Sandy the Penny Horse

This summer, we discovered Sandy the penny horse, at Meijer. Since then our shopping trips have never been the same! The boys love riding Sandy and we do it every time, as long as they were good.

Karl's first ride Aug 12, 2016

 Karl's first ride, he didn't do much. He was really in awe at this new experience of riding the big toy horse. But, now he likes to say "giddy-up" and "yee ha," and pretend like he's beating me in a race. He also likes to pretend to give Sandy a carrot after every ride.

One of Jared's first time's riding. :)

Jared more likes to just look around and hold on the reins. He likes looking at the pictures on the wall of different kids riding Sandy in the past.

Karl putting in his own penny and getting ready to ride!

Emmaline's first time riding in the cart, instead of buckled in her car seat.

 In September, Emmaline got to have her first ride on Sandy. I felt like she was too little, but on this day, we had just gone horse back riding that morning. Emmaline was strapped in the baby carrier with Daddy so she could ride with him. I think she was remembering that experience when we were at Meijer later that day and she saw the boys on Sandy. She watched them from the cart and started getting really excited,...

so I let her have a turn riding with Jared. She seemed to love it and, of course, was upset when I had to take her off.

 

Jared and Karl riding together Nov 12, 2016

 This is the boys riding Sandy recently. I would've given them each their own penny, but they really enjoy riding together lately.

Jared's Village

August 7, 2016

 

 Jared had a day when he was really getting into setting up a little village. He was very intricate and imaginative about who everyone was and where they lived. Karl would come sit down and ask Jared to build him a house. They were having a really good time of it, so I had to take a couple pictures.

 Jared also invited me to sit down and build a couple myself. =) It's so fun playing with these boys! ...and Emmaline!! She did a very good job of playing with her own blocks and not messing up Jared's. :)

JR Company Picnic

Thursday, July 28, 2016

This summer JR Automation had their company picnic at Windmill Island here in Holland. The island is famous and we were really looking forward to going.  The first hour or so of it was pouring rain like crazy! So, we stayed inside the pavilion where we were offered cookies (because the grills outside wouldn't work in the rain and wind) and musical chairs to entertain the children. Soon after we got inside and sat down, a lady came over and asked to hold Emmaline. She seemed nice, so I let her, then she went and sat back to her table and played with her for a while. Haha! As a mom it's always nice when someone else asks to hold or play with your baby for two reasons: because it's gratifying to have someone else notice and adore your baby and it also gives you a break for a few minutes.

Jared enjoyed watching the musical chair games that were going on, but he was too shy to join in. Finally for the very last game, when it was starting to get sunny again, he was ready to go try it. Luckily there were two other kids who wanted to play still. Jared made it through the first round and sat smiling on his chair. He lost the second round, but he was still happy he got to try it.

The first thing we did when the sun was out again, is go for a windmill tour. This windmill has five stories that we were able to tour. The sixth and seventh floors were narrow and you could only get up there by ladder. But, it was really neat. We even got the tour from a true Dutch lady from the Netherlands.

(I did not take this picture, but this is about how it all looked that day.)

The boys were pretty good during the tour and looked at all the interesting stuff. This windmill kept up with it's traditional ways of grinding wheat; it was impressive. Before leaving each floor the lady, Thea, would ask if there were any questions; there usually weren't. But when we got to the fifth floor she asked and... Jared raised his hand. Thea hadn't noticed, so another lady pointed it out to her. She asked Jared what his question was and he quietly and bashfully asked, "How much longer do we have to do this?" Some people laughed, but Thea couldn't quite hear him and asked what he had said. Ryan smiled and said, "Oh, nothing," so people laughed again. The lady closest to her told her what Jared said and Thea kindly told Jared that we were all done now and he could be the first one to go down the stairs. Jared was happy about that (I think he really wanted to get to the bounce houses) and our family started down. Come to find out, Jared is afraid of heights. He struggled to walk down the stairs and, since I had Emmaline strapped to me, a nice lady offered to hold his hand. Jared didn't want to hold a strangers hand, so Ryan turned back and carried Jared and Karl down the stairs. It was a fun little adventure!

Once we got out on the lawn, Jared and Karl booked it over to the bounce houses. Karl loved the teetering ladder and the big slide. He was very slow at climbing both, but people were patient with him, and he had a blast!

Jared really liked this ball you could get inside and run around in. Ryan helped push him around.

 

Before we left, Ryan got back in line for the ball. When he got in he ran all the way down the mat by himself. ;D Haha! He looked like he had a lot of fun with it.

That's not something you get to do everyday! :)

There was also a really good bbq dinner and I think we all had a great time. =)

Camping in the Smokies

July 16-23, 2016

This past summer, we had our first week long family camping trip, and I believe it will be a long time before we have another that tops this one. We had a really great time!! We traveled down with Ryan's brother, Eric, and his family, Becky, Thomas, Phillip, and Olivia. They were very prepared and more experience so we were very grateful to be their camping buddies.

Sat, 16th
One the first day, we drove the six hours from Evansville to the Smokey Mountains. It's a tradition of Eric and Becky's to stop at Panda Express right before getting there, so we were happy to join them for that. Along the way we had a couple clothing changes with Emmaline and Karl have diaper blow-outs and throwing up. But, we made it and were happy to be in the fresh air of the beautiful mountains! That evening we set up camp and got to taste the beginnings of what would be a week of very good food. Becky had her cast-iron dutch ovens and a camp chef, and with that she made breakfast and dinner for us all week, and it was soo good!!

Sun, 17th
The second day we had our longest hike of the trip, to Charlies Bunion. It was about 8 miles. I carried Emmaline, Ryan carried 34lb Karl, and Jared walked for the most part. Olivia also got to ride on her daddy's back. We got to see what great hikers Thomas and Sup were; I don't think they had any trouble or complaints the whole way. Jared ended up being carried by Uncle Eric a few times; eight miles is a long ways for a four-year-old boy, but I'm proud of him for how much he did walk.

