A Great Saturday

We had one of those great Saturdays when you get to stay together as a family the whole day-- well almost all day. Luke and I did go to a ham radio junk sale in the morning for a power supply and Joy and Allie went to the store late at night for milk (now what is more important)? It was my first time with Wesley and I have to admit I was scared w/o a bottle or Mama. Joy finished planting our garden this morning; we planted a whole section of okra as we loved it so much last year.
On our way to Henry Crespin's 1st birthday party.
We then drove straight to a 4th year b-day party for Angelique Ramirez. Both parties were in parks and both had piñatas so our kids had a great time. The second also had a "brinca-brinca" (inflated kid jumper) and pony rides.
When Luke saw the ponies, he went crazy for a ride and knew just where to put his legs and hands. Most of the other kids had enough with one ride, Luke and Allie each rode three times (thanks Grandpa Payne and Taylor the equestrian lessons in Florida).
It was a long day for Luke. Here he is taking a break and chatting with his dad incessantly about who knows what (how much he liked the cake)?
If only we could play like this every Saturday...

Guess who turned 2!

I have heard and read that when CPS comes to investigate a home to make sure the children are not being abused or neglected, one of the things they look at is if the children are clean and their clothes are clean and cared for. I think about this often when my children look like this.You have to admit he does look happy (in the above)!
Luke turned two on Saturday. We thought camping was a great way to celebrate (actually it was the best weekend we had to get away but don't tell him that). After we got home he opened his birthday card from Grma/Grpa Payne and the gift from Grma/Grpa Jackson. He is wearing his present- a little "packpack". He also got a rocking horse.

I need a padlock for my make-up drawer.
Monday we had the birthday cake and family celebration. Cory, Maureen and kids as well as Marge and the boys came over. Daniel gave Luke a little book about a frog. He and Allie both loved it. Now you'll notice in the above photo that only one candle is lit. Allie helped him blow one out and we all patiently waited for him to blow the other out. And we waited. And waited. Allie had to step in again. It's not that he doesn't know how to blow out a candle. I think after all my warnings and threats NOT to touch the cake, he didn't believe me that it was finally time to dig in!
Luke inherited the same "car gene" that Carter has. Cars, cars, cars. Oh and now he says "truck" too.
And in other news, Allie gave her very first talk ever in Primary last Sunday. We were so excited. I have always looked forward to having my own child one day and to hear them give their little talk. It was really cute. Below is the photo of us practicing Sunday morning (sorry about the side-ways photos. I don't know why they do that).

The Rugrats Go Camping

Jason here... We have been planning as a family to go camping for a long time. As usual, everything in the world came up as reasons not to go (not the least of which were snow flurries Tuesday morning) but we stuck to our guns and had a great time. We were going to go to the mountains but thought our kids would have more fun if they were a bit warmer so we went to the desert near Socorro, NM (San Lorenzo Canyon). It's a good thing too because we forgot the bag that had the pajamas and warm clothes in it. For San Lorenzo you "have to" 4X4 to get there...
This place is just out in the middle of nowhere on BLM land, so intrepid partiers come around, which they did, to our spot which is the best at the dead end of driveable wash.
These Rasta types wound up showing up in the middle of dinner. They were super nice (...probably became much much nicer later that night). Anyhow they wound up going further up the canyon to give us plenty of room but came by several times in their backpacks. One of these guys came by with his shirt off smoking a pipe (standard issue nice smelling pipe that is). Allie (who was standing there w/o any pants- no pajamas remember) was yelling "Mom, he's not modest!" It took several rounds to get her to be quiet and courteous.

Exploring around in the canyon we found these miniature sand castle/pueblo structures. They had amazing detail...
Saturday (Luke's birthday) we explored around for a bit. We all had a fun time climbing and jumping from the rocks. Allie was a bit too fearless for our taste but seemed to be having the best time. Then we made a run into Socorro for diapers since our diaper reserve was also in the clothes bag we forgot at home.
We ate at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican food restaurant that was excellent (green chile rellenos especially). To finish out the day we drove south to the Bosqe del Apache National Wildlife Refuge where 10000s of migratory birds winter.

http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/newmex/bosque/index.html

All but 3 birds left for the summer when we were there, but oh well. We saw a ton of turtles, roadrunners, wild turkey, coots, and a few geese. It makes us want to go back in the fall. The coolest thing we saw was a coyote fishing in some shallows. It had already caught one and had set this huge flopping fish on the bank. We spooked it a bit so it picked up its fish and wandered off.
We came home super dirty with one set of clothes each for the whole time, but that's what camping is about right?

