Early Morning Walk

One morning last week I took my camera with me on my morning walk. The farm fields are so pretty now, clothed in their lush green splendor. The cloudy morning made the blues of the mountains even more vivid....

The picture below is taken looking North. You can see our ski slopes...

A chokecherry bush in bloom along the road...

Looking toward the canyon and the park. Looks like there is still lots of snow up there...

O Zion, that bringeth good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain...

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
-Isaiah 40: 9-11

Looking west toward our house. We are somewhere behind the grouping of trees...

Ribbon of road...

A tractor in the field...

Waving in the breeze...

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
...Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithall shall we be clothed?
For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself...
-Matthew 6: 30-34

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
-Isaiah 40: 8

We are looking forward to special days ahead. May we find comfort in our walk of life as we see the wonderful creation of God around us and realize again that he wants to do an even greater work within our hearts and lives. One step at a time...

Good days to all.

With love,

Last Day of School 2009

Kyla and her 2nd Grade Teacher

Colter and his Kindergarten Teacher

Some pictures from the day... (move mouse arrow onto the slide show picture to see a description)

Yesterday and Then Today

So, it's been over 2 weeks since we planted our tomatoes outside in the hot boxes. I took these picture yesterday morning and they are growing and flourishing and smiling...
The buds are appearing on the plants and judging from the plants yesterday, we are certain we will have a bumper crop of tomatoes this year...finally!

Until this morning...



We had a freeze in the night and lost all the tomatoes which were covered in the hot boxes...
The hoses were completely frozen this morning. The potatoes that were up look black too. Luckily the corn, beans, lettuce, zinnia's, sunflowers, cucumbers, and squash were not up yet. The peas, spinach and onions are fine.

So off the the store we will go to get tomato plants...

Major Catch-Up

A hot air balloon that landed out in the field by our house recently and more catch-up from the last week...

One morning we went to the tree nursery and picked up two huge trees. They weighed about 500 pounds each...

we had no idea what we were getting into...

It took all day to get those trees in the ground. The one on the left is a Purple Autumn Ash and the one on the right is a Northland Maple. The Ash looks good but with the harsh wind and hot weather we had this last week we are crossing our fingers on the maple at this point...

This week Kyla's class and the other two second grade classes put on plays. Here is a couple pics from that...

Telling about Antarctica...

Colter giving Opal a little scratch on one of the beautiful days we had last week...

Today we spent some time with family at the lake to celebrate Auntie Mary Ann's 50th birthday. The following pictures are from our cool but beautiful afternoon on the lake...

It feels good to say for once that I'm almost "all caught up"! Wish I could say the same for all my other projects and housework!

Hope you all have a great week!

11 of 52: Kindergarten Field Trip

Yesterday Colter's morning kindergarten class, combined with the afternoon kindergarten class, went on a little 2 mile hike that overlooks our valley. I went along too and was surprised at how many parents came along! It was great to see so many participating! Here are a few pictures from out time...
Taking a little break along the way...
A bunch of kids...
Here I am* with my little man. Can't believe he's almost done with his first year of school...
A beautiful day for a hike...
Wild flowers along the way...
Here we stopped for a snack. Cheese sticks and pretzels. The kids have slowed down a bit...
Final Destination- overlooking the valley! KIDS, PLEASE DON'T CLIMB UP ON THE ROCK WALL! Yikes...


And would you believe it if I told you we saw Bigfoot? We did! Really!!!

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Instead of riding the bus back to the school, I just took Colter and we headed into town to go pick up Maya. This is what we saw in front of Tire Rama so we had to stop and take a picture. The driver was there and gave Colter an autographed picture of this monster truck. I would tell you what his name was if I could read his signature...

So that was our mother/son morning together.

And now I better get this 52 week post published before Thursday is over...

Hosted By Forever in Bluejeans

*52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!

Piano, Panini and a Little Italian History

We had a piano* recital for Kyla on Sunday afternoon. Here she is playing her 5 chosen songs. Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Butterfly, MaryAnn, Fourth Grade Band, and Summer Vacation.

Last fall I was trying to find a new piano teacher for Kyla, (her piano teacher moved away :( -sad face) I was having a difficult time finding one near us with time slots that worked for us. Finally I decided to look at the books and see if I couldn't teach her this year myself. It was a little harder to convince her, but I finally did with the promise that we could have a recital with who ever she wanted to invite and then we could have a tea party afterward. That kept her motivated all year long. So I thought I better follow through with my part of the promise...

It turned out to be a great challenge and review for me too.
Thanks Grandma, Grandpa, Dave, Denay, Caitlyn and Auntie Mary for joining us...

For supper we had hot Panini** Sandwiches.

Look for this recipe on Country Kitchen Recipes!

For dessert we had tea and Chocolate Sheet Cake (there is no way to show how wonderful this cake is by a photograph). You'll really have to try it the first excuse you get...you have my permission!

Look for this recipe on Country Kitchen Recipes!

And now I couldn't resist looking up these two Italian sounding words and find out more about them so here is a little Italian History Lesson for those who are interested! Enjoy...

*The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Prince Ferdinand de Medici as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker and was well acquainted with the previous body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698.[citation needed] The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.
-This information comes from Wikopedia

**The word "panino" [pa'ni:no] is Italian (literally meaning small bread roll), with the plural panini. "Panini" is often used in a singular sense by speakers of English and French, as for "salami" (Italian plural for salame), and pluralised solecismically into "paninis". In Italian, panino refers properly to a bread roll and a "panino imbottito" (literally "stuffed panino") to a sandwich; so a paninoteca is a sandwich bar. In Central Italy, there is a popular version of panino which is filled with porchetta, i.e. slices of roasted pork.
-This information comes from Wikopedia

Show and Tell

Colter was very excited to bring Tober in last Friday for show and tell. Not only that but Daddy got to accompany him to school and help him with Tober. The kids loved her and her tricks... "sit, lay down, roll over". Apparently Tober enjoyed it too and spent some time wandering around the classroom looking for a ball. With ALL those kids, I'm sure she was thinking of all the fun she could have chasing balls!

I guess show and tell and Kindergarten go hand in hand. Writing this post brought to mind THIS POST that I did 2 years ago when Kyla was in Kindergarten.

Only 5 and a half days of school left! Yay!