Sunday 8/25

Sunday we got up and headed to church.  As always, if the kids will behave during church we promise them to get to go to the park at Dale or Selvin.  They were pretty good for us, so we stopped in Dale at the park.  The girls were excited about playing on the boat.

 Another little girl at the park taught Jenna how to slide down the pole.  She was very proud of herself!

Parks provide great photo ops! 

I don't know why they are not showing up rotated.  They are saved rotated..... 

 We stayed at the park for about 45 minutes then headed back to the house. 
My Grandpa came over and got to meet his first Great-Grandson.  He even held Toby for a few minutes.

 But Toby got taken away from his Great-Grandpa because his Grandpa wanted to give him his first tractor ride.  My dad has taken pride in the fact that he has gotten to give all my kids their first tractor ride (all of which have been on RED tractors)!

 Then we took a 4 generation picture.

And one of just the guys. 

Shortly there after we got on the road and headed toward home.



I figure mom and I worked up ten 5 gallon buckets of produce over the weekend.  We did 1 tomato, 3 corn, 3 green beans, 1 pear, 2 grapes and we were plum tuckered out! 

 

Beyond that I was leaving with 11 ice cream buckets of tomatoes which were still in need of processing.  I processed them all day on Monday making 20 quarts of spaghetti sauce.  My canning shelves have really exploded this year, especially considering we were not able to get a garden out due to the extremely wet spring.

 

 

Saturday 8/24/13

Saturday morning, my Dad got up and headed out to meet up with Aaron Graper, my Grandpa, and my husband (whom we left at home) to head to Rantoul, Illinois to a tractor show. 

 

 Mom and I, with a little help from Jenna and Shelby, started picking green beans.  We picked three 5 gallon buckets of geen beans.  We sat in the kitchen and started cleaning and snapping beans.  After the first bucket and a half, I started the process of processing them.  Shelby took my spot and started working on beans.  No worries the knife she was using was not sharp enough to hurt her or anyone else.  She was proud of herself for the bowl of beans she cut up.   

 

It took us all day, but we processed 21 quarts and 10 pints of beans.  There was a large pan of beans left that mom wanted to put in quarts, but she had to wait to switch out jars with Carla, so they overnighted. 

 

I told mom that those companies that brag about the freshness of their produce have nothing on us.  In 8 hours our grapes went from being on the vine to being grape juice.  In 12 hours our green beans went from being on stalk to being canned quarts and pints.  

Thursday 8/22 & Friday 8/23

On Thursday, I loaded supplies and Toby in the truck and went to daycare to pick up Shelby.  We went to Jenna's preschool and picked her up.  Then we started our trip south for the weekend.  My mom had called and told me she had produce running out of her ears and she needed some help, especially if I wanted any of it.  So we took off to work up the garden's bounty. 

Thursday evening we cleaned two 5 gallon buckets of corn.  I made supper and I cleaned a 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes that mom had picked.  I diced them for spaghetti sauce which would be made later. 

We went to bed Thursday night knowing we had a lot of work to do on Friday.  There was a light shower of rain early Friday morning which made the grass and green beans wet so we decided to head over to my Grandma's house.  She had a plethera of grapes and she didn't know what to do with all of them.  So to the west-side of Evansville we went. 

Toby and Great-Grandma.

 

While we were at Grandma's, my Uncle Lawrence came over to mow the grass.  He called my Aunt Nancy and told her that Toby was there if she wanted to come over and meet him.  We had a nice visit with Grandma and Aunt Nancy after harvesting two 5 gallon buckets of grapes.

 Great Grandma and 3 of her 12 great-grand kids

We harvested some carrots then headed back east to mom's house to start the process of making grape juice.  We got 1 gallon, 16 half-gallons, 7 quart and half, and 7 quarts of grape juice.  I cannot wait to break into it in a couple weeks.   

After we got done with grapes, we cleaned the third 5 gallon bucket of corn and mom cut it off the cob.  I got 30 pint freezer cartons of corn for the freezer!  Yummy! 

 

Then we skined and cored a five gallon bucket of pears.  We let them sit over-night as the hours of the day had slipped away from us.  