Prize from Daddy

Jason always like to bring home a little surprise from his business trips. It's always something small but really fun to get. I think this has been the best one yet. He finally found a store in downtown Kansas City to buy some breakfast for the people who help him there (a small surprise for them too- they have been working really hard on his "widget". The shopping adventure is a whole other story). And that's when he found these... Click on the picture to read it better...
Allie was blown away by the taste. She busted into rhyme after just one bite.

Roasted Tomatoes

Allie and I have been doing a few projects around the house lately. While I had some tools out to work on my kitchen project, Allie borrowed a screw driver and went to work on the door knob. I didn't know she was doing this nor would I have thought she could have succeeded. The truth is she did us a favor. That door knob has basically been broken since we moved in. We (Allie and I) have since replaced it with a new door knob. It's beautiful and it works!

Now to my kitchen project... this is the before.

This is after. Can you tell what I did? Can you tell what is missing?
I made a drop down pocket drawer to hide all the stuff that sits by the side of sink. Fairly simple to do, it just took two weeks to finish because I bought the wrong hinge initially and ya da ya da.
And so now you are wondering why this blog entry is titled "Roasted Tomatoes" (which by the way is the name of one of our FAVORITE soup recipes ever. We got it from Lindsay). Well, since it has taken about two weeks to finish this very simple project, I wanted Jason to come home and get the full impact of it. So I moved everything that was by the sink off to the sides. One of those "things" sitting by the sink was a cardboard box of tomato plants. Maureen and Cory gave us a bunch of tomato plants since they accidently got too many. We are super excited to try these new flavors (THANKS Maureen). You probably see where this is going. I set the box on the stove and this morning I accidently turned on the wrong burner. I was standing in the family room holding Luke when I went to go check to see if the water was boiling yet. There were HUGE orange flames and billows of smoke. I wasn't sure if I should run for the fire extinguisher or a pot of water. The water was closer so we went for that. Needless to say we have had the doors and windows open all day. It amazed me the amount of smoke and how quickly it filled the entire house. And it was all so silent. I sort of imagined flames like that to be loud and crackely. And the tomato plants? I planted them in our garden before I could do anything else to the poor things. I hope they make it.

Peas in a Pod

Luke and Allie sleeping in Luke's bed. And you had doubts as to whether sharing a room would be a good idea. We obviously had no choice (we really are trying to get them to sleep in their own beds).
This was "quiet time". Luke naps every day and Allie naps every once in a great while anymore. On this particular day Luke did not want to stay in his bed- he wanted Allie. So she decided to read him a story to help him fall asleep. It got really quiet so I went to check on them. It is a good thing the bed rail/net thingy is there.
Allie trying to save Wesley from Luke. "Oh, my sweet Wesley, what have I done?" (We all say that a lot whenever Wesley cries.) Anyone want to guess what we had for dinner?! Luke styled his hair by dipping his hand in his drinking cup and then spiking it. I really kind of like it. And uh, the wet shirt is not from his drinking cup. I thought after the rest of is molars came in we would be done with the drool. I think his swallowing mechanism is broken. Or he forgot how.

Meet the Robinsons

How blogs usually look... Immediately before the picture...
Luke and his buddy- cousin Thacker
Naptime and the park don't mix
We love the Shays, Jacksons and Robinsons and had an awsome weekend.

Weekend Getaway

We just returned from Phoenix (Mesa actually) for a weekend spent with 4 of Joy's siblings. We had a great time. Jacksons: there are a bunch of pictures on the Jackson Family Blog. Here are a few cousin pics. More to come...

Evan and Jackie

For the Paynes, Evan and Jackie are getting married next month. The Ottesens have been such a big part of our life, it was fun to go out this week and take some snapshots of them. I don't think they'll choose this kissy-kissy one and I asked if we could post one on our private blog so here you go. We wish them luck!