My loves

Just a groovy photo of Gabriel and Nathan that I found on my computer. I love this shot!

Everything's Peachy

As you can tell from the photos on this post, Asher has had his first experience with farm fresh peaches. We were walking through the fields when we handed him one and he stopped dead in his tracks, with the peach locked to his face. He WOULD NOT move. He just stood there, sucking the peach like a little fruit bat. His eyes were huge and he was mesmerized. We literally had to carry him back to the house, because he couldn't seem to become unfocused from the fruit. After that, he wanted nothing but peaches. Personally, I loved how he would carry it around in his mouth without using his hands (as seen in the photo.) Too fun!

Hopping across the pond

Asher and I pick some raspberries on the farm.


Me and Ash grin at daddy.


Asher tries to pick berries on his own, with a little help from mom.


Asher sits on a stack of cannonballs near the lakefront.


Asher and momma in the blueberry patch.


Asher collects blueberries in his hat, so he can save some for later.

First, let me explain why these are all Asher shots. We took them all in the same one-hour period, and Gabriel was off galavanting about with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jon. He will be featured in a future post, I promise!

Anyway, we spent a wonderful weekend in St. Joe, Michigan for the past few days. It's almost directly across the lake from us, and usually only takes about 3.5 hours to get to. We decided not to leave Friday night because Nate got done with work pretty late, even though I had off work. So we got up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and were out the door by 6 a.m. Oh what a trip! Chicago was a mess, and once we hit 80/94, traffic was stopped dead, due to the fact that there was standing water further along the highway and they had decided to empty the ENTIRE five lanes of traffic off onto the nearest exit. So we sat. And we sat. And we sat. The trip took over 6 hours when all was said and done. And if you've ever been trapped in a car with 2 small children for that long, you know that it takes an amazing effort to keep your sanity!
But the trip itself was a blast! We spent the days roaming around my Uncle's farm and eating anything and everything that was in season. We also went to the beach twice with the boys, which they LOVED.
And there are a few simple things in life that I learned to enjoy all over again:
1. The sight of my smallest son chasing butterflies. He did so on the farm at every chance he got.
2. The taste of fresh blueberrires picked right off the bushes in the morning, still covered with dew.
3. The taste of a fresh peach off the tree -- and how the juice dribbles down your arm when you eat it!
4. Being far enough out in the country that there is no highway noise and looking up to see two hawks circling, and then giving that screeching cry they do only on TV or in the movies. Asher LOVED it.
5. Seeing my oldest son, Gabriel, riding his bike through the orchard, and simply enjoying a place that holds so many fun childhood memories for me!

Gripe Session

I feel the need to vent.
I'm sick of rain. Sick sick sick of rain. Sick of the way my boys have been bouncing off the walls for the past week as the rain falls -- bored, with nothing to do and no way to work off their nervous energy. I'm sick of our long grass which needs mowing BADLY, but is out of luck as the rain keeps on falling. When I get up, it's raining. When I go to work, it's raining. When I go to bed ... you guessed it. Okay, well, if it's not constant, there's at least ugly clouds or a fine mist/fog hanging about everywhere, making everything damp and icky. Yes, that's right. ICKY. We had a high of 64 degrees the other day. (Yes, St. Louis relatives, I'm sure you're gasping, as you've had 110 recently...) But could I go outside and enjoy it! NO! Because it was raining!! Arrrggg!! It doesn't help that I'm already a super-cranky 34-weeks-pregant woman who's never comfortable. Ah, the world will be a better place when the sun FINALLY shines again!!

Thankful for friends

I've never been the type of person who makes friends super-easily. (although I always wished that I was) It's a combination, probably, of me being somewhat shy, and something of a homebody. But this week, I realized just how blessed I am to have a super group of gal pals here at my work. In my office, there are about six or seven of us who are in about the same age bracket. Most of us have kids and spend time commiserating about the joys and trials of being a wife and mother.
This week, my friends threw me a surprise baby shower party at Margaux, an upscale restaurant in town that I absolutely LOOOVE! They spoiled me rotten, with lots of gifts (baby girl Harrmann now has tons of cute new frilly, fussy clothes!!) balloons and lunch.
And it made me realize how very special this group of gals is to me -- and how important friendship is! So to Nhia, Jen, Jamie, Janet and Belia ... thanks for the party! You're all a bunch of sweethearts! And it really meant a lot to me!

Salsa fun

I've discovered the cure-all for a stuffed up nose.
Spend an hour dicing green peppers, jalepeno peppers and onions -- oh, and pressing garlic. If you do this ... poof! (as Gabe would say) your nose is perfectly clear. We've finally begun getting a bunch of tomatoes from our garden -- mostly Romas, but also a few Early Girl's and Cherry tomatoes too. This week, it started to get away from us -- more tomatoes than we could slice, salt and eat in a day, so to speak. So I decided to get imaginative and spent yesterday canning a few jars of homemade salsa. It was pretty easy, but I guess I have no idea how it will taste yet. I'll have to report back later with the results.

A weekend of water

We spent the weekend in the water with the boys. On Saturday, Gabe, Ash and I met Jen and her son Isaac at Deland Beach, where the boys had a blast running around in the small waves. On Sunday, we went to early church and immediately headed over to the beach by Blue Harbor. We had the entire thing to ourselves and the day was gorgeous! Later in the day, the boys had fun running through the sprinkler in the front yard.


Nathan and Asher wander out into the lake on Sunday morning.

Asher enjoys the crisp, cool water!

Gabe and Asher work on a sandcastle with a moat.

Asher has fun playing in the sprinkler. When it comes to water, this little guy is fearless!

After some fun in the sprinkler, both boys settle down for a lunch of chicken nuggets and smiley fries al fresco!

Elves In my garden

These two little cuties were hanging out in my garden today. The boys just LOVE the garden, especially now that they can pick cherry tomatoes, which is what they're doing here. My tomato plants are taller than me! And you can see from the photo how big our sunflowers are getting! At least 8 feet tall! Our garden is full of various wildlife this year. There' s a bird (that me and the boys have named "Flutter") living in the birdhouse hanging from the arbor. He flies out of the house as soon as we enter the garden and scolds us from a nearby fence until we leave. There's also a baby bunny we've named Shiloh. He's been living in our cabbage for quite some time and is now getting quite big. The boys love spotting these various critters when we're in the garden. Mommy enjoys it too, except for the time when I was out looking for zuchhini and Shiloh decided to get extra friendly and sit on my bare foot. YIPES!! Even Roxy likes to get in on the garden fun. Here's the fun part ... can you spot her in the second photo??