That kinda kid

You know that old adage about curious kids, something along the lines of 'let 'em touch the hot stove, they'll only do it once!' Kenna is one of those kids! Not, of course that I'd ever actually advocate letting her or any other kid burn themselves but still. I can almost guarantee she will.

Lately, she has been insistent on walking in the grocery store vs. sitting in the cart. Normally, I'm of the mind set: if they fit in the cart they ride in the cart. Heck, if Anthony still went to the grocery store with me I'd try to put him in the cart! He's always getting distracted and wandering off! Anyways, Hailey, my rule abiding child, has been walking beside me for about 6 months now and Makenna has been begging to do the same. Needless to say, Makenna is NOT a rule abiding child and each adventure has ended in tears. Usually because I demand, after chasing her down, that she sit in the cart.

Yesterday, however, I must have been low on caffein and decided to grant her doe-eyed, ever so polite: "Please, can I 'alk like a gig girl, mom, please?" So, into Joann's we walked, me pushing an empty cart, two rule abiding big girls in tow.

Maybe you can see this coming, I didn't. Not really at least. I figured she'd wonder off but, like usual, I guess I figured I'd chase her down. Nope, not this day. This was the day that while I was waiting in line for a minor 1/2 yard fabric cut, Makenna wondered all....the...way...to the other side of the store.

I started hollering her name, impatient tone in my voice, looking up and down the isles around me. Soon my voice morphed into mildly panic stricken: "MAKENNA!" Still, no response, no galloping foot steps charging my way.

"MAKENNA LYNN!!"

Far off in the distance, I hear it: the desperate cry of a lost baby.

Ok, a bit dramatic, I know, but still, she was on the complete opposite side of the store in complete melt down mode. Tears and snot flowing down her face.

After our epic reunion, (her, not me of course) she did the darnedest thing: she morphed into a shadow. Anywhere I went, she was right behind. She never left my side!

Despite the tears (and snot), I'm gonna say it was totally worth it! She learned her lesson and even today while at the grocery store, she stayed right by my side.

The good news is, she's shown capability to learn these type of lessons. The bad news is I fear we'll both have to learn to endure the many trials ahead before learning each lesson!

Fashionistas fashion show

Hailey got a ton of clothes for her birthday so we decided to have a fashion show! She wants votes on your favorite outfit so please leave a comment here or on Facebook! :)

So dignified:


Such a lady:


Full of love:


Coy:


On your marks, get set:


Fierce!:



Zen:


Hi-yah!


The sun'll come out...:


It's a small world after all...


Show me....sassy!:


Growl:


Show me your mouscles:


Tap dance!:


Twirl:


Ring around the rosey:


Upside down!


Fuzzy panda


Balance, balance:


Twirl!:


Handstand aftermath:


Oy mom!


Booty!


Distracted:


Ballerina and ballerina LaLa






The end!

My 5 year old Mermaid

Somehow, my baby girl turned 5 on Thursday. I'm kind of in denial that she's five. Our life changed so much when we welcomed her into our life. Anthony was 7 and we were content to be a small happy family of three. Then, unexpectedly, Hailey reshaped our world. She is 100% girly girl. She loves playing with her babies, watching 'girl shows' and dancing! She's the apple of her daddy's eye, her mom's favorite baking buddy and her Sister's best friend. She giggles the best when playing with her favorite brother and lights up at the notion of going to see Grannie and B-pa. She prefers her nails sparkly and has a dress picked out for every occasion, even spelunking with Grandpa and SuSu. She can be entertained for hours with a blank piece of paper and a few markers. She truly is a beautiful soul and it's amazing to watch her grow.

For her birthday we started the day with our traditional princess coffee:







Then, with Grannie, we went onto Buid-a-Bear for the first time:




Picking out a heart:



First hug:


A tender bath:



Then clothed and packed up for lunch:




Being sung to at Cheesecake Factory:








And she ended the day with family Sushi dinner:


As if that all wasn't enough, we couldn't resist another reason to celebrate! Sunday we hosted a Mermaid party. Swimming was the main attraction and thankfully the monsoons held off until after the party ended.














My mom made shimmery mermaid tails for all the girls to wear. They were too cute!



All in all, a fantastic celebration of a very special young lady!

Can Can!

Total so far... 50 jars canned!

Tomato sauce and a rogue salsa jar:


Grape jelly:



Mango Peach Salsa:



I love this picture with the wall quote. The full quote is "Time Spent With Family is Worth Every Second."




There is still about another 50 lbs of tomatoes on the vines and we just ordered 18lbs of cherries. So, this is far from the last of our can-can days but we're getting more and more efficient at it. Plus it's so cool to say we have enough pasta sauce for a fresh jar each month, salsa any time we want it and grape jelly for the year! All grown, picked and processed by our own hands!

Harvest

For anyone who’s never been, and trust me it’s a real treat, my Mom and Step-Dad’s home is among many other adjectives, a beautiful secret garden. Here in our brown desert their yard is green, lush and vibrant. Over the years interspersed with the flowers and vines, they have increased the amount of plants that are ‘harvestable.’  There’s:

Fruit and Nut trees: Apricot, apple, pecan, almond, orange, margarita
Asparagus
Strawberries
Blueberries
Grapes
Artichokes
Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Various hot peppers
Watermelon
Sunflowers

There is also a large mesquite tree that we harvest mesquite beans from to make flower and prickly pear cactus that we harvest the fruit from.

This year, Anthony wanted to help with the planting, harvesting and cooking. He specifically wanted to plant tomatoes and bell peppers since we eat bell peppers every day and tomato sauce at least once a week. The harvest amounts were huge this year!

To preserve the bounty, mom and I have started canning. (Who saw this coming in my 1950’s ways?) All three kids helped pick the tomatoes and peppers. We estimate that we had over 150lbs! We cut, de-slimmed, and cooked them into an incredible pasta sauce. Anthony helped with every step including dicing the garlic, tearing up through the onions and sealing up the cans.

It’s taken two days but we’ve produced 8 quart jars of tomato sauce and we have two large pots full of more sauce that we’ve yet to can. We also made 2 gallons of mango peach salsa that we’re going to can up in pint jars. We were going to make grape jelly with the grapes but I think we’ll have to supplement them a bit with store bought grape juice as the birds had a field day with the vine this year.

Today, amongst the garlic, onions and tomatoes, Mom made fresh cherry cobbler. Hands down, it is the best thing I’ve ever eaten made from cherries. We’re going to a farmers market on Friday and I hope we can buy some more cherries so we can make more of the cherry filling and can it up. It would be such a treat on the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Given my ‘black thumb’ I’m so fortunate that my Mom, Step-dad and G-ma are so talented with gardening so my kids get to experience it firsthand. It’s so rewarding to harvest fresh food and preserve it for future dinners. My kids love helping us cook and now can it and I know they’ll love being able to gift the bounty’s to other family and friends. It’s such a great lesson for them to see the fruits of their labors.
(Cheesy I know, but true)

Missing

Hello? Anyone still out there? Yea, I know, I kind of abandoned this space. I really missed it so, I’m back. Long story short, I lost my SD card for my camera and I got further and further behind. Eventually it became a daunting task to try and catch up. I thought I’d take a day and catch it all up then I realized: I have 3 kids, a husband, a large family, a house to run and a job . “A day to catch up” doesn’t happen, let alone a day to sit at the computer all day. So, needless to say, I’m not going to try and catch up. I’m going to move forward. I may post a few events that happened as we’ve had a great summer thus far, but I’m not going to focus on it. I’m focusing on here forward.