T-Ball

Carter and Braeden played T-ball this year and Joe and I got to see their last game. It was so fun watching them. The kids on the team are 3 to 6 years old so you can imagine their attention span. Carter is walking out to the field. All the kids stand in the center of the field in one big group.

Carter running to first base.

Braeden always ready to pose for the camera.
Batter up--Braeden.


Carter decided that he wanted to play in the dirt instead of playing ball.

Tanner and Coleman are getting a little bored.

Moving Day(s)

We were in Idaho this past weekend packing up our stuff to bring to Salt Lake City. We have an offer on our house so felt like we needed to get as much done as we could. Alice and Jeff and the boys came up to help and were a huge help. I don't know how we would have got it done without their help. Even the the two big boys helped carry small items out to earn extra WII minutes. Alice and I decided that we needed to have some time limits or they would play all day long. Carl also helped and engineered the loading of the truck so we could fit as much as possible in. He did a great job, I couldn't believe how tight he was able to get every thing in. He also got two friends to help on Monday.
While we packing it was fun to look out side and see our pheasant who kept strutting around the back yard and clucking away. I love to hear him. It is only the male who makes the noise and it is quite loud. Pheasants are very territorial. We didn't see any of his female friends.

36 Lessons I Learned from Heidi

1. Love to buy presents for everyone
2. Love family
3 Love people -no matter who they were or what problems they have
4 To love life
5. To be patient
6 To tease
7 To be teased back —sometimes
8 To laugh at your self
9 To be thankful
10 To give hugs
11Be happy –this was one of her first words she learned and she was most of the time
12 Love the holidays and to anticipate them
13 That you can over come your fears and to not let them hold you back
14 That I can endue pain
15 To be an example.
16 To keep trying and not loose the desire to conquer
17 To try new things that seem to be really hard to do
18 Keep trying- don't give up
19 Sometimes it is OK to be bull headed (see # 18)
20 Life is too short enjoy every minute so take time to smell the roses
21 To accept who I am in-spite of looking or being different
22 Enjoy the Game of Life
23 Not to fight or argue —the spirit can't abide with you then
24 That I am so thankful that God entrusted me to be your Mom
25 That I am better person because of you
26 To carry the Light of Christ with you and let others feel it
27. That there are truly Angels among us and that You guide us
28 Life is not fair
29 Enjoy the simple life.
30 That I can make it through really hard things
31 That there is a light at the end of the tunnel and life does go on
32 That I want to always live my life so I can be with her when I die.
33 That you were a special gift given to us from Heavenly Father
34 That there are Angels here to help and protect us
35 That there is Eternal Life and life after death
36 Thank you Heavenly Father for the gift of Heidi in my life.

Happy Birthday Heidi

Wow! It is hard to believe that today you would be 36. I sometimes wonder how different my life would have been without you in it. I know I am a much better person because of you and all I learned from you. You were an amazing person in spite of the challenges you faced everyday. I know you are still helping me grow to become a better person. I am so glad to be called your Mom. Love you Heidi. Do you think about your birth day the same way we do here?

I Love to See My Garden Grow

Some of you might find my pictures of How Does My Garden Grow boring but part of the reason I am doing a Blog is for a history of what I am doing in my day to day life.
The lettuce and peas are growing. It is so rewarding to see the bright green leaves as they pop out of the ground and start to get bigger and bigger. The peas are about two inches tall. Soon we will be eating fresh lettuce.

Tomorrow if all goes well it will be Good Bye Walnut Tree. Yes, it has very nice shade but--it is very messy and the squirrels love the walnuts. Which reminds me I forgot to update you about Creature who lives in our attic. We can hear Creature once in a while and Freddie goes crazy when we go upstairs and into the attic part of the upstairs. We have seen Creature's shadow many times and I have seen Creature poking his head out the hole in the eves of the house. Yes Creature is a squirrel! Maybe squirrels and I hope not babies!

Before just in case you can't remember

This Morning

My favorite area of the house right now. I have part of it painted. It would all be done but with warm sunny days I have spend a great deal of time in the yard. When it is hot this summer I know I won't want to spend as much time outside. I love the reading corner. When the sun is not shining in the window I will try and get a better picture.

The new and old paint job. The new color is the yellow/cream color.

How Does My Garden Grow Chapter 2

Yesterday we pruned our lovely apple tree which had not seen pruning shears for many years. A fruit tree(s) would be a wonderful addition to our front yard but as you can see from the picture we don't have a lot of room in our front yard or the back. Friday I went to the garden center with great plans to buy a peach tree. Instead I walked away with a nectarine, apricot, plum and peach tree. Yep, just one tree. It has four branches grafted onto the main trunk. I was so excited to plant it that evening but had to wait for Joe to help me. You might be wondering why the logs are on the lawn. I want to move the sidewalk so by putting the logs out it helps me to visualize how the new sidewalk can look.
The planters in the front of the house were full of weeds which I have removed most of. I planted pansy's along with onions, cabbage, parsley, cilantro, oregano and English lavender. It is so fun to see their bright cheery flowers. They make me happy.

I planted 4 kinds of lettuce and peas on the east side our house. They are up!

Taking out the old galvanized metal swing was a big job. Joe has a reciprocating saw which made the job easier. As you can see in the two pictures we still have some of the pipe to remove and plenty of clean up.
So begins chapter two of How Does My Garden Grow for 2010. I love seeing my garden grow and eat the yummy food!

One tree down and one to go!

Our yard was very messy and had not been taken care of for a long time when we moved in. We spent a lot of time just cleaning up all the junk laying around and raking lots and lots of leaves this spring. Can you see the big topless Blue Spruce in the back corner? Well....

We got a bid to remove this tree and the large walnut tree. They wanted $900. I know you think we are crazy for cutting the trees down. The problem is the pine tree did not provide any shade and takes a large part of the back yard. The walnut tree is not in very good health. And the branches spread over the house and invite unwanted guest. (More on that later). We want to put in several fruit trees along the back fence. So Joe started cutting a little at a time with the bottom branches.

You can see that he can now stand up and cut the branches out one at a time.

I thought about keeping our Northern Palm Tree. . . . for about a minute.

All gone! Now we get to haul out all the branches.This is a little over half the branches. I thought it would take 5 trailer loads. Boy, Joe sure can pack things in!

A shot of the back yard this morning. Much better.