Brandon's First Day of Clinical......
Here are the scrubs he will be wearing for the next couple of years during clinicals. This will take a bit to get use to, but I am excited for him.

Busy Busy.....
Did a week go by already??? It has been a busy week and we also had several days with our internet not working. Brandon had orientation for school yesterday and we also repainted our living room. Then today Brandon shampooed the inside of the car that we need to get sold and shampooed the carpet on our stairs, which was looking pretty dirty.

I've also been canning tomato fixing for chili, freezing a lot of broccoli for the last month or so and then I purchased some corn today so I can freeze some packages for this winter. I love stocking my freeze with home grown veggies. I also have lots of shredded zucchini, chopped rhubarb, and frozen squash. I have to say not to bad for living in town.

Brandon starts class next Wednesday, so we will be getting use to a new schedule. It sure has been nice having the hubby around in the morning to enjoy coffee with and the kids have been liking it too. Well I will post some pictures this next week of Brandon in his scrubs. Have a wonderful Lord's day.

Teeth.....
I should of said teeth because Brandon notice at church today that both the bottom two teeth are coming in. Ouch! He is still doing pretty well even though it has to hurt. I tried some of that Orajel and he didn't like it at all. I don't think I will try it again. It's suppose to be berry flavor, but he gave me the worst look.

We had a great day today. After church we went to Borders, so I could get my free drink that I had coming to me. The kids also were very good while there. They both got a little cup of whip cream, which they loved. It's bonus for Brandon and I also because then they are not bothering us for sips from our drink. Anna enjoyed looking at several different books and found a really nice Cinderella book that had 600 stickers in it. She just loves stickers:)

Hope you all had a wonderful days!

Last Day......
Today is Brandon's last day driving & delivering soda for Dr. Pepper/7-Up. It has been a very long and hard summer. He is looking forward to starting his first semester of Nursing School at UW of Madison on Sept. 2.

Noah's First Tooth.......
Well it's official that Noah has his first little tooth coming in on the bottom. There will definitively be no more biting on my fingers any more because it's a little painful now. I kind of figured that was the reason he had such a high temperature last week and also has been very fussy for the past week or so. I also took him in yesterday to get his 6 month shots that he had to skip last week because of the temperature. Poor little guy:( He took the shots fairly well, but I sure didn't enjoy watching them. Anna and Gabe were excited because they both got a sticker & sucker for being so good. Lucky kids:)

Finally Fixed....
At the beginning of last summer our neighbors gave us this Radio Flyer tricycle. The only probably with it was when you peddled it there was no movement. It ended up being a very simple fix. We took it to a small home town shop with a welder and now it works great. The kids are very happy as you can see. Anna has been riding it as much as she can and Gabe has been enjoying the ride. I would love to have him be able to ride the bike, but he just can not figured out how to get the peddles moving in the right direction.

Early Garage Sale Find.....
Anna got a super cute Leap Frog show called, "The Letter factory" last year for Christmas. Then earlier this summer I can across the My First Leap Frog Pad and 3 books & cartridges to go with it for $2.50. Then I got the Leap Frog Reader Pad with I suppose 8 or 9 books and cartridges and backpack for $10. Both are super great deals.

Well today I found this Leap Frog Globe. I had no idea that they made them and I almost missed it. Luckily I looked back over all the tables and saw it. I thought to myself this will really come in handy when I start homeschooling. You will never guess the price?????? 25 cents.... I could hardly believe that is all they wanted for it. The kids were also pretty excited about it.

Renee's Kitchen

This is a recipe that I got from Brandon's sister several years back and I love it so much. I have to say French toast is probably one of my favorite items for breakfast with bacon as a close first as well. I also like to use French or Italian bread, which makes the best french toast, but you can use bread if that's what you have on hand. Enjoy and let me know if you try it out:)

French Toast Mix

3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnomen
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup flour

Combine all the ingredients as listed and beat well.

Noah at 6 1/2 months old......

He had his 6 month check up today and he now weighs 18 lbs 6 oz. He has been running a fever the last couple of days, so we had to hold off on his shots. I will have to take him in sometime next week. As you can see from the pictures he is getting pretty mobile. He does a good job of sitting up and getting himself across the floor. He is such a sweet little guy:)

Garage Sale Find.....

