Wanna-be 'Susie Home-Maker...'

So, I've been called a little susie home-maker in recent weeks due to my activities of food preservation .... juicing, freezing, and now canning!
Truth be told, I am a big wanna be. With our large garden I should be all up and up on this food preservation stuff. But, most of the time I'm happy to get out the door with shoes on my kids much less trying to safetly harvest and put up dozens of pounds of garden delights...
Alas, year by year, I am getting better at it! And just today I had a virgin canning experience with my neighbors, who were also newbies as well. We stuck with tomatoes, which are fairly easy to can in a hot water bath if you add a bit of lemon and lime juice, and made plain peeled tomato halves as well as a great stewed tomato recipe that took bell pepper, onion, and great spices.
It did not produce a ton of jars, though it was extroardinary sucessful in our eyes as I KNOW it is the first of many totally cool canning experiences....

And come mid winter, those juicy heirloom tomatoes will taste SO good!!!!

My fishermen...

And I'm sure this post in a few years will include my THREE fishermen. But, currently, it is only two as my Little Talin is still my partner in crime, (and I have yet to even purchase a fishing license this year...guess I've been a bit busy hey....???!)

Needless to say the fishing has been fannnnnnntabulous!!! Forrest has gotten to witness more salmon being caught then he knows what to do with, and is so excited and interested in fishing at the moment that it is awesome just to let him go to town with his "bb-pole" on our front porch fishing for steelehead. My fish frenzied hubby is loving life in seeing literally thousands of salmon move up river daily. It is truly an epic year.
Talin and I hold down the fort, take cute pictures of ourselves and just love life in general....I am soaking it up as I know one day my THREE fisherBOYS will leave me in the dust!!!

my collection of heart rocks....sappy river mama !!!!

2 1/2 Years and 4 Months...time keeps marching along.

It seems time is flying by these days. Summer seemed to be gone in a snap, and suddenly Forrest is on the downhill side of his big 3rd year of life, and Talin is no longer a wee one anymore!

Talin is still a joy in every sense of the word. I love this little guy so much!

In the past two weeks his alertness has definitely increased and he now has some trouble napping during the daytime, I think just because he wants to be up, and a part of everything. He still requires a lot of sleep, and then becomes overtired and we are left with a fussy baby until he eventually conks out. But "fussy Baby" Talin style is still not anywhere near the fussiness that CAN happen with other kiddos, and over all we feel so lucky and blessed with our little T. He is still breastfeeding exclusively. Still not sleeping much more than 3-5 hours during the night. And still loves his baths, his swing, his baby bouncer, and his carpet...though nothing for too long of a period of time. If you keep him busy, he is a happy camper. He LOVES his older brother and smiles and coos like no other when Forrest gives him attention. Though if the attention turns at all loud, or rough, Talin is quick to protest and despite all the noise in this house seems to like the peace and quiet a bit.

I don't know his weight, but I do know he is outpacing Forrest. He is already outgrowing his 6 month clothes and is quite the chubby happy baby!

Mr. Forrest is joyous, crazy, talkative, (most not quite understandable yet, though chatter on he does!) 2 1/2 year old.


He is a HUGE fan of his fishing rod, and is obsessed with catching a "big steelhead on the river". His favs also include his trains, boats, and books and more books.

He's got a great little personality and when he gets excited about something it is very fun to watch. He can crack you up one moment with his crazy ways, make you smile with his "tank you's", and then make you red in the face with his screaming and hitting....tis the ways of a 2 year old!  He seems to be making big improvements, (some days...;-) on the hitting front, as his daycare teachers have told us he now has buddies and is playing much better.

 He can still be quite destructive at times and we are trying to remind him of he strength and channel it to productive things. If there is a job to do and he is at all interested, he is your man. Potty training has stalled out and we are back to diapers full time for the moment. He, for the most part, is very good and gently with his baby brother. He wants to help him, cuddle with him, and tries to calm him when he is crying. It is very cute and awesome to watch.He's a great eater as well, chowing down on most of our garden treats. I am hopeful that this next 6 months will  be full of adventure, (duh...:-), progress in language and potty training, and fun times for our big Forrest guy.

