"Happy to YOU"

        Alara likes to say, "Happy to you" whenever she sees a candle burning or something that resembles a candle burning. She was a full participant in this year's birthday celebration from the song, to blowing out the candle to the traditional birthday bite. Earlier in the day I took her and Sunshine bear to Chuck E' Cheese which was a hit with the preschool crew. Her favorite gift was a tiny baby stroller for her baby dolls. When she opened the stroller, her face lit up like a star. She has put on many laps around the house with her babies since then. We can't imagine life without our little lemon drop. 

The cake had to be chocolate on chocolate because my family now refuses to eat white cake. Dessert snobs. 

Family Pictures 2017

 Every year our family sends out a Valentine’s letter. It is one less thing I have to do at Christmas time and a nice surprise to get in the mail in February instead of December. Half the time I pay someone to take a family picture and the other half of the time I just set the timer on our camera and hope for the best. That was this year. It is no small accomplishment to get six small people smiling at one time. A thanks to my nine year old David for taking the photos of Zach and I and a thank you to my husband for taking the solo pictures of me. It was a group effort but at least it is done for this year, phew!

Corn Day

By the numbers:

450 ears (plus about 100 that we gave away to friends and neighbors)

19 gallons (76 quart bags) frozen

15 hours of corn

We left as a family for the church farm in Greeley at 9:00 AM and Zach and I were in the kitchen till midnight finishing up. There was a large chunk there in the afternoon where it was just me and the corn in the kitchen while the kids took a break and Zach had school work, but overall it was a team effort. It feels good to be the ant and have corn for the whole next year.