A Wood working frolic

For quite some time now we have had a pretty large pile of logs on our property that needed to be sawn, split and stacked before winter comes. Unfortunately in our family we just don't have the "boy/man power" to get it all done now that B#1 works full time and B#5 just isn't old enough to handle the chain saw. Dad did try to teach some of the girls but they just weren't ready for the chainsaw either so that left Dad to try to get it all done by himself, not to mention, we do not own a wood splitter. Praise the Lord for good friends...on Saturday some very good friends of ours came over with their 7 strapping boys, 3 very hardworking girls, several chainsaws and their wood splitter. I had thought they might get most of the logs cut, some splitting done and no stacking since there was such a lot of wood to be done. Well they started at about 12:00 and even with a break for a yummy lunch of clam chowder they finished every single bit of wood by 6:00ish. Not only was it all cut, it was split and stacked in our shop. Then everyone came in for some really really yummy pumpkin cheesecake that B#4 made and some peach cobbler.

I'm still here:)

Summer is just zipping by and honestly, I just haven't had much desire to blog lately. I haven't even been reading much on the computer lately. What have we been doing??? Well, I think I might have mentioned that we started school already, so we have been busy with that. We had a fun outing a couple of weeks ago. The place where I had my ultrasound offered us the opportunity to come back and have a 3D/4D ultrasound of baby so we decided to let all the kids come with us to that and then go out to eat afterwards. Now our typical "eating out" usually involves eating at Wendys or maybe Costco since eating out for a family our size can be quite expensive. But Dad had gotten a gift card from work to Newport Bay which is a local seafood restaurant so we were able to treat the kids to eating out at a nice place. We all enjoyed it very much. B#4 and I are taking a cake decorating class together from a friend of ours. She has taken a one day class in the past but is looking forward to a refresher. We made these cakes for a baby shower at church. Mine is the white and blue one and B#4's is the fun chocolate one. We have also decided to make and sell cupcakes together so we have been busy working on business cards and a website, which I will tell ya'll about once we finally get it set up. We both decided after making these cakes that we much prefer making cupcakes over cakes, much much easier.

When we were out shopping last week B#4 found these PJs at Costco and just had to get them for the boys...our little monsters. They just love their footy jammies and I have had to threaten to pack them away until fall because they always want to wear them.

B#9 is getting so big the last few days and being very silly. Here she discovered a pot to put herself in. She is so little that it is hard for me to grasp that there will be another new little one who will make her seem so big but she is getting to be such a big girl.

We are all counting down the weeks until the baby comes. I haven't mentioned this on the blog, but we are seeing a specialist every few weeks for the baby. The umbilical cord only has two strands instead of the typical three strands which can be indicative of other birth defects but at each visit we have an ultrasound and the doctor is very encouraged by everything he sees. We will continue to go see him until the baby is born to watch his growth and make sure all is well. Somehow that makes the time until we can hold him stretch on and on. He is very active and seems very healthy. The big argument around here is what his name will be. The girls have convinced the little boys that his name is going to be Ryan Walker, which mom is not okay with. If you ask B#7 what the baby's name is he will whisper "Ryan Walker, but don't tell mom". And if you ask B#8 he will start yelling "Ryan Walker, Ryan Walker" over and over again. Needless to say we have our work cut out for us convincing them that isn't going to be his name. It is really hard to please this many people who are all excited for his arrival.

Video of B#9

July

July is usually a busy month for us and this year was no exception...Birthdays for girls, both big and small,

B#2 turned 19 ...

And B#9 turned 1....,

Trips to the Aquarium....

Trips to the beach....

It was such a perfect day for a picnic at the beach.

Lots and lots of cleaning and starting to get ready for B#10 to arrive in a few months and starting school today so we will be able to take time off after baby arrives.

Strawberries

Today the kids and I got up early and went strawberry picking. Some people we know have lots of strawberry fields and had some U-Pick Strawberries for $.50/lb. Usually we go there and glean, which is where you can pick the leftovers for free but it is usually a lot harder to find good berries that way so this year we decided to see what it was like to do the U-Pick. I am sold on doing it that way from now on. There were lots of berries to pick and before we knew it we had picked about 75lbs of strawberries. I don't think we were even there for more than an hour and a half and some of that was spent visiting with the two other families that went. It was a fun morning and the weather was wonderful, just a bit overcast and cool. I had hoped to get pictures of the boys picking berries but they actually spent their time playing in the van, windows rolled down of course. But B#8 sure enjoyed eating a bowl full of unwashed strawberries all the way home.

I survived

Everyone big in our family went on a hike yesterday, leaving mom home with three toddlers. The girls alternated between being sorry for leaving me alone and reminding me that I have done this before. Yeah, about 15 years ago I reminded them. I'm not that young anymore. But things went very well. Here is my day in pictures...

The boys helped me make brownies.

B#8 thought you just plopped the butter in the mix instead of into a different bowl for mom to melt.

Mixing with not too much slinging of mix around.

Apparently you have to lick the spoons every time you make something. Thank goodness the brownies got cooked at a high temp. to take care of the germs B#8 left behind after double dipping his spoon.

Getting into everything while mom tried to clean up the kitchen.

Still getting into everything but they changed spots.

B#7 was such a big helper to me. Here he is dragging our flour bucket back to the pantry for me. It is very heavy.

We managed to make homemade hamburger buns for dinner. Here is B#8 rolling his dough.

And all the while that we three were working, B#9 either slept peacefully or sat in her high chair eating. What a sweet girl she is!

Father's Day

The guys in our family spent Father's Day on a building project. Not sure this is how I would want to spend Mother's Day but apparently dads don't mind grilling their own dinner and doing a building project for their children.

We had been talking for a while about building a play structure for the children but now that we have three little ones ready to play and another boy on the way we knew it was probably time to do more than talk about it. We don't get out and about too often with gas prices what they are and we spend alot of our days in the backyard with the children so this was an investment for us.

This is the finished project and yes, that is a goat in the yard, one of B#2's newest additions who loves to poke herself through the fencing to join the play.