Missionary Experience

The young men/young women in our ward learned a "discussion" from the missionaries and then received a "call" signed by the Bishop telling them who their companion was and whose house they got to go to. Their call came with name tags. The families who received missionaries had to listen to their message and feed them.

Here is a picture of Zach and Jake on the way to their missionary experience. Jacob came back all excited about what a great time he had. Zach had a good time too. . . he was in a group of three.


Our missionaries were Landon Howard and James Westfall. They did a great job. I got home just as they finished the message. I was sad that I missed that, but Jay said it was really great! Landon and James both said that it was really scary to have to teach the gospel.

Hopefully our ward continues to do this - I think it's such a great experience for the youth!

"... The more birds a yard can support, the fewer insects there will be to trouble the gardener the following year." ~Thalassa Cruso

This is our neighbor's tree - they must not have any insects troubling their gardener.

Weekly Update

SOME people have informed me (chastised, complained, you pick it) that I am not updating often enough.

So here I sit, way past my bedtime, three days after my last post to bring you up to date on our last week or so. :)

Fun game of name that body part (Granny & Morgan)

Liz explaining something complex. Crocheting?

Unwelcome bathroom friends!

Haircuts!!!!
Only one left. . . . how to convince him a homemade cut by Mom is good!?

BEE STINGS!

David eating peaches against a pine backdrop

Self portraits (Morgan, Aunti Em, Carmen, Jacob in the back)

Hopefully this will satisfy my thirsty readers. . . . love and miss you! More to come. . . due to guilt. . . just kidding!

My Baby Brother

Cory is entering the MTC in six days! I'm so proud of him for the decision to serve a mission. He's a great example to me and my family.

We went up to his farewell on Sunday and spent some quality time with him. His talk was awesome - it's cool to think how much he'll grow and learn - I can't wait to hear his homecoming report!

Cory was born on my first day of ninth grade. I remember being really mad that I had to go to school and couldn't meet him until the school day was over.

He was so tiny and cute - now he's a man!!! I love you, bro!

Siblings - David, Cory, Lindsay, Emily, Makayla, Greg
Missing - Logan (Pennsylvania), Rebekah (Colorado)

My garden

This year I worked part time during the summer in a gravel pit as a pit boss. Emily dislikes when I work at all as usually something suffers because of it. This year the disaster was my garden. Oh and my interior home improvement plans took a hit too. Unless I am home every day, the garden is a goner as it is so big, weeds usually catch up and pass me. Lets take a look at my beautiful garden this year, shall we? Especially since we are for sure not taking a tour of my house.

Yummy strawbs.

There are usually strawberries here. My Concord grapes are right behind them and you can see they are all mad at me too as they haven’t gotten any attention.

The old coop.

This is the old chicken coop. It is being replaced by the new red barn chicken coop. We will get to that later.

Fuji apples

Here is our wonderful Fuji apple tree. It is three years old. It is doing very well because the weeds are not able to go that high.

Huge pumpkins

We planted a few Dill Atlantic Giant pumpkins. Here is one of them growing. Weeds don’t seem to bother those much.

Heat for the winter

I cut down a walnut tree and this is just some of the pile that will be used for firewood.

Statuesque fields of corn

My lovely cornfield. Certainly all our family will enjoy eating this. Hit "older posts" below to see the new red barn.

The new red barn

I built this new red barn chicken coop for my chickens, as it is easier to heat and take care of during the winter. A little smaller too. That wood is over a hundred years old. The old coop was just too huge. I might use the old one to house my tiller, my lawn mower and about a million rounds of ammo or something.
Well that's it for this years garden. the dow dropped 500 points today so maybe next year the only thing we will be eating will be OUT of this garden. I feel I'd do better if that was the case.

Ode to Jacob

Jacob is officially a TEENAGER!!!!!

Jacob is a wonderful young man.
Jacob is funny.
Jacob loves to cook.
Jacob is really responsible.
Jacob loves to pass the sacrament. He looks so good in his suit!
Jacob has a very serious side and thinks about a lot of things.
We love you, Jacob! We're so glad Heavenly Father sent you to our family!!!

Ode to David

My baby boy is NINE!

David is a joy to our family.
David smiles a lot.
David says funny things.
David is very easy going.
David loves to read.
David loves to sing so much that we bought him his own hymn book for church.
David loves school.
When we finish reading scriptures, David says, "Aww, can't we please just read one more chapter?"
We all love our David very much.
Happy Birthday, Davey pavey! We love you!