Fall Harvest and Carhart boys!

Some people have been asking how my garden has turned out so I thought it time to post an "after shot". If you want to see the "before" you can look HERE at the previous post on June 9th. We ended up with a pretty good harvest this year. My peas always die too early. This year I was careful to give them a little shade with a little fence I put next to them to help them climb. I thought this would help but somehow by doing this I managed to deplete them of another need -- water! The fence was unknowingly in the way of the sprinkler that was in charge of watering them! Every year I think - next year I will have the best peas! Maybe next year :). We got several pumpkins from our two plants and some will even be good for carving. There are still about four green ones on the vine. I am not sure they will have time to get ripe but we'll see. The grapes are flourishing as usual and taking over the garden. The two mounds of ivy that you can see on either side of the first picture are the arbors covered with grape vine. We can no longer walk under the arbors and one of them is taking over the fence too. They are so pretty though! They are just a BIG PAIN to trim back every year. I keep having to cut the one near the cherry tree back because it is trying to grow over the cherry tree! I wish everyone would just stay where they are supposed too! The tomatoes have done well but we have lots of green ones still on the plant. Again, hoping that we won't get an early frost. The peach tree did FABULOUS and we have a lot of peaches. Not bad for cold Idaho. We still have a few to pick but had to pick them a little early because the wind was starting to blow them off the branches as well as blow the branches off the tree. Good ol' south Idaho wind! All in all not a bad little harvest. We also got lettuce, cucumbers, plums, and two or three five-gallon bucket fulls of apples. I plan to do lots of canning next week.

Len has been hunting quite a bit lately but this week he is staying home for some "honey do's". One of those projects is to dig out a new window well for our basement bedroom so we can put a big window in. We are excited for this because then we can move Kaydra to the new bedroom and the kids can each have their own room and a little bit of space. Kanyon is such a big "help" to his dad and I couldn't resist taking a picture of my two Carhart boys. There is something about a working man in working pants! I am grateful for both of them and all they do for me!

Miranda is now seven months old. She has decided that this is the perfect time for her to take over the entire house and family. She is crawling quite well now but refuses to go more than about 5 feet. She wants to be carried everywhere and NEVER left alone in a room. She needs someone to constantly entertain, talk to, smile at, or cuddle with her. She lets us know this by SCREAMING a VERY LOUD high pitch squeal anytime we are not doing exactly what she wants. This is usually not a problem unless I want to get ANYTHING done! Did I tell you that it is LOUD? One day, after an entire day of not pleasing her and continuing to hear her scream all day I finally put her in the tub. She was finally happy for just about the first time all day. She played really well and found that chewing on her wash cloth was soothing to her as well. She has found that her mouth is a good "third hand" and uses it frequently to carry things while she is crawling. I know that this picture isn't very good of her but I thought it was funny how she is holding the washcloth in her mouth. When she isn't screaming she really is a cute baby. She has the best smile and laugh and she loves to eat anything I will let her. Tonight she had Shepherd's Pie. Yes, she ate elk burger, corn, beans, and mashed potatoes. She is a heavy eater-even at seven months. It's what she wants and if I don't give it to her, she screams - VERY LOUD! What's a mom to do? She doesn't even understand the word "no" yet! I fear that I am spoiling her but there is nothing I can do about it! Even with all the screaming, I still love her. She is a beautiful baby and so much fun to cuddle with. If only I could just cuddle with her all day and do nothing else. I think we would both be happy!

Seven year old!

Kaydra turns Seven!

So I missed posting on Kaydra's birthday but I wanted to post a slide show of my little girl to show how much she has grown. I think that Miranda is starting to look like Kaydra did at the same age. The only difference is their eyes. Kaydra's were very blue at six months and Miranda's are much darker and most likely going to be brown. That is fine with me because they are both beautiful girls.
Kaydra is such a big help around the house. We are finding that she has such a loving personality and is able to be friends with everyone. She loves people and she tries her hardest to have them like her too. She is a very kind person. She thinks of others and tries to meet their needs. She will frequently leave me small notes that say, "I love you" around the house for me to find and this brightens my day. She is always willing to play with Miranda or keep her happy for just a few moments so I can finish what I am doing. She is a good big sister to Kanyon, letting him play with her and her friends when they are over. She is very creative and has an immense imagination. Her and Kanyon can frequently be found playing an imaginary game where they each take on different rolls and play them out for hours. I feel so blessed to have her in our home.
This year for her birthday we went to Heise Hot Springs.

This is what Kaydra asked to do and her birthday fell on Monday so it was a good family night activity. We invited Courtney and her kids and Jake, Jana, and Riley to come with us. When we got there we thought the pool was closed because no one was in it. We checked in at the hot tub part of the pool and they said that the pool was open! I asked about the water slide and they said that if we wanted, they would turn it on for us! The kids thought that was pretty cool. So we got all you can stand ride passes for the slide and pretty much had the pool to ourselves.

Kalli jumping Kanyon jumping Kaydra jumping

The water was a great 80 degrees so even the babies liked it. We went down the slide several times and then sat in the hot pools for awhile. It was a lot of fun. After swimming we went to the clubhouse that is part of the golf course and had cake and pizza. I stole some pictures from Courtney's blog because I didn't take my camera and she got some good pictures!
When we got home that night we opened her presents. She got a soccer ball, some snorkel gear, and some earrings so she can get her ears pierced (after soccer) if she wants to. She was SUPER excited. I can't believe that I have a seven year old. She is such a great person and I feel blessed to have her in our home. We love you Kaydra!

Okay, Okay!!

I haven't posted for quite awhile. I am starting to hear about it! I am glad that people are paying attention. I have been meaning to post but I was waiting for some pictures to come and then when I got them, it just seemed to be at the end of the "to do" list. But, the story continues!

Last day of Vacation

On our final day of vacation we drove about 2 hours to a different beach that Dan (Courtney's husband) found online. It was called Bathtub Beach. Here there was a huge reef that helped to break the waves so the water inside the reef stayed warm and calm. The kids could swim and walk out pretty far without us worrying they would be plummeted with an unexpected wave. The reef also provided a great place to snorkel. We could see tons of fish and other sea life and there were so many shells! The kids felt like they had found the "hidden treasure". They gathered shells and looked at fish and they all got pretty good at snorkeling. We had so much fun that day that we forgot to take pictures! It was beautiful but we never got the camera out! Leonard managed to find a huge conch shell in excellent condition and a nearly perfect sand dollar. They are beautiful.

That night, the boys (Jake, Dan, and Len) went fishing one more time before we had to catch our flight the next day. We thought they were crazy because our flight was at 7:30 so this meant that we would have to leave at 4:30 a.m. in order to be to the airport with enough time to check in and return our cars. They couldn't resist though and Len managed to catch some interesting sea life.

Yes, that is a real black tip shark and a weird starfish. Only Leonard would catch something crazy like that!

This is the end of my telling of our Florida vacation. We had a great time. We are so glad that we went. We feel so blessed to be part of such a great family that continues to grow each year. Thank you Mom and Dad for making it so great.