Sister

Happy Birthday to one of the most incredible girls I know--my sister, my best friend, Misti. I can't believe you're 24, that means I'll be 26 in exactly three weeks to the day. I don't think you know the impact you've had in my life, you see usually it's the older sibling who's the role model, the example, but not in this case--you are. You've been such a shining example of Christ, a true follower of the gospel, one who shines bright inside and out. You make it to the temple more times in one week then I sometimes make in one month. I love hearing your dating adventures and stories, the good and bad. Your future husband is going to be one lucky man. Carson adores you, his "Bippy," I think you became his new favorite person in those six weeks you spent with us this summer. I so wish we could surprise you and show up at your apartment in Rexburg, like last year, man would that be sweet, two years in a row, but yah I'm a couple thousand miles away.  You are going to make one amazing teacher, as you have already taught me a lot. I have so many childhood memories I could list and make this post about a mile long but I'll spare everyone. Mostly, I just want to thank you for being you, for being my sister and best friend.

What I wish Idaho had....

We've been here in New Jersey on our vacation a little over a week now. After a long red-eye flight and a layover in Charlotte, we made it to NJ on the 7th. Last week we spent most of our time at the beach, oh yes the beach in September! The water was perfect and the beach wasn't as crowded since most everyone was back in school. The beach is one thing I wish Idaho had, if it did then Idaho would be complete :). Carson loved the waves and the sand, the seagulls ate one too many of his cheese nips so he wasn't too fond of them. I seriously could have spent all day every day there, my ear is still plugged with ocean water from Keith trying to teach me how to "ride the wave in." One thing I'll probably never get used to is the salt water. Since I grew up swimming in lakes and rivers I am used to the freshwater taste, I couldn't stop spitting the salt water out of my mouth. haha. I'm hoping Wednesday will be nice enough to make it to the beach one last time, or the lake so we can take Nala, Keith's parents dog. Either way I'm just glad we were able to make it to the beach a few times before Fall sets in, since some days are already starting to feel like Fall.

These were the only pics I got on my phone since I broke my camera like two weeks before our vacay. argh! Keith's sis is kind enough to let me use hers for the next couple weeks.

UP NEXT: Atlantic City, NJ for date night

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me!

So yesterday my two sisters went to the church orchard here and picked about a million peaches for hours while I watched the kids. Combined they definitely got over 100 lbs of peaches all for free! So Misti and I have been going crazy baking, freezing etc, and looking up all recipes that involve peaches. Today we made 7 quarts of peach pie filling, 3 batches of homemade fruit leather, and 1 batch of dried peaches. Oh man, and we still have so many peaches left! We're planning of freezing a lot for smoothies, crepes, casseroles, muffins, etc. The homemade fruit leather has been our favorite recipe so far and by far the easiest. Misti, Carson and I ate the whole pan last night! The best thing about it is that it only take 4 peaches and 1 TBS of honey. SOOOO EASY AND SOOO YUMMY.  If you've never heard of fruit leather it's basically a homemade fruit roll-up.

So here's the recipe....seriously...try it.

4 peaches (you don't have to peel, we didn't and it was just fine)
1 TBS Honey

Wash peaches. Blend/puree all ingredients in food processor, Vitamix,  or blender (you will have to blend a little longer since regular blenders aren't as powerful). You can also add other fruit like strawberries, raspberries etc so it has more than one flavor.

Pour mixture onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, or you can use a dehydrator if you have one. We used our oven and baked it for 3-3 1/2 hrs at 200 deg.

Let cool. Enjoy

If some of it turns out a little crispier than other parts (the edges mostly) then let sit over night and it will become soft and chewy again!

Brown Reunion 2013

Last weekend some of my siblings, brother-in-law, nieces/nephews and I decided last minute to go to the Brown Reunion (my mom's side), and I'm sure glad we did. We also met Keith there which was so nice to go camping for the first time this summer with him. Although my parents weren't there since they're in Peru, it was still nice to catch up with extended family. The weekend was full of floating the Onieda Narrrows (twice), swimming at Bear Lake, an auction, food, games (life size bananagrams), fun, laughter, campfires, roasting smores, campfire games and just hanging out with my mom's family, which is always a good time. I wish I had a better picture of Bear Lake for those of you who have never been, it seriously looks like the Caribbean, it's so turquoise! Get ready for picture overload!

Uncle Brian is the Mountain Man of the family

Excited to float the river!

Chillin on the lake

Wasn't too excited about the spot clear down on the end of the beach that was picked,  since it was so grassy, but it was the only way we could bring my cousins dog onto the beach, there was no one around us so that was nice since North beach was PACKED!

Life size bananagrams was a hit!

We hold an auction every year to pay for the next years expenses. Misti and I made some pillows that cost us $1.50 to make and they sold for $13.  Uncle Brian made a stool out of some wood and it went for $80!

Until next year!!!

