Apples, nephew and puppy love

My sweet 2 year-old nephew James came with grandma (my mom) this week to spend a few days at our house. His mommy is about to have her 2nd baby and was a little worn out from chasing her busy boy, so we jumped at the chance to spend some quality time with him. My immediate family--dad, mom, siblings, and their kids is 27, going on 28 people, so pretty much whenever we spend time with family it's chaos (really fun chaos), and hardly any alone time with any one child. We had a BLAST with this little guy! Jason and James became best buddies and followed each other all around the house. The weather was perfect, so we spent lots of time out in the backyard. And...our neighbor gave us tons and tons of bruised but deliciously sweet apples that needed to be used up--3 boxes in all. My mama brought her nifty applesauce press, and we were in business! We had tons of help from James and Jason--I couldn't count how many apples had bites out of them by the time they were washed and ready to quarter! And, of course, water was all over the floor, but it sure kept them entertained! Every once in a while, I have the thought that I should've been a pioneer woman.
We washed and cut and cooked apples for hours, but the end result was delicious! Just like I remember from my childhood. I knew there was a reason I don't like store-bought, jarred applesauce. It really doesn't compare! Not sure it was worth all the work for how much applesauce we ended up with, but it was great fun to work with my sweet Mom and let the kids be a part of it!






Love this one of James and our puppy Jake playing tug-of-war! I think he needs a puppy! Isn't Jake the cutest thing ever? Wish I could get him completely potty trained so I could trust him in the house!

Like father, like son

We spent the weekend at Rob's parents' house, and my mother-in-law showed me this picture of little Robbie. I took a double take--doesn't he look so much like Jason?
Speaking of Jason, my baby turned 4 yesterday! He is such a delight--seriously, my heart melts every time I look at him. We're having a blast spending our days together while the big kids are at school--and I'm soo glad he has a September birthday so we still have 2 years till kindergarten! There's no way I could part with him in just one more year.

Here's Sarah with her grandpa--he and my mom were such a big help at the party, and the kids all warmed up to them like they were their own grandparents!

My budding artist

Sarah's latest drawing...she worked on this for at least an hour today, and I think it's adorable! I did help her a little bit, but it's mostly her creation. You can't see the cute little flower tattoo on the bottom of her leg. I guess this is a Clifford-size dog--quite a bit bigger than the trees--love it!