Satisfaction

If I was going to add to my list of "New Things Learned" I guess this would be it. I took on a canning project. Terrified by the prospects of failure, I searched the web and read many different sites giving ideas of the best ways to can peaches. I even came across a blog post that featured my cousin who had been canning peaches with a neighbor friend. She always claims to be a movie star and now she's a blog star too, rocking it in her apron.
Canning might very well be one of the messiest processes. Several pots boiling away on the stove top. One with syrup, another with lids and then the big daddy of all pots, the wet bath canner. Then the whole blanching process. Add to that all the bowls. Suddenly my kitchen was a steamy pot of peach goodness caving in on me.
So fourteen quarts later and a freezer full of jam I'm feeling completely satisfied with my accomplishments, imperfect as these jars might be.  Now I will go and study up on canning pears so I can get started on the 30 pound box haunting my dreams.  Domesticity at its finest I guess.

Eight Weeks

Good gracious me! I can not believe it has already been eight weeks since I got a new boyfriend. He's getting good and fluffy and starting to smile and coo. I really like this stage. Plus as an added bonus he only wakes up once in the middle of the night. Always around 4am. I can handle that.

Brotherman is practicing his air punches after watching 30 Day Shred with Jillian a few too many times.

End of a Season

Well gardening season number one is officially over for me. I've let the garden go to seed and occasionally get out and check to see if anything is still growing. If it is, great. If not, I'm not sad. Its just too hot to go outside right now. I'm ready for August to be done. I put a lot of energy into worrying mostly about the darn watermelons. We had several growing at the same time but for some reason they would get to be the size of a football and then split open. Sadness. We did harvest one that tasted good and there might be a second one out there ready. I should check, but I probably won't. I also spotted a cantaloupe growing. I'm not sure if its going to make it to ripeness, but it would be a great surprise. All in all we harvested many zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, tomatoes, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, carrots, snow peas, basil, cilantro, parsley, and watermelon. Fantastic! I plan to revamp the planting arrangement and figure out what will grow in the second growing season of the year. Happy gardening to the rest of you who haven't given up yet.

*Side note, of course I always put on my best clothes when working in my garden, duh. Actually it just my new favorite shirt from Target.

One Month

Yesterday we celebrated Brother-man's first month birthday. Noelle kept asking how old he was and I said, "One month."

She said, " No, no like how many is he?"

Clearly she has no concept of months its just whittled down to years and when she starts Kindergarten.

Today is the last day of summer. I'd be jumping up and down if I wasn't still feeling the gravitational effects of post pregnancy weight. However, my heart is full of joy watching Noelle get excited. I think she has drawn about seventy pictures for her new teacher.

Last week we met the new teacher. Her classroom was "super awesome" to quote Noelle. However there was one snafu which I should have seen coming. Everything was very organized and each child had a name card on their desk and a homework folder with their name on it. Even though I tried endlessly on all the paperwork to make sure they understood that we call her Noelle, her first given name was on EVERYTHING. She doesn't respond to that name. Also, they spelled our last name wrong. Double fail. I guess I'll need to go to the office and fix that. Lame.

I guess that's what I get for insisting that Noelle sounded better as a middle name. It just doesn't roll off the tongue the other way around. Lesson learned.

Great News!

Great things have been happening around these parts. Depending on who you ask (Noelle) both are of equally great importance.

First and foremost, we'd like to introduce you to Nicholas. He was born into our craziness on July 8th. He was very kind to his mother and came out with a nice small head and no hesitations. If only all births could be that easy. Drug free was much easier than I thought it was going to be. I'm definitely making myself a mother's merit badge for that.

Nicholas is 12 days old in these pictures. He's a pretty easy going little "brother-man." I did my best not to capture too much of the craziness that was going on behind the camera. It was insanity in a nutshell if you can't tell from his expression.

When he wrinkles up his forehead (more than what is happening in this picture) he has a wicked good widows peak of a hairline. That would be from the Albertsen genes.

The second major event is that Noelle lost her first tooth! Hooray, one less to brush.

She's been anticipating this event for quite a while and when it was time to actually pull on it she was too scared. Eventually she gave it a flick and out it came. The tooth fairy brought her a one dollar "ticket" which she can't wait to spend. I'm not sure when she'll stop calling them tickets and realize its real money, but I have no plans on spoiling her innocence in that regard.

Currently, Noelle is sporting an almost equal gap on the top and bottom.

Next up on our exciting life, First Day of Kindergarten. Stay tuned.

