Gabby! Gabby! How Does our Garden Grow?

Here is a picture of our garden taken a little over a month ago:

I was so pleased with how everything was growing. You can just feel things alive and growing.

Here is it now!

The corn has really taken off. I can’t wait to get some ears from it!

The girls are showing how high it’s gotten:

Here are some other fun pictures from the garden:

I was pleased with this first little marigold last month:

Now they all look like this: lush, bushy and so pretty!

Our cucumbers a month ago:

and now:

The right side of the garden where the potatoes, melons and zucchini are growing:

Lots of straw:

 

Now, lots of green:

We have tomatoes:

Young watermelon:

And little pumpkins:

And lots of zucchini and cucumbers:

I think I need to find a pickle recipe and learn to make pickles. I want to make crunchy ones. Possible? The huge zucchinis are for yummy zucchini bread. I can make a LOT with these. Better make room in the freezer. The little ones are for eating right away. Sautee with some butter and melt some cheese over top. Yum!

One last fun picture, Katherine standing between the corn and tomatoes:

I better get my tomato canning recipes together too. They’ll be ripening in no time!

So happy this garden is going well. I hope nothing bad happens to it. I am looking forward to lots of tomatoes, beans, corn, potatoes and watermelon. Alan’s hoping for the peppers. I haven’t seen a honey dew yet but I am hopeful for them too. The plant is thriving.

So much more success this year than any other year! So exciting!

I need a pair of overalls. Feeling a little like farmer Jane.

Being Silly

Here’s a picture of Katherine being silly in the little crawl through toy they like to play with (I forget what it’s called). I couldn’t resist grabbing the camera. :)

Big Beautiful Bird

Look what was having it’s breakfast this morning on top of our play set in the back yard.

Sorry the pictures aren’t great. I was taking them from the kitchen window on a high zoom. It is a pretty bird though. I love that we have hawks and owls around here. I can hear the owls at night while I sit in my dining room. It’s so cool.

Anyway, this hawk is a big one. We once had one half its size, at most, chase a bird into our big back window. I heard the thunk and looked out to see the poor stunned bird stumble around while the hawk watched from a branch of our Japanese maple. I think he was too leary of getting that close to the house. The bird came to and got away.

Snaggle-tooth

I have been thinking about my blog lately and wondering if I’ll ever get back to posting to it regularly again. I really want to. But I’m so busy. I have a lot of pictures and stories so I will try when I can.

In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a snaggle-toothed Samantha. I just loved how when she grinned that tooth looked like it had taken center stage in her mouth. It was just so funny! This was a few weeks ago and it’s long gone. In fact she lost it that very day. But it’s fun to look back and remember it.

With the tooth gone, she can now do a good vampire impression. Hiss and all. haha! Of course, she’s too cute to really pull off the whole vampire look. :)

3-Day Walk Updates

Watch my facebook status over the next 3 days for updates on how I’m doing on the 3-Day walk. I’ll update as often as I can and remember to, as long as my phone is working too.

Looking forward to this weekend! Wish me luck! And NO blisters!

Funny-face Joseph!

Katherine really likes to carry the camera around and take pictures. I am constantly deleting random pictures that she took but occasionally there is a little gem. I just love this one of Joseph! It’s so funny!

He’s trying to see what Katherine is doing with the camera.

Family Trip to Temple

Recently we had opportunity to take the kids to the temple and walk around on the grounds. It was a follow-up to a Family Home Evening we had on keeping our home like a temple. It occurred to us that maybe the kids didn’t understand that we wanted our home to feel like the temple – full of the Spirit – because they didn’t know really how it felt at the temple. We took them to give them a little taste of that. Of course there is more peace to be felt when you go inside and do the work there but I think the kids felt the spirit outside too.

Here’s some pictures:

Picnic at the visitor’s center. Gabby grabbed the camera and took this one. I didn’t even know she had until I saw the picture later.

A picture of each of the kids in front of the temple.

Joe-boy was not having it!

He just needed his daddy.

And mom and dad.

Here the girls are coming down from looking at the big doors. I like this picture.