Grass at Last!

And because we bought way more sod than we needed, we also got the bonus mini-backyard.

He's got my vote

Fear Not!

In a quick search of the topical guide, I found 36 different scriptures telling us to fear not or be not afraid. Some of my personal favorites:

Isaiah 41:10: Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

2Kings 6:16: Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

2Chronichles 20:15: Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

John 14:27: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

D&C 6:34: Therefore, fear not little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

D&C 50:41-42: Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me; And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost.

D&C 68:6: Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you.

A couple of these weren't even in the Topical Guide listing, so there are even more than I counted. Share some of your favorites in the comments if you want.

Next time ... "be of good cheer!"

Pioneer Trek Outtakes

I have several more tracks from the pioneer trek video, but it wasn't all serious. I did an outtake track with some of the funnier pictures and video clips. So here it is. I'll post the other tracks sometime in the future. Enjoy!

One-derful!

Xander turned one year old yesterday!

From this:

To this:

In just twelve short months!

Congratulations, Xander. We love you!

End of the Growing Season?

Well, since the forecast is for a hard freeze on Saturday, we raided the garden last night to get the pumpkins, squash and other stuff and to see if our melons have ripened yet. They turned out to be pretty good, but not quite fully ripe, so let's hope the next few days get things done!



The big pumpkins in the picture are the Big Max variety, the small ones are Baby Pam (which are supposed to be excellent for pie), a honeydew, a watermelon (Sugar Baby), some butternut squash and green peppers as well as several tomatoes, a cucumber and a zucchini.

We also did lettuce, sunflowers, cantaloupe, spinach, peas, and another pumpkin called Howden, which grew pumpkins the boys described as "demented." We'll probably stick to the traditional-looking ones in the future. I'd have to say the garden was a success this year, despite all our summer squash and pumpkin plants getting powdery mildew and dying off over the last 2-3 weeks and the onions, beans, cauliflower, broccoli and hot peppers (jalapeno and habanero) being a complete bust.

We're saving seed from our spinach, peas, Big Max pumpkins, watermelon, butternut and sunflowers. All the other melons, squash and pumpkins will cross with each other or were hybrids, so we aren't saving seed for those. We bought a cool book called Seed to Seed that covers a ton of information on saving seed, so we're going to give it a whirl. Wish us luck!

Finlay turned eight!

Here are some shots from Finlay's birthday last week. He's eight years old now!

Sam made him an "elephalopagus" out of clay
I also let Sam decorate the cake. It's a magic wand made from sprinkles.










He got Legos and scriptures.

He'll be baptized on November 1st. Yeah, Finlay!

Xander's birthday is up next. Here's a picture of him enjoying a cookie.

Pioneer Trek Parts II, III and IV

Here are the next three parts of our pioneer trek DVD.

Part II - Pressing Onward


Part III - The Muddy Mile


Part IV - First Night

One Awesome Service Project!

I wanted to help out my friend Suzette. She is in the middle of renovating her house. They are adding a wonderful addition, and she's living in a construction zone. She has to pack up a bunch of her stuff and get it out the way. It's like moving, only with nowhere to go. And her husband just left town. He's a pilot for a mapping company, and he's gone for a month or more at a time. (He gets to be off for a month or more at a time, too). Suzette is always doing nice stuff for me. Like last year, for instance, she totally saved me from the post-partum nuclear meltdown I had after I brought Xander home. She's really like the best visiting teacher ever, though, ironically, she is not my visiting teacher. ;)

I told her I'd bring lunch over on Monday, and then I'd help her with whatever she needed. After we finished lunch, I said, "Okay, is there more stuff to pack up or what?" She said, "Yeah, there's still a ton, but what I really need is to relax and hang out." Her husband told her to have me take her into the pergola in the backyard to talk about writing, so we did. We lounged around on lawn chairs in the sunshine while the girls played on the swing set. After Xander fell asleep, we went in, and so we could stay upstairs where Xander was sleeping, we piled up all the pillows and blankets on her daughter's bed and lounged around there. We read a few picture books and ate way too many oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (I did make the cookies, at least). So, I spent two and a half hours relaxing, shooting the breeze, and eating cookies. That's my kind of service project!

Pioneer Trek Part I

Last June, our ward did a pioneer trek out west of Utah Lake. I made a DVD to commemorate the experience. So, here's the introduction (with music by yours truly) and the first track (music by David Tolk). I'll post additional tracks as I find time to do so. I recorded the music for the intro on our piano (which is less than well tuned), after I had kicked all the kids out of the house, using an MP3 player and a laptop to get the stereo effect and then mixed with Audacity. Makes me want to get some better equipment, although it worked well with the old-ified video effect...