My 6 random things

Thanks Jan :-) Since I was actually tagged, I figured I would follow through!
Rules:
*Mention rules on your blog
*share 6 random quirks about you
*tag 6 friends

1. I have a little bit of a sweet tooth (okay, a BIG sweet tooth!) and eat far more than I should. I have eaten a dozen cookies in one afternoon! (When I was pregnant, I have to add).

2. I am really enjoying learning to cook allergy free and get a thrill when I figure it out! My latest feats: milk, egg, and nut free fudge & caramels! Derek says it feels like Christmas with all the candy around!

3. I feel like a bad mom for not putting Brendan in preschool. He's only 2 (three in less than a week) but there is such a public push to put your kids in preschools. There was even an article in the paper about it and how moms who don't enroll their kids are harming them. Hello, I am married to a school psychologist. My child is testing above where he needs to be. I work hard with him, AND HE DOESN'T NEED IT!!!!

4. I am at my whits end and don't know what to do about Brendan's hitting (hello, I am married to a psychologist!!). This kid is a hard one to break! We have tried several theories, but he really is a tough one!

5. I'm get really depressed sometimes that we can't find a house. Although, we are certainly in a better living situation than our last apartment. But it's still frustrating; the market here is ridiculous!

6. I miss playing the piano, and feel bad that my children aren't exposed to it more. Brendan loves to play and sing, and Brynlee love to play the toy one. I want to have one in my home, but can't afford one. Derek just about cried when we went to look at prices on the used ones. So, if any of you hear of a free one ;-)

Tag your it: Anyone who wants to share, it's always fun to get to know the not so known facts about you all!!!

Daddy's little helper

Derek needed to screw the door sweeps on, so Brendan got his screwdriver and was "helping" every screw he could find!

We just bought this pull behind back pack for Brendan. It's not the cutest thing, but he loved in and was pulling it around Kings. I thought it would be nice to have going to San Antonio so that he could pull his own bag, instead of Derek carry everything. It was only $1.50, so I splurged and got it for him. He went out and was "mowing" the lawn with Derek.

My little bookworm!

Brynlee's favorite pastime is crawling to the bookshelf, and pulling every single book off of the shelf! She sat here for an hour (yes, a full hour) just flipping through books!

Play-Dough

Today is national play-dough day so whip some up, and let the kids play!

2 C. flour
1 C. salt
1 C. water
food coloring

Mix flour and salt. Mix food coloring with water, then add slowly to flour mixture. Knead 5-10 minutes until it is a firm, smooth consistency!

Or try Kool-aid play dough

1 C. flour
1/2 C. salt
3 T. oil
1 pkg. kool-aid
1 C. boiling water (just boil in microwave)

Mix together and store in air tight container!

Saturday Activities

Derek up early Saturday morning and went to help a family roof their home. They spent most the time scraping off a layer of asphalt that was laid over wood shingles. Derek came back with his arms, and all of his clothes nice and black! I'm proud of you dear for being willing to serve!

And this was my project! My MIL had gotten peaches for free, so I finished canning those. I also did several batches of raspberry jam. (My sister owns a berry farm). This is the first year I have really done a lot of canning, so I am learning a lot!

For those interested, My reasons for canning:
I am unable to spend a lot on groceries each month. Fruit is one thing that we aren't able to have very often. I have been able to find jars for free, boxes of lids for a dollar, and pectin for less than that. All of the things I have canned (or frozen) have been given to me from friends, or just by word of mouth. Because of this, I am able to provide canned fruit and jam for my family, which I would be unable to buy. Besides being just a financial blessing, it is nice to know exactly what you are eating, especially when you deal with multiple severe food allergies on a daily basis. Some of you have expressed interest. If you are interested in canning, you do need to have some basic things before starting (also things I have been able to get for free!!!) Water bath canning is the best way to start. You can usually find these used at yard sales or second hand stores for cheap. You do all your fruits (including tomatoes) this way. If you have the time, it is not that difficult, and you can almost always find fruit for free if you look, just let people know! Someone out there has free produce that isn't being used! If you have questions, let me know!

Another trip to the zoo!!

Derek got off from work early Friday, so we headed to the Logan Zoo. We had a good time! The highlight is certainly feeding the ducks. You can buy dog food there for 10 cents, and feed the ducks. Brynlee loved standing holding on to the chain link watching them eat from our hands. The rest of the zoo is not much fun after that!

Brendan loved these landscaping rocks and insisted everyone sit on one. The little one he pointed out was perfect for Brynlee. Had to grab a couple pictures!

COOKIE! I was so excited to find striped shortbread cookies that Brendan could have! At the real dollar store for a buck! So, we shared one with Brynlee on the way home. I think she rather enjoyed herself!