We have been wanting to get a sandbox for the kids, but in order to get a nice size one you would have to order it on line, so we have just held off. Well I stopped at a garage sale last weekend and was able to pick up this turtle sandbox for $5.00. What a deal:) It's a little bigger and heavier then the ones I saw for sale this year at Shopko. So now the sand can stay dry and the kids can have fun in the sand!

Few Jars of Pickles.....
Today I made a few jars of sliced dill pickles. I don't usually make pickles because Brandon is pretty picky about his pickles, but I thought I could make some sliced dill pickles to put on our burgers. I guess we will know in a couple months how they turned out. Pickles need a few months to flavor through. Does anyone have a dill pickle recipe that they really love?

Awesome Preaching......

We have been attending Madison Baptist Church for almost a year now. It's hard to believe how time flies. The church family there is very nice and the teaching and preaching is awesome. Pastor Weiss gives very challenging, convicting, and encouraging messages. I would encourage anyone who has some time to stop by the Madison Baptist's Sermon Audio Page and listen to some of his message. I know that your heart would be blessed and challenged.

Renee's Kitchen

Does anyone have lots of zucchini laying around like me or bags of it frozen in the freezer? I came across a super yummy brownie recipe that uses 2 cups of shredded zucchini. These are very moist, chocolaty and hard to leave a lone.

Zucchini Brownies

1 1/2 c. of sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 pinch baking powder
1/3 c. cocoa
2 c. zucchini
2 c. flour
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Mix up ingredients in the order they are listed. Then pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins.

Enjoy:)

Getting Across the Floor....

Well Noah can get himself across the floor now. If he sees something that he thinks he really wants he will scoot himself across the floor like a caterpillar. It's super cute! It will not be to long before he will be all over the place and I will not be able to keep up with him. Wow it's hard to believe my little baby is getting so big. I am planning on calling today to get Noah his 6 month appointment, since he has been 6 months now for a couple of weeks. I let you know later what the little guy's measurements are here soon.

More Zoo Pictures....

Fun in the Sun.......

The kids were having a great time playing with the swimming pool water. Gabriel thought it was funny that he could fit himself into this 5 gallon bucket.

New Play Rug.....

This is one of my great garage sale find from this past weekend. It is a brand new area rug which also has two matching smaller rugs that go with it and I got all three rugs for $20. Wow what a great deal:)

I have been wanting a nice big run for the living room, but knew we did not have the money to get one. Now Noah and the kids have a nice soft area to play on.

Painting Fun....

The kids have been having a great time painting pictures. I am using a old fitted bed sheet to protect my table from the mess and to also make clean up a bit easier. I think it works pretty well. I am going to keep my eye out for some twin bed sheets at a garage sale, which I think would fit the table better, but for now the dark green sheet works just fine.

Friends Came to Visit.......
It is hard to believe that it has already been a week since some friends came to visit for a couple of days. We had a wonderful time and the kids had a great time playing and getting to know mommies friends. On Friday we went to the Madison Zoo and then on Saturday we went to Wisconsin Dells to Tanger Outlet Center. There are lots of pictures to show, but you can see more about the weekend if you visit A Mess of Blessings, Kari's Blog and Weekend Pictures.

Great Swimming Pool Weather.......

It has been really hot and humid the last week or so, which is perfect swimming pool weather. I took the slide from the swing set and set it up so Anna could slide into the pool. Let just say she loves it. When it's wet it is super slippery and so she makes a big splash in the pool.

Smoothies....
The kids love to eat fruit smoothies so lots of times we have them for lunch or for an after supper desert because daddy loves them too. One thing the kids don't I had read post from other women who put spinach in them so today I took the plunge. I not only put spinach in the smoothie, but carrots as well because yesterday I cooked up a big batch of carrots, then blended them up and froze them in ice cube trays. I am getting ready for little Noah to start eating but the ice cube size carrots work great to put in the smoothies. The kids love them and have no idea that there are carrots and spinach in them. The other things that I put in my smoothies are frozen bananas, blueberries, strawberries, vanilla yogurt, milk and orange juice or whatever juice I have in the refrigerator. We have a magic bullet that I use to blend up everything. We have had our magic bullet for a couple of year and love it, so if anyone tries the spinach or carrots in there smoothies let me know.

