Gardens, Clay, and Teeth

Our garden did so well this year! In the back of our RV pad, we separated a section for a garden area. Last year we just planted stuff in the dirt and hoped for the best but that didn't really work very well. This year, we got smart and Russell built four large raised garden boxes. In these boxes we added new good dirt and filled them with plants. The first box had carrots, zucchini, spaghetti squash, and a couple sunflowers for fun. The next box was filled with tomatoes. The next box had a watermelon plant and a couple cucumber plants. The last box was filled with potatoes and peas. We also still have our two little garden boxes in the backyard that had beans, onions, kale, lettuce, spinach, and an acorn squash. Unfortunately the small garden boxes did not grow very well this year and we didn't get anything from it except one lone acorn squash and some kale. But our big grow boxes were exploding with fruits and vegetables!!

Our garden boxes, just went crazy and it seriously looked like a jungle out there.  I would go out every morning and pick at least 10 tomatoes and a zucchini or two.  We also got a ton of potatoes too.  Everything else also grew really well.  We had a lot of fresh produce to eat during the summer.  we made so many zucchini recipes and spaghetti squash dishes. My favorite though was the watermelons that we got. They were so flavorful!  Everything was so good.

I also did a lot of canning this summer.  

I used 25 pounds of tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce, and 25 pounds of tomatoes to make salsa. After using this many tomatoes, I still had a lot left over.  So we took a large box down to St. George with us when we went down.  We also had a lot of tomato sandwiches which are our favorite.  Our friends also gave us a lot of apples off of their trees.  I used these to make applesauce.  I made 18 quarts of applesauce in different flavors like strawberry, raspberry, and triple berry.  They are so good!  I also made many, many loaves and muffins of  zucchini bread.  These I froze to eat later.  We love summer and we love our garden!

Also during the summer the kids participated in the Summer Passport activity through the Hyrum Museum.  This is were the kids had to do a bunch of different activities to pass off different requirements on their passport.  The kids were able to do pretty much all of the activities so we got to go to the end of summer party.  While at the party, they won prizes and Emily won some modeling clay.  We had a great time as a family playing with the clay and making fun creations.  Here is some pictures of our artwork:

They all turned out really cute and it was fun to play and create things.  We kept these creations on display on the piano for the rest of the summer.  The kids were so proud!

Another fun thing that has happened, and Logan was so excited about this, was that Logan lost his first tooth!

He had been wanting to lose a tooth ever since he started growing teeth in.  Okay maybe not that long but for quite a while.  He started wiggling this tooth probably a year ago and finally he was able to pull it out.  He even pulled it all by himself!  Logan thought this was the best thing ever and could not wait for the Tooth Fairy to come to him.

First Day of School 2018-19

School has started once again.  Where did the summer go?  The kids were really excited about school starting though and could not wait for the first day of school.  This year we have a 4th grader, 2nd grader, and a kindergartner!

Canyon Elementary here we come!  

The first day of school is always really exciting because it means new teachers, new friends, and of course new clothes!  

Colby and Emily started school a week before Logan so they got their pictures taken together first.  As you can see they love each other and were not at all crazy in their pictures...

They were all excited to start school. Even Charlotte had a big smile.

We always walk to school together on the first day so that's what we did.  When we got to school, all of the parents and kids were taking pictures so we joined in and took some too.

One dad was really funny as he was taking his son's picture.  He kept telling his son to smile and be happy because it was a great day.  The boy, probably a 5th or 6th grader, was not into the whole picture taking and just had a bored look on his face.  The dad was so happy and giddy though.  You could tell the dad was more happy for school to start again than his son.  I just had to laugh.  

Colby's teacher this year is Mrs. Nielsen.  She is a great teacher and Emily really liked her.  I am sure Colby will like her too.  

Emily's teacher is Mrs. Farnsworth!  Yes and her name is Tiffany Farnsworth too.  Yes people get us mixed up all the time.  Emily was excited to get her for a teacher and I think she will be a really great teacher this year as well.  It will be easy to remember her teacher's name at least!

