The start of the hard work of storing up food for the winter has officially begun.  Well, we really started stocking the freezer for winter a couple of months ago.  When it comes to berries Royal is like a little squirrel, he’s constantly putting them in the freezer, and they always seem to be gone just when I’m looking for them to put on the kid’s plates.  We had big plans this year to go to a berry farm and pick a lot of our own berries, but with the driving time, the amount of hard it work it takes to pick the berries, and the young ages of our kiddos, we decided we’d put it off for another year and re-evaluate next May.  But corn is a whole ‘nother story!

Last year, we froze 6 dozen corn and we ran out way too early, so since you can get the corn 4 dozen in a box, we just decided to get 2 boxes this year.  We started out the morning, by going and picking up the corn right when the stand opened, because on the weekends they always seem to sell out really fast.  Then we headed North to Newton to go check out the peaches at Beck’s Farm and find out what kind of pears she’s going to get in this year.  We were hoping to can a couple batches of peaches in the next couple weekends before we left for our vacation to Washington, but it seems like the peaches just might not be ready yet, they are pretty hard still, and I just don’t have the time or room to buy a bunch of peaches and then have to lay them around the house waiting for them to ripen.  I’m pretty sure the kids would think they were new toys just for them, and I’d have peaches hidden everywhere!  So, if they don’t ripen in the next couple of weeks, hopefully they’ll wait for us to get back from Washington!

Anyway, back to the corn.  Like I mentioned, we got 8 dozen corn this year.  That would be 96 ears for all you out there who don’t like doing mental math.  :) That’s a lot of shucking!  So, I made up a new house rule.  When we got home I said to Royal, “Well, it turns out just like I don’t do dishes, I don’t shuck corn either”  Ha ha ha, I crack myself up!  So, Royal sat out in the garage for about 2 hours shucking every ear of corn.

He wasn’t alone though, he had Jayden (and Sam) out there with him keeping him entertained with a measuring tape.

But don’t worry, it’s not like I didn’t do anything.  I was in the house, cutting all the kernals off the cobs.

and then doing some more…

Royal and I got smart this year.  The last couple of times we’ve done this, we cooked the corn on the cob and then stuck them in an icebath to stop them from cooking, and then we’d cut the kernals off as fast as we could.  The cobs were usually still pretty hot because we’re both a bit impatient and we didn’t want to wait until they were completely cool, and so I always left the project with burned finger tips.  But after complaining to Royal’s mom about my sore fingers, she oh-so-wisely suggested that we cut the kernals off and then cook them.  Genius!!!  And it took so many fewer batches of water as well!  We’re getting smarter over here folks!

I just am always surprised that all the corn fits into so few bags.  96 ears of corn, and we have 20 bags of corn to stick in our freezer!

Where have I been??? I know you have all been wondering and are also probably sick of looking at that crazy picture of Jayden, that I think is absolutely hilarious.  Well, let me tell you.  But first, I just want to show you what is lined up around our house all. the. time.

Dinos…..

…and more dinos…

…the meat eaters all grouped together, the leaf eaters all grouped together, who are always grouped around a plant, alive or fake, it doesn’t matter.  The leaf eaters are always hungry.  And for that matter so are the meat eaters.  The meat eaters are always hunting the leaf eaters and they say to each other, “The leaf eaters are always eating, we will find them by the plants”

Anyway, the obsession with dinosaurs is still crazy around here.  Even Willow runs around the house roaring.  Willow often gets to be Jayden’s baby T-rex and he goes and hunts meat for them to eat.  It’s pretty fun to see them actually playing together, even if most of the time Jayden is bossing her around, telling his baby T-rex to sit in one spot while he hunts and the baby T-rex never listens and follows him running around the house roaring and attacking things.