Happy Fourth of July

We're enjoying temps below 110 today!

Sis is Two!

Yes, its true little miss Sis, you're two. Noelle has been anticipating this day because she just knew that you'd instantly turn terrible, at least that's what she told me. She was partly right. On your second birthday, while having dinner with some friends at their house you did bite their daughter. I'm sure you felt justified, like when you bite Noelle.
Despite the biting and other things that two year olds do, you're quite delightful. During your two year old exam at the doctor's office the doctor said if she ever needed to do a demonstration of how to examine a two year old that she would call you because you were so good and funny at the same time. She was amazed at your speech and you weren't even saying some of the crazy stuff you come up with. Some of my favorites are when you tell people goodbye and to "Have a good day"or when you ask for a movie, which has been a favorite past time lately, and you insist that it be a Barbie movie or the one with "Kayla the elephant." Your talking is constant and sometimes I don't know what you're saying and you look at me like I'm an idiot. I probably am.
For your birthday we gave you Barbies and a set of markers that won't draw on anything but their special paper. Noelle was very jealous of the Barbies and has cried on more than one occasion because she seems to think your birthday celebration has lasted way too long. As for the markers, you bit off the tops of all but one the first time we played with them. Lame. You are beyond markers that have a delayed markability and go straight for the pencils and pens to be just like Noelle when she draws.
You also got some clothes for your birthday. You did your best to try them all on as you unwrapped them. You even put on a skirt that Grammy gave you and then proceeded to go swimming with it on. We ended up stripping you down to nakedness and let you swim in your birthday suit.
Speaking of swimming you took your first swimming lessons this season. You're a fish and it scares the living daylights out of your parents when you dive right in. Good thing we only have a kiddie pool.
Sis, your happiness is contagious and many people love you for that. You're an easy going child and as your parents, we thank you for that. Happy birthday!

May 2011

Whoa, where did the time go. May got away from me an now its July for cryin' out loud. Here is a picture update for those following along.

Mother's Day 2011

Trying to capture my girls in their Easter dresses for a second time. Can you tell how excited they are? I usually like to take a picture of myself with my kids while we're all still in our Sunday best, but the Dad's Sunday schedule doesn't permit unless I do it myself with a timer. No bueno. I bet you're all jealous of my 1980's window fashions in the background. No?

This picture worked out a little better.

Noelle suggested to Boo that for Mother's Day they should make chocolate dipped strawberries. They were pretty darn delightful. Boo did a good job and it helped make up for Mother's Day 2010 which was a bust.

Preschool Graduation

Hooray Noelle graduated from preschool and was very pleased with her performance for the parents.

Noelle loves her teacher Miss Miles and has been doing "summer camp" with her so she doesn't get bored during the hot summer months. I like it because she has somewhere to go three days a week and gets all sorts of excited about the themes they've had. We had a really hard time getting a picture with just Miss Miles because all of Noelle's friends kept jumping in with her. Too funny.
Near the end of May Auntie and Jackson came for a visit. I know you're all thinking, "Weren't they just there in March?" But hey, a visit in March, a trip together in April and another visit in May still isn't enough Auntie time for some of us.

During her quick weekend visit we went to the train park to ride the carousel and train of course. It was nice weather and ice cream cones topped off a fun park visit.

I only got a picture with Sis because Noelle was riding in a cattle car with a bunch of strangers at the back of the train. When we went through the tunnel I'm pretty sure I could hear her screaming over all the other kids.
Not to let it go undocumented, but Boo and I also celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary.

Go Team Albertsen!

Best Babysitter

Being that I'm quite near the finish line of this pregnancy a good babysitter is such a treasure.
Noelle started a new session of swimming lessons and I couldn't bring myself to enroll in parent-tot with Sydney for two more weeks. Getting three of us ready is rough, but putting a swimsuit on over my enormous belly is down right pathetic. So in my attempt to keep summer interesting for Noelle I kept her in swimming and hired a babysitter for Sis during that time. It was heaven to sit for 30 plus minutes without a child climbing on me or nearly dying of heat stroke while strapped in the stroller.
Then the babysitter stayed and had lunch with us and played with my girls as a waddled around the house getting things accomplished. My kids love her, I love her. Win-win situation. Did I mention she walks to and from my house?
I might cry when she moves.

April 2011

Well folks May is nearly over and I thought I'd let you know what we did in April. These pictures are in reverse order, but you'll get the general idea.