When Colby and Emily got home from their first day, they said they had a good time.  They were glad to be home but they did like school that day.  I think it will be a good year.

Logan started Kindergarten a few days after the big kids.  He was kind of mad that he couldn't go when they did because he was so excited to start kindergarten.  He had been counting down the days until kindergarten ever since preschool graduation.  Finally it was here!

Logan has afternoon kindergarten so it is just these two at home in the mornings with me.  They are so good together and get along so well.  It is fun to hear them playing together.

Finally it was time to go to school for the first time.  We decided to walk up to the school for the first day and this time we walked with all of Logan's friends and their mom's.

Of course we had to get a picture of the gang in front of the school on their first day of kindergarten.  Logan, Jayden, and Eli are all in the same class while Eliza is in the other class.  

Logan's teacher is Mrs. Kendrick.  He already loves her.

Here he is on his first day of school.  At his desk, by his friends, and picking out his name.  Logan loves school!  When I asked him how school was when he got home, he said it was so fun.

I guess that just leaves me with this little girl:

Charlotte is the only one home now... *sniff sniff*  Where has the time gone?  It is good to just spend time with her alone though and she is pretty fun.  Usually though she is taking a nap so it is just me.  We did have a good time on this first day together though.  Reading stories, taking selfies, and rocking in the chair.  

Happy first day of school!

Summer Fun

     This summer has been really fun and busy for us.  It has also gone by way too fast!  This post is about some of the fun things we have done this summer.  

Summer would not be summer without friends.  These three were so cute together Kristen and I had to get some pictures of them.  

Our ward held a cupcake social at the park so we made these doggie cupcakes for the contest.

They turned out so cute!  We even won a prize in the contest.  We got the Most Original award.  There were so many good cupcakes it was hard to choose.  My favorite was the orange creamcicle flavored ones Ashley Randall made.  They were so delicious and they looked good too.  I told Ashley I needed the recipe.

Emily had another piano recital were she played a fun summer song, "Splish, Splash."

Then she really got into the musical rocking groove in this funny picture.  

The Hyrum Library puts on a fun summer reading program with a lot of good activities.  Here we are at the zoo activity.

The people at the Willow park zoo brought some cool animals for us to see and pet.  We were able to see an owl, tortoises, and snakes.  We got to pet the snake and the turtle.  The kids loved seeing the animals. 

Russell took the boys to scout camp with him so the girls and I had some fun together.

We had a picnic at the park and played and had a good time all day.  We even caught a butterfly!

These are just some funny pictures of Charlotte and Logan from my phone.

We were testing some new features on my phone and we had a good time.

One fun thing the kids did this summer was have a sleepover with the Checketts.

This was the first time they have had a sleepover with friends and they had a great time.  They wanted to sleep on the trampoline but they were too worried about the wind and mosquitoes.  Then they decided the tents would be better.  We pitched the tents and they camped out all night.  I don't know how much sleep they got because all I heard all night was giggling.  They woke up so early too because the wind started and it got cold.  They had such a good time though and had a couple more sleepovers over the rest of the summer.

Summer would not be complete without water fights.

Water fights were a constant around here all summer.  The kids love getting wet and having fun.  Russell is definitely the best dad and always willing to spray the kids with the hose.

Finally one big thing we did this summer was get a new camp trailer.  We were sad to say good bye to Terry but we do like our new trailer.

Here is our new toy hauler trailer.  We really like it and there is a lot more room.  Our old trailer, Terry, was a great trailer and served us well for 10 years!  Then this summer just before our Nauvoo trip, the fridge started going out.  It would not work at all on propane.  It was going to be a lot of work and money to fix.  A new fridge would cost more than the trailer was worth so we decided to just fix it so that it would work and then sell it.  We looked around for a while to find a new trailer and finally found this toy hauler in Pocatello.  We drove up there and looked at it and loved it.  So we sold our trailer and bought this one.  We are still trying to think of a name for this trailer but we really like it.  

We love summer!