Adventures in Canning

This is how Jamie Nguyen and I looked at about 12:15am Thursday Morning! Dead tired, but still in a goofy mood. We had spent the previous 2 days finishing off Jamie's year supply and doing about 6 months of my years supply. On Tuesday afternoon, we went to the cannery to pick up the sealer and supplies. Needless to say the people at the cannery were very intrigued by these 2 women putting together supplies to do 71 cases worth of food! We were amazed that yes, you can fit 60 cases in one minivan!! They asked Jamie if we had a truck for all this stuff. Nope, just 2 good ol' minivans! ;)


We learned alot on Tuesday. We got back to Jamie's, unpacked, and set everything up. It took a bit to figure out our "system". We very quickly learned our strengths and weaknesses! :) Jaime is awesome at the Sealer, while I am the winner at "packing the cans perfectly" and getting the most packed in each can!


Wednesday was the big day to do as much as we could! Michelle Haneberg came over and helped. She had some flour and sugar to do and it was alot of fun. (See, even with a baby, it can be done!) Jaime had already been up and done a ton with her girls helping. She is so awesome! (We had been a little worried that we might have to leave before this was finished for a funeral in Utah. Thanks to Jaime, no worries!)


Here are Emily and Anna putting labels on the cans. And all the girls helping break spaghetti and pack the cans. NOTE: While I chose spaghetti and Angel Hair pasta because my family loves this. I do not recommend it for food storage as it was quite a job getting it into the cans and is a BIG MESS!! Macaroni, rigatoni, orzo, oh, there are so many other much EASIER pastas to can! You live and learn, right? (It was fun with the girls, though!)


While I was working with the girls on the Spaghetti, Jaime let the little ones help her fill the Navy Beans! Ian kept a few of the beans saying that they were his "treasure". They were all such good helpers and were REALLY Patient through 2 really long days!


When the guys got home from work, we had all of my stuff complete! Here we are feeling very accomplished!! They got the fun job of loading the cars to take home! THANKS, GUYS!
Spence took our kids home and Thi took theirs out to eat and we were off working again to finish Jaime's stuff. I think the men thought we were crazy, but we were so close to being finished that we didn't want to add on a whole other day of working. We'd rather finish no matter how late and clean it all up and be done! So Jaime and I stayed up and finally finished by about midnight. It really was loads of fun and we started getting a little goofy about 11pm. So here we are quite tired.

I have to say that this was such a great experience for me. I know that this is going to bless our family. And I know that the Lord really blessed us along the way to get it done and to save us money. It amazes me how He helps us to do the things He commands!

My baby is riding a 2-wheeler!!

Ah, the milestones of life! Potty training, dressing ourselves, pouring our own cereal, and now riding without training wheels!!! I can't believe how my baby is growing up! He doesn't allow me to do much for him anymore!! In fact, I can't say I had much to do with him learning to ride the 2 wheeler! Our neighbor has a very heavy, teeny tiny bike that they have let Ian play with for the last couple of weeks. Well, yesterday, instead of riding the little one, he was riding Corin's Big Bike! Total shock! In fact, the Nedry's came by and I went outside with them and was shocked at seeing Ian whiz by! We were so excited! This morning he got up early and wanted to go out and ride. It was very hard to have him get dressed and get some breakfast before heading out! He's been riding all morning, so I thought I should get it documented!!! Enjoy!

Edmonds Beach Fun!!

On Friday, the kids and I met Theresa, Jen, and our cousins over at Edmonds Beach. It was a gorgeous day with gorgeous people!! :) We had a great time. I'd only been to the rocky beach on the north side of the ferry. I had no clue that there was such a nice SANDY beach on the southside! I was so glad we brought pails! I wish we would have brought the swimsuits! The kids had a wonderful time together!!! Aunt Jen helped them make a cool castle and we did lots of snacking. We couldn't believe it when over 2 hours had past! It went by so quickly! Jen and I stayed til a little after 6pm. Why fight traffic,, when you can stay and play! I don't know why we hadn't thought of this before. (meeting in Edmonds or Kingston) I love the idea, Doug, of just us adults meeting sometime and going out to dinner either on this side or over there! Tell us when and where!!

Ian and Joey's Musical Talents!

On Monday, we took Joey and Katie to Edmonds to meet Theresa to head on home. Erin had brought her i-pod and let Ian and Joey see it. One of the songs she has on there is from the movie, "Alvin and the Chipmunks", called "Witch Doctor". Enjoy!!

Oh, and by the way, notice Ian's boots. They are his snow boots. 72 degrees outside and everyday it is still the boots! :)

4th of July Weekend

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!! We started the day off with our Ward breakfast at Lowell Park. It is always such fun, and we always have a great turnout!! Spence went golfing with some friends up at Kayak Point and came home burnt and exhausted! :) After the breakfast, Emily and Erin went to a parade with Hannah Shinsatos family while I took the little ones with me and we bought a new grill. You can't have the 4th without a BBQ!!! We spent the afternoon getting ready for our BBQ and playing in the Shinsatos blowup pool. (Blowing the thing up was an adventure all its own!!:)

We were lucky and got to have the missionaries and the Shinsatos over for dinner. We enjoyed our grilled chicken and hot dogs and all the fixings. The Shinsatos brought Ice Cream Sundaes for dessert! YUM!! Then we stayed up til midnight doing fireworks with Tobeys and the whole neighborhood, it seemed! People had some cool mortars that shot way up high! We had no need of a professional display! It was soooo loud, though. I'm afraid most of our pictures look like we weren't enjoying it because we had to plug our ears!! We definitely had fun!!

On Saturday, we got to have some time with Dougs family. They, unfortunately, had to come over this way for a funeral. So, we got to play with Jacob and Joey for the morning. Then we lucked out and got to keep Joey and Katie for the weekend!! Jen, Nat, Freddy, and Bridget came up for a BBQ on Saturday and we made homemade, strawberry ice cream! It was so fun!

We had a great weekend and loved every minute with our family and friends!