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!

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.

Here she is chowing on her birthday cake.

Oh, almost gone!!!

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.

Matthew and the girls picking plums.

Look at how excited little Hannah looks! She got to pick plums on her birthday!
I wish I had birthdays like this as a child!

We filled this box pretty good. And you’ll find out later what we made with it!

I love, love, love this picture of Hannah. She’s looking up in awe at the plums on the tree.

Yummy! Psssst… don’t tell anybody. They ate too many plums.
It had it’s lets say, laxative effect on all of them.

Pretty eyes

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.

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.

Here’s Hannah running down a ramp.

And here comes Elisabeth.

Ah, look at little Matthew sitting here all by himself! Big Boy!

Watching his sisters…

A beautiful day. I put up lots of pictures here so those who haven’t been
to Washington state yet can see the beauty here in the summer.

The water here is very, very shallow. Great for little toddlers who want to walk in the water.

Isn’t this pretty? I bet that tree leaning over in the background
is from our storm in December 2007.

Another beautiful picture.

The last picture of the girls playing in the water. I just caught this of Hannah falling IN the water. I didn’t know I had this until I downloaded my camera. She got her face all wet!

The girls loved playing in this water fountain more than they enjoyed the river.

Sisters sharing a drink.

Hannah helping Elisabeth. I think they’ve got it figured out.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Here’s some more pretty pictures I took before we left. It was a peaceful day.

Here is another money saver as well as delicious… Our homemade refried beans. I just fill a pot about 1/3 with beans and fill with lots of water. Let simmer for several hours until the beans are soft. I then add some salt and some monteray jack cheese and mash up with my wisk to desired consistency.

Here’s my improved version of the sour cream I made the week before. This I made with real cream and some buttermilk. The cream provided a much better texture and it stood well on our bean burritos. It was deliciously sweet too, not sour like in the store bought. I will be making this regularly.

You won’t believe this… my husband just candled the 42 eggs and 35 are viable!!! Looks like you are definately going to be into some baby chicks!
I hope your move went well.
I’ll give you a call next week. : ) : ) : )

How can a boy have such pretty lips and features??? Maybe it’s normal for a mother to think her son is gorgeous as a father thinks his daughter is the prettiest. I don’t know. But, I sure think he’s beautiful for being a boy. ; )