anything! ;)

Look at that sweet boy!

Today we went to pick strawberries and cherries with Grandmom, Aunt Sarah and "my cousin baby Josie" (as Sammy calls her). You'll notice that there are no pictures of picking strawberries. That could be because Caleb was a crab and Josie wasn't thrilled with the carrier so Grandmom put the two of them in the corner which left Sarah, Sammy and I to pick strawberries. Well, actually it mostly left Sarah since Sammy was running up and down the aisles and I had to stop quite frequently to make sure he wasn't getting too far. Sorry, Sar! It was pretty hot and we didn't get a ton of strawberries, but the fun was to come!

Next we went around to the other side of the farm and picked cherries. I love to pick cherries! It's so fun! We picked from just one tree and ended up with TONS of cherries. We parked the two strollers under the tree in the shade and had a blast picking bunches and bunches of beautiful, delicious cherries. Someone (who will remain unnamed) even climbed the tree to pick. The kids were great and we came home with more cherries than I knew what to do with!

Silly

Sammy and I were doing laundry this morning (which in itself is awesome. He loves doing it so much that I get tons of loads done because he's constantly asking to go put more in!) and he said to me "Mommy, we don't get in the dryer. That wouldn't be very good...because I'll get trapped and someone will cook me!" Huh! How's he know he'll get cooked if he climbs in there? I'm not gonna fight it though! Maybe he'll never try it...wait, he's a boy! Regardless of what he knows about dangerous things he'll still try them won't he?! Oh well! I tried it when I was a kid and didn't "get cooked"!

Ponderings... **EDITED TO ADD MORE "WISDOM"**

1. As soon as you feel you have your house in order and clean - turn around...surely there's another mess happening already somewhere!
2. The calmer Mommy stays the calmer the child stays - the same is true with how upset and frustrated Mommy gets!
3. I take the small things in life - especially with my kids - for granted no fewer than 3,469 times each day! (To my shame!!)
4. The longer you wait for something the harder it gets to wait patiently (ok, so this one is not new to mankind, but waiting for an architect's plans is getting unbearable!)
5. A baby learns very early to whine and cry so his older brother will get yelled at!
6. The more i want to loose weight the more depressed it makes me and the more I eat! (absurd I say!!)
7. Regardless of the number of times you go to the grocery store there will always be days when you can't find anything to make for dinner!
8. Hammer pants are one thing that I pray daily will never come back into style! (that was random!)
9. When you're not looking toys breed!

**EDIT** (PLEASE DISREGARD IF YOU ARE PREGNANT (I KNOW WHAT THE "PREGGIE QUEASIES" CAN DO TO A GIRL!), JUST PLAIN HAVE A WEAK STOMACH OR HAVE NO CHILDREN (OR YOU MAY DECIDE TO NEVER HAVE ANY!!)
10. When your child is sick try to stay far, far away and do yourself and other children a favor and keep them far away too or they will have a much closer encounter with said sick child than anyone ever wants to experience (ie vomit in their mouth!!) and you may loose your lunch in the process!! Not to mention you now have multiple children to console, bathe and wash their mouths out with soap (just kidding! i remember what that was like and vow never to subject my kids to that!!)
11. When vomit is present in your house, no amount of scrubbing, bathing, laundry, etc will totally remove the smell. I swear it's not that it's still in my house, but in either my nose or brain and I can't escape it! I now have the cleanest floors on the block since they have been scrubbed more times in the last 24 hours than in the past month. Although maybe that's just saying something about my housework or lack thereof! =)
12. Life is full of essential decisions. One of them being, when you have sick children you need to take a moral stand on how to dress their beds (and yours too if they're the sharing type and allow you the joy of vomit in your sheets as well!) The question is whether to put a mattress pad on in hopes of sparing your mattress or leave it off in hopes of having less laundry which in some cases will be pointless since after a night full of puke you'll have multiple loads to do anyway!!

Oh, and lest I appear to be a totally heartless friend I must offer the following....
13. Take a good grammar class so as not to have run-on sentences like me in #'s 10 and 12!!

