HAPPY BIRTHDAY little SISTER........

WE LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Ice Cream Man... are you lost???

OK, so we sort of live in the country. Well, as far as the ice cream truck goes(ya know the one that plays the real loud kid attention grabbing music)I would think we would be considered country -at least far enough out of town to miss out on the ice cream truck! - Well, think again!!! While we were outside working on the pears today - Nicole announces that she hears the ice cream truck coming. This has only happened one other time in the 15 years we have lived here and it was long enough ago that my three youngest don't remember it(it was probably long enough ago-I don't think they were born?). The only time I can even think that the little boys have even seen an ice cream truck would be at one of Eric's baseball games. Well, pretty soon we could all hear the music. But, I kept thinking to myself that it could be pretty far away and we would still be able to hear it. It kept getting closer and closer and sure enough it found us.
US, here on our little dead end street that only contains 7kiddos. My 5, and the other two being a 12 year old and a 15 year old. I explained to Nicole, Ryan, and Jason that this was a ONE TIME deal(ya know I had to give in for the whole novelty of actually having the ice cream guy come down our street)... BUT, that if/when the ice cream guy returned, we would NOT be buying his OVER-PRICED treats ever again! Jessica and I were getting a pretty good chuckle out of the whole thing. For one, you should have seen how excited Ryan and Jason were(it really was too cute), but also - "jingle bells" was one of the tunes that was coming from the poor little van(I mean come on, this isn't what I expected to see driving down the road proclaiming to be an ice cream truck!) I know we have a picture somewhere from the one and only other time an ice cream truck came down our lane - (Mary do you have that picture? I think YOU are IN the picture?) - I will have to get it and scan it so I can post it!!! FUN, FUN TIMES!

THE "PEAR" GANG

OH YEAH -

63 QUARTS OF PEARS!!!

AND, ALL DONE BEFORE IT WAS TIME TO TAKE JESSICA TO VOLLEYBALL PRACTICE AT 5:30!!!

HERE ARE MY LITTLE HELPERS FOR THE DAY! - THE LITTLE BOYS SORT OF JUST CAME AROUND WHEN THEY WERE READY FOR ANOTHER PEAR TO EAT -

-OR TO TRY OUT THE "TOOLS" -

BUT, NICOLE REALLY STUCK WITH IT! WHEN SHE WASN'T HELPING ME, SHE DID A GREAT JOB KEEPING THE LITTLE BOYS ENTERTAINED!

AS FOR JESSICA AND ERIC, WELL, THEY HAD PUT OFF THEIR HOMEWORK....BUT, FROM THE LOOK ON ERIC'S FACE, I THINK MAYBE HE WOULD HAVE RATHER BEEN HELPING WITH THE PEARS???
JESSICA DID HELP WITH THE PEARS IN THE AFTERNOON.

YAY - 4 BOXES are D.O.N.E.!!!

I told myself that as soon as the kids were back in school - that I would catch up on my blogging world(it's gonna be a big job since the last time I blogged about the kiddos and our adventures was the end of MAY) anyhoo, that's what I kept telling myself all summer(to stay off the computer and BE WITH the kids) - Well, they are back in school, and do you think I have more time??? NOT YET..........BUT SOON! - thank goodness canning season doesn't last too long!

........there are more of these to tend to:



AND, this week will be an adventure just trying to get all of these done-YES, ALL OF THE BOXES HAVE PEARS IN THEM! - (forget the fact that I still have the kiddos, homework, volleyball games to attend, family to feed, laundry, etc, etc.) thank goodness that I REALLY do LOVE to can!!! (hopefully my canning partner{~my sister-in-law, Mary~} is going to make it over! I picked half of these for her! We make a good team, but it is going to be a bit tricky now that she has moved 30 minutes away, AND she has a son in 1/2 day kindergarten! CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU MARY!!!







MMMMMMMMM, MMMMMMMMMMM,
HOPEFULLY THE NEXT PICTURES I POST WILL BE OF ALL THESE PEARS HANGING OUT IN QUART JARS!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLUFF!!!

Happy Birthday to one AMAZING woman!!!
WE LOVE YOU!

FIRE, FIRE, & MORE FIRE.....

My kids didn't want to go to bed - they wanted to keep an eye on the fire that John was called out to!(too bad tomorrow is the first day of school, so they HAD to go to bed!) He left around 7:20 - when I put Jason to bed around 9:00, all you could see was the red glow from behind the mountain - when I went out around 10:30 I still could not see too much of a flame from our back yard - but about 15 minutes later when I walked by the window - the whole hill was ablaze!!! - My mom and I drove down the rode a bit where we had a better view(thanks dad for "babysitting" so I could take a turn) - I took this picture around 11:41 - I wish I could have captured more of the details - but WOW! It is a BIG fire! I took the picture from the opposite side of the valley - in the picture you can sort of see three different hill peaks- it is quite spread out - and there is a pretty good breeze out tonight that I am sure is NOT helping!

our firefighters are AMAZING!!!

- THEY ARE ALL VOLUNTEERS! -

I need to go to bed, but not sure how much sleep I'll get until I know John is SAFE & off those Hills! It is pretty freaky just watching it from here, I cannot imagine what it would be like up there in the middle of it!

He called me around 11:30 - he was at the top!