Guyumes

Carson is starting to talk a lot more and putting sentences together but there are some words that still come out different, I wanted to write these down more for my sake so I could remember. Our favorite has been guyumes, which means ice cream in Carson language. It took as a while to figure out what he was saying. We still haven't figured out what a boppyding is yet.

Names:
Nikki- Kiki
Brecka- This one is hard to spell---bwecka maybe?
Alexa- Wexa
Tristan- Ditden
Brynlee- Maymay
Brielle- B--elle
Malia- Bebe dia
Tyson- Bebe dyson
Skylee- Kylee
Misti- Bippy (this one has been our favorite lately)
Mickey Mouse-  kikies mouse
Thomas (the train)- Momas
Amelia Bedelia- Dia Dia
Bearstein Bears- Bababen bears
Arthur- Arthdur
Daniel Tiger- Dandel

Things:
Truck- guck
Yogurt- gugurt
Blueberries- baberries
Grapes- gapes
Pillow- buhbo
Water- wawo
Battery- bopy
Ice Cream- guyumes (he's starting to say ice cream now though)
Vitamin- buhbine
Lion- dion
Flamingo- gingo
Marshmallow- mamallow
Popcorn- copcorn
Ravioli- Olies

Oh I love this silly boy.

And so the potty training begins....

Today I'm attempting to start potty training Carson. He's 2 1/2 and showing signs he's ready and I'm definitely ready to stop buying diapers. I'm trying the three day method and so far it has been interesting, your whole day for three days focuses around potty training, it's quite a bit of work but I guess you have to start sometime right? It's funny the things you get excited over, when Carson went the first time today in the potty it was like getting a 100% on a really hard test. I know it's not over yet but that first step was so exciting I had to call Keith.

I'm a little nervous that this weekend's  family reunion/camping trip will ruin it all since we won't be home and we'll be in the woods. Should I bring his little toilet? haha but seriously I don't want all our hard work to go to waste. I'm hoping he'll be fully trained before our big trip to New Jersey in September.

So calling all Mom's who have potty trained, please comment below with your tips and tricks with what helped your little one to finally be potty trained. 

In other crafty news, we had a girls night two Friday's ago complete with lots of goodies and crafts. I attempted this wreath from pinterest, it was a lot more work than I thought, especially since there was no tutorial, but Keith says it's my best wreath so far, so I think I did something right.

wreath from pinterest

my wreath

Man, is it seriously August already? July flew by so fast I hardly had time to catch my breath. These past two weeks that my sister has been home from school on a break and living here with me have been so nice since Keith's been in Montana. We've gone to the pool multiple times since it's still been so hot, floated the river with friends and family, attended more birthday parties, made new pinterest recipes, and hit up Sonic for their 1/2 price shakes. Oh it's so nice to have someone to hang with. In a way I'm more excited for fall than anything because it's my favorite season, but I love the summer too and will miss the things you can only do in the summer here. And I'm excited for September to come for more than one reason...I'll keep ya posted on that.

I'm so bad about remembering to get my camera out but here are a few pics of my nieces, nephew, sister, and Carson at the pool the other week. C loves the water!

Birthdays!

July is  a huge month for birthdays. there are eight just in my family so we're celebrating a birthday at least once a week, some weeks two or three. I've always said I want a summer baby since there are so many fun things to do for birthdays, mostly involving water! Last week was full of two birthday parties, the 4th of July celebration (parade, free activities and food, bbq, fireworks, etc,), and more swimming the days that followed since the weather was so hot! I don't have any 4th pics yet (gotta see if my sis has any), but here's a few from the birthdays.

The cutest cousins at Carson's cousin Skylee's 4th birthday party.

The only two pics of Kirk's 20th I got before my camera died.

Carson and Skylee. Carson sure loved the water balloons

Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of my nephew T.J.'s death. I still can't believe it's been that long. Still feels like yesterday I got that call on a Saturday night when I had been up at college for a week. I miss him and know what a heartbreak it was for my parents, brother and sister-in-law. Today my Uncle Fred passed away of cancer. He was a young guy, four years younger than my dad and was my dad's best friend. I'm thinking of his family and my dad today as they mourn the loss of him. My sisters and I went to visit Fred last Thursday, it was sad thinking how fast the cancer took him and how precious life is.  There have been three deaths since my parents left on their mission (grandma, uncle, and aunt) and they've only been out 11 months, life truly is precious because you never know when your last day will be. Seeing Fred in his last few days really made me think about a lot of things, especially our life after this. Those little things don't matter anymore and family and the gospel become your reason for living. You kind of just think those people most especially your parents and siblings will always just be there, you don't or at least I don't really ever think about when they'll die and then when something like this happens it really makes you think this life here on earth does end.

 Keith also had a co-worker whose wife was in her early 40s and she just passed away all of the sudden a few weeks ago. We saw him last Friday when we went out to eat, it's hard sometimes because you don't know what to say but you want to help. He looked so distraught and said he had slept maybe 4 hours the whole first week. It really hits your heart when you hear of a death of someone you know. Praying for these families.