Baptism

Our nephews Ryan, Randy, and Ricky were baptized on Wednesday. 

It was awesome!

A Movie Night, A Wedding, A Garden

It has been a fast, fun, and furious month to say the least!

The Movie Night:

When we last blogged we were preparing for our first "outdoor movie night" with the Junction boys.  It was a huge success.  They had a great time as did we. The boys arrived at 4:00pm and left after 10:00pm.  We played darts, washers, and ate until movie time.  Each boy was given 30 tickets to use as money for purchasing concession food and snacks.  They loved the "money" and asked if they could do that again for the next party.  Brenda was so busy running around that she forgot to take pictures until we settled down for the movie towards the end of the evening.

Here are a few photos from the night  (click on photo to get the slide show).  Pictures are bad, since they were taken at the end of the night there was a full trash can and ripped red and white plastic (from everyone leaning against the railing) but you get the idea.

The back porch worked out great as the
concession booth as it was right off the pantry

Brenda's sister JoAnne and helper getting candy and popcorn ready 

The movie

Our menu sign 

The Wedding:

Our niece Cassondra got married June 23rd in Albuquerque.  Brenda and her sister got there a week ahead to help prepare.  It was a very busy week getting over 25 centerpieces and everything else ready for the reception.  The wedding was beautiful and the reception was FUN, FUN, FUN! The attendees danced the night away, over 5 hours of non-stop dancing, no exageration!  The DJ was awesome and kept the party going.  Of course Pete and Cassondra are so much fun and positive to be around that the reception was a reflection of their personalities! 

Hanging out in the backyard
watching Auntie Joie and Auntie Brenda work on centerpieces

Testing out the centerpieces

Visiting before Rehearsal Dinner

 Practicing for the cutting of the cake?

Handing out gifts to the wedding party

Beautiful bride on her way to the church

Here is a slideshow of the reception: 

The Garden:

First Batch of Potatoes

20 LBS!

Chinese Red Noodle Beans

Jalapeños and Cow Peas aka "Blacked Eyed Peas"

Peas after removing from pods

Here's a sampling of the canning we have done to date:

Grandma Ahner's Green Tomato Relish, Jalapeño Jelly, Jalapeño-Onion-Raspberry Chutney, Chipolte Sauce, Ketchup, Pickled Jalapeños, Salsa, Peach Jam (our neighbor brought us some from the Fredericksburg area) and we put up tomatoes and peaches in the freezer.

We also bought a dehydrator and tried drying tomatoes, peaches and some bananas.  They turned out really well.  Next we will try drying some basil from the garden.

What? Two Posts in One Day?

Yep,  too many photos to put all in one post.  You know how I like to tell our stories with lots of photos!

So, remember we told you about these great guard dogs for keeping away deer, rabbits, armadillos, raccoons, etc. from our garden?
Hmmm, not so great after all...

...we had put up our first batch of refrigerator pickles...

 ...when we noticed about a week later we weren't producing anymore cucumbers...so we thought...it turns out our guard dogs a.k.a. "Scruffy and Buddy" were helping themselves to the cucumbers.  

I caught them red handed the other day,
this is how the conversation went:

Me: "Hey guys, what are you doing?  Is that a cucumber you have there!!!?"

Guard Dogs: "Cucumber? What cucumber?"  

Me: "THIS cucumber, with the bite marks in it!"

Scruffy (turns to Buddy): "Hey Buddy, do you know
anything about a cucumber?"

Buddy: "Hmm, umm, well, (clears throat) I dooooon't know"

Me: "You better tell me the truth or else!"

Buddy: "Sorry mom, we won't do it again"

Scruffy: "Yea, sorry mom.  Buddy made me do it!"

Me: "Wait until your father gets home!"

AND THEN last night something broke into the yard and mowed down 

the first two rows of our potted tomato plants!  

Where were the guard dogs?  Sleeping on the job, thats where!

No more leaves

So now what do we do about the guard dogs eating all our cucumbers and sleeping on the job!? 

Who is going to guard them?

These guys?  

We think not, too lazy...

...these guys? 

Ahh yes, no one dare get by them!

Just joking Scruffy and Buddy, you can have the cucumbers.  

As the plants grow up the trellis you won't be able to reach them anyway!

Speaking of pickling, we also tried pickling radishes.  They were not bad.  

My flower garden continues to do well. 

 I really enjoy having fresh cut flowers!

And finally, we will be hosting an "Outdoor Movie Night" for the Junction boys on Friday. This will be their end of school year party.  I have wanted to do an outdoor movie night for several years now and we are finally going to it!  Yesterday we bought a nice projector and Gerald figured out the set up.  We hung Tevek paper we had left over to serve as a screen.  It worked out great!  The two of us sat out on the lawn last night and watched a movie.  It was awesome!  We are going to transform our backyard into a sort of drive-in movie atmosphere including a concession stand.  I can't wait!  We look forward to hosting outdoor movie nights through the summer and into the fall for our friends and family!  

Here is a sneak peak, I took these pictures this morning.  Since we brought in all the equipment last night I will have to post pictures of the full set up next week.

This is where we sat last night watching our movie

Thanks for Rockin with us!

Downed Tree Part Three and a Bride To Be

Two weekends ago while away in Albuquerque attending my niece Cassondra's bridal shower, Gerald was busy turning the downed tree trunk into benches.  He has one finished, two to go.

Speaking of Cassondra's bridal shower here is the beautiful bride to be with her future mother in-law Connie and her momma Jan (my little sis)

Connie, Cassondra, Jan

Here she is with her Auntie's

Auntie Joie, Cassondra, Auntie Brenda 

Cassondra with her Auntie Linda (her dad Ted's sister)

Connie and her daughter Rebecca (Cassondra's future sister in-law) did an awesome job with all the food!  Our Rebecca, (Cassondra's little sis) was co-hostess with Pete's (groom) sister Rebecca.  Did you get all that?  So, Rebecca and Rebecca were the co-hostesses of the bridal shower.  

They did an awesome job!

Rebecca, Cassondra, Rebecca

 

Here are a few more photos of the fun filled event!