Two Weeks?

Two weeks. Two weeks was the deadline my friend Shanna gave me to update my blog and that was 4 or 5 months ago. I usually am great with deadlines and meet them. My deepest and truest apologies because I said I would and I did not come through. I want to blog more often, but it is getting pushed farther and farther down the list. I need about 8 more hours in a day. But here it is Shanna (assumming you still even check my blog), my girls' birthday cakes from 2010 as promised, just a little, okay, alot late.

Here is Meghan's we did a duck cake this year. She turned 2!


And here is Emily's Carousel Cake that she begged for for about 8 months.

I think they turned out alright if I do say so myself. There was so much cake leftover.

Now I am not promising anything so that my honor won't be ruined. but I will try to do a blog at least once a week. I hope that sounds fair my friend Shanna.

Family Home Evening in the Fort

Over the summer the girls participated in the Summer Reading Program at the downtown library. They earned a voucher each to the Tin Caps that gave them each a ticket to get in, a ticket for a free meal, and a ticket for a free prize (cheerleader meeaphones). Our friends the Jones' and the Hansens participated as well and we cahsed in our vouchers at the same time so we could all sit togehter. We were on the third base line. I had never been yet to a Tin Caps game. Had been when they were the Wizards at the Coliseum but not at the new park. We decided to go on a Monday for Family Home Evening. It was fun. Here are some of those memories.

Getting close to bed time and hadn't eaten yet.

Happy, however, with the ice cream cone.

A LOT of junk food at this point.

Team Jones




Team Hansen

The Five Seasons

Depending on the location of your home the number of seasons you experience varies. Utah you see about two winter and summer. In Washington you also have two rainy and rainy. The east coast you get four with winter, spring, summer and fall. Here at the Fruth household we have Five. Winter, Spring, Summer, Canning, Fall.

So far this season I have done:

60+ jars of salsa

50+ quarts of green beans

25 quarts of diced tomatoes

5 quarts and 1 pint of tomato juice

7 pints tomato sauce

2 pints nectarines

We still have so much more to go.

Here are some pictures of our most recent session last Monday (the 23rd)

Start with some tomatoes

add two cute and anxious helpers

Here the girls are washing the tomatoes

(I love Meghan's face)

Meghan is in charge of squishing the juice out of the tomatoes


she needed a little assistance...



lots of clean jars

Tomatoes in the water bath on left, green beans in the pressure canner on right back and tomato juice in the front pot plus sauce in the crock pot off to the right. It was a busy day.

This wasn't all of it but that day I canned from 7:30 in the morning until 10:30 that night with breaks for annoying things like eating having to stop to go pick up Brock from work. On days like these I understand why my mom had us eat cereal or bologna sandwiches for dinner a lot during canning season. It was crazy trying to cook too.

All in all that day we did 14 quarts of Green Beans, 7 quarts of diced tomatoes, the juice, sauce and nectarines. Monday's usually are my most productive days of the week. Besides the canning I switched Meghan's clothes from 18 months to 2T, Emily and I washed the bay window inside and out, I put away the 4 loads of laundry that had been folded and not put way last week, cleaned and vacuumed the living room, and went to the tin caps game for family home evening. I even managed to play with my kids a bit.

This salsa was from the Saturday before.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.......

...Is not just a Primary Song. It is now the new modesty song in our house. I went to the "How to talk to your kids about sex" class at the Stake Relief Society Meeting last Saturday and I loved it. Even though my babies are only 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 that talk will be coming sooner than I would like to think, so I took the class. One of the sisters said with her girls they play head shoulders, knees and toes to check to see if their clothes are modest. Hands on head- does the shirt come up? Hands on shoulders- are the shoulders covered so that you could enter the temple? and can you see your bra and etc.. in your sleeve because it is too big? Knees- does the skirt cover my knees and do you see your breasts while bending over? and Toes- does your skirt cover you behind or do you see your panties while bending over as well as breasts? I love it.

