Snip, snip

I think it's time for a haircut!

Roswell's hair had a little curl to it when it was wet, but I like a shorter style on boys, nothing against those who like to grow out their boys' hair. I just didn't like him being mistaken for a girl, so I cut it shortly after his 1st birthday, I just forgot to post pictures.

The finished product. He looks like a boy again!

Pioneer Day 2009

Every year we celebrate the accomplishments of our ancestors and their dedication to make a new life in America. More specifically we celebrate every July 24th as Pioneer Day in our church because that is the day that the first groups of latter-day saints reached the Utah valley in order to freely practice religion without the persecution that was happening all around. We celebrate by having having a feast and playing games that were played in those times.
Here are a few pictures that display the fun that was had.

Donovan's photo finish in the sack races.

Elliott as his egg barely dropped in our egg relay.

Jared Draut and Elliott having a stick pull. Elliott is wearing the pioneer boy apparel from a different game.

Benjamin Forsyth and Dan doing the stick pull. It was a very interesting match. Dan is dressed up because he came from doing other church business.

It was a fun day.

Mmmmm, blueberries!

On Wednesday, a group of ladies and I went to go to Balzer Blueberry farm to pick our own blueberries. Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding of the operating times and had to go back. So, Friday we went with Dan since he gets 1/2 days on Fridays. Boy was it fun! Our own blueberries at home have been ransacked by the chipmunks in our area (I think we got a total of 5 berries to consume ourselves, darn rodents!), so this was a great opportunity to have blueberries for a fraction of the price in stores.

Elliott running to catch up after using the potty (yes, he's been doing well with his training!)

The boys thought it was fun to pick all the blueberries.

We had to constantly remind them to leave the green and red berries alone and only pick the nice blue ones. We called them the adult blueberries, we had to leave the baby ones to keep growing.

Roswell wanted to get in on the action too. I caught him several times pulling on the leaves and putting them in his mouth.

The sad thing was, we told the kids not to eat any, even though they kept asking. We thought it would be dishonest to eat something we didn't pay for. Later, the owner asked the boys if they got to enjoy eating some of the blueberries (this farm doesn't use pesticides, so they're safe to eat without washing). I guess they don't mind sampling. I'll remember that for next time!

The fruits of our labor. We picked 25 pounds in about an hour.

I spent all Saturday making and canning blueberry jam. I made 20 pints of jam. I have plans to make fruit leather next. We'll see how that goes, I've never done it before. I'm glad we love blueberries!

New Games

Donovan and Elliott have loved coloring pictures a lot recently. The only trouble they have is Ross. He also likes crayons, but more for chewing enjoyment. We have had to make strict rules to keep Roswell away from the crayons. In the midst, he has found a new, exciting game. Find the crayon bucket (an old butter tub) and spill it onto the floor to get a better chance at getting crayons. Then when he has succeeded, he quickly takes the crayons in front of him and tosses them behind his back (I'm guessing it's to get them further away from the brothers frantically trying to clean it up). It's hilarious to watch.

The big boys trying to get the crayons back in the bucket while Ross is trying to empty it.

Reaching in to toss the crayons backwards (you can see a few that he succeeded to launch behind him)

Then the older boys made up a new game. They took the fans that they made at story time and a balloon and created their own form of tennis. It was fun to watch.

Sorry for the blurriness, they were pretty animated. I think we'll be looking into some kind of sport for them to play, they had very good hand-eye coordination.

Dairy Day at MSU

Some friends invited us to go to the Dairy Days at Michigan State Univ. We were udderly tickled to be there! This event was to show all the things that we can do and get with cows.
We got a chance to milk this cow.

The boys were a little nervous at first, but would finally touch her leg with encouragement.

I got in on the action to show the boys that it was fun to milk a cow. I had never done it before either. I thought it would be a process to milk it, but it was surprisingly easy. It came right out at the first squeeze.

Dono thought he would maybe try. He's checking it out.

Donovan milking a cow! He says "Mommy, I wasn't scared!" Elliott, however, refused to touch it.

Enjoying a John Deere.

