Garden's A Plenty

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

the song of the birds for mirth,

one is closer to God's heart in a garden

than anywhere else on earth.

Oh the joys of gardening! I love love love to garden! Usually! This year was a little harder to enjoy, because I was determined to make it a learning experience for my kids. Let's just say it is much more fun to weed in the solitude of the morning, where you can ponder and think on all that you hope to become, and all that you wish to accomplish. When you add six kids into the solitude of the morning, it no longer is solitude--funny how that is! The kids were great to help plant, and the first time weeding was okay, but when they realized that weeding had to be done again and again, they soon lost their interest for it. I spent more time hollering at them to come back and help than they did actually weeding. But harvest is here! It is now time to reap what we have sown. They are really excited about it now, eating corn on the cob fresh out of the garden, and snapping green beans are more fun to do than weeding. Last night for family home evening, we went to dig potatoes. It was almost like christmas. Max and Mara thought it was so fun to see how many potatoes would come off of one plant, and they got so excited when they would see one that Ryan had unearthed. I was totally caught up in their excitment, and quite enjoyed myself. The older boys were given the job of picking all the peppers. They thought that was fun, because we have been watching them get bigger and bigger, and they are easy to see, and easy to pick. It was a successful night, and all those stressful days, of wondering why I had planted such a big garden are behind me, and the fruit is good! I spent this morning cutting up green peppers to freeze, and we will be digging potatoes for a many more nights to come. It's about time to freeze the corn, and if we get lucky, the tomatoes will rippen before it freezes. Oh the simple pleasures of life!

a VeRy HaPpy BIrThdAy foR mE!

What a great day! I was totally reminded that happiness is a state of mind today. I have been disappointed about my birthday's in the past, thinking that the excitement of them had worn out as I had gotten older, but this year I was determined to make it a great day, and I did. I went to school lunch with Noah for his birthday, and did a little shopping with a friend, and then came home and had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner! ( my favorite, and Ryan's least favorite..but it was my birthday!) Joy and Brittany sent me a party in a box, and we wore hats for dinner, and ate on paper plates, and played with balloons. It was great. Emma did not enjoy the hat, in fact she hated it. you can tell by the bawling picture. This may be the only time we catch her bawling in a picture.
Ryan was so nice to come home early, and It was great to spend more time with him. After dinner we went to the garden, and picked lots of corn. I then was treated like a queen. I loved every minute of my birthday. Like I said, instead of dreading it, I just accepted the fact that I am another year older, and in spite of it all, It was a great year.

Sam of course had to clown around. I quite like the look. He is getting to look so much older. Like a grown boy instead of a baby. Where does the time go? Thanks to all for making my day a great one! I am truly blessed to have such great friends and wonderful family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE!!!

Happy 31st birthday Melanie! We love you and think you are the greatest.

And for all the friends and family who know Melanie, know how wonderful she is. Call or send her an email today and wish her a Happy Birthday. She would love to hear from all of you.

Happy Birthday Noah!

It is so hard to believe that nOaH is already nine! I swear it was just yesterday that he was baptized. I am so glad to have him in our family! He is so quick witted, and even though in public he appears shy, and reserved, he is anything but that at home. He is the jokester, and the instigator. He is usually the one to get everyone started in playing a game, and his memory is incredible. I cannot believe all the funny little, insignifigant things that he remembers. He makes me smile, and his laugh is so contagious! I love love love to hear him laugh.

Noah was lucky enough to have is birthday on Labor Day, so we got to have a great breakfast all together, and open his presents. Ryan's parents spent the weekend with us, and he opened his presents from them on sunday. He got a huge lego set that he spent all sunday and Monday putting together...Thanks to Sam for helping him, so that Ryan and I didn't have to.
He wanted a Death Star cake, someone with more creative juices than me probably could have figured out a better way to create that, but I did the best I could. It does have the hole out of the middle of it, but I couldn't figure out gray frosting, so chocolate is what he got. I did think that my ty-fighter was exceptionally cute though.

We had a great time opening up presents, and the kids all thought it was funny that I tried to trick Noah into thinking that he got another lego set, by wrapping up a box of Lucky Charms. Since I never buy lucky charms, he was pretty thrilled with them. He was so stingy with them though, he won't let anyone have even one. That kid truly love things that are just his.

We went to the bounce house to celebrate. Really we went because our plans to go to showdown and hike and ride on the ski lifts flew out the window with the freezing cold rain that pelted us.

Caleb is in this phase where he thinks that he is a cheetah, and everytime I tried to take his picture he would growl and claw at me. What a nut.!

We had a great time, and I am so glad that Ryan's parents were here to celebrate with us. Even though I didn't get any pictures of them, It was great to have them here. WE Love Family!

So let it begin!

School has begun. Today!

It is a bitter-sweet. More bitter for me. I truly miss them when they go to school.

They were excited to go, and they all have really nice teachers.

I am worried a little that Caleb will revert back to how he was at the

beginning of last year, and not wanting to go to school, but I am hopeful that we are over

his anxiety.