Near the end of April I (Rachel) went to Holland!

What would a trip to Holland be with out some of the following country features?

Windmills anyone? This is looking up one of the canals at Kinderdijk. It happened to be very windy this day and we witnessed up close how fast the blades on a windmill can turn.

We got to visit with some of our favorite people who also happen to be relatives.

How about these lovely ladies? It was fun to be with cousins, even the famous one.

How cute is my Sissy?

There can never be enough tulips. We drove by many fields that were ablaze with color and then the next day they were gone. That's how they roll at the end up the tulip season.

My grandmother's family home in Breukelen.

Its been for sale if you have a few million laying around.

All of us together for dinner.

Can you seriously get over the tulips?

I brought home some crowns for the girls so that we could celebrate Queen's Day on April 30th. Happy birthday Queen Beatrix!

This was the last play group at our house, just before Easter. We had an egg hunt in our backyard while wearing dress-ups. What a fun time we've had with these girls.

I made some cowboy quilts. I did a trade with a photographer back in February and over the two or so months it took me to complete these it was really hard to pack them up and mail them off. Luckily they love them as much as I do. We assembled a shed, and the garden that we planted at the end of March began to grow. It looks a lot different now that it resembles a jungle. Maybe I'll post an update in my May post.

I celebrated my birthday. Each candle on the cake represents four years of my life.

Happy birthday to me!

Noelle Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

That's right folks, she made it to the fifth year of life without major incident. Its hard to believe myself. This girl is one big ball of fiery energy that keeps all of us on our toes. Don't be fooled by her silliness and charm because before you know it she'll be telling you how lame your fashion choices are and how uncool you've become overnight. Some things that make Noelle special to us besides all her wit are as follows: She is so stinkin' smart, I had to buy a Human Body book for kids so that she and I could learn together. She's quite the artist and leaves her sketches, notes, stories and all other written things all over the house. She loves to draw girls with fancy dresses and high heeled shoes and recently has been having me cut out fish so that she can illustrate each one with its own personality. She then stuffs them into an envelope and asks me to mail them to various people. My favorite was the one with a "backpack" and falling out of that backpack is a bear. There was a very elaborate story to go with the backpack fish. Noelle loves to make up songs. Just today in the car she was singing a song about leprechauns and how they will mess up your hair and your room. I tried to catch it all from the front seat of the car and laughed the whole way. Lately she has started playing with Sydney more. This makes Boo and I both very happy considering just six months ago she was still asking when we planned to return her sister to the doctors who "got her out." The best is watching them together on the swing set, it makes my little mother heart swell. Noelle still loves to dance and still loves those darn tap shoes. I have to set a timer for tapping so that we can all keep our sanity around here. Sometimes it works. Noelle is very, very excited to go to kindergarten, however she feels the need to explain to anyone who asks her about it that she will indeed need to have some shots or vaccinations done before she can go and that after this she'll be done with shots forever. If only it were really true. Five has been a long time coming for her and now that it has arrived it seems she thinks she has the power to do even more amazing things. Our dear Noelle, we are so excited for you to learn a lot more things that hopefully include tying your own shoes and riding your bike without training wheels. Swimming wouldn't be so bad either. However those are just a smidgen of the things you will embrace in the next year or so. Thank you for your sense of humor that keeps Dad and I on our toes. Hopefully you'll never take life so serious that you can't have a good laugh. We sure love your guts even if they do stink from time to time.

Here are some birthday party extravaganza pictures that pretty much sum up the birthday experience at our house. (in no particular order.)

We decorated the yard with many balloons and after the festivities one of the highlights was to gather them all together and run laps around the yard. It was also a game of keep-away from Sydney and Jackson.

Every year Noelle request some sort of bubble maker. This one was pretty awesome.

Here are the parting gifts for our birthday guests. Man did they make out like bandits.

Noelle and her friends sat in a big circle for the gift exchanging. Sis did her best to be in the middle of the action as much as possible.

Sydney thoroughly enjoyed the party, especially the cake, until Jackson came along and wanted some too.

After a fight broke out over the spoon which he won, Sis retaliated by rubbing her cakey hands in his hair. It was hilarious.

We played some fun games to make all our guest tired including sack racing, go old fashion foot races the length of the yard, poisonous snake (jumping over a rope), a pinata, and pin the tail on the donkey. Some kids were in it to win it, and other chose to stand on the sidelines and spectate.

The party riff-raff

Happy birthday Noelle.

Happy Valentine's Day