There were so many cool things to see. They also gave everyone milk products for free. We each had string cheese, yogurt (Gogurt), white/chocolate milk, and an ice cream sandwich. I was amazed that they were giving so much away, but hey, I wasn't complaining! Yummy! What a moo-velous day!

Crystal

Who knew there was a Crystal, Michigan? I didn't. Dan took me on a surprise date. He told me that we were going to have a picnic up at the Smith's and to pack a lunch. So I did, we get to the Smith's and Stephanie takes the boys and says "Have fun!" "What do you mean?" Then Dan takes out a scarf and blind-folds me. We drive for another 30 min., he gets me out of the car and wanted to take a picture:

Didn't expect that.

It was kinda weird. Everywhere we looked was my name.

We drove by Crystal Lake and stopped to eat lunch at Crystal Lake Cafe. It was well thought out. My baby does love me and wants to make me feel special! I don't think my response was what he was hoping for because it was a funny, kind of odd, but definitely a great day!

I didn't realize that the scarf made my hair all funky, so now I'm an embarrassed Crystal in Crystal!

Once in a Life "Time"

Did anyone else notice that on today's date at exactly this time it was 12:34:56, 7-8-9?

Pretty neat.

"Deeeee"

The kids have been a little camera happy lately. Now that I have a digital camera, I have given them some of my old film eating cameras to play with (minus the film). "Say cheese" is a common phrase in our basement.

Today, Roswell got hold of a camera, would hold it to his face (usually backwards) and say "Deeeee" (cheese). It is too cute!

You can see him squinting his eye for his cheese smile as he says "deeeee"

Family Pictures 2009

This year, to avoid melt downs and crankiness, I took the kids on separate days to get their pictures done. It worked out so well, I think I'll do this every year! Enjoy our new pictures!

Donovan:

Don't you love those beautiful lashes!

Elliott:

Roswell:

All 3 boys:

We sure had the wiggles!

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

I think this was my favorite!

The family:

Happy Independence!

Through my childhood, we always went camping in the summer and/or took a family vacation. Most of my memories of the 4th of July were spent away from home. I thoroughly enjoyed those experiences and Dan and I decided to make it tradition. Last year Roswell was just born, so this is the first time we've gone camping since moving to Michigan. We realized how much we've missed it. Some friends invited us to join them camping for the holiday weekend.

Our friends, the Smiths (I've blogged about them a number of times) own a huge amount of land (40 or 60 acres-I forget which). They've cleared a number of areas to create nature trails, gardens, and a camping area. They have told us many times that we are welcome to use it whenever we wish. We finally took them up on the offer. We had a fabulous time. We wish we could have stayed longer. I guess we'll be camping again very soon.

The boys enjoyed running around wherever they wanted with no concerns for traffic. Elliott was only really interested in the dirt. He was quite the mess. I guess I should come to expect it with all boys.

The next morning we had to pack up early and head to the Riverfest in Portland, MI. Dan has the privilege of visiting the Portland Branch members every month with his church calling, and therefore signed us up to help them man a booth at their festival, to give information about our faith to passersby who inquired. It was fun. We will get the opportunity to do the same for our own branch in the church-- St. John's Branch at the St. John's Mint Festival this coming August.
There were also many other things to see at the festival. I had the chance to take the boys down to an area that sparked their interest. Bounce houses! And better yet, they were free to go on! I thought the boys would be scared to go on them (as in times past), but I was happily surprised. I could barely contain them in order to take their shoes off.

Donovan and Elliott had fun on the elephant bouncy slide. Roswell wanted to get out of the stroller to play too, but there were too many big kids so I didn't let him. He wasn't happy. :(

Then I saw this huge slide. It must have been at least 15 feet high if not more. I thought for sure the boys wouldn't be interested. Again I was wrong, and it put a smile on my face.

Helping each other climb up. Elliott is such a monkey! I always knew it, but he made it look easy and rarely used the helper squares.

Dono going down.

Elliott going down - on his tummy!

He didn't want to be still enough to let me take a picture.

We ended the day with a bbq at another friend's house. We had quite a busy weekend, but it was lots of fun. Happy Independence Day!