The Jam Experience

I've been wanting to make strawberry jam for a couple of years now but I never was ambitious enough to try it. Partially because my Grandma Murdock makes AMAZING strawberry jam and I didn't think I'd be able to make it taste like she does...and I proved myself right! I followed the steps just right, measuring everything exactly, stirring it at all the right times and things were going well until it came time to stir in the sugar. I gradually stirred in the sugar into the fruit mixture just as the recipe stated. And I stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred.... something just wasn't right. I knew jam had quite a bit of sugar in it but this was ridiculous for the amount of fruit I was mixing with it.Well I continued to stir the stuff until my arm could no longer move and it wasn't making any difference. I had been reading and rereading the recipe over and over trying to figure out what went wrong and I had finally come to the conclusion that I just didn't have the "love" Grandma Murdock has to make the perfect strawberry jam:( Then I looked at the recipe one more time and suddenly realized I had been following the recipe for Strawberry-Rasberry jam instead of just Strawberry jam... and because of this I had only put in HALF the amount of strawberries that I needed to! So I quickly called my mom for advice hoping that not all was lost and we decided the only thing I could do was add the rest of the strawberries that needed to be in there. So after a frantic trip to Walmart for strawberries and more jars (since now I'd have way more jam than I was planning on!) I was able to finish the jam. No it doesn't look or taste like Grandma Murdock's and it didn't quite set up all the way but it's done and in the freezer and I'm chalking this one up as a learning experience! PS if anyone wants some runny jam please let me know... we have A LOT!! (it's really not that bad, especially if you don't have Grandma's jam to compare it to:) )



On another note: I discovered this nest in my hanging flower basket the other day and don't know what to do about it. I feel bad taking it out but it makes it rather difficult to water the flowers with it in there. (notice the water I poured in the nest before I realized it was there!) Anyways, would I be terribly cold hearted if I took out? Do you think the bird would be okay with me just watering around it? What should I do?!

And the Redneck award goes to...

JAKE!


Jake decided it would be fun to try out a new look...what do you think!?
Don't worry he shaved it off after I laughed hysterically and told him I wouldn't go out in public with him if he didn't! And the same day as the above picture I found him outside with the tiller rigged up to his four wheeler. You should have seen all the "double takes" people driving by were making. Our neighbor even came over and and told him that he wins the neighborhood redneck award!

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Our little Gracie turned 3 on Saturday. We had a lot of fun celebrating her big day. It's the first year she has really understood that it was her birthday and was telling everyone " It's my bertday!" We started the day by taking her out to breakfast at IHOP since she LOVES pancakes. When we are at home she'll eat 5 or 6 ...of course when we went to the restaurant she ate about 2 bites and spent the rest of the time trying to talk to all the people we were sitting next to! (we don't get out much!:) ) The best part was when they came out and sang Happy Birthday to her. We thought that she would love it but it kind of scared her to have all these strangers to come out of nowhere clapping and singing/yelling some strange chant/song! However, they gave her some ice cream and left and she kept talking about the people clapping at her for her "Bertday":) She thought it was pretty cool! After IHOP we went home to open presents . She got some great stuff (thanks everyone!) The only thing she had been asking for was a bike so she was pretty disappointed after opening all her presents and no bike, so when Jake brought it out you should have seen her face...it was priceless! Showing that she is now 3!

She was just so excited to see her brand new "Retro Red Radio Flyer Trike"! So was Brynlee!

Taking Brynlee for a spin! Gracie never gets very far on it because she stops every few feet to ring the bell...you'll always know when she's comin!

Isn't she cute!

Eating her ice cream at IHOP...yes it was like 10am!

The only other thing Gracie asked for besides a bike was a race car cake...she thought this "Bertday tate" was pretty neat:)

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

On a second note, Jake and I happen to share our anniversary with Gracie's birthday. Since we don't ever get to do much celebratin' I at least wanted to tell my wonderful husband Happy Anniversary... it's been the best 6 years ever:) I love you!

Announcment!

So some of you may have noticed the ? added to the list of family members in our "blog title". I was curious to see how long it would take before someone noticed and commented about it, well it didn't take long...way to go Cinders, very observant! Yes, we are expecting baby number 3! We are very excited and a little nervous at the thought of having 3 kids 3 and under! The baby is due the day before Thanksgiving...I'll be interested to see when the baby actually comes since Gracie came a week over her due date and Brynlee came 3 weeks early! And I suppose it's very possible I'll be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital!

A Trip Home to Montana!

My Brother Tanner, who goes to BYU, was going back home for a week in between ending and starting semesters and I thought that it was the perfect opportunity for me and the girls to go and see my mom and dad and two sisters up in MT. So we hopped in the car with Tanner and drove the 10 plus hours. The drive to and from Billings was painfully long and I'm certain Tanner will never agree to be in the same car with us ever again (thanks for being a good sport Tanner!) but it was worth it! We spent 7 days playing, shopping , eating, chatting and being taken care of and super spoiled by my wonderful mom! Jake even surprised me and flew up Thursday night and stayed until Sunday! It was such a great week and I'm so glad we went! The only bad part about it is that I'm more home sick than ever and Gracie and Brynlee are constantly asking to go see "Gama and Papa" and " Toey and Mill" (Chloe and Camille...my two sisters at home) Thanks for such a Wonderful week, we miss you guys!

I had some good intentions on taking lots of pictures while we were there...but of course I never thought to get the camera out! I did however snap a few when my mom took the girls to Build-A-Bear Workshop which was a lot of fun! (Sorry they are all out of order!)
Gracie "Bathing" her newly stuffed bear

Making a wish on the little heart they stick inside the bear

Brynlee putting some "makeup" on her bear

Stuffing the bear

Putting the heart in the bear

The finished product! Bella and Ellie Bear, poor Ellie has already lost a shoe! I think my mom and I had more fun picking out all the clothes and accessories...there was SO much to choose from!

Go Kansas!

Okay so I'm not one that follows college basketball, or any other sport for that matter, very regularly. However, when I learned that Jake chose Kansas to win in his bracket at work and more importantly that if he won he wanted to use the $200 plus to go toward a weekend getaway for just the two of us my interest was peeked! So for the first time in my life I've followed March Madness very closely and have actually surprised myself how exciting it has been. And last night was the most exciting of all when Kansas beat Memphis in an INTENSE final game to take the NCAA championship! GO KANSAS! Even though most people favored Memphis to win, Kansas proved to be the better team (thanks to Memphis' inability to shoot free throws... and Chalmers sweet 3 point shot with 2 seconds left which sent them into over time...way to stay focused under pressure!) So weekend getaway here we come!
This is how I felt too when they won...we haven't had a night without the kids EVER...it's time!

Happy Easter

We had a fun Easter weekend! Saturday we went to Jake's sister Jodi's house and had an Easter egg hunt and a yummy lunch with the Smith cousins. The girls Loved the egg hunt and got WAY too much candy! On Easter Sunday we enjoyed a quiet day dressing the girls in their Easter dresses...Thanks Grandma Smith (which we never got a good picture of!) going to church and having dinner with my brother Tanner and one of his friends.

Smith Cousins