Helping Silly Papa Kent

"Mom, do you have to take pictures of EVERYTHING?" "Why yes son I DO"

Okay maybe he didn't say that exactly but his eyes and his I'm not looking look definitely did!

So my parents are finally getting their very old and ugly kitchen remodeled. My dad, known as Silly Papa Kent around here, wanted to hang some of the old cabinets in the garage. And seeing as my sweet hubby has decided to make himself an expert at it, he went to help. And of course my boys LOVE anything that has to do with TOOLS. So off we all went and I of course had to play with my new toy that I LOVE!. Anyways. I didn't get a ton of pics because I was having way to much fun holding and taking care of my nephews so that my brother could help to. But here is what I have.

Yes Uncle Brad is a crazy man! That is why we love him so!

The boys were the official screw holders and gophers. They were all set with their tool belts and their tape measures (which were used by the grownups!).

Poor wild child touched the hot end of a drill bit and burned his finger. Luckily we had handy cold bottles of water to soothe it and he was soon helping more.

My parents got a new attic entrance complete with ladder so of course both boys had to go up and look. Then Grandpa and Brad tried to fit the really tall ladder in the attic but it was to big. WE had a great time. Thanks Papa for letting us help!

My wild child and his birthday!

So my baby, my wild child, is officially 6! I took these pictures on his birthday. He gave me about 4 minutes and was totally cheesy but I think it captured him. He did his hair by himself. He loves it sticking up and red is his favorite color! There are more on my business facebook page if you want to check them out.

I took these with my new d700. It is an amazing piece of equipment. So much fun. I took almost all of his birthday pictures with it (including party etc) with no flash and they look amazing. IT has great low light capabilities. So much better than my D80 for low light.

So very much my wild child!

He really wanted a hula hoop for his birthday. Thanks Uncle Brad and Aunt Deidre and David and William. HE LOVES it!

David and birthday boy and William. Too cute!

He said he wanted the exact same birthday cake I had. Hey it meant I didn't have to bake! Yum!

Today was his birthday "activity" Instead of a party he choose to take his family to Night at the Museum 2. He got to invite one friend. We then came home to eat ice cream. And Ben stayed all day. You are welcome Julia! Surprisingly they were angels. I kid you not! My wild child and the cute little red head here can both be trouble makers :) but apparently together they somehow stay tame. They were quieter than my 10 and 13 year old girls. Really! I loved having WC happy and occupied all day it was great! Thanks Julia! I will have to borrow him more often.

I love his expressions. He has the most expressive face!

It was a great two days!

Birthday Boy

Taken yesterday on the last day of school

Wild Child is 6 today! I can't believe my baby is 6. Time flies! So do you like his shiner? He got it at his end of the year kindergarten party. A girl in his class ran into him because she was running with her eyes closed. It looks worse in person. I am going to take a birthday picture today with my new D700 (yes Jennifer you read that right). Maybe it will show up better on that :) I will post last day of school and party pics later. I am slowly catching up. But I wanted to wish my wild child a happy birthday today!

Late Mothers Day post

My Mother's Day was one of my best ones ever! sunshine got up at 6:30 to make me a card (for her on a Sunday that was a real gift!) Wild Child made me a handprint flower, and Bear helped me with stuff. I got these beautiful flowers and I think I even did a good job arranging them for once! My kids won't let me do anything they thought remotely resembled work. Sunshine felt so bad that she needed me to help with her hair I had to convince her I didn't mind and she insisted I finish getting ready first since I usually did the girls hair first. So sweet! We went to my parents house after church (no camera so no pics sorry!). My oldest's mom came up for Mothers Day so Mike only had to drive 10 minutes to pick her up. So I was able to have my whole family together for Mother's day dinner and still eat at 5:30. It was the best. Oh and I got to spend hours with her and she actually wanted to hang with me and sit by me without anyone asking her too! Usually dad is the snuggler of choice. It was the BEST Mother's Day. I have AWESOME kids!

We did flowers for Mike's mom also and bought her a new vase and I arranged them. This is both of them together.

Both with some greener I couldn't make work in either so it got its own vase. It looked really nice on my black hutch. Very clean lined and modern.

Me and my closeups!

My mother in law's flowers.

Mine. Aren't they pretty? Mike thought I was crazy to arrange a huge Costco bouquet in a little short vase but I LOVE the way it turned out so sweet!

more randomness- lemon variety

If you have citrus trees this is a familiar sight. Bags full of lemons, grapefruits etc. . . Well this is the first year our trees grew so much that we had enough and then some. I think we had three times the lemons as last year. It was a good year. We drank homemade lemonade at least once a week for months and months. And we had lemon bread and lemon cookies and . . . My kids who love grapefruit ate so many that I don't know if they could look at one right now. So after giving away many grocery bags worth I still had several bags left to juice. I think it took me three days total (only 10 or so hours total I think) to juice all of it. I ended up with over 30 cups of lemon juice and 5 or more cups of zest. I am so excited. Homemade lemonade is WAY better than store bought. Nothing beats it. Still not enough juice to have it once a week till next harvest but a couple times a month at least (it takes 2 cups lemon juice to make enough for my family for a meal.) And I can still make lemon bread. Although with a wedding open house coming in August it may go faster than planned. I may be crazy because it was worth it and I am even thinking of planting a lime tree!
Since I was zesting them I had to wash them first!

Washed on left unwashed on right! I am so glad I have an electric juicer! Thanks Spense and Nadia!

Just some of the results. Each bag has 2 cups lemon juice in it and I froze some in ice cube trays for when I need small amounts. 1 cube= 2 tablespoons.