We had such a great summer, and it is time for them to begin again. Ryan gave them all their back to school blessings last night, and I was totally amazed at how much each one of them have grown up this summer. They are all such great boys, and I am so lucky to be their mom!

Mara, is of course obsessed with backpacks, and when the boys were getting ready for school, she had to have a backpack, so she found an old lunch box, and carried that around all morning long. She calls the boys "My Boys" and has already asked be about five times today..."My boys at school..." I am not sure if it is a statement or a question. I think she and I will miss them terribly.

HOw SwEeT is ThAt?

Hello everyone!

Loggin Creek

We were so excited to go camping this weekend. We all needed to get away, and we had heard about a place called Loggin Creek. We were going to go by ourselves, but at the last minute our friends the Birklands decided to go with us. We were loaded to the hilt. There was stuff everywhere. under everyone's feet, and jammed in every nook and crevas, and then we put in the dog.

We had the best time. I was shocked that we got there Friday afternoon, and the campground was mostly empty. We made no reservations, and we weren't rushed out the day we were leaving. That never would happen in the Uintahs were we used to go camping. The kids had a great time playing in the fire, and roasting everything that they could find on sticks...including, but not limited too, grapes, bugs, marshmellows, air heads, apples, and plastic forks.

Mara had a blast playing with Avra and Eden. They got out barbies, and played with the dogs, and had a grand old time.
All of the kids got along so great, they were always making each other laugh, and entertaining each other. It was great. Channing loved to hold Emma, and Emma loved to be held. I don't think she got put down the entire time we were there.

There was a creek that ran through the camp, and even though it was freezing cold, the kids all played in it. The first night was pretty cold, but Saturday it warmed up and was perfect weather. Each night Max had a toothache. He has a cavity that needs to be taken care of, but we just discovered it on Friday night when he woke up screaming in the middle of the night. That's always fun for all the people trying to sleep. I ended up taking him out by the fire and calming him down enough that he could fall asleep again.

We feed Emma an avocado, she loved it, and just kept reaching for more. Needless to say she was a mess.

As we were getting ready to leave on Sunday, the kids decided it would be fun to have a mud fight down at the creek. They were covered from head to toe, and even though it was a hot day, the water was still freezing.

They were not happy when they had to wash off, and they got brain freeze because the water was so cold.

Sam went fly fishing for the first time, and really liked it. Ryan, Scott, Makai and Sam fished a lot on Saturday, and caught a few little fish that they let go. It was really fun for Ryan to be able to get in some fishing....finally... We have lived here over a year, and that was his first time fishing here. Sad.

Sam was passing off some requirements for scouts, and he and Noah and Makai started a fire with flint and steel. That is hard to do, but they stuck with it and got quite a good fire going. They then made skittle water. What is that you might ask? Good question! You'll have to ask them.

Thanks Birklands for the time of our lives. It was so much fun!

yOga

Ryan has been on a "get in shape" kick lately, and has been doing yoga at night.

(I hope he doesn't kill me for revealing his manly secret)

We were just starting one night after the kids were in bed, when Caleb and Max came down. They informed us that they didn't want to go to bed, they wanted to do yoga.

They then preceded to undress down to their underwear. Apparently to do yoga you have to dress like the guy on the T.V. (Rodney Yee) He only wears biker shorts. They were cracking me up. I had to stop to go get the camera! Caleb thinks that he is quite the expert on yoga, and boasts openly that he can make it to half moon pose (which actually is pretty good, it's about 25 minutes into the tape) He really has been into martial arts lately, and insists that he must take Karate lessons.

What nut cases!

Happy Birthday Max!

MAX IS FIVE!

a whole hand.

We has a great breakfast...Ryan came home from work to eat with us.

We had biscuts and eggs and bacon. Then Max got to open up his presents.
He wanted a horsy cake. So, being how I am a lousy cake decorator, we put his horse and cowboy on the cake...it's really little up in the left corner. He wanted his horse to be drinking from a river, so the blue...yeah, that's supposed to be a pond and a stream. Like I said, I need help in the cake decorating business. It's what he wanted and he is thrilled with it, so I guess that's all that matters

He successfully blew out the candles, and kept his wish a secret, so maybe it will come true.

Everyone was so nice to send him birthday presents in the mail. Getting packages addressed to him was almost as fun as opening them. Max loves the knights and horses Grandma and Grandpa Maughan! Thanks !

The Horse blanket was a huge hit...do you see that smile? Thank you YiaYia and Papou! for the blanket and clothes and everything else! Also thank Grandma and Grandpa Passey for the transformer and the shirt!

First Bites

Emma is now six months old! Oh how time flies! Today we decided to feed the baby. I have told the kids since she was born that she couldn't eat until she was six months old...I didn't want them to try stuffing things in her mouth. So , on August 12 when she was exactly six months old Max said..."can I give Emma a little piece of cheese?" Obviously we need to work on explaining just a little better what babies can eat. Here she is still unsuspecting.... The first bite didn't go over so well, she gagged and spit it out, but we kept trying.

She never really did like it, but we tried. We will have to keep at it for a while. I have given her fruit to chew on in her little mesh thing, so I may have ruined her. She may never like this cereal stuff now that she has tasted peaches and blueberries.