Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Diaper Duty

Evie loves her babies. She really, truly does. She typically has one with her at all times. I found her in the kitchen not too long ago taking very good care of one of them!

In truth, Evie spent about ten minutes trying to get this diaper to work for her. We finally stepped in and gave her a hand.









**As a side note--Evie does not always walk around slimy and grimy looking, like many of her pictures might suggest. She just happens to get into lots of things without mom and dad becoming aware of it until later on!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

A little bread with our zucchini

We've planted a garden this year. It has been a learning and growing experience. Mostly, however, it has been a lot of fun. Lily and Joe enjoy it the most. They ask every day if they can go "harvest" vegetables. I finally had to make a rule that they would have to show me exactly what it was they wanted to pick before doing so, because we had lots of pre-ripened veggies for a little while.

We ended up with more zucchini plants than we realized initially, so we have been enjoying a lot of zucchini in a variety of ways this summer. Our favorite way, however, is zucchini bread. Our recipe is simple yet delicious, which just so happens to be my favorite kind of recipe!

Evie was my loyal helper when it came to making bread.


Evie doesn't mind the loud noise of the wheat grinder



Watching to make sure it is mixing and kneading well

Yum! A job well done.

Acting Camp

Grandma Jane invited Lily to come stay with her for a week and attend acting camp at the theater next to her home. Lily had a fantastic time! They performed a cute little play called "Forty Fortunes".

Lily and the other princesses


Our little actress


Our lovely ladies

Happy Birthday, Ez!

That's right, we've got one more birthday to squeeze in! We've got four birthdays in the space of about six weeks in our home. I have had a lot of fun this year making fun cakes for the kids and was a bit disappointed when Ez requested a "store bought" cake for his birthday. I will admit, however, that in the end I was glad because it surely was a lot easier and cleaner and less time consuming and...plus, that is just what Ez wanted, so why not?!

Ez's birthday was on a Sunday this year, so we went to church, and then Jane and Rich came over for dinner and simple festivities. Of course we had steak for dinner, and of course it was completely delicious! After Jane and Rich had to leave, we had a handful of friends from church come over to enjoy cake with us a bit more. We had a fantastic time visiting, thanks to all that came!

Ez's new pen

A look of surprise from the wonderful gift (which we had given about 2 hours prior to the photo)





Happy Birthday, Ez. Thanks for being such a wonderful husband, father, and friend. We couldn't do it without you by our side.

Evie is 2!

Evelyn celebrated her 2nd birthday on July 18th. It was a busy and fun sort of day.

The morning of her birthday was a youth temple trip, and since Ez is the Young Men's President, he needed to head off and help with that. There were also two families that were heading to the temple with the youth that needed their children watched after, so they came over and played along, making four extra kids at the house. My dear friend, Jen, came to keep me company (and sane) during all the fun. Of course, it wouldn't have been complete without her three cute kids too, making the grand total of two moms and eleven children!!! It was busy, but the kids all got along great and made it a fun way to spend the morning.

Evelyn thoroughly enjoyed her birthday. She knew it was her special day and made sure that no one helped her open gifts or blow out her candles. She had seen Joe and Alexis both have their birthdays just a few weeks prior to hers, so she knew what was happening. Evelyn loved, loved, loved opening her gifts! She got a new doll, some Fisher Price Little People items, a new doll high chair, a shopping cart, and some new toy kitchen supplies.

My favorite part of the evening was when we sang Happy Birthday to her. The candles were lit on her cake, and she just sat there and watched us and waited while we sang to her. Then, as if on cue, she leaned over to blow out her candles. The problem was that they were too far away from her. She tried twice, then turned the cake pan so the candle were closer, and blew them right out. I think it was so cute and clever how she figured it out!

Happy Birthday, Evelyn. We love you dearly!

Starting to unwrap!


Hooray!!! New toy food!

Filling her shopping cart

Her new doll was well fed


Waiting while we sang

Trying to blow out the candles


Got it!

Yummy cake


Look, mom! Purple teeth!

Mini Golf and more


Ez and I took the older three kids out for a special date in the middle of July. We went into Fairfield and played a round of mini golf, which was great fun. It is something we always would like to do, but as we have found from past experience, it really isn't as much fun with younger kids who like to run around and move the ball, etc. After mini golf, we headed back to Vacaville, where we ate some yummy sushi and then watched the newest installment of Harry Potter. It was fun to be able to spend some time with the Alexis, David, and Lily.



Sunday, September 6, 2009

Feeley Lake

As part of our desire to stay and play local this summer, we took the family up to Feeley Lake for the day in early July. It is up in Nevada County, and absolutely beautiful.

This was our family's first official hike, and I would say it went pretty well. The hike itself is not too difficult, so it was perfect for the younger kids. The area was also very, very quiet that day; we had only passed one group that was going in the opposite direction of us, and that was about it!

The hike up to the lake was about 2.5 miles, and we took our sweet time getting there. We stopped to explore, to take photos, to see who could toss a rock further into the water...that sort of thing. When we found the general area of where we wanted to be, we pulled out our lunch and the kids got ready to get into the water. Now, this was our first experience up here, and the kids first experience swimming in something other than the swimming pool. (Well, outside of playing at the beach, but isn't a while lot of swimming that goes on there.)

How did the swimming go? Well, it didn't. The edge of the water was just too rocky and hurt the kids feet. We moved down a bit to a better area, which helped, but it was still too rocky and to "squishy between the toes" for the kids to really want to venture in much past their knees. We instead just explored the edge and enjoyed that thoroughly.

Joe was convinced we were going to see fish and be able to catch one. We did find a number of very small "baby" fish and eventually was able to get one sucked up into a water bottle. We named him "Catch of the Day", and the kids carried him around for about 30 minutes. We spared the poor little fishy his life and returned him to nature, although I cannot guarantee that we didn't shorten his potential life span.

The walk down the mountain took a bit longer...Ez had to carry a very tired, and eventually sleeping, Evelyn. That said, the kids did great, the weather was perfect, and we had a fantastic day together as a family!


Joe and David


Lily and Alexis



Evie, Keri, Lily, David, Joe, and Alexis




Not exactly loving the water



"Yertle the Turtle" anyone?




Another Yertle


Joe trying to catch a fish



Evelyn and our catch of the day




A very hungry Evelyn




The Family




Ez, Joe, and David


Evelyn, Alexis, Keri, Lily