a little book

I saw this really cute quiet book on another craft blog, and I thought I'd make one of my own.  I kind of think mine turned out better.  : )

Instead of using name badge holders (the craft blog, Brown Paper Packages, used them), I found these picture laminating squares at Walmart.  I got the pictures at Deseret Book, but had to trim them down to fit in the laminate squares.  I printed some words of songs from the Children's songbook to go with the pictures, and ta da!  It was pretty quick and easy.  I did, however, destroy my hole punch trying to punch the layers of laminate, pictures, and cardstock.  The laminate is pretty hard, which I was glad about, but it did a number on that poor hole punch.  

Picture malfunction.  Why does blogger think that it knows which way my pictures should go?  I tried uploading this one a bunch of different times and it was still always sideways.  Oh well.

no captions needed: just look at that face

the teeny boy...

 unwinds mommy's ribbon,

plays on his tummy,

and sits in the grass.

homegrown

Lately I've been putting my food processor to work and making baby food for Graham.  It's kind of a lot of work, but it's cheaper than buying baby food, and I think Graham likes the food...some more than others.  : )  Saturday was peach day, so we pureed the peaches...

and piped the puree into ice cube trays.  Once they are frozen, I put the cubes in freezer bags and we'll take out a few each time we eat.  The only downside is that we don't have a really big freezer, so our freezer is quickly being taken over by baby food.  : )

We also picked the first corn from our garden, and sadly, it wasn't great.  : (  We couldn't figure out if we picked it too early or too late.  We're trying to figure it out.

i can do it all by myself

Sometimes Graham wants us to feed him.  Sometimes he wants to feed himself.

He's quite handy with the spoon, we just need to work on some accuracy.  : )

One day all Graham's bibs were dirty so we resorted to the old dish towel.  Time for lunch!  Or maybe time for a haircut?  He kind of looks like he's ready for the baby barber.  A little off the top, please!

Swimming @ the Bushman's!

Excuse me, sir?  Your belly is hanging out of your shirt.  But you look awfully comfortable.

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Yesterday was Matt's Birthday!  He big 2-7.   Sounds old, right?  : )  Not really.  I think Matt had a good day, but to celebrate Matt got breakfast in bed, a Serafine family tradition.  I made a cake and took it up to the school during lunch for him and his study-buddies.  After he came home we had some salmon and shrimp--or I should say Matt ate the shrimp.  Sick.  But then we had a few gifts.  Now, please note that our son doesn't spend much time in just his diaper.  We fed him some squash and he got it all over himself so we took his shirt off so he could take a bath.  Anyway, Graham got his daddy that lantern.  Nice job picking out a lantern, Graham!  To finish off the day Matt played in our ward's basketball championship game and their team won!  Too bad they don't get any shirts or a trophy.  I offered to make them some shirts but I don't know if a bunch of twenty-something to middle-aged men would appreciate puff-paints.

Graham and I are so blessed to have Matt as a daddy and husband.  He is the such a great person...we couldn't live without him!  He puts so much work into his schooling, family, and calling, and does so with ease.  We love you, Matt and hope you had a good birthday!

beaners

My garden is growing!  We nearly have some corn that's ready to pick...in a few days we'll have fresh, hand-shucked corn!  : )  Here's our mini corn field.  I'm thinking of making it into a maze for Graham when the corn is done growing.  Maybe I can invite his little baby friends to the maze.

And here are the beans!  Last year I planted some beans; I have no idea what kind they were but they were gross.  The beans inside were dark grey and tasted like chalk.  But this year I planted Blue Lake Bush Beans (following my dad's suggestion, since that's what they plant), and they are much better!  So here's my first picking.  I've picked one more time since then.  (I turned this batch into baby food, but the next batch was for the big people.)

Seeing as I now had some really good beans that I think are worth their weight in gold, I didn't want one to go to waste.  We decided rather than trying to eat a bowl-full of beans once a week (or more often), we'd can them so I ordered this bad boy off Amazon.  It arrived the next day.  I unpacked the box and read the instructions very carefully.

I got my jars ready, cleaned and cut the beans, and packed the jars.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed I only got three jars of beans.  : /  I guess we'll just add to our bean collection a few jars at a time.

Then I put the jars into the canner, and prayed that the whole thing wouldn't explode.  

Then I watched the pressure rise...keeping a safe distance in case it exploded... (this might be an irrational fear, but I was just sure shards of metal, broken glass, and hot bean water would go flying everywhere, impaling the walls and anyone who dared stand close enough.)

Good news...it didn't explode!  We lived to tell another tale.  Once the pressure was down and the jars were cool enough, I took them out and ta-da!  Here they are!  I don't want to open them they are so pretty.  Now if only we could can zucchini.  It's just the start of the growing season and we already have too much.  Anyone want some?  (Zucchini, not beans.  : ) )

new tricks

Sometimes Graham doesn't realize his own strength and accidentally kicks over his toys.  No matter which way we put him under this little thing he wiggles himself around so his little feet can touch one of the legs which results in the whole toy crashing down.

But he sits too!

He thinks it's pretty amusing.

But we always have pillows just in case he gets lazy.