I haven't stopped blogging

I have just been overwhelmed with work and blogging is at the bottom of the list of things to do. I have lots to tell just haven't found time to post. But I see the light at the end of the tunnel and hoping that by the end of the week I will be back to some normalcy at work. Even photos haven't been taken recently. I have two decent ones from our last trip to the beach 2 weeks ago. We took Holden to the aquarium, he was not as excited about the fish as we would have expected. He did a lot of quiet observing.Holden wanted to slide down the giant fish's mouth

This is what happens on the weekends

Here is what we did all weekend, a bushel of tomatoes and 3 lbs of hot peppers...

This many tomatoes makes10 pints of crushed tomatoes, taking all day on Saturday to can, or

6 half-pint jars of tomato sauce, taking all of Sunday morning to can. Thinking that I might not do tomato sauce again next year. The yield doesn't seem worth it. What do you think?

3 lbs of pickled banana peppers and jalapenos

While I canned veggies all weekend, this is what Dad and Holden did:
Holden pulled his chair into the living room this morning to watch Sunday morning cartoons with Dad

Holden watching music videos with Dad on the computer.

Seems like the had the easier weekend :)

It was a Matter of Time

For about a month now we have known that Holden has figured out how to take his diaper off when he is down for a nap. Well, daycare has know this too. The caveat is that he only does it if he doesn't have pants on over the diaper. Daycare put him down today without his shorts and only a diaper. The story we were told was he got his shorts wet when they were playing outside, so they took them off to dry. Well, they had a very stinky surprise a bit later, when Holden decided he didn't want to wear his poopy diaper anymore. After laughing when Jeremy told me the story, I decided 1. Glad it was them and not us 2. I guess I'll send a few extra pairs of shorts to daycare tomorrow.

Great Smoky Mountains-Crocker Reunion

Photo montage of the family reunion in the Smoky Mountains.Cabin we all stayed in. Slept 54. Great accomodations but for some reason the management company thought 2 regular sized trash bins were big enough for 40 peoples trash over 3 days.

4 generations of Crockers (and the significant others)

Holden and Great Grandma resting at the bottom of the lookout tower. 1/2 mile hike but at a 30 degree angle all the way up.

Making sure we remembered that we made it to the top of the hill

Bush's Baked Bean factory, we stumbled upon the place on our way to Pigeon Forge, TN. In true family vacation style, we stopped, went to the gift shop and got our photo taken.

10 Days of Real Food Challenge

Read a great article in the Charlotte Observer this week that had me think about regrouping on our Real Food healthy lifestyle. We have kind of fell of the wagon a bit so I have decided that taking the 10 day Real Food Challenge will be enough to kick start us back on to the right track. 10 Days isn't that long but might be enough to kick my Diet Coke habit that reformed. To give us a little while to get my pantry back up to speed from being away on vacation, I started our pledge on August 8th. This gives me 2 weekends to get to the farmers market and Earth Fare to stock back up on items. I'll let you know how it goes, I think the hardest is going to be eating out.

Here are the Rules from the Challenge:

What you CAN eat:

1. Whole foods that are more a product of nature than a product of industry
2. Lots of fruits and vegetables
3. Dairy products like milk, unsweetened yogurt, eggs and cheese
4. 100% whole-wheat and whole-grains
   
5. Seafood
   
6. Snacks like dried fruit, seeds, nuts and popcorn
7. All natural sweeteners including honey, 100% maple syrup, and fruit juice concentrates are acceptable in moderation

What you CANNOT eat:

1. No refined grains such as white flour or white rice (items containing wheat must say WHOLE wheat…not just “wheat”)
2. No refined sweeteners such as sugar, any form of corn syrup, cane juice, or the artificial stuff like Splenda
3. Nothing out of a box, can, bag, bottle or package that has more than 5 ingredients listed on the label
4. No deep fried foods
5. No “fast foods”
6. Only locally raised meats such as pork, beef, and chicken
7. Beverages will be limited to water, milk, all natural juices, naturally sweetened coffee & tea, and, to help the adults keep their sanity, wine and beer!

Pre-Vacation

Its been a while since I've updated everyone, because we have been having so much fun that I haven't taken a minute to write up a post. My sister came to visit a week before vacation to be my nanny for a week while daycare was closed. It was awesome, let me tell you. She and Holden had a great time and I came home to a clean dishwasher and vacuumed floors. Did I mention it was awesome. I also got to spend some much needed quality time with my baby sister, who is almost a college graduate.We had a great time, made a pilgrimage to the local Ikea and got Holden a new table and rug to play on. We got him some crayons and paper and let him have a great time. Only took about 2 hours for crayon to get all over the table and chairs, supposedly its washable.Holden has become the little imitator lately always wanting to help unless its putting toys away. He likes to sweep, mop, throw things in the trash. I might need to remind him of this time when he's 16.
We made some cookies the day before heading to Tennessee for a big family reunion, Holden was having a blast helping.He has picked up a few more signs "more" and "bath" and his favorite words seem to be "mama" and "no". Cute but gets old fast when he wanders all around the house wining "mama".

I've been remiss

I've really slacked on the blog lately, it has been crazy busy at work lately. And just my luck during the 2 hottest weeks of the year I have had to work outside in the stifling heat. As a result, my diet and exercise have been derailed and the energy has been sucked out of me. But the good news is we go on a family vacation in 7 days. We are headed to the Smoky Mountains for a big family reunion, we are very excited. So, to catch you up until we get back from the reunion, here are some photos of Holden's shenanigans.

Holden found my Ipod shuffle and Dad showed him how to use it. I'm not sure Dad's rule of no cell phone until High School is going to fly.
4th of July
Time for a haircut I think. Holden has a snuggle now, Mr. Elephant.
Lots and lots of sand at Myrtle Beach