A canning adventure

My Dad brought me over a bucketful of peaches from their trees a few days ago. I quickly realized that there were more peaches in the bucket than Bran, Peter, and I can eat. So, I bought some bottles from Walmart and gathered other canning supplies from here, there, and everywhere. In the end I had 6 quarts of peaches.

This is my little kitchen right before I got started. Thank goodness Peter took a good nap for me that day. I was able to get the whole process done and cleaned up before he woke up. It felt so rewarding to do something I'd never done by myself before.

Here is the finished product. I'm so proud of these six little bottles. While I was canning I had so many flash backs to when I was young. I remember canning with all the Burr family (my maternal side), as well as my Mom. I'll never forget making grape juice at our house on 800 S in Orem. One time I unplugged the drain for the juice and a purple stream of liquid got all over the kitchen. As you can imagine I got in BIG trouble for that.

I also had to include this last picture. While I was doing some housework earlier today I suddenly found myself alone. That's never a good thing with a crawling baby around. When I started yelling "Peter" I heard him hitting the door in the office. When I opened the door this is what I saw. It was so funny that I immediately burst into tears. My little boy is getting so BIG. Waaaaa. He was so proud of the fact that he ran and hid from Mom.

Utah State Fair

Last Thursday I threw everything on the back burner, told Brandon to take a vacation day from work, and we drove up to Salt Lake to see the sites and sounds at the Utah State Fair. The animals enthralled Peter and I loved seeing his amazed reactions to the creatures he's never been around. By far his favorite animals were the goats. I also have a soft spot for goats (having had Nubian milking goats during my teenage years) and I almost wanted one home with me.

Here are just a few of our favorite pictures from the fair.

A Picnic with Papa

On Friday Peter and I drove to UVU and joined Brandon for lunch. It was hilarious to attempt a picnic without a booster seat for Peter, but we did it anyway. It was so refreshing to get outside and enjoy some green grass and shade. Sadly our apartment complex is severely lacking when it comes to good shade and safe grass (meaning grass that hasn't been used by animals to go to the bathroom on).

While we were at UVU we went to the Icecream shop and picked out two BIG cones. As you can see from this picture Peter loved eating his first icecream cone. He totally takes after Brandon.

While we were on campus we also had to take Peter around to everyone that Bran works with so they could get a good look at him. This last picture is of him and 'uncle' Joe. It was so cute especially because a few seconds earlier Joe was down on the floor crawling with Peter. I was so sad that I was too slow to get a picture of that.

I'm so happy that Brandon works with such wonderful people and that I know so many of them too. UVU has been such a good place for us both to work and if wishes came true they would pay Bran enough money so he could stay there forever.

Fun at Grandma's

On Monday Peter and I ate a quick breakfast and headed down to Payson to spend a day with my Mom and brother. Oh my goodness, we had such a lot of fun. Grandma, Peter, Alex, and I all jumped on the tramp and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Uncle Alex also got out the garden wagon and Grandma and I took Peter on a walk around the neighborhood. It's so strange to have houses where fields used to be when I was a kid.

Grandma also fed Peter his first bowl of Bean with Bacon soup. The kid LOVED it. He has four small helpings. I think his appetite had something to do with Grandma feeding him because he never eats that well for me. It was a super fun day regardless of all the smoke from nearby fires making the air hazy. Can't wait to do it again.

Enjoying Canada

Brandon, Peter, and I packed our bags, filled up our gas tank, and headed to the Land of the Living Skies. We've come to Canada to participate in my friend Becky Jensen's wedding. It's been such a wonderful trip with a lot of fun adventures and many things to see. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

My spots

Just after getting married I started to mysteriously get these spots all over my tummy. After going to a dermatologist for months and months with no answers we decided to stop going because they weren't spreading.

When I became pregnant with Peter the spots grew darker brown then they were before, but still didn't spread anywhere else. Now, however, the spots are spreading to my arms. My biggest fear is that the spots will start to turn brown and I'll look like a speckled cheetah.

Since they are spreading we've started to go to another dermatologist who has more experience in strange skin conditions. At our last appointment we totally mystified him, so he did some blood tests to see if that would show anything. Nope, blood tests came back totally normal.

Today we went in for my 2nd appointment and he decided I should try this cream on them to see if that will make them go away. Only problem is you can't use the cream (not even topically) when your nursing. So, I'm hoping and praying the spots won't get worse because I really want to nurse Peter until he's one. I know, I'm probably crazy for wanting to nurse for that long, but I do.

So there's the update and I'm just hoping and praying that they don't start turning brown anytime soon. Strange don't ya think.

For FHE

For FHE last night Brandon and I just needed some quiet time together. So, we sat and changed our blog. What do you think? It's soooo much fun to have a hubby that knows how to do cool things with HTML. Love ya Bran.

Today it's off to the skin doctor for a follow up on my spots. Update and pictures will be forthcoming.

9 month appointment

We went to Peter's 9 month appointment today and found out that Peter is SMALL. Here are his stats and the percentile he's in.

Length: 28.75 inches - 50th percentile
Weight: 20 lbs 1 oz - 25th percentile
Head: 44.1 cm - 10th percentile

It's odd to me that he has really slowed down on his growth pattern, but I guess that's just how Peter's body wants to grow. The Dr. wasn't concerned about it, so I'll try not to be. It's always nice to go and find out how things are going. His next appointment will be just after his 1st birthday. Oh my, time goes by so quickly.

I love you Peter!

Zoo ABC's

B for Bear


C for Churro


E for Elephant


F for Family


G for Giraffe


H for Happy kids


O for orangutang


P for Parrot


S for Sleeping Peter


T for Turtle

Last Saturday Grandpa and Grandma Thomas took our entire family (Yes. All of us went. Except the long haired hippie who was probably out playing in his new car) to the zoo up in SLC. Getting there was tricky and getting home was confusing (Bran and I get lost easily), but we enjoyed ourselves so much while we were there. Peter loved the animals and it was so much fun to be there with almost the whole family. THE THOMAS FAMILY ROCKS!!!

Thank you so much Mom & Dad for an awesome day. It's been so fun to write about our experience in Peter's baby book. Love ya.

First haircut

This past weekend Peter got his first haircut. Well, to be honest, it was just a trim. His hair was getting so long in some places that Brandon was getting a bit annoyed with it. Thank you Aunt Alli for cutting Pete's hair. He look so much better and hopefully now people won't call him an adorable little girl.


On Sunday I had a HUGE mound of dishes to do and Peter didn't want to be left out of the fun. He helped me by taking out the silverware as I would put them in the dishwasher. He had a blast helping out until he fell with a fork (luckily no injuries were incurred) and Daddy came to occupy him. What a silly boo.