This face cracks me up

Who says this toy is just for babies?

Cousin pile-on

Geneva was hugging baby Jack, Grant decided to jump onboard.

The cutie and the blur

Grant aka the jumping bean

Here he is playing Rocket Ship

She's watching Grant

At the pool!

Phones are supposed to look like this, right?

Sleepy chubby cheeks

This little guy loves his uncle

She loves to hug the baby...

... And really wanted to hold him this morning too.

Multitasker

On vacation, babysitting and fixing the robots. What can't she do?

Sharing lunch

Little nephew

People mover

Wearing her out for the plane ride

Does this look like the face of a kid that a plane-full of people will want to throttle?

Canning applesauce

I think I must suffer from canning related masochism. Remember the tomato canning incident? Or the jam incident? Actually, that last one doesn't sound like an incident until I include the information that I don't really eat jam in my normal life, so I didn't eat any of that jam I made. Well, a couple of weeks back I canned pickles, which wasn't that big of a deal. I really wanted bread and butter pickles, so I made some. A modest 7 pints. Then over the weekend Brandy gave me about 10 pounds of apples off her overburdened tree and I was determined to make and can applesauce with them. Before I left on vacation. And the only time available was yesterday, when I had strep throat. Why exactly is it that I want to can so much that I will do it rather than rest in my bed? I do not understand. I like the idea of preserving something that would otherwise go to waste. I saved 10 pounds of apples! Whee! But seriously, is it so much better than sleeping? And what a mess.

I'm already contemplating canning more tomatoes this year though. (Ssshhh... don't tell Chris... he'll hide my canning pot.) I'm just convinced I can do it easier than I did in the past. My plan is to use my food mill this time (no labor intensive tomato peeling) and make tomato sauce, not just hot pack raw tomatoes. We use pasta sauce all the time (unlike plain tomatoes) and I'm starting to get the hang of the canning process so it's going faster. Anyone who wants to come help, just sing out.

Work has been crazy busy recently so I pretty much have been drained in the evenings. It's no help that Geneva had some crazy hours last week (we had to get up with her at 4:25 one morning, ugh!!!). We bought a sleep training toddler clock and between that and her being sick this week, we've had some blessedly later mornings. Which is good because I got what she had, which turned out to be the above-mentioned strep throat. She had a little fever and then a couple days later she got a little rash and I got a killer sore throat. Internet sleuthing led me to believe strep, so I went to the doctor and had a positive test. Next I called her pediatrician who said kids under 2 don't get strep, but she'd test if I really wanted. Then I called Chris to take her and he said there was no way our kid had strep because that sucker hurts and she'd been way too peppy to be in that much pain. Well, I insisted and they were both wrong, so she and I are now both on antibiotics. Thankfully she really likes the taste of the medicine so it's no trouble at all to give it to her.

I'm rambling. We're in Virginia next week for vacation/meeting my new nephew and then in Colorado for the wedding of Chris's brother, so I don't really expect the crazies to die down any time soon. But at some point they will and then I'll post photos of all the fun things I've knitted recently and all the tomatoes I canned. Hahaha... just kidding Chris! (Hahaha... not really....)

Belly swinging

Where did she learn this??