We are teaching our children young that modesty is important. Brock and I decided No sleeveless shirts or sundresses, We are discussing shorts (leaning towards knee shorts only), one piece swimsuits, etc... They are young but the scriptures say to teach them while they are young. Our philosophy is the younger they learn it the easier it will be to live it as they get older. It is sinking in I must say. Emily informed her grandma that she was not modest when she came over with a sleeveless shirt on. As always we are working on why we dress modestly and that even though other people don't, we still do.

Date Night X 2

So a great friend of ours gave us a coupon for a free pizza from pizza hut, 2 super saver movie passes and provided her daughter for babysitting for Free! On Friday Brock and I went out to Pizza Hut and then we actually rented a movie. I of course have not seen it yet because I fell asleep before the opening previews were over. (Good thing we have it until Wednesday). The next day my dad came over and watched the girls for a meeting we had and Brock asked my dad if he could stick around so he could take his daughter out for a date. He did and we doubled with some friends of ours and saw Letters to Juliet. I loved it. It was cheesy, predictable, funny, and adorable. I think it will go into our personal collection and will make the "Project Movie" list.

I love date nights.

Two Girls and a Sleeping Bag

So the girls found out that a slippery sleeping bag is tons of fun. Meghan would crawl on while Emily pulled her around the house. Then I would pull both and then Emily would take over.

Meghan hadn't laughed so long or hard in a long time.

Saving Time

Between being a wife and mom, serving in the Relief Society Presidency, serving as the Board of Directors at our Apartment Complex, being an assistant camp director for Girl's Camp, being Director of Marketing for our business and everything else life throws at you I am pretty busy.

I decided to implement a new strategy to streamline certain activities to save time and be more productive. I already plan my menu one month out. After getting my necessary groceries for the week I decided to take 1 hour and prep for the week.

I chopped all my fruits and vegetables for snacks so they would be readily available. I also prepped all the veggies I need for my recipes for the entire week so all I have to do is cook. I got the asparagus, corn on cob, broccoli, cauliflower, green peppers, onions, green beans and cabbage ready. The peppers, onions, and chicken are all ready for Cinco de Mayo fajitas, the grapes, watermelon, and strawberries are all ready too. So far I have only done two days worth but it has saved tons of time already. I will try this out and see if it continues to be helpful.

A Hill of Beans

Last week I canned about 9 pounds of beans. I have about 7 more quarts and 5 more pints but they all wouldn't fit on the washer.

Discover Fort Wayne 2010-April

My discovery that I would like to highlight for April is The downtown Allen County Public Library. They have amazing things to do all of the time.

*Babies and Toddler Reading Time

*Free movies in the theatre

*Rock the Plaza Music Concert Series

*A variety of displays and demonstrations

Check out their website for upcoming events: http://www.acpl.lib.in.us

The Best Workouts Ever

I have recently discovered some of the BEST workouts ever created.

The first is the weight loss yoga done by Bob Harper from the Biggest Loser.

I did this on Monday and still felt it on Friday.

The second is Jillian Michael's (also from the Biggest Loser) 30 day shred.

Still felt this one for days later also
On Wednesday I went to my dad's to get the garden ready for planting. The tiller will not stay running so I am at a standstill until it gets fixed. In the meantime I mowed his lawn. The yard had gotten out of hand since he needed to also tune up his mower and the push mower won't start either. (what is going on with all of his tools?) Anyway his rider is not as beautiful as the one you see here.

It is like 150 years old and is by far the BEST ab work out I have ever gotten. Just sit up straight, engage core, and let the mower do the rest. It wobbles and moves you back and forth it even got my obliques going. (If anyone needs a good ab workout I am sure my dad wouldn't mind if you cut his grass for him.)


And one of the best ab, and upper body work out would be to hand rake my dad's yard. His 150 year old mower doesn't come with a bag or the ability to attach a bag. So I hand raked the 1/2 acre that is not covered with barns, house, or garden. I am using the clippings for mulch this year. So every 7-10 days I will be getting a good work out by helping my dad. What a deal!



