Good-bye Garden. I'll miss you.

Blackberries before and after. (Thank you huge bumblebees!!)

So, one of my favorite parts of spring is getting my smallish garden ready to be planted. Then planting, and slowly-but-surely seeing all our little plants get bigger. And, of course, harvesting. (I'm not sure there is anything as tasty as corn picked from your own garden. Maybe blackberries picked from your garden.) What is my least favorite part? No, not pulling weeds. No, not dealing with various insects. My least favorite part is the first frost that comes and kills all my hard work. Last year I was picking tomatoes in November. This year I have not been so lucky. It snowed Sunday morning and we had hard frosts the last two nights. I have one tomato plant that is pretty sheltered and some of it survived, but everything else is dead. (At least we have grocery stores, right?) That's how it goes when you live somewhere with seasons. Anyway, that's enough lamenting for one post. Here are some pictures that I took this year of my garden. It's only October and I already miss summertime.

5 June, 2008

20 June, 2008

7 July, 2008

1 August, 2008

Tomorrow I will take a picture of my garden and post what it looks like now. (So sad looking.)

I know this is a boring post for most. But I really like gardening. I even enjoy mowing my lawn and making sure it's weed-free. So I totally understand if no one wants to comment. (And that is not a solicitation for comments!!)

Jake is 7!!

Well, Jake's birthday was almost 2 weeks ago and I'm only now posting his pictures. For the last 2 weeks we've had major problems with our internet. But yesterday we switched companies and now it's working way better than it ever has before! (Hooray! No more Qwest!) So here are some pictures of Jake's birthday celebration. We went to Tucano's for Jake's birthday dinner (per Jake's request) and the Moulders and Neweys came along too. There are no pictures of presents because Jake got to go pick out a new bike for his birthday. So there weren't any presents to unwrap. (I know, boring. But awesome too if you're the parent that has to purchase and wrap all the presents.) So, without further delay,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!!!
WE LOVE YOU!!

Getting Ready for School

Today I went on a fabulous field trip to Aspen Grove with Jake and the other first graders. If I had remembered my camera I would post some pictures. Anyway, I couldn't take Summer so I arranged for her to hang out with her Aunt GG (Gretchen). No big deal, right? She loves Gretchen. She asks me on a daily basis if she can go to her house while I go shopping or something. But this morning she was not feeling it. She screamed and cried that she didn't want to go and that I was being mean. We talked it over for a good 5-10 minutes and she clearly understood, but at the same time did not care. When she started screaming at me I escorted her to her bed and then went out and shut the door so that I wouldn't have to listen to it. She, of course, continued to scream, "I'M NOT GOING!! I'M NOT GOING!!" Now, I had a lot to do this morning. Four lunches to make, four people to get ready, pick up for carpool, and make it to school on time. Every mom knows what I'm talking about. So then Summer got a job. Because at our house if you make more work for Mom (who already has enough of her own) then you get to help with some of it. That's when the anger hit the fan and Summer screamed at me, "YOU ARE NOT MY FAVORITE MOMMY ANYMORE!!!" I was laughing so hard I couldn't do anything. I had clear recollections of Kaleb at a similar age screaming at Gretchen, "I'M NOT GONNA BE YOUR MOMMY ANYMORE!!!" Anyway, eventually she pulled it together. Fax was nice enough to take her to Gretchen's house so I didn't have to repeat all of that at her house, and Jake and I were off on the field trip. Plus, Kaleb is now a fabulous 15 year old, so I'm not too worried about Summer. I just hope I can hold it together that long.

Memory Lane

I've been sorting through old cds that weren't labeled and I've found some very cute pictures of my kids. So I thought I'd share some of my favorites.

Jake, June 2003.

Kessa and Brook at their ballet recital. May 2003

Kate, Jake, and Brook enjoying the sunshine. July 2003
Brook and Jake enjoying the first snow of the season.
November 1, 2003

Summer, October 2004.

Well, I hope you enjoyed them. It's sad when kids grow up, but it would also be sad if they never did. At least now I won't be on the bottom of everyone's lists for who has recently blogged.

Happy 11th Anniversary!

I want to wish Fax and Me a very Happy Anniversary today! It sure doesn't seem like it's been 11 years. There are a lot of freaks out there, and I'm glad I got one of the sane ones. I love you, Fax! For our anniversary we are going to see James Taylor on Monday. Since we met at his concert 12 years ago, it's a tradition that we go whenever he comes. We've seen him in:

1. 1996, in Park City (where we met)
   
2. 1998, in Salem, Oregon
   
3. 2001, at the E Center in Salt Lake (This show kind of sucked because I gave birth to Jake the next day, ~that part was okay, but no woman that pregnant should have to sit in a seat that small for 3-1/2 hours!) And thank goodness my water didn't break 12 hours earlier than it did.
   
4. 2003 at the Usana Ampitheater (this is a very nice venue)
   
5. 2005 at the Usana Ampitheater (Where Fax got James to sign one of my CDs!!)
   
6. soon to be 2008 at the Usana Ampitheater. (Where hopefully we'll get him to sign something for Leah.)
   

I don't expect any of you to really care about any of this, but there it is anyway.

AND.......
Happy Birthday Gracie!!!

Your birthday is easy to remember because you were born on our 10th anniversary. We love you! (Look at those beautiful blue eyes!!!!)

SCAM Reunion!

We had a great time seeing everyone Friday night. My kids said it was more fun than a birthday party. Here's a list of people from high school that were there:
Amanda (Rasmussen) James & family
Jeana (Bangerter) Don't know her new last name & family
Rachel (DeVroom) Babcock & family
J.J. Lowe & family
Lance Ericson & family
Greg Gordon & family
Stuart Gustufson

I look forward to the next time we can all get together.

Happy Birthday Summer!!

Wednesday morning we all awoke to Summer screaming, "Today I'm 4 years old!!" We had all the family who was in town over for some cupcakes and ice cream. Summer had a great time, and we hope everyone else did also. I think our house is getting smaller because there seems to be less and less room at every family gathering here. Today Summer said, "Do I get a slide show too? From my birthday party?" The reply was of course, "Absolutely!" So before I head to bed I've got to get this up so she can see it tomorrow.