My Little brother came home from his mission to Mexico City last night!! We are all excited to have him home! I’ll have some pictures up soon. He is an amazing guy, and just by being around him I can see how much he has grown and I can tell he was a great missionary.

One more thing I thought I would share…something to go down in the books. The cook books. I am always trying to find new recipes, and the other day I went out with Preston behind our condos and picked a bunch of blackberries. They are no Oregon blackberries, but they’ll do. There were not enough of them to make it worth getting out everything for jam, so I found a crisp recipe. It was really good!! I am the biggest fan of the crumbly goodness on top…and this recipe had PLENTY. So I thought I’d share.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 1/2 cups fresh berries
• 4 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, gently toss together blackberries and white sugar; set aside.
3. In a separate large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press half of mixture in the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan. Cover with berries. Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture over the berries.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until fruit is bubbly and topping is golden brown.

ENJOY!

The other night we were saying our family prayer. Shaun was saying it and usually Preston will chime in with the last word of every sentence, like he is saying the prayer. Well this time in the middle of the prayer Preston said all on his own, “And bishop” meaning for us to bless the bishop. We were so proud. Then he went on to name, “and nana, and jami, jami J house, gamma………and Mater, Lightning, Thomas (the train…) Percy…” and went on to name many of his other “friends.” We were dying. It was so cute. I love this talking thing…he really says some of the funniest things already.

We had a young women activity where we dressed up like princesses so my hair was all curled. When I got home Preston touched my hair and said, “Mommy scary. Mommy hair scary.” I can’t wait to hear all the funny things this kid has to say!

I don’t know where my time goes, but somehow it’s gone. I am finally getting around to posting some pictures from our past few weeks. SOOOOOO…here it goes! The 4th was fun! We went to my uncles where Preston had fun covered in floaties (because of his paranoid mother)kicking around the pool. Then that night we went to Tim and Jami’s where Preston held his first sparkler and watched fireworks. He was scared stiff from the fireworks but hasn’t stopped talking about them since…he talks about them like he loved them.

And now on to Oregon. One of my absolute favorite parts was these:

The flower baskets were HUGE and they hung from every light post. I saw the man that drives around in the back of a truck with a long hose and goes around to water these suckers every night…I was pretty excited because I had been wondering who got that job…I am inspired to get my own hanging flower basket now. Though, as you may have seen in earlier posts, I do have a rad “Topsy Turvy”…As Seen on TV…that my tomato and jalapeno are growing in…

And now here are some photos of a few other things we did…mostly race stuff, and hanging out with awesome people! Preston was so much nicer to the other kids this trip…if any of you remember the last post about Oregon…he was somewhat of a nightmare. Now beware…picture overload.

(P.S. I decided to put my captions at the top of my pictures now…then you can read about it before you look…I guess it doesn’t matter…just thought I’d let you know…)

Preston and his best friend Will :)

More Best Friends…Meri and Jenelle…oh they are the cutest girls.

Preston loving Dave at the park.

Us at the race start.

And down in Eugene at the finish line, waiting for teams to come in.

Eating some awesome pizza in downtown Portland…and when I see the bumper stickers that say “Keep Portland Weird” I totally know why now.

Us at the Rose Gardens. Huge and BEAUTIFUL!!

And here is the clan…Those three guys have been best friends for years and they (plus a few more) put on this race together. It was a huge success and we are excited to see how next year turns out!

We are currently up here in Portland…a serious dreamland in the summer. WOW. Shaun and some of his best friends had been working hard to get ready for their first long distance relay that they put on last Friday and Saturday. The “Prelay” in memory of the great runner Steve Prefontaine. There were nine teams this first year, but that was great so the guys could figure out all the logistics and get great feedback. I think they did an AWESOME job! The runners started in Portland on Friday and ended in Eugene on Saturday. Everyone survived. Great news. A team from a popular Oregon Running blog ran it and gave it a great review! Click Here to read it.

There are zillions of pictures to be shown…but you’ll just have to wait until I can get home to my computer! This race will be a definite success in years to come! If anyone wants to be on my team next year, let’s do it…I really want to run it…Here is their website if you haven’t already checked them out: www.epicrelays.com.

Not only has Preston become sassy in his language…but apparently in his taste too :)