Tag! You're it!

I've been tagged. Your turn!

What was I doing ten years ago:
I was in the second month of classes in my first year of Bible School at the Word of Life Bible Institute in Argentina and I had just met my husband!

Five things on my "to do" list:
Laundry
Plant veggies
Straighten the house from kid clutter!
Cut and color my hair
Enjoy my iced coffee that my wonderful hubby brought me!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Finally put a 2nd floor on our house with all new furniture (no more hand-me-downs!!!!!!!!)
Save for college for the kiddos
Go on a cruise or something with my husband because he's amazing and deserves it!!
Go to Italy
Give to our church and missions

Three of my bad habits:
Procrastination
Lack of Exercise
Not being consistent 100% of the time in discipline

Five places I have lived:
Audubon, NJ
Merchantville, NJ
Runnemede, NJ
Mt Ephraim, NJ
San Miguel del Monte, Argentina

Five jobs I have held:
JC Penney (Men's Dpt)
American Express Financial Advisors
Perry Videx (bilingual secty/translator)
Stay at Home Mom (the best in the world!!!!!)
(I realize there are only 4 here, but I haven't had any others)

Happy Birthday, baby boy!!!

Our little Caleb had his first birthday yesterday! I can't believe it's been a year since this handsome, sweet, gentle little boy came into our lives! Caleb is the most laid back baby I've ever seen! He loves to cuddle, suck his thumb and play with his hair (or that of whomever is holding him...unless their name is Pop-pop in which case there's none to play with!), he is super serious and quiet around strangers, but lights up around those he knows, he calls everyone dada, he is FINALLY crawling and pulling himself up (so we're in search of a different nickname since "the lump" is now inadequate), he loves to see and play with his brother, he seems to live for bedtime when he can entertain everyone by standing in his crib and letting go so he falls down. He's an absolute joy! We are overwhelmingly thankful for how God protected him when I was burned! To give birth to him and find that he was absolutely perfect and unharmed by such a terrible situation and now to see him a year later we are completely in awe of God's protection and grace!
We love you so much, sweet Caleb baby!! Happy 1st birthday!!
*I planned on adding pictures to make this post all sappy as is my duty as a mom, but my SD card is being difficult so I'll try tomorrow after sleep restores my 3 braincells!

I think I passed on the Accident Prone Gene!

Growing up I was always hurting myself (wait, now that I think about it, as an adult I haven't done much better)! I've split my head open two times, torn muscles in my thigh and pulled muscles away from my ribs (super painful!) I've destroyed the tissue around the knuckles on my hand, broken my toe from dropping a very large jar of peanut butter on it, broken a finger from closing it in a sliding door of a minivan, popped my shoulder out of it's socket, had a number of sprained ankles, wrists, etc., got 2nd degree burns from my eyebrows clear down to my belly button while 9 months pregnant (whatever you do, don't try this one at home!!!)
So, I was vacuuming on Wednesday and Sammy was running around and climbing on and off the furniture having a blast like he usually does when I vacuum. He loves when it's time to get out the vacuum. He insists on dragging it out for me and turning it on and off. Well, I don't think he'll be so enamored with the vacuum after the experience he had with it! I kept telling him to stay out of the way (because it was taking twice as long - not because the thought had even remotely crossed my mind that he could get injured!!) I didn't realize that he had come up behind me and was trying to get to the couch, but he ran into the handle of the vacuum as I pulled it backward. He got wacked right in the face! It hit him so hard I was waiting for the black eye and blood to pour out of his nose. I felt horrible! I injured my child!! It turned out that it only left a red mark down his face from his eyebrow down along his nose to just above his nostril and it wasn't even real dark or noticeable.
Then tonight we went to my parents to pick up my dad's lawn edger (I am so excited to edge our lawn!!! but that's for another post!) My parents have a disappearing screen on their front door (kinda cool idea, but a little strange if you ask me!) Anyway, to get it to go up you tap it with your foot (the lazy way, I'll admit, but it's how we've always done it) and it zips up the door and rolls away out of sight. So, I tapped it and up it flew, but not before the handle wacked Sammy on the forehead! Again?!?! This can't be happening! Now he has a one inch raised red lump on his forehead. I'm such a bad mommy! My only consolation is that the poor child needs a haircut so bad that it covers most of his forehead so I don't think many people will see this lump!
*Aimee, if you're reading this I hope it makes you feel a little better that you're at least not the only mom who's kids will need therapy some day for the injuries their mothers have caused them!! =) *