I am also a HUGE fan of the website http://www.livestrong.com/ It tracks your food intake, water intake, workout, caloric intake based on weight goals and tons more. I love the loops feature. (You can calculate the length your walks or runs by using google maps). There is also a lot more. And it is free unless you want to pay for the Gold Membership. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Funny Pee Story-make that two.

A few weeks ago I was looking at houses with my mother-in-law. It happened to be a house where the water was shut off. Emily, of course, informs me that she has to pee. She can't use the toilet so I run out to the car, grab some Kleenex, run to the back yard of the house we are looking at and find a corner where the neighbors can't really see. I proceed to pull down her pants and hold her by the legs in a sitting position. We tried this a couple of times. I don't know if it was because it was cold or an odd position to be in but nothing happened. Fortunately the next house had flushables and she was able to hold it. I had flashbacks of my dad doing the same to me.

As I was writing this one I remembered one time when I was in 9th grade had been hunting for crawdads for Biology extra credit at the creek by our house ( yeah I'm a country girl). I had to pee so badly but someone was occupying the room I so desperately needed. So I thought I can just go in the back yard. (Again, no close neighbors, this shouldn't be a problem). I pull my pants down and squat. Everything went fine except I forgot to take one leg out and flip my pants to the side. It was pretty much the same effect as if I would have kept them on and peed. What a DORK!

Books

I LOVE Books

Books are my passion. Some people love handbags others it is shoes. For me it is BOOKS!

I love everything about them. The way they feel, the way the smell, everything. I love that simple words can transport me to other worlds. I have gone on some of my most greatest adventures have been within the pages of a book.

This past Saturday I went to the Children's Resale at Grace Point Church on Mayhew Road. I Spent $33.00 and bought 4 things that were not books. I even found a couple for myself. I scored with Ella Enchanted, The Princess Academy and Sign of the Beaver. With the exception of a few teaching books the rest were for my girls.

Then I went to the Library to get some more books for the kids. I love Dr. Suess books and I love P.D. Eastman's books he writes under that label. I absolutely love Mercer Mayer (Little Critters) and the original Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Laura Numeroff is a recent find.

I regret that I don't get to read as often as I would like to. I can loose myself and my life in reading. When I grow up and get a house I am going to make one room a library with shelves from ceiling to floor. I am also going to have one of those ladders on wheels to get to all of the books I will have. There will be a big chase lounge and big comfy chair to read on. And I will have a big bay window with a seat in it and pillows to curl up and read.

I have passed this on to Emily. While most kids sleep with blankies and stuffed animals she sleeps with books. I love it. We started reading to her pretty much since birth. Why we didn't do the same with Meghan I don't know, but she is coming around.

Books make me happy!!

When Grandpa Comes

When Grandpa comes we have a good time.

We love him so much. He plays babies with us...
...and builds furniture for our babies out of our building blocks.

How cool is he?

Play Hard...Sleep Hard

This is what happens when you play hard all day. You pass out in the car.

And then you won't even wake up when mom and dad are flashing pictures of you.
And you pass out on the kitchen counter waiting for dinner.

It was so hard getting her to wake up. Once she did it was just as hard getting her to go to bed.

The Sun + The Park = Family Fun

Good times on the Swings
I think she thinks she is on a roller coaster.

Big Sister Helping Out

First time slider

" The playground makes me smile"

Fun in Ohio

For Easter Sunday we went to Brock's Dad's in Ohio.

Emily and Grandpa played "Three Musketeers" in the woods. He was Mickey Mouse and she was Packin Pete (Captain Pete) and put him in "jail."

Meghan and Grandpa

Emily usually feeds the fish but today she was looking for creatures and she found a bunch of ...

FROGS!

Meghan and Daddy playing in the woods. They were Donald and Goofy in the Three Musketeers Game

Nothing says relaxation like a hammock. There is just something about being in one that takes all your cares away and makes life serene and beautiful.

Playing on the swing


And testing out the Harley.

Hammock with Grandma Lori

Harley dreaming with Dad.

She looks so cool!