Jason and Mara's 2011 Scrapbook

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Here is the book that we made for Jason and Mara this past Christmas

Marty and Cindy's 2010 Scrapbook

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This is the book that Adam and I made for Marty and Cindy's family last year. We just finished making one for Jason and Mara. I'll try to remember to post it after the new year....after they have received it. =)

This is how the Hughes Family does spices

Earlier this year our family got a HUGE order of spices....for free. WOOT! I won't go into the details as to how we got these for free ( 'Cuz I don't want to get anyone into any trouble) but needless to say, it was a HUGE value! Everything was delivered to our house and I split everything up amongst the families according to what spices people wanted and the size of their family. A lot of sneezing was involved and our dustbuster still reeks of cumin but...that's ok. =)

The big brown box is full of cumin, BTW. Heh heh.
Adam is allergic to sesame. These are his containers of death.

Turning 38

OK...so this should have been posted on my birthday, July 11th but....well....it wasn't. =)
Above are my fun Sci-Fi gifts that I received. Woot! I love me some Sci-Fi! The Tardis Cookie Jar is from my brother. When the lid is opened, or the light on top is pressed, it makes the whirring Tardis noise. NICE!
The Babylon 5 DVDs are from Adam. Like the geek that I am, it was the only thing that I could think of that I wanted at the time.
It was nice having the family out here for my birthday...even though I am getting old. BOO

Me with Adrienne, my sister-in-law, and my mom.
Me with Adam, the cake I couldn't eat and a non-frosted vegan cupcake that I made so that I could eat something. =)

Hwang Family 2011 Photos

This summer we FINALLY took pictures with our entire family (last time Brian was missing). Once again we had Jared and Joanna take our pictures AND......once again...they are beautiful! You can see more of their work on their website. If you live near me and need any family portraits, wedding photos, etc., give them a call!

These pictures were taken at the Wilderness Trail off of Fall Creek Road. You have to hike a little ways but the view is gorgeous out there. There are several trails including one that is made up of a gazillion steps that lead down to the lake. One day Adam and I plan to go down that trail a little after it rains; apparently there is a natural waterfall....but only when there is runoff. Hmmm, maybe we can go this winter after the snow starts to melt. Hmmmm.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from that day. Enjoy!

Watermelon Harvest of 2011

Our watermelon harvest wasn't quite as impressive this year when compared to past years. We were hoping to have our usual 30-40 pound melons but.....it didn't happen. I believe it was due to the insanely hot weather that we had this summer. The vines just kept withering and the fruit just didn't grow as large. On average these melons weighed between 15-20 pounds. =(
Unfortunately, they weren't as sweet either. Normally, about 1 week before we harvest, we stop watering so that the sugars can store up, thus making the melon sweeter. I tried doing that for 1 day but the vines started dying from the heat. Some of them could have used a few more days on the vine but we wanted to pick all of them because some of them had literally split open from the heat. Ah well.....hopefully next year will be better.
Check out our huge hostas in the background.
Sad little watermelons
Prepping the fruit to pass out to the family
Jason and Mara's family
Ryan and Carina's kids
Andy and Becky's kids
Dad
Marty with the kids (Cindy took the pic)

DIY Tomato cages

This year we decided to not tie up our tomato plants like we have for the past 8 years....we're doing tomato cages. Eek! I' m hoping that things will work out because we put a tad bit of effort into making them. Adam had to remove the wood slats that he had attached to the top of our tomato garden before we could do anything else. We are seriously hoping we made the right decision.

Now....if we were going to try cages were going to do it properly. None of that flimsy tomato cage stuff for us. I wanted nice sturdy cages that would hold the 8 foot plants that we normally grow. I'm thinking they won't be reaching those heights since the cages are only 5 feet. *sigh*

We started off with the concrete reinforcement wire that you see above. They are nice and rusty when you buy them so be prepared. We also purchased some snippers to cut through the stuff.

Yes, I realize that I forgot to take the tag off of the clippers before we took this picture. (I finally cut the thing off after cutting the wire for 5 cages.) I'm not the strongest person in the world so cutting the cages took a bit of effort on my part. I believe the wire is 5 feet high and I cut enough for 13 cages.
For the tomato cages in the garden I counted 12 squares and then cut in the middle of the 13th square. For the cages that are in the whisky barrels, I counted 10 squares and then cut the 11th.
Oh, I also cut the top edge off so that the wire is exposed on one end. That is the part that you shove into the ground.

Adam had the fun job of bending the wire of the cut edges over each other. This creates the circle and hold the cage together. Lots of fun on the hands. =)

This is what they look like when they are done. We should be able to use these for several years. The only bad thing is the fact that they don't stack like the store bought cages. I think we will need to just leave them in the beds each year. The cages are perfect to hold the groundcloth in place. We also cut the leftover edge pieces into little sections so that Adam could bend them in half. We used those as "staples" to hold down other areas of the groundcloth. Much cheaper than buying the ones from the store. He also arched a few so that they would fit over our soaker hoses. I'm hoping that we can install a drip line next year. =)

This is the finished product. We have 8 plants in the garden. I'll try to post pics of the 5 plants on our deck soon.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's to all the women out there! I hope everyone had a wonderful day today!
I got this nifty little gadget for Mother's Day. I was eyeing it in the Brookstone Catalog and saw it in pink on Amazon so...seeing as it was in pink....it HAD to be added to my wishlist. =)
The Boogie Board is basically a glorified White Board....ummmm, except that it's black. I love it! I wish you could save files and erase specific things as opposed to the entire page , however, I knew it's capabilities ahead of time so I'm happy. I mean c'mon! It's a gadget and it's pink, what's not to love?
This is the case. Works great so far.
For Mother's Day our family went to Mom and Dad Hughes' house for dessert. I decided to make vegan cupcakes. UNHEALTHY yummy vegan cupcakes. It took me twice as long because I accidentally forgot the sugar in the first batch. DOH! I seem to have a problem with leaving out ingredients lately, salt in bread and sugar in cupcakes. They actually didn't taste too bad...basically fluffy biscuits. Because the frosting was made with powdered sugar and orange juice, it was sweet enough to put on the "biscuits". I packed 20 normal cupcakes and 4 frosted fluffy biscuits.

Isn't my carrier cool? We bought it a few years back in a breast cancer awareness display.
NOM!