Getting ready to crawl....
For the last couple of weeks Noah keeps getting up on his kneels and holding himself up with his arms . He is getting stronger and stronger each day. I can tell he is getting ready to move around the room and explore. He just has to figure our how to move his arms and legs together. He is such a sweet smiley baby.

Fun at the Zoo........

Brandon and I took the kids to the Madison Zoo on Monday and they had a wonderful time. They were so excited to see all the animals, but they especially like the carousal and the train rides. If you have never had a chance to visit the Madison Zoo it is a super nice zoo and also free, which is a great bonus.

Busy Busy Busy......

I hope to get some pictures posted soon, but we still have not got the internet working on the big computer. I am planning on figuring out how to up load pictures to the laptop to make things simpler for me.

Brandon and I took the kids to the zoo on Monday and so we have lots of great pictures. The kids had a wonderful time and we will have to go back to visit again in the fall. Also I have friends coming to visit this weekend and I'm sure I will get lots of great pictures over the weekend, so by next week there will be new pictures galore. Well have a wonderful weekend and if I have a chance I will post again sometime over the weekend.

Fever.....

Gabriel had a fever earlier this week for a couple days. It didn't seem like he was sick, but last night as I was helping him brush his teeth I notice he has two molers coming in. Ouch!!!

I was hoping to post some pictures today, but our big tower computer that has all the pictures on it is having problems getting on the internet. So I will have to wait a few days till Brandon can get it fixed before I can post some pictures.

Have a wonderful weekend:)

Happy Birthday Hubby.....

Just want to wish my husband a Happy Birthday and give anyone else a chance to do so as well. It was 35 years ago today that my hubby was born. I love him so much and am so happy that he is mine. I know it's mushy, but it's the truth.

He is also lucky to have the day off of work, but he had to go into the doctors office and get some vaccinations for the up coming school year. He is starting his first semester of Nursing School here in the fall.

Well I need to go and get some angel food cake into the oven. We will be having Haystacks with angle food cake and strawberries for desert. Wish you all could be here to celebrate:)

Garden is growing like crazy......
As you can see my broccoli plants are huge.

Also my zucchini plants are really big and I will probably be picking some this week.

The tomatoes are also doing very well.


And you can see I have been doing very well at keeping the weeds out with some help from grass clippings:)

Happy 4th of July.....
Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. Every year our town has a big parade. It is so nice to get out with the kids and see then get so excited about getting candy. The kids both left with a good size bag that was pretty much full of candy as you can see Gabriel holding in the pictures below. We then all had nice nap in the afternoon and enjoyed a relaxing evening with a nice display of fireworks, which go off right across the street from our house. Anna and Gabriel both loved watching the fireworks.

Just a few Pictures.....

Gabriel loves to have his brother sit next to him and he also likes to roll around on the floor with Noah as well. It's super cute.

Noah has been going to bed at about the same time as his brother and sister. He is still sleeping till about 4:00 a.m. which has been so nice for me to have some quite time for myself.

Anna loves these silky little pink PJ's. You have to love garage sales and what you can find at them for so cheap. The kids love to go as well and it such a nice time for me to get out.

Potty Training......
Gabe has been doing an awesome job at using the potty. Just a few days before his 2nd birthday, which was May 16th I starting putting him on the potty. I could alway tell when he was going to do #2 because he would either head for a corner or for the dining room table. When I would see him do that I would grab him, march him to the potty and set him on the potty to do his duty. He did not go to the potty willingly, but I would set him on there anyway. Anna and I then would give him a big round of applause when he was done, which he loved. Soon after that he would let me know when he needed to go #2.

I then started to let him run around bare butted, so when he had to go pee he would know he had to go into the bathroom and use the potty. It really only took a couple of days with a few accidents for him to know that when he had to go he needed to go to the potty and go. Potty training takes time and little steps at a time, but the end result is wonderful....less diapers and soon no diapers.

I have been trying to put underwear on him and he does pretty good, but tends to have more accidents, but I will just keep working with him. I will have to say I have been blessed with children that catch on quickly. Also a really cute video, which Gabe has been watching for months is "Elmo's Potty Time", which is super cute and talks about using the potty.