Cornelius Chronicles

As you know, our peach tree ripened this last week so I jumped on this first opportunity to bottle my own peaches. This experience provided a laundry list of lessons learned by a first time canner. 1. 1 canning day + 3 kids = one disaster of a house 2. Xavier can eat playdough off the floor without any adverse effects 3. Xavier can eat dried old leaves off the floor without any adverse effects 4. Xavier can eat forgotten cereal off the floor without any adverse effects 5. My floor can turn Xavier's clean clothes into very dirty clothes 6. Raspberry juice may be red in color, but it leaves a purple stain on your clothes, the counter, the cabinets, the floor, the children.... 7. Jam won't set up unless you remember to add the pectin, no matter how long you boil it 8. My mad blanching skills need practice 9. When trying to figure out how to skin a peach after a failed blanching attempt a vegetable peeler works in a pinch! 10. One can never have too many large bowls 11.

Our super cool cousin Kailyn went home yesterday. It was so much fun to have her stay with us for the past few weeks. The kids are really missing her. Luckily, we'll get to see her and all the other cousins soon! Here is a picture of the beginning of our first peach harvest! Yea peaches! We've gotten a pretty good haul for our first year. The peaches taste delicious and have such tender flesh. We even had some neighbors stop by on their evening walk and ask for a fresh peach to eat. Nobody told us we should be fencing our tree to keep the neighbors and the wild life out! ;>) Loyd loves the peaches and has one with breakfast every morning. He would have one for breakfast, second breakfast, morning snack, lunch, after nap snack, and dinner too if I let him. But I'm trying to save the bulk of the peaches. Tomorrow I'm going to be brave and try to bottle them, and maybe attempt a few jars of jam. Wish me luck! Happy peach eating!

Happy Father's day! I want to share a little humor with you on this day where we express our gratitude for our dad. It's not dad related, but I have to record this before I forget. Two Sunday's ago, on Fast Sunday, Rebekah added a new hymn to the Cornelius cannon. She was heard singing around the house very sweetly, "God be with you till we eat again....Till we e-e-eat. Till we e-e-eat. God be with you till we eat again." She cracks me up with her silly songs and the funny ways she changes melodies that we know to make them all her own. Since that Sunday we have been busy with swimming lessons, mini family adventures and playing with our cousin Kailyn . Rebekah and Loyd both graduated from swimming lessons on Friday. I was very proud of both of them. They were very brave and listened to their teachers very well. Loyd loved playing in the water with his daddy and Rebekah developed a little crush on her swim instructor, Spencer. She would do anything

We have forward momentum! Xavier has finally figured out how to pull himself forward. He is even experimenting with getting up on his knees now. He loves this new found mobility and is constantly on the move to swipe interesting looking toys from Bekah and Loyd. Mr. Xavier also got his first tooth this month. It's a pretty cute little chomper. He now has his front left top tooth. Look out world! Xavier is moving and he has a tooth! Loyd is enjoying the summer weather. If he isn't outside playing he can be found inside staring out his window at the wide world of the front yard. This is a picture of how we often find Loyd when he is inside. His favorite things to watch from his window are the garbage truck and the lawn care guys who come to cut the neighbors' lawns. Rebekah has found a new role model. Our cousin Kailyn has come for a visit and the kids are in heaven. Rebekah does everything Kailyn does. She follows Kailyn around the house, wants her hair

This week was the last week of school for Dustin. Now we have him home all summer to finish those pesky bathroom, storm window, and insulation projects he's been meaning to tackle since last fall. Yea for Honey-Do lists! We celebrated his last Friday with our traditional honoring of National Donuts Day. In observance of this important holiday we ate donuts and drink chocolate milk before dinner. I'm thinking this will be one of the kids' favorite traditions. :) We enjoyed Memorial Day at home with a few friends on Monday. We all went to the neighborhood pool in the morning to play and relax. Then we came home for a yummy lunch. Finally, we took some cookies over to our neighbor Mr. Keickie ; he is a retired veteran. It was a very nice day. The rest of the week has been spent in general wacky behavior. Here are just a few pictures of the silly things the kids are thinking up. This is probably my favorite. Rebekah didn't think her fairy dress and sparkly w