Garden Firsts

Our garden is starting to wrap up its production for the season.  It  has given us some great things.  The usual- tomatoes, corn, beans (including purple beans), peas,  strawberries, watermelon, carrots, beets, etc.

It has also given us a few "firsts".  One of which was artichokes.  We got this huge plant- in this picture it is as tall as Kai- but now it is as tall as Kaleb.  Huge leaves.  And for a long time- no artichokes.  We had just decided it was going to be a BIG dud.  A few days later we noticed a little artichoke growing in the base of all that foliage.  One little artichoke.   Fortunately, all we needed was patience.  We have eaten about five and there are about a dozen still out there growing.  Yum!

It is a really pretty plant.  And the artichokes are so pretty with their purple leaves.

We also decided to grow a zucchini plant.  Yup....we had zucchini growing out our ears.

Zucchini is funny.  You ignore it for a few days and it explodes.  Who wants to deal with a vegetable this big.  It is just tooo much.  But it makes great muffins.

We also grew cucumbers for the first time.  For some reason Brigham and I both had memories of bitter cucumbers from our youth- so we never grew them.  Luckily- ours turned out so good.  Especially crisp and cold from the fridge.

We also made pickles for the first time.  We LOVE pickles!  Soooo good!

Cabbage. 

We also grew honeydew and cantaloupe.  Good stuff!

Thanks garden- you were soooo good to us!

Fan Club

A big thanks to the best Fan Club in the Nation.  Auntie J, GmaT and Grandpa drove 7 hours round trip just to come and watch Brig play in a soccer game.   Thank you soooo much!  You are all amazing and we felt sooooo LOVED!

Then just two weeks later- GmaT drove up to watch Seth and Katry play in their games. 

Thats true love!  We Love you BUNCHES!

Look Who's Crawling!

Isn't she dreamy!!!!!  She has propped herself up on all fours for several weeks now.  But has waited for her 7th-month-aversary to actually begin crawling.  No more low crawl, no more rolling from point A to point B.  She is so adorable- we can't get enough!

Oh.......and she LOVES to suck on her little piggies!

Labor Day Weekend

The stars aligned this weekend and we were so lucky to get a visit from Grammy and Grandad as well as Mormon and Alma.  We rented a boat on Saturday and Grammy decided to join the fun and play with Katry out on the tube.   What a sweet adventurous Grammy!

Grandad even braved the tube with Mormon!

These pics are out of order- but we set off a lot of bottle rockets and even a few big fireworks.

Brig was in a Ninja mood and treated us all to his costume!

Back on the lake.... Kaleb and Kai were excited to get out with Brig.

Beautiful Babes!

Don't worry- after our visitors left on Monday- we got in quite a bit of laboring.

My Momma said.....

there'd be days like this- there's be days like this my Momma said!

This darn shelf in my baking center has fallen down three times now!  Urg!  And always when I have been getting ready- read "hurrying" to have some company over.  Third time is the charm though cause I went out and bought some really big pegs so hopefully it will never happen again!

Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions.

Uncle Micah!

We were so lucky to have Uncle Micah come and live with us for a month this summer.   He is awesome! 

We loved having him play with us- football, soccer,  Settlers, Blokus!

He helped us weed the garden and build our fort!  He even made us his famous chocolate chip cookies.  Delish!

Kai and Micah have always had a special bond.   Kai just adores him.  Its so fun to watch them wrestling  and flipping around.  The only problem was that Micah was gone A LOT.  He worked crazy hours- but we are glad that he made lots of money.  We LOVE you Micah!  Come back soon!

Back to School

I can't believe it is really here- Back to school, back to schedules, back to routine, back to dinner before 8:30pm,  back to bed at an earlier hour, back to jackets, back to sneakers, back to early morning hours.

Farewell summer- you weren't here very long, but you were delightful!

We partied all week long in anticipation.  Movies, games, swimming, late nights- trying to get it out of our system as if that were possible. 

Sunday- we had a great FHE complete with Father's Back to School Blessings.  We had a campfire and sang songs and threw our fears in the fire.  We reminisced about our favorite summer happenings.  We had a back to school dinner with grilled steaks- Katry's choice.  It was a fun day and everyone went to sleep eager for Monday morning.

Brig is a Fearless Freshman and couldn't be more excited about all the possibilities before him.

Katry is a Super Sweet Seventh grader- and starting at the Middle School.  It was fun to go around her school with Brig, cause all the teachers know and love him- so Katry had an instant "in".

Seth is our Fantastic  Fifth grader.  He was the least excited about heading out.  He begs me to homeschool him- but he really needs the competition there.   He is an awesome student.  He also has the same teacher that Katry had- so great things are expected from him.  They have all had straight A's two years running.  No one wants to be the first to break the streak. 

Kaleb is our Fabulous First grader- at home with me.  I love having these two little munchkins to myself for a couple of hours every day.   This is Kai's tower- I think he wants to be an Engineer.

Little Laini Cakes provides the Sunshine!  She makes my heart smile!