Having A Ball

Aunt Angel retired Kaity and Kent's ball pit and asked us if we would like to add their balls to our ball pit.  I said, "sure, why not?"  This spurred us getting out our ball pit which got put up when the water started leaking in the basement. So I decided we could bring the ball pit upstairs for the weekend for some new entertainment...and that it was!

The girls were having a good time with it, playing quietly by themselves. Then along came Daddy!

That is when the ball war began.

I told them to have fun and they were responsible for picking up the balls afterwards.

Jenna and Shelby tag-teamed Daddy.  At one point Shelby was holding daddy's head down while Jenna pulverized him with balls.

Daddy escaped and then got cornered.

Sorry my foot is in the shot, I was sitting in the chair in the family room feeding Toby.

Shelby sure was proud of herself when she actually hit the target!

Then, as my Dad always said, "it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt."  

Shelby hurt her elbow on something.  It wasn't a major injury, as I believe a Daddy kiss fixed it.  They had a blast, all three of them!  There were balls everywhere, but I stuck to my guns and didn't pick up a single one!

Shelby Starts School

Shelby started preschool on Tuesday at Learn A Lot with Miss Anita. This is where the kids also go to daycare (and where Jenna went to preschool last year).  She was super stoked about starting school!

She was the first one up, dressed, hair done, shoes on, and ready to go!  Jenna insisted on getting a picture with her so...

Then I asked them if they would give each other a kiss (future black male?) since they wouldn't be together most of the day (Shelby has school in the morning and Jenna leaves daycare for school in the afternoon). 

She had a great first day!

Toby 1 month

Toby turned one month old today.  I captured some pictures of him and Bloomer, while he was wide awake. 

He was a little freaked out by Boomer at first, it was kinda funny.

As for how we are all adjusting to our little guy...

He slept 7 hours last night!  I am sure it was just a fluke, but it was a food night of sleep for me!  Saturday night was the worst night we have had with him home. He didn't want to sleep at all!  

He put himself on a 3 hour schedule and is pretty good about sticking to it all day. He is a very happy and content little guy. He has started to smile, though they are hard to capture with photography. 

He is a pretty good shopping companion. He likes his car seat.  He like getting a bath. He likes to snuggle, too!  Overall we have been blessed with a very lovable and easy baby boy!

Maternity Leave Project #1

One of the things I hoped to accomplish while on maternity leave was to organize closets.

When Lance and I moved into our new master bedroom I filled the closet with maternity clothes and walked away from everything in my closet other than my shoes.  So I knew I would need to work on my half of the closet if nothing else. So my first major undertaking was my closet. I am happy to say it has been completely organized, including by color and type of hanger. 

Next came Jenna's closet. I am not sure it has been cleaned out since 2005 when we moved into the house and built the closet!  There were some wedding presents, my clarinet, my suits, excess flooring, clothes Jenna outgrew, ones she fits into now, and some for next year. It was a nightmare to say the least!

I also cleaned out Shelby's closet, but it had been overhauled when she moved into her new room because we moved into the new master suite. Nonetheless, I went through it and pulled out the 24 mo and 2T clothes she has outgrown (most for length/height not because of her girth). 

Needless to say, we all are enjoying our closet overhauls!  O, what about Toby...  He doesn't have a closet. 

Hofmann Ice Cream Social

It seems as if about once a year we get together with Ivan, Angel, Kaity and Kent for a batch of homemade ice cream and a social evening.  On Saturday evening we got together for our 2013 edition of the event.  Angel got out the bubble machine and it was a HUGE hit! 

 Lance and Kent were hand-cranking the ice cream (Ivan, Kaity, and Jenna) all cranked too!

 We also got to explore the tree house that was built for Kaity and Kent.  However, I never got a good picture of the tree house itself....but the slide coming off of it was a big hit, too!

Kaity got to spend some time holding cousin Toby. 

Kent did too! 

 Jenna played on the swinging disc, Kent was nice enough to push her.

We spent some time around the fire pit too.  Here we were making hotdogs.   

We had a great time, the girls had lots of fun playing with their cousins, Toby enojoyed all the attention, and the adults enjoyed some socialization, too.  Thanks for having us over!