The Eccles House!

Well, I wish I had more time to blog, but that seems to be hard to come by right now! A quick catch up! We found this cute wagon here in town at King's. It was a huge splurge, but I haven't been able to find one at yard sales/second hand and Brendan has really wanted one. We are finally in a place where we have room outside to store it, so I figured it was time! It has been great! Brendan asks everyday if we are going to go take a walk in the wagon. It has definitely been good exercise for me!!

Movie night! So we were trying to be good parents and have one on one (well, two) time with Brendan. We got our babysitter to come over for Brynlee, and were taking Brendan to the movie. (Although he did want to stay with the babysitter to play :) The cheap theater was playing Kung Fu Panda so we were going to take him. The lady in front of us bought the last tickets, so it was sold out! So, we decided to rent a fun movie and buy special snacks. Out of everything in the store, all he wanted was Barbeque potato chips! We also bought "happy pop" and got to eat in the living room on a blanket. Oh, we rented the Bee Movie which he loved. The next day there was a bee on the windshield, and he let Derek know it was ok, that the bee just needed a ride!

Working on the 96 hour Emergency Kit this past week. Brendan grabbed the bag of crackers and dropped some on the floor. Brynee crawled over to them, and they laid there together eating the crackers off the floor! I think I mopped the day before :)

Sandbox at Grandma Eccles! Brynlee kept pushing herself up, so Brendan was mimicking her! Looks like they are doing pushups. We had a mouth full of sand when we got out there, I washed it out and she didn't try again! It is such a change to have a baby that puts everything in her mouth-Brendan never did, which was a blessing!!

Brendan had a good time taking a ride in Grandpa's new little truck. I'm sure it will be a big hit every time we make it down!!

Nothing New

Well, life continues here. Day in and day out goes much the same. Derek and I did go pick corn last night from a friends house, and stayed up blanching and freezing it. We probably got about 20 pounds or so cut off the cob and frozen. I also was excited to get pectin for 88 cents yesterday (normally around $2) so I am stocked and ready for jam. Heading to Twin again on Monday to can peaches and make raspberry jam. Hopefully back Wednesday with cute pictures! Or maybe I'll try to take a few tonight of the kiddos at the park. After seeing Sharea's post, I feel I gotta get the kiddos back out there, especially cuz it is getting cold here way to fast! Note: we had snow on our mountains on labor day!

Summer happenings

Ward party! We attended a ward party a week after we moved. It was so much fun! They had so many activities for the kids: bean bag toss, ring toss, gunny sack race, face painting, horse roping, and giant bubbles. Oh, and Brendan caught a little goldfish. He named him Nemo, and Nemo died a couple days ago. We kept him alive awhile!! Well, Brendan, Derek, and I all worked together to make these cute (allergy free!!!) cupcakes.

Brendan wanted to get his face painted. Still not sure why he chose a pink balloon, but he had fun regardless!

This picture is blurry, sorry. Our camera has seen better days, but we won't get a new one for awhile, so we will have to deal. Brynlee has been teething and so we have the Tylenol out. She likes to chew on the end, and now, she just uses it like a pacifier. It is so funny; she gets it in her mouth and then just sits there sucking on it forever!

My beautiful girl, I mean boy. Daddy, please cut my hair! Brendan's hair is long now, and so he thinks he needs to wear barrettes like Brynlee. Daddy hasn't had time to cut his hair, guess I better get to it :)

My sweet Derek. I went and picked probably 30 pounds of little apricots. I know why people grow the peach-cots (they are larger and take a lot less time to can) but these little ones are so good! Derek was a great help, and I think he kind of enjoyed himself!! He just sat on his stool, pitting the cots. He thought he was really funny to have me ask if he was having fun so he could say ,"it's the pits." Funny man! We were productive though. I did two batches of cots, one of jam, and have my food dehydrator full. It was a late night, but we had fun working together! And guess what! The tree is still full of cots, so tomorrow, we will be doing it all over again!

Dynamite Festival

Well, as promised, here are a couple pictures of the Napolean Dynamite Festival. This guy dancing was really good. It was fun to watch. There were only a handful of people who did impersonations, but it was still a lot of fun to watch!!!

While walking down the main street, we ran into the old guy (I can't remember his name!!). Anyways, he was more than happy to pose for pictures. When he bent down to pick Brendan up, I didn't think he would be able to! He is still a tough old farmer. And yes, he really talks just like he does in all of his movies. You can't understand a word!

This last picture isn't the Festival, this is our lovely play area at our old apartment! We bought one of those water balloon sling shots for a couple bucks. Brendan loves water balloons, and we have a lot of fun throwing them, and now shooting them!