Life with 2 kids is tough, no doubt.
Most days and weeks I feel like this!

smiling but crazy, including the hair...kind of sums up my life!

But the two boys fit with our lifestyle well and we are one happy family here in the woods....sometimes happy simply just to get to bed! But happy none the less :-)

Wonderful Watermelon!!!

Our garden this year has been great, but the surprise star of the abundance of veggies and fruit has been our melons! We have never had much luck in the past getting the juicy sweetness ripe enough for the end of summer heat. But, this year, despite our late summer, our watermelon rocks!
We grew two varieties, sunmoonstars, and a seedless. Both are as sweet as can be and we are still swimming in the delicious fruit...

Feeling much better this morning....

Other than a little swollen nose, and an orange pen mark thanks to F above his eye,  little T is doing A-Okay...:-)

Another addition of the good, the bad, and the ugly.....

The good: It's FRIDAY! And this mama has a three day weekend. The rat race of the crazy week is over, and today I managed to get 30 patients evaluated and treated, a Costco trip finished, both of my boys successfully dropped off and picked up from kiddie care, (different kiddie cares mind you, and Talin's first time at good friend Nicole's house, he did great!) and dinner, semi fixed and on the table....kind of...read on...

The Bad: In our evening craziness Forrest decides to draw on his little brother's face and then poke his eye with the marking pen he was using....screaming ensues....

The Ugly: Forrest gets put in a time-out chair. I comfort Talin. Forrest doesn't stay in his time-out chair so I put Talin down in his carseat sitting in the recliner and put Forrest in his crib for timeout. Walking out from Forrest's room I hear a CRASH.
My stomach leaps into my chest, I feel sick. I run over and find Talin face planted, having fallen off the recliner where his not so smart mama had placed him, car seat on top of him, nose spewing out blood.
And if it sounds awful, it WAS! I'll never forget that awful sight.
Yep, my sweet baby boy got his first bloody nose tonight and it was MY fault.
Very Ugly.
Thankfully, all seems to have settled down now, Talin is back to his smiles, and just finished feeding. But the poor little guy cried for 45 minutes straight and Forrest was his usual crazy self into everything you can imagine while I was trying to comfort my baby T. Thankfully Alex came home after about 30 minutes of mayhem to all three of us crying and rescued ALL of us.
Uggh.
Not going to be winning the mama of year award on that move. I think I'll go to bed now, after hugging and kissing my little guy and thanking the heavens for quickly healing babies....

A John Carleton's-Eye View....

Last night of summer

Everybody was kung fu fighting

For more beautiful photos check out
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johncarleton

"Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun." -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author

And boy oh boy did children gather for this past Labor Day weekend! We were lucky enough to have my old rowing friend turned very good mama friend Sheelagh Carleton and her family over for 2 days. They put forth the effort and make the trek over to our neck of the woods for some fun times with the SIX kiddies! Sheelagh and John have two older girls, who are 6 and 4 years old, and then two younger boys, who are almost exactly the same age as my Forrest and Talin. It has been incredible to have this close connection to an experienced super mom with boys the same age as mine. Our friendship is truly invaluable to me.

Over the course of a day and a half we cooked and ate yummy food, took a good walk, went on "Bear Hunts" on the quad with Alex, spent most of a day down at our river beach, night picked strawberries, got stung by yellow jackets, (uggh!!), had just a few toddie meltdowns, and had a glorious camp fire, and even had an hour or so there where nearly EVERYONE, including exhausted parents, took a nap :-)

We were also blessed enough to have the wonderful talents of John to capture the fun with his camera....truly made for some lasting memories and I hope we can continue to meet up year after year as our kids grow older!

Enjoy the pictures...there will be another post with some more beautiful shots from John. And please click on the pics to blow them up...they really are something special in their bigger version!

The jungle cruisers....!

The blue eyed babies of the group, Talin, nearly 4 months and David nearly 6 months, already buddies

Forrest and his "people" as he so fondly called them....

Forrest, my crazy watermelon eating summer kid...

The "bear hunters..."

Beautiful David the sand eater....

Mama friends and their sons!

The youngest member, Baby Talin

The whole group, in one shot, quite an amazing feat :-)

Summer camp fire...toasting marshmallows!