Conversations with Sammy

The other day while we were all eating dinner Sammy started asking some deep questions about Jesus. He asked what we do to make Jesus happy and so we talked about how sharing, being kind, telling people about Him, taking care of each other, etc are all things that make Jesus very happy. He asked if Jesus was coming to our house and if He would eat with us at our table (Dining Room). We said we were pretty sure He wouldn't be eating with us. =) We tried explaining that we can't see Jesus, but that He's always with us and loves us and takes care of us. It's a little hard for his 3 year old mind to understand, but it's really cool that he's asking all of these questions and hopefully will be concerned with making Jesus happy so disciplining will go better! ;) I really wish I had written the whole conversation
Today we had a conversation that went something like this:
"Mommy, we're not going to work?"
"No. We're not going to work"
"Just people go to work?" {Wait a minute! What's that supposed to mean?! We're people!!!}
(Sammy again) "I work, Mommy!"
"You do? Where do you work?"
"Downstairs, Mommy! I work with my tools downstairs!" (he has a toolbench and tools in the basement! funny kid!)

I also want to brag a little about how well he's doing with potty training! We started on Monday. He had 3 minor accidents (one was after going on the potty just one time and another he ALMOST made it to the bathroom!) Yesterday he didn't have any accidents at all! He has woken up dry from naps both Monday and Tuesday and both Monday and Tuesday night he stayed dry all night!! Today he did have an accident. He did #2 in his undies...needless to say it wasn't very pretty! =/ Overall I'm THRILLED at how well he's doing and wondering why I didn't start sooner (ok, truth be told I was scared to death!!!)
Seriously, the kid makes me nuts, but he's a blast!!!

It's a girl!

My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on Thursday night. Her name is Josephine Grace. She's so tiny! Alright, so maybe that's because my boys were 9lb 3oz and 11lbs, but still she seems very tiny! Sarah and Josie are doing great and we're all enjoying having a cousin close by! Samuel only refers to her as "my cousin Josie"! It's very cute!

I'm a proud Aunt!! =)

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!!

This just in... Ladies and Gentlemen, you may want to put on your seatbelts for this one... Yes, you heard it first here. Pigs flew... ...and Caleb crawled!!! We go now to the nursery for a video for you skeptics!

My amateur baking

I've had several people ask me about my cake making. I obviously have no idea what I'm doing, but for whatever reason I just love it! It's really fun to figure out how to make things (and sweat and stress over whether or not they'll look right!)

Boz Cake for Sammy's 3rd birthday (the hardest one I've ever done!)


Elmo Cake for Sammy's 2nd birthday (wish we had a closer picture)


This was a cake and cupcakes for Sarah's baby shower (so easy!)


Ok, this isn't baked, but it was super cute. The first time I made one and it was easy! It's a diaper cake and you can see the favors here too.


HeeHee! These make me giggle! They were for a pig roast at church!


Unfortunately this one is blurry, but you can kind of get a better view of the tops.

