On this Monday afternoon

All is peaceful and quiet inside our home and everyone is getting along splendidly outside.

At least for now.  :)

Swimming and Pumpkin Plants

Yesterday morning found these two having a great time splashing around in the backyard.

After we'd had enough pool time (really they could have stayed out there all day), we snacked on homemade popcorn.

 Look what popped up in our garden!  I'm so amazed!

We just planted our pumpkin seeds last Saturday and little green plants are already coming up!

Hopefully they survive the heat and keep growing fast enough so that we'll have pumpkins to pick for Halloween!

Have a happy weekend!

Our watermelons

 We harvested our watermelons on Saturday evening.

We were lucky to end up with 2 quite large melons.

And they even taste good!

I can't believe they've made it through the heat!

That big one above weighed in at 21 pounds!

 Brett hauled this one over from the garden and dumped it on the patio, where it cracked open.  Oops!

So I chopped it up and put it in the fridge.  The next morning it was crisp and cool and a delicious side to our toasted bagels.  Yum!

Pumpkin bread & a busy, busy girl

Brett got home from his first day of preschool and told me all about it while we made pumpkin bread together.  He loves to help with every part of the process, including cracking the eggs, which gets pretty interesting.  He had had a great time in his class and was happy to have so many friends there with him.

By the time I get Grant off to school and then Brett, it's just little Camille and I.  If I'm lucky she lets me shower and get ready.  But mostly she's getting into mischief.  Can't you just see it in her eyes?  She is so busy!  I'm continually rescuing her from danger and destruction all day long!  Whew, she is a handful!  A super cute and fun handful!

She likes to put on her brother's shoes (those are Brett's flip-flops above) and load her stroller up with stuff to push around the house.  

I'm hoping Santa will bring her an awesome kitchen for Christmas.  She's totally ready for it!

Brett's First Day of School

Brett went off to his first day of preschool this morning.

He was super excited!

He even wanted his hair done spiky.  Which is amazing because for the longest time he wouldn't let me do anything to his hair except comb it smooth.

He drew a couple pictures for his teacher this morning and put them in his backpack.

Then he hopped on his bike and rode to school with his friend.

I can't wait to hear how he liked it!

A bunch of stuff from the past few weeks

We built a second garden box last night for our Family Home Evening activity.

 The boys used their heavy machinery to clear away the rocks and haul them to another location.  :)

 Camille is definitely trained to smile for the camera.

I was getting this cute shot of her playing with the Operation game and then she looked up and smiled at me really big and said, "Cheeeeeeeeeeese!"

 We had our annual back to school dinner.  We talked about having courage.

The courageous Captain Moroni joined us.  :)

We gave each of the boys a little metal thing that says "courage" on it to put on their backpacks.

 While Grant's been hard at work at school, Brett has been hard at work keeping our garden watered....as well as watering himself.

 Love that face!

 On one hot evening, the kids played around out front and ate Creamies.

 This is how Camille gets ready for prayer.  :)

 Last Saturday night we picked up some In N Out and headed to the park to eat and ride the plasma cars.

 Camille is such a daddy's girl!

 She loves him soooooo much!

 The sun was at the perfect angle for a shadow picture of our family on this nice grassy hill.

 These clouds were sweeping by in the distance while we drove home from the park.

Gorgeous!

 While we were gone on our summer vacation we missed celebrating my parent's shared birthday.

So we had them over and I made this banana cream pie covered in berries for dessert.

It was very good.  And I had the leftovers for breakfast the next day.  :)

This picture makes me want to eat some more right now!

 Happy Birthday Mom & Dad!

 I couldn't resist capturing these cute lips slurping up those spaghetti noodles.

 Looking cute after church.

Sunday usually means no nap for Camille (or a very short one if we're lucky!), and she gets quite mellow right before dinner time.

 End of summer popsicles in the pool.  

It's funny to say "end of summer" because really it's going to feel like summer here until November!

 Last but not least, here's another one of our little posing-for-the-camera-loving-girl.

THE END

First Day of School 2015

Grant had a good start to his first day of first grade.  As soon as he got to school and put his backpack down he had plenty of friends who were as excited to see him and he was to see them.  They ran around and played on the playground like it was the best thing that ever happened to them.  Then the bell rang, they all lined up, and they were off to class.  I can't wait to hear about the rest of his day when I pick him up later!

Summer Getaway...Northern AZ

The last leg of our trip took us to northern Arizona.  We spent one night with Keith's sister in Pinetop.  Keith and her husband played in the annual Snowflake Pioneer Day Golf Tournament.

We also went to the Snowflake Pioneer Day Parade.

 It was fun to have Keith's grandpa there too!

 After the parade we ate lunch on the lawn of the church building and the kids climbed up into one of the huge trees.

 The rest of the time was spent at Keith's parent's cabin in Heber.  Keith's youngest sister was there with her two girls, as well as Keith's parents and his grandpa.

 Getting ready to play "Indians"

 S'mores were a hit!

 We got a raft blown up and squished it into our van and headed to a local lake.

 We took turns rowing about the lake.

 Brett was super tired after that.

 Camille spilled a bag of cereal and was really cute to sweep it up.

 Driving off toward the sunset, we headed back home to the hot desert.  

It felt so good to be in our own beds that night!  We all slept so good!