Grape Juice

My grandma canned.

My mom canned, when I was young.

My sister cans.

I don't can... unless you count freezer jam... but I don't.

Amber has an awesome back yard filled with nature's bounty. She and Tawnya made grape juice and grape jelly last year. This year, the birds thought Amber's grapes were yummy.

Amber called me worried that the birds would eat them ALL. She talked me into, sweet-talking my mom into, sweet-talking my grandma into, lending me some canning jars and her grape juicer.

We rescued a shallow bucket-full of grapes.

We washed. We smooshed. Then we put the grapes into the juicer, boiler thingy.

As the water boiled, the steam rendered the juice out of the grapes. We then released the clip on the tubing and fresh grape juice flowed into the hot, sanitized jars. We didn't strain the juice at first, but decided it was a good idea, when we noticed a few chunks.

Then we put the lids and rings on and turned them upside-down to seal.

VOILA!

Grape juice.

Thanks to Amber I can now say, I didn't can.

New Blog

You probably received an email from me about this.....

Amber has created a new blog. It's so cute. It's called, "Tales of Domestica". She posts about being a mom, a wife, a homemaker and more.

She's having a give-away this week. Go check it out!

PS- Don't forget to tell her I sent you. :)

Happy Scrappy!

I taught my friend Amber (Jason's car wash assistant's girlfriend) to scrapbook today. She has a sweet 8 month old baby girl, Kenya and a baby boy on the way, due in January!

She wanted to make baby books for them, so I offered my dining room table, my stuff and my Monday to help her get started.

We took some of this...

and put it into 2 of theses...

and made this...

and this...

and this...

and several others cute pages. I think we ended up with 22 pages total! Not bad for a day's work.

It felt good to exercise my scrapbook muscle. It was starting to atrophy from lack of use.

Looking at this sweet face makes my aching back and messy, neglected house all worth it.

Isn't she a darling?!!!

Amber's Baby Girl Shower

On Friday, we had Amber's baby shower. We did it at her new house, so she could give tours and let everyone know where her new residence was.

(I know the decor looks familiar, but if it ain't broke, why fix it?!) :o)
Amber's good friend Amy, made these little petite fore cakes. They were so cute and tasty.
Aubree (Amy's daughter), Taylee and Rylee got the privilege of coming to the "big girl party". Rylee told me later, "Mom, I wasn't sure if a Baby Shower would be that much fun and didn't think I really wanted to go... but it WAS really fun! I'm glad I got to go." Silly girl, big girl parties are always fun!

Karen, Deon (Brinton's mom), Amber, Candice, and Aunt Jana.

Candice, Aunt Jana, Rylee, Tawnya (still pregnant!), Jayma (Amber's friend), Grandma Ison, Kortney (Brinton's sister), Mom/Grandma McKinley with Baby Sydney.

Amy was in charge of the game, Baby Concentration. Some of us were really, really good, others (like myself) were very, very bad at the memory thing! We all helped one another and earned candy bar prizes for each match. Example: Umbilical Cord = red rope licorice, Conception = Skor, Grandparents = Sugar Daddy, Delivery = Push pop, etc.

We also wrote down baby advice for Amber. She's probably heard all of my advice time and time again, but I told her not to feel too guilty about letting the baby swing for as long as she needs...even if it's several hours during the night. :o)
Amber received some really nice gifts. We ooo-ed and ahhh-ed over the cute outfits and loved the homemade taggy and flannel strip blanket, made by her good friends, Jayma and Amy.
Gifts galore!

In FULL Bloom

Last week, we celebrated our dad's birthday, by getting together for banana cream pie (his favorite). I took the opportunity to get some pictures of my sister's with their cute pregnant tummies.
Tawnya's due date was March 3rd (and this was March 19th!). Amber's due date April 15th.

Tawnya's other due date was March 15th. After an another ultrasound/exam, her midwife thinks that the later due date is more accurate...but still overdue!

These baby girl cousins, along with Tim and Karen's Sydney, will be so close and will probably have so much fun growing up together.