We had fresh green beans last night. Matthew picked them from the garden, I cleaned them and lightly cooked them in butter. They were the best green beans I have ever had. Not rubbery, chewy or just yucky! If you can get your hands on some fresh green beans, you must try them!
Month: August 2009
Hannah’s 2nd Birthday
Hannah just turned two on August 23rd. She is the best, little, sweetie! We can’t imagine life without her now. She’s full of life, joy and energy and loves to cuddle and please. We adore you little Hannah. We’re so happy God put you in this family with us. We look forward to the years ahead with you.
I have never used real vanilla before. We received this from Matthew’s brother Mark last Christmas. It has been calling me to use it. So, I decided to make a “real” homemade cake with “real” vanilla, butter and all that good stuff.
Scraping the yummy vanilla out of the pod. It reminds me of the stuff that comes out of a pipe when a man cleans out his pipe. Gooey, moist and full of fragrance. It smelled sooooo good!
Here’s the vanilla bean in the frosting. It’s in the vanilla cake too. Pretty, little flecks of vanilla.
The finished product. I had to cook it in a pie dish as I am in need of a cake pan. It was heavenly. I put little, colorful sprinkles on the kid’s cake. They ate it all gone! I will make this again. Nothing like making cake from scratch. I can’t go back to the box after this one. Happy birthday Hannah. You bring joy to our lives. We can’t say enough about you.
Pickin Plums
They are only around for a couple of weeks or so, so we got to pickin!

I wish I had birthdays like this as a child!

It had it’s lets say, laxative effect on all of them.
Here’s our plum jam. Matthew canned the plums into a jam. It is one of the most delicious jams we have ever tasted. A friend of mine in Maine suggested marinating chicken in it. Ooh, that’s sounds yummy. I would love to try this on homemade pancakes or english muffins.
Our Cutie Hannah
Three Hours of Fun
Once a week Matthew takes ALL of the kids for 3 hours in the morning and I do the favor in turn once a week for 3 hours. We get a lot done in this time… and the kids who are with the one parent have lots and lots of fun!
Last week Matthew painted Hannah’s wall as the kids had torn the wallpaper on it over the past couple of years – it wasn’t the prettiest sight. So, I decided to try a campground/State park an hour away.

to Washington state yet can see the beauty here in the summer.

is from our storm in December 2007.