Well as for why there have been no new posts lately….Jayden found this pattern for dinosaurs that his Grandma had sent in one of her packages and he asked if I could make them for him.  I said sure, I mean how hard could they be right?  I can follow directions, cut things out, sew them together.  They are just little dinos, it shouldn’t be so hard.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not a good sewer, seamstress, whatever you want to call it.  I’m just not very good.  I’ve only had my sewing machine for about a year now and I have to keep reminding myself about the drawers full of knitted stuff that just wasn’t that good when I was first starting to knit.  It takes practice to get better and I don’t have a ton of time to practice, but really, practicing on things for a 4-year old is perfect, he doesn’t care what the details look like.  :)   I had no idea these darn dinos were going to take me like a week to finish.  All my spare time was spent at the sewing machine, not on the computer coming up with anything to entertain my 5 blog followers with.  So, as for the dinos, Jayden decided he wanted them four colors - red, blue, yellow, and green.  We went to the fabric store last Saturday and Jayden picked out material for each color.  I tried to influence him, but no, anything I suggested he said absolutely not too, so I just went with what he wanted, I figured he’d like ‘em better this way.

So, here are Jayden’s finished products.  They totally turned out patriotic looking with the red stripes and blue with stars material.  Perfect for this time of year!  And he even picked out the googly eye colors.  Blue for the flyer - “so he can see in the dark like me” - Jayden has this strange idea that only people with blue eyes can see in the dark, I’ve tried explaining otherwise, but he’s set in his ways and it’s just not a battle I’m willing to argue over.  The T-Rex has one red and one green.  And the stegosaurus has one blue and one green.

I had no idea they were going to be so big.  I thought they’d be like a normal sized stuff animal.  Oh no, they are practically life-sized.  I didn’t even look at the pattern before we went and got material and I’m such a novice when it comes to sewing that I didn’t even figure it out when I added up the yards of material we were going to need.   Oh well, at least Jayden likes them.  :)

I got a package in the mail today!  I knew it was from my mom and I knew it was for my birthday.  I told Kaylee, who I was on the phone with at the time, that I was just going to wait until my birthday to open it.  Then she oh-so-wisely reminded me that I had declared the entire month of June my birthday month.  So, without any further hesitation I opened it!

And this is what was in it :

The truth is, I have been coveting this bread bowl that my mom has had since I started making bread for my family.  I figured that maybe I might get it if my parents ever sold their house, and if not then, then when we were going through their will.  So, basically, not anytime in the near future.  Wichita is not the most health conscious city and when we moved here I was having a lot of trouble finding bread that I liked all of the ingredients in.  Enriched flour this, bleached flour that, high fructose this, sugar is the 2nd ingredient, blah, blah, blah.  So, I decided that I would just try making bread and see how it went.  Turns out it was pretty darn easy!  I usually make 2 loaves at a time, stick one in the pantry and freeze the other, and that’s enough for a week! And wouldn’t you know it, but I needed to make bread today and I was totally procrastinating.  I was, that is, until my present arrived and then I had an excuse to make a bunch of dough so it could rise in my new bowl!

Here’s the recipe in case anybody wants it

Buttermilk Bread

3/4C water
1/2C buttermilk
1T lemon juice
2 1/4t active dry yeast
3C bread flour
1T brown sugar
1T butter, room temp
3T flax seed (I used golden flaxseed meal, then the kids can’t see it in the bread)
1t salt
Warm water and buttermilk up to about 110 degrees.  Dissolve yeast in liquid and let stand about 5 minutes until foamy.

Put remaining ingredients in mixing bowl with dough hook attachment.  Pour in yeast mixture.  Knead in mixer about 5 minutes until dough is pliable, but a little tacky.  Feel free to do the kneading by hand, but I’m about convenience.  :)

Put dough in oiled bowl, cover with a towel and let stand in a warm place for 1 hour.

It should then look something like this:

Punch dough down and put in bread pan (or pans in my case)

Cover with towel again and let rise until 1-2″ over edge of pan (a couple hours or so)

Then bake at 350 for 30mins.  I take my bread out of bread pans as soon as they come out of the oven and put them on a cooling rack, which isn’t as easy when you use glass pans, but is a piece of cake with silicone ones!  :)

Voila!  Fresh bread!  Tastes good and your house smells even better!

Summer is here!  Woo Hoo!!  And boy is it hot and humid!

Our strawberries are going crazy.  There are more ripe strawberries each day than we are able to eat!  Royal managed to pick these out of the garden today for us to stick in the freezer.  This is what was left after both the kids ate a ton first!