Awwwww! My little twin sister (ok, she actually came out first, but she wouldn't have had I not been suffocating her!) is having a baby soon! She finally made it to the end! She'll go into the hospital tonight to be induced so by tomorrow there should be a new little baby in the family! Hooray!
For months now Sammy has been asking me what Aunt Sarah's baby's name is and I've told him that I don't know yet (Sarah and Mike decided to not find out the sex of the baby...yay! we love surprises!). I tell him that when God says it's time for the baby to come we'll know if it's a girl or a boy and it's name. He always says to me, with such confidence, that it's a girl! We'll soon know! Today I told him that Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mike will be having the baby real soon and I told him that this baby will be his cousin. Mind you he already has three cousins (my brother's kids) but I don't think he understands the word cousin yet. Anyway, later when we were eating our lunch he asked "Mommy, I'm still a boy?" To which I obviously replied "Um...yeah! You're STILL a boy!" What in the world kind of question was that??!! Then he said "but soon I'll be a cousin". Ok, now it makes a little more sense! "Yes, soon you'll be a cousin!" He's so funny! He's the kind of kid you need to have a video camera on constantly because he's always saying and doing the funniest things!
Anyway, congratulations Mike and Sarah. We can't wait to meet the new little cousin! We're praying for you!!

The past few weeks

Ok, I promised details of some of the things we did these past few weeks so here's my feeble attempt.

Sammy had his 3rd birthday on Monday while his grandparents were visiting. I do feel a little guilty that I didn't blog on his birthday, but things were nuts here! We had a nice day together.
He opened some gifts in the morning.


We went to the zoo which is easily Sammy's favorite place to go!


Yeah, he's brushing the goat's butt! Whatever!


Just look at this sweet little bundled boy!


We went to Pat's for cheesesteaks for lunch (passed the Rocky statue on the way and had to take a pic for my father-in-law who thinks it's just the coolest thing!)


We went to dinner together and just had a really nice day.

His party wasn't until Saturday and he was so excited! We had family and a few friends over and Sammy had a great time!


This was Sammy's big gift. We had it waiting in the basement for several weeks and he was beside himself he was so excited to set it up! Once it was ready he got in and jumped for nearly 2 straight hours!!


Sammy asked for a Boz cake for months before his birthday. He wanted a "Boz cake with Mickey Mouse candles" (we got one because it was insanely expensive to get more than one!). He decided he liked the Mickey Mouse plates and things so it became a Mickey Mouse party, but with a Boz cake. I must say that it was SOOO much work to make that cake that during the 2.5 hours it took to decorate it I got him the say that next year we can get a Friendly's ice cream cake!!


Opening gifts with one of his friends


Caleb picked a doozy of a weekend to get his (and our) first ear infection! We had my parents over for dinner Thursday night, a house full of friends over Friday night, Sammy's party on Saturday and Caleb's dedication at church on Sunday. He was feeling much better though by Sunday so it was a really nice day.

He squawked a few times when he saw Grandmom up front taking pictures. He gets so excited when he sees her! =) So cute!


Overall we had a busy, but great weekend. Caleb's dedication was another time for me to get all emotional and grateful for all that God has blessed me with. I can't begin to tell how blessed I am to have such a wonderful and loving husband, two sweet beautiful boys and so many extended family and friends who love and care for us! God has been so amazingly good to us! I was also reminded of all we went through during my pregnancy with Caleb and thank the Lord for His protection and healing and for a happy and perfectly healthy little boy who is an absolute joy!

Back to life as we know it!

Our lives are finally back to being normal and peaceful...ok, that may be a bit of an exageration. After all, there is a baby and a toddler in the house! But life as we know it has returned and it's REALLY nice!
My in-laws were visiting the past two weeks. We really did have a nice visit with them. Sammy had constant companions to play with him "out the porch" (as he calls his playroom) and Caleb was held almost constantly (much to my dismay since "the lump" as we call him will probably take another few months before he does anything more than roll and scootch!) It was wonderful to have a live-in chef and dishwasher since my father-in-law loves to cook and my mother-in-law loves to wash dishes! On the other hand, our schedules, meals, naps, bedtimes, organization...EVERYTHING was out of wack and it's great to be able to chill by ourselves!
I'll give a few more details on what we did while they were here later, but for now I'm gonna go make myself a cup of coffee and enjoy the fact that it's just me and the boys today and we've got nowhere to go, nothing to do and noone to impress (good thing cuz they're both in their diapers and I'm still in my jammies! ;) )