Zoo

We love the zoo. Here are some random pics I thought were cute from our latest venture there.

Renaissance Festival

If you aren't from Arizona, you probably haven't heard of it, but the locals here know all about the Renaissance Festival. It's a festival that runs 6 weekends or so and is strictly devoted to the culture and festivities of the renaissance era. I hadn't been since I was in high school, but we decided to go last weekend with some of our friends who were visiting from Utah. It was a blast! I highly recommend it! Here are some pics of our day:

The King and Queen at the Joust.

The tournament to the death! They actually did joust on these horses. It was quite a show. And then they killed each other with swords. It was well orchestrated.

These guys were hilarious. They are called the "Mud Men" or something. I love the facial expressions!

Here's my kids making friends with random strangers. Aren't they cute? They are sharing their snacks with them. :)

Our friends Clint & Tina eating the ever-traditional turkey legs!

Okay, this thing was scary! This is a scottish hairy cow!!

My crazy ballerina

We started dance class for Eliza this month. She is so excited! It's a combo class so she has ballet slippers and tap shoes. She is catching on quick and is a very tentative little student. Here's me trying to get her to smile naturally for the camera. Notice the progression of her craziness! Ha!

It's a..........

GIRL! Yahoo! I was so pleasantly surprised that we are having a girl! Eliza is truly excited and has already named her Emma. (I think she has named her after one of her fairies on DisneyFairies.com) We are tossing several names around so nothing is decided on that yet.

Here comes baby #3!!

For those of you who don't know (which is most everyone...) WE'RE PREGNANT! We are very excited and so are our kids (well mostly just Eliza, she wants a little sister, Ezra doesn't get it yet). I am due on Pioneer Day (July 24th). What better way to pay hommage to our pioneer ancestors than to be in labor, eh? In a couple days I will be 14 weeks (3 months) and out of my first trimester. HALLELUIA! I was sick for about a month of it but feel much better now. Here's a pic of how www.babycenter.com likes to tell me how big my baby is this week: as long as a lemon. :)

Canning Salsa Gone Bad

Okay, so I belong to a food co-op and I bought a huge box of tomatoes on Saturday at a screamin' deal. I figured I better do something with them quick so I decided to make salsa and can it. Some of you may be smiling right now becuase I am not what you might call savvy when it comes to food preparation or preservation. I haven't canned anything since I was probably 9 years old so that's all the experience I had to go on... I am, however, fairly good at finding things online and figuring things out if I want to, so I found a super-informative website, borrowed the supplies I needed and embarked on an adventure that will stay with me for at least the next week. :) Yes, although I managed to follow directions and make a good 16 pints of salsa successfully, I also managed to slice my finger, and splash boiling water on my neck and chest as pictured below. I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from the last time I was burned with extremely hot water (see previous post about McDonalds), so this was like out of some nightmare! I was trying to pick up a can and it fell back into the water bath at just the right angle to splash a bunch of the water at me. I screamed as it seered my skin on contact. Then it continued to burn for the next 12 hours or so. Tylenol was no aid. All I could do was ice it. Sigh. If there is a next time, I plan to get some back-up and let them do the hot water portion. :) Oh, and not to mention it took me 8 HOURS to can 16 pints. What a project!!!!

Christmas Loot 2008

I know this is 2 weeks late, but for the benefit of our family who couldn't be with us, I thought I show a few highlights of our children's Christmas Loot. They had an amazing Christmas thanks to many generous family members (Thanks Jens & Sherry and Grandma & Grandpa Behle!). We love you all... Enjoy!