Canning up a storm

Our family has been working hard trying to preserve the food that is plentiful right now. We've canned salsa, peaches, applesauce, blackberry & plum jam, and tomatoes. We've frozen peaches, apricots, tomatoes, and pesto, and have dried tomatoes and fruit leathers. It IS A LOT of work, but oh, so satisfying. I think canned peaches and plum jam are so pretty to look at.

In the picture below, we are de-stemming basil for pesto while listening to Max retell the story of the First Vision. It was a great FHE!
Justin had the task of cleaning fruit leather trays and watching Noah. This is how he accomplished his tasks....so clever!
Justin and Max have been critical helpers to all our ventures. Max cut most of the tomatoes we dried....and there were a lot!!! My favorite was when he was turning the wheel of the applesauce machine (having worked hard for a good hour at it) said to me, "This is for my applesauce badge!" Oh, he is so funny. Badges were on his mind after attending Justin's pack meeting the other night.

Co-op

MORE Maxisms:

During Justin's Co-op, I do a little pre-school co-op for Max and friends. This morning he asked me, "Mom, are we going to Kolob today?"

I guess Max has VERY HIGH expectations for co-op! It's so cute, I can't bring myself to correct him.

Above is a picture of Max feeding a baby calf, and below is a picture of the kids learning "Grand Ol Flag" and marching around the house waving the flag and playing spoons! We do have fun at co-op....and Justin LOVES his as well!!!!!!

Wild Turkeys

Surprisingly, this is not a picture of my boys :). We actually have wild turkeys that frequently visit our back yard. Too fun.

Boys will be boys!

So Happy Together!

Justin

Max

Noah

Scripture puppets

We made puppets for scripture study. Max and I worked on David, and Justin made Goliath. I think they turned out SO cute!
Max wanted David on a green popsicle stick. When he brought him into where I was nursing Noah, I commented on how green David looked. Max said, "Yea, because he drank some quantonium (the liquid Susan drinks in Monsters vs. Aliens)!!!" Okay, I can't stop laughing at that! How does he remember these big words...and uses them so well???? Oh, he is funny!!!

FHE and Dinner with the Menlove's

We had FHE with Bishop Menlove his wife Becky and daughter Catherine. It was such a fun evening. The dinner was so yummy, Geoff and I ate two servings of most everything! Justin, Max and Catherine had a blast playing "half bloods" together... a game made up about greek gods that come from the Percy Jackson books. O they are funny!!! The Menlove's are great people. I've really enjoyed serving with Becky in the Primary together.
Our Max...3 going on 17...insisted on listening to the music "loudly"!! He loves loud music. I'm in for it with him!

Sunday Dinner with DeMordaunt's

We don't get to spend enough time with DeMordaunt's! It was so fun to have them out for dinner with us in Sweet!

Geoff and I wanted to fix a meal made with entirely farm grown food. We almost were able to. The menu consisted of:

• Fajitas-squash, peppers, onions, morrels (mushrooms from heaven), and elk served on sour dough tortillas and with fresh salsa.
  
• Melon fruit salad--AMAZING varieties of cantaloupes, watermelons and strawberries. Have you ever tasted a yellow watermelon??? So delicious!
• lettuces salad with lemon cucumbers (YUM!), peppers and other yummy things.
• Tomato/ feta cheese & basil salad. Really, very tasty!!
• French green beans sauteed with garlic...oh so good.
• DeMordaunt's brought an uncooked peach pie that was heavenly!!!
  

It was really relaxing and so enjoyable to sit in our backyard under the canopy with dear friends, eating food from heaven, and being so close to such beautiful scenery. What a great day!!!

Rafting the Payette

After Kayaking on the Payette with the RS, I couldn't wait to take the boys out on the river. They LOVED it! I could do this everyday!


Of course Geoff had to jump off the Montour bridge. You can see Justin below, waiting to swim under the bridge with him after the jump!

Boise Zoo with Orchards

The gang:
Jay & Mia Orchard, Max & Justin Neyman...
they LOVE to be together!

K'Nex

Justin spent days working on this project, and it was so cool when he finished it. I wish we had taken a video of the balls going through the roller coaster. It had so many different routes that made pieces swing, roll, pop, swirl....it was COOL! It was a FUN project that Justin, Max and Shively's worked on together.

Relief Society at it's best!!!

This is Sweet's annual Relief Society Kayaking trip. Never had a more inspiring activity than this...WOW was it beautiful and AWESOME!!!

The Shively's

This is part of the family that lives across the street from us, and have quickly become GREAT friends of ours. From the left, Parker, Justin, Ben, Max, and Todd. Our boys practically lived with each other during the summer. We've had a lot of fun adventures together.

Here we made boats and raced them in the Shively's swimming pool.

Newest member of the Farm Family

Meet Stripes... the newest member of our little Farm Family. If he survives Max and Noah, it will be a simple miracle!!!!

More of Max

On the way to a Sacrament Meeting/ Farewell for Bekah Demordaunt, the boys were writing a farewell letter. Max finished his drawing and I said, "Don't forget to sign it!" Max replied, "I did. See? It says,

"MAX. com"

Oh my how we laughed at that!!! Max.com coming your way! Do we live in a technological world or what??? My 3-year old is signing his name Max.com!
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I was lying next to Max as he was dozing off into sleep, when he said, "Mom, I need another binkie." I asked, "What do you need another binkie for?" He replied, "To put in my ear!"

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After many days of discussing/teaching about not saying unkind words, Max crawled into my lap and put his hands tenderly on my cheeks, looked sweetly into my eyes and said, "Mom, you're not dumb OR stupid."