Mon, 18th
For the hike on this day, we split up a little more. Ryan stayed near the parking lot with Karl while the rest of us hiked the 4 miles to Andrews Bald, which ended up being a nice meadow to eat lunch and a pretty look out. In the evening, the boys also went on a backpacking over-nighter trip and hiked a mile and a half or so from our camp ground to get to their site.

Tue, 19th
 On the fourth day, our family decided to stay in camp to recover and relax a little from the previous days hikes. I did some laundry and Ryan took us to the creek near by to do some fishing and rock throwing. The boys had a blast!

Wed, 20th
The fifth day, we went to a great fishing spot on the river. Ryan got his canoe in the river and he, Eric, Thomas, Sup, Jared, and Karl went for a fishing trip. Becky, Olivia, Emmaline, and I stayed at the dock for a while to play and relax. The boys took so long we went to town and looked around at the shops. When we got back to the docks, the boys still weren't back yet. We started to get a little worried about whether or not they were okay. It was about six hours that they had been gone by they time the got back. We were relieved that they were okay. They had caught a few fish, but kept only one, which Ryan later cooked up and seasoned. Yum!!

Thur, 21st
One morning the boys had some fun bike riding. Jared and Karl still have a lot to learn about bike riding, so Ryan and Eric helped them to ride. We took the afternoon and went into the Cherokee town to swim and play in the Oconaluftee River. It was a beautiful, warm day and there were a lot of people there. Eric and Becky had a big inner-tube raft that they all rode up and down the river. They looked like they had a ton of fun on it. I didn't bother with a swim suit that day and stayed on shore with Emmaline.


Fri, 22nd
On our last day, we got to go hiking with the Wells family who joined our camping group that morning. We hiked Cucumber gap, which was about five miles and very pretty.

Sat, 23rd
On our way out of the Smokys, to go home, we went through Pigeon Forge to see what it was like. There were definitely a lot of interesting buildings.

 

It was a great trip and I'm so glad we got to; but, by that time, I was so glad to be going home to showers and washer-dryer machines!!

First Herb Garden

March 20 - October 2016

This spring, we decided we'd try out growing our own herbs. Ryan and Jared worked together to get them all planted.

 It was still a bit cold out, so we were excited to be able to use a new green house we had recently been given.

 

The green house worked pretty well for growing the herbs until the weather was better and they were strong enough to go outside. Not all the plants made it, but we were happy with the ones that did. We were able to get some dill, oregano, basil, and sage.

3 weeks

After about three months we took our first harvest and got try out our dehydrator for the first time. We dehydrated those four herbs and also a bunch of green onion from outside.

Our first harvest we wanted to give as a gift, so I put together some baby food jars with a fabric top to make them look a little cuter.

I was able to do a second harvest for our own cupboard about a month later. In the mean time it's been really nice to be able to clip fresh herbs to cook with and see what a difference there is in the flavor!

BIG CAKE

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Earlier this summer, I was baking bread, Almond Poppy-seed Bread, for some people and I brought one to my closest ward neighbor, the Mendozas. Lily Mendoza is expecting and not much into anything sweet right now, but she and her one-year-old found that they really liked this bread. So, a couple days later, she asked me if she could pay me to make this bread as a large, plain sheet-cake for her sons birthday that was coming up. She said she would give me the sheet-cake pan and any extra ingredients I needed. So, I said I would.

The morning of his birthday party I baked one loaf/cake, which only took an hour, and then the other. I found that my kitchen aid bowl couldn't quite fit all the ingredients, so I ended up mixing twice to make the one cake. Then I made the second. At that point I sent a picture to Lily to show her what it looked like. She had said that she just wanted it to be plain, but maybe with some glaze. After showing her, I reminded her that I would be willing to frost and decorate it to make it more... festive, if she wanted.

She consented and ended up coming by with a bunch of whipping cream I could use to make the frosting. When I was ready to start putting the cake together, Ryan advised me that I should put it on all six of the cake boards Lily had given me and not just one. He was right, it was turning out to be a very heavy cake.
For the middle layer of frosting I made orange flavored and colored whipped frosting. The orange flavor was to compliment the flavors of the cake/bread.

Next I covered the outer layer in plain white, vanilla whipped frosting, and smoothed it out. I used some extra frosting and colored it to decorate it with a birthday message for Sam. I also added sprinkles here and there.

When it was time for the finial touch, I asked Ryan if he could come add the decorative boarder with the cake tips, he being more experienced at it than I was. He did a great job, and the cake was complete!

I managed to find room in the fridge for it where it chilled for a couple hours before I gently placed it in the back of the car...

...and slowly drove the two blocks over to the Mendozas house.

When we came as a family, there were a ton of people there for the party. We had a bbq dinner and Karl and I went swimming while Jared playing in the sand box. There were a lot of compliments about our "beautiful, blue-eyed baby."

It wasn't 'til about nine that I mentioned to Lily that we would have to get going soon and get kids to bed. She convinced us to stay a little longer for cake and the pinata. So, we stayed. She ended up loving the cake how it turned out, and I think it tasted pretty good too.

Sam took the first hit at the pinata and then all the kids got in a line to get a wack at it. The line was set up smallest to biggest, so Jared got to be one of the first to hit it and he had a blast. Karl was too shy to go do it with everyone around.

The rest of the time they watched patiently for each of the big kids to be done with their hits so they could rush in and grab some candy.

The boys made out pretty well with their bags of candy, we enjoyed our cake, then said our good-byes and went home. It was without a doubt the biggest birthday we'd ever been too and I think the boys had a great time!