projects

a couple of my big projects this summer included:

1) refinishing the kitchen table from this

to this:
now that it's done, i'm trying to seal my new table so we can give that one away. we have some friends that need it more than we do now... go figure, though it wasn't as much work as i feared.

2) i also painted a nightstand for malachi to use as a temporary dresser. it's pretty bright for him, but i figure it'll look great in my girls' room eventually... if we ever graduate ;) and evidentally we don't have a picture of that. (it's bright yellow-orange)

3) i had my first foray into home canning. i think i like it. it's a ton of work, but i LOVE fresh peaches and they taste way better from a jar than from a grocery store can, so i hope it was worth all the work. i think this is as far as i'll go this year, but i hope to branch out eventually to salsa, jam, and/or other fruit. (notice there are some nectarines and plums in these jars too, but mostly peaches). thanks to all my helpers! i promise i've learned a lot this year, so i promise if i need help next year, i'll apply what i learned and do it right the first time :)

sunday with afton

a few little stories before i get to work updating everything here in blog-land...

afton's become quite the little fashionista. yesterday at church she commented to me about the little girl sitting in front of us at church "mama, did you see her pretty dress, it's white and sparkly on the shirt, and spinny on the bottom. mama, i like her hairbow, it's got a bow on it. wow, did you see her heart ring, it has jasmine on it, jasmine's a princess mama..." she went on to describe the bracelet, shoes, and even socks in great detail. after primary class, she was telling me about another little girl... "mama, she's my new friend. did you see her hairbow? it's not a bow, it's a flower, and it has a shiny silver spakly jewel in the middle. mama, i want a flower bow like that..."
... and so it begins.

after church we hada quick dinner. it was just pieced together left-overs because we were in a hurry. afton volunteered to make her own healthy dinner, (and i knew i was in a hurry, and she wasn't starving, so why not?). she made a sandwich: hamburger bun, lots of sweet pickle relish, a little mayo, and some ketchup. all set! (BLECHHH!!!)

she ate the whole thing

(ps, the picture is obviously from a different day, they all are, but i liked them :)

after church yesterday afton told us all the picture she drew in class (below, it is from yesterday so i guess i lied about them all being from different days) it's our house. she told me all about it. there's a lot of bugs outside, and that's afton in the house. mama and daddy were taking a nap and afton went outside in the backyard and was playing, and when mama and daddy woke up she got in trouble for playing outside without permission, so this is a picture of her in time out. then she had to go to bed without supper...
--as far as i know, afton has never even been up alone when paul and i were napping, let alone playing outside by herself, so if that part's true she's really sneaky.
--she's had plenty of time outs in her life, but she's never been sent to bed without supper... does she even know what "supper" means? we usually have "dinner" at our house...
--did she tell a story like this to her primary teacher? cause it sounds more believable than i would have guessed, but it never happened... wonder what the teacher thinks of these poor parents? (i'm a little overwhelmed)


and last, but not least. we were in a hurry after dinner yesterday because paul was teaching an adult fireside at church. we brought the girls with us because nicki and naomi were coming down to babysit while missy listened to the fireside with us, win-win-win (presumably, since n&n said they wanted to come)... we got there a few minutes early (we were first to arrive), and as we entered the room the first thing afton said was "there's no fire" it took me a couple seconds to get it, cause i didn't remember using the term "fireside" to her, but i guesss she picked it up from other conversation, which was easy enough to do :) she's really smart :)

isn't this a cute picture?

things i love to hear at dinner:

after trying for most of dinner to get rayna to try her dinner, then putting miniscule pieces of "chips" in her food to bribe her into eating...

r: "this is yummy"
me: "i thought you'd like it if you gave it a try :)"
r: "thank you mama"
me: (heart melting)
(and yes, that really happened, without hints or scripting :)

afton about peach pie:
"pie is like cookies and syrup mixed together" (crust is evidentally like cookies, and we recently had peach syrup, so i guess that's where that thought came from)
and
"this is the messiest pie i ever ate" (that's what happens if you eat it with your fingers!)

what...

... really tuckers you out?

afton says, "church"

...do you take pictures of?

rayna says, "Grandpa!!!"

...is the cutest thing in the whole wide world?

malachi says, "me!"

4th of July in allen

again this year we went to the allen independance day celebration (at celebration park, called celebrate USA, i think there's a theme there, and i think it works) (remember last years celebration?) i took way more pics this year, and the fire trucks were still a bigger hit than the fireworks, but here's a little of what we did this year:

we started our day at the local library for "critterman"'s visit... learning about leg-less lizards, giant bugs, and snakes and alligators and spiders, oh my! then up to grandma's for playing and dinner (and naomi's new puppy, alpha)before rushing off to the park to meet up with cousins and spend lots of time visiting the fire trucks where:

rayna drove a bit (among others):

there was an amazing pink engine (celebrating survivors of womens cancers {not just breast cancer awareness, though i'm sure that's where the pink came from}):

here's the whole crew:

a little relaxing and dancing around:

(obviously the "Y" was contrived, but the rest were definately action shots, it's a lot harder than i thought to get the picture at exactly the right moment!)


(twinkle, twinkle little star :)

a little more dancing around :)

a little back-rubbing :) wish i were on board THAT love train!

(you know rod stewart's going to be in your head the rest of the day now, don't you :)

and finally, a picture of the birthday girl! love you mom, hope your day was the greatest! we loved 'your' party!

the girls weren't as excited about the fireworks as we'd hoped, but it was an amzing show, one of the best-choreographed i've seen, but i didn't get any pictures as i had at least one child in my lap at all times :)