Jenna at Pre-K

This year Jenna is attending preschool at Busy Blocks in Jasonville. Since I am on maternity leave I made sure to take her and pick her up on her first day. Toby stayed at daycare for 10 minutes while I dropped her off (per Mim's request).

Jenna on the "blocks"

Next to the sign. 

Awaiting our turn to sign in and circle her name. 

She got to circle her name on the white board. 

Then she went out to the playground. She was super excited and didn't care that I was there or left. 

We are able to go to Busy Blocks because one of the daycare employees is providing transportation for her son, Isaac. Along with Isaac and Jenna she is also taking Brylee. There are 2 other kids from her daycare attending preschool there too!  She had a great time. She cried only because she had to go home....she was having sooooo much fun and was enjoying the new playground. 

Cousin Oby

My sister and her family had not made it up to see Toby due to busy schedules.  So we planned a fun day for Wednesday to let Carla, Ciara, and Mattison meet Toby.  Evidently, the weekend of Thresherman's, Mattison was calling her new cousin, Oby (leaving out the T).  It was precious! 

 Mattison, like Shelby, liked holding Toby, but only for a minute or two and then she was on to the next thing!

Carla is a very organized and well prepared person. She often times makes multiple meals and puts them in the freezer. This is something that I have never really been in the habit of doing, with the exception of lasagna. So we planned to do some food preparation as an "activity" during their visit.

The girls played in the living room and we proceeded to make a double batch of mini pizzas, 2 tater tot casseroles, an up-side-down pizza bake, 2 pounds of meat balls, 2 pounds of meat loaf, 2 9x13 cake pans of chicken enchiladas, and 2 chicken pot-pies. I also browned 2 extra pounds of ground beef that went to the fridge/freezer for easier meal prep in the future. Needless to say, we are going to have several nice meals from the work we did.

One of Ciara's requests was to play with the kitties.  We didn't do that until after supper, but all the girls had fun with the kitties!

 Good-bye was drawn out, but involved lots of kisses - for Toby!

 We happened to get 4 of the kids on the couch together.  Not everyone would sit together and look at the camera, but they did sit long enough to get a a couple pictures.

We had lots of fun, made sevearal new dishes for the Hofmann Family, and enjoyed each other's company!

Another Dirt Project

We have had a few issues with the "new" part of the house.  When we had 5.5 inches of rain and then an inch the next day, another inch the following day and another inch a couple days later we had some water issues with new part of the basement.  There was a dirty stream running across the foundation ledge between the old basement and the new basement. 

 

We called the builder and ask for some advice.  Lance and Joe (the builder) cut into the new drywall and exposed the old basement wall.  The water was coming in between where the concrete butted up to the old block wall. 

 

The guys decided that they needed to dig a trench around the old basement, paint the block wall with a water-proof tar type paint, attach a membrane, insulate, and fill the dirt back in.  So, that is what we are in the process of doing.  Joe's crew hand dug a trench all the way around the existing house foundation.  They hooked up all the gutters and a drain to get the water away from the foundation.  Then they painted, and painted, and painted, and painted again.  Then they applied the membrane.

 

Then they added this insulation, just as was done with the new part basement. 

 

Then they have been back-filling the dirt.   

 This project has been on-going for almost a month and has this place looking like a disaster!  The front porch is almost impossible to enter.  It has been a nightmare as we have had guests and family over meeting Toby.  It is much easier to open the garage and let people come in that way.  I am READY for the outside projects to get finished, but at this point, we may end up waiting for rain before the rest of the back filling and work is completed.  UGH, rain was the problem, we fixed the problem and.....now it won't rain!!!!

Toby's Newborn Photo Shoot

I have waited to put this post up, as I did not want to spoil the birth announcement!  I believe all those in whom were sent announcements should now have received them.  These are pictures that I took of Toby his first week at home. 

 This one for his daddy!

 

This one with his cute blanket from a lady from church. 

This one for the Rentchler's. 

I like the fetal position photos, but not when they feature a naked baby. 

 A pinterest idea...

 And a green tractor for the Hofmann family.