We also took the kids to Target today to pick out a new pool for the backyard, since both our pool and splash pad bit the dust earlier this year.  I know it’s going to come as a shock, but Jayden picked the dinosaur themed one.  It came with 2 blow-up dinosaurs, has a slide, and a waterfall.  The kids played in this for hours!

We found our first red strawberry of the season tonight!

Then we played a little baseball.  Jayden wanted to be the pitcher.

Royal was the batter.  Look how fierce Royal is in this picture.  I’m guessing it’s because when I was the batter I smacked one way over the fence into the neighbor’s yard, and well, Royal doesn’t like to get shown up by a girl (or really anyone for that matter…).  :)

Scooter even joined us in the yard this evening.  She’s kind of like a dog and follows us down the street if we take a walk, but she’s always about a house behind us, like she’s guarding us, making sure nothing sneaks up behind us or anything.  She also managed to catch a HUGE bird tonight.  But she decided to play with her food before she ate it and gave the bird a chance to get away before I got a picture.

There was a also a little hide and go seek.  But in the backyard there are not very many places to hide.  Under the slide was Jayden’s choice.

Jayden filled up the memory card on the camera again.  I thought I’d share a few pictures with you guys so you can see what the world looks like from Jayden’s view yet again!

Here’s Dad!

And here’s the view of Dad Jayden sees when he doesn’t look up!

Singing Clementine on the computer

Mom and Willow

Jayden’s “buddy dino”.  (”buddy dino” is how Jayden always refers to this dinosaur)

I think this one looks like the view from “buddy dinos” persepective as if he were hunting Willow

Jayden finished his drink!

One of Jayden’s babysitters, Ellie (or maybe it’s Maggie.  they are twins and I have a hard time telling them apart unless they are standing right next to each other, but i’m pretty sure this one is Ellie)

Jayden’s self-portrait

Sugar shaker is always important, especially when making toast!

One of the dinosaurs on the quilt on his bed

Willow’s eye.

After that picture, I told Jayden not to set the flash off that close to anybody’s eye, especially Willow’s and his own.  So, this is what you get.

And these are from the first present Jayden got to open for his birthday, from his best friend Noah.

My sister, Kaylee, finally had her #3 bouncing baby boy in the wee hours this morning, at home in Phoenix, AZ!  She then proceeded to make me wait a good 6 hours before she got on the computer and Oovoo’d with her sisters, so that we could see him.  I don’t know, she said something about being tired or something….

Welcome to the outside world Easton William!  I can’t wait until I actually get to hold you!!! We love you so much already!!!

Jayden and I started planting some seeds for the garden tonight.  Last year, our garden didn’t fare too well.  Well, parts of it didn’t anyway.   We had basil and some other herbs growing out our ears, but our peas, beans, carrots, tomatos, and pepper plants all got eaten away by what I thought were bunnies, but turns out were probably field mice.  We got some advice from a neighbor, who just happens to be a dirt expert that seed companies seek out to try their stuff, to plant cloves of garlic around the edges of the garden and that will keep the mice out.  I also plan on letting Scooter loose in the yard every night, since she’s probably going to kill something anyways. :)  I’ve been thinking about doing a weekly post this summer, with pictures of course, of all the killings Scooter leaves for us.  Sometimes bodies, sometimes guts, sometimes there’s just a blood spot left, but the head, the head is always missing.  I guess that’s Scooter’s favorite part.  Mmmm, brain!  Let me know what you think!

So, anyways…tonight, Jayden and I planted seeds for parsley, chives, basil, oregano, and cilantro.  And I forgot to save room for our lavender seeds, so I’m gonna have to get another little start pod for them.  Oops!

or, as Willie and I always called it, Happy Singles Awareness Day!

For part of the kid’s presents this year, I decided to make them something.  For Jayden I made him a flannel dinosaur pillow case, which sadly has already gotten a lot of use since it was opened this morning.  Jayden has been real sick for the past few days.  He had the flu on Thursday and then Friday the flu seemed to turn into a cold, and now he’s all laid up on the couch.  Poor kid.

For Willow, I made a little valentine dress.  And for the 5 minutes she had it on today so I could try and take some pictures, she managed to get food on it!  How the heck did she find food????  I figure she’s got a secret stash  around somewhere…

For lunch, I made the kids and Royal some heart shaped sandwiches.

And then I finished up my heart sugar cookies by frosting them with some chocolate royal icing, Royal’s favorite.

This has been some of the longest couple of weeks ever! We’ve had so much going on that I should of had tons of post about, but there has been sickness running rampant around my house and I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write anything.  So, here’s kind of a catchup with ALOT of pictures to satisfy all you suckers out there who have been muttering mean things under your breath each time you check my blog and see the same post up.  As you know my parents got back here from Pennsylvania at the beginning of December.  And then Jordan flew in on the 13th to spend Christmas with us.  It has been so fun to have him around, even if it feels like I still hardly see him.  He stays up way too late for me and then sleeps in a good part of the day, but when he finally gets up, its fun to have another McComb in the house.  I’m just not sure there is anybody else out there who gets the McComb sarcasm that gets thrown around when there is more than 1 sibling together. :)  We have gone around and looked at Christmas lights a bunch of times.  My mom and I went to a Christmas dinner cooking class.  And we have played inside alot because it has been soooo cold.

Willow has gotten very good at throwing and catching balls.

Jayden has continued with his obsession of all things dinosaur and we are now building them out of blocks.  This is flying Little Foot.  And I don’t have a picture of a later version of him that Jayden and Papa built, but he had guns on his wings.  It was pretty awesome.

Christmas Eve came fast around here since we’ve all had the flu at different times this week.  But we were wishing for a white Christmas and in the form of extremely high winds (like 50 mph) and snow that came down sideways, we got one.

Jayden all decked out in his Christmas T-Rex outfit went outside to check it out. And then later, we put a few more layers on the dinosaur, so he and Papa went outside to “swim” into the wind.

Here is the Christmas Eve dinner my mom and I cooked together from the recipes we got from our cooking class.  We made a roasted pear salad with candied pecans, beef wellington that looked like presents, and duchess mashed potatoes that were pipped out to look like Christmas trees.  (My potato trees could still use some work, they actually looked better than in the picture.  In the picture they just look like a blob) But it makes a pretty little plate!

After dinner we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church.  The kids did pretty darn good during the service, even if Jayden did keep the rows in front of us entertained.  Jayden sung pretty loudly during the worship part, which is great, it was just funny because he didn’t know the words so he was just singing loudly. (best way to spread Christmas cheer, right??).  He then let out a very audible gasp when our paster said something out Jesus dying on the cross. And then at the end of the service he had his candle lit and Papa was kneeling next to him to keep him from lighting the church on fire and Jayden yells out, “Papa, hold your candle up higher!”  “Papa, STAND UP!”  It was pretty darn funny.

After church we came home and the kids got to open their Christmas pajamas, which I made this year.  And I also made a matching pair for Royal. :)

Christmas morning didn’t start as early as I thought it would.  Jayden slept in until almost 8 and Willow slept in until 9!  Christmas miracle?  I think so!  Since my dad had come down with the flu last night, Jordan, Jayden, and I went and picked my mom up at the motorhome this morning so she could come and open presents with us.

Jayden had to try out his new sand chomper in some snow that blew up on the deck!

Jayden then proceeded to help everybody else open their presents by pulling all the presents out of the stockings and handing them to you.  Once our stockings were finished, and it was time to open the other presents, Jayden would grab a present from under the tree, run over to me, ask who it was for, then run to the person it was for, open it right in front of them, and then hand them their present.  He was quite the helper.

Jayden helping Uncle Jordan.

Jayden helping dad…

Jayden helping Nana…

Jayden helping Willow…

There’s not much cooking that happens in the kitchen on Christmas day.  I did the cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole on Christmas Eve, so all I had to do was pop them in the over in the morning.  But on Christmas day, we try and focus on the fact that it is Jesus’ birthday, so ever since we have had Jayden, I have made a birthday cake for Jesus and after dinner we sing Happy Birthday to Him and eat birthday cake.  Even Jesus got to use the Thomas the train candle this year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!!!