Garden, garden, garden

Krissy took this cute picture of Brig--he's got the spaced teeth just like his mom.

A lot of the summer focus is on our garden. This is a picture of it when we first started about 2 months ago. Our plants are doing great and are almost in full bloom. I'll put more pictures on soon. Love ya!

Summer Fun

Yeah! It's summer! Finally our days have slowed down, softball is almost over, and family is coming into town. Below are some more recent pics. All four big girls had a blast at girls' camp. Can you pick out the Steele & Eaton girls?
Kristina took this picture of some flowers on our front porch--everything seems to grow here!

Not a great picture, but you had to see baldy. This is with it grown out. He actually shaved it with a razor--totally bald--3 weeks ago--Scary!

Who knows? Maybe she'll be a basketball star someday.

The kids have all loved playing in the pond. Mike put some stuff in it so it's really clear this summer. Mischa's sitting on the side with Jade, waiting for her turn in the canoe.

Jonah Durfee in the front, Peter down in the water teaching Mac how to hold onto the boat and kick, Alex Durfee making sure no one drowns, Mac in the water trying to do everything Peter says, and Sterling in the back giving it some power. What a great day!

Elena, the Photographer

This first picture was actually taken by Kristina. The kids love to take pics, especially the girls. And some of them are getting really good at it!

Mac is hoping to be in scouts soon. Can he wait three years?

This one is blurry, but I had to put it in here anyway. We had so much fun with Jeff and Wendy here. It's rare that our big boys have cousins they love to hang out with. We're so glad they came! And soon, two more sets of cousins will come--Yeah!

Molly, Rocky and our home in the winter...

Peter is so excited about something. What's with the Hawaiian lei?

Anton's senior picture, adjusted by Elena.

Elena's senior picture taken by herself. Wait, she's not a senior. Okay--8th grade picture.

Jade--washed out, but cute.

I love this one! Miss you all!

Catching Up On All These Events...

Okay--don't look at this post unless you've got some time. I haven't posted for a week so there are a lot of pics on here...

Anton loves his watermelon patch. It's his very own that he planted and takes care of by himself. For some reason he thinks he'll get rich off this so he babies it and carefully watches over it every day. He's doing pretty good and has 18-20 little watermelon growing on all his plants.
One day this past week Anton was headed to go fishing and Mischa begged to go with him. He was so sweet and careful with her. He even took her out in the boat in the middle of the pond. Within 1 minute they had caught a fish and Mischa was so excited!
A quick pic of Me and Peter that Kristina took. Why doesn't this boy ever wear a shirt?
Since Peter took a picture with me, Kristina had to have one too. Check out Peter in the background--he's telling Jade to "stop being such a baby."
Mischa loves to organize: shoes, clothes...chips.

Anton had a lot of fun in AZ hanging out with Vova Stirling before he left on his mission. This was taken at Mount Graham where the Stirlings go camping every year.

Hey--this pipe is a good idea for naughty boys to sit for a while out in the hot sun.

What a cute boy! He's already starting to look like a missionary...

The Stirling's were so gracious to host Anton for a week. We also had a lot of fun with them here in Missouri the week before.
Anton took this right before he left. I'm so thankful to Michelle for helping him so much and for Jenny and Brian for getting him the ticket. We love you, family!
Saturday we spent 5 1/2 hours weeding in the garden. The kids worked so hard and we finished it all so Mike and I treated them to dinner in a restaurant called Pastimes in the nearby town of Hamilton. Our water was turned off (and still isn't back on), so eating out was great! Above is an example of the perfect restaurant manners our kids have. First it was Mac...

Then Brig...

And, of course, Mischa had to follow. Somehow she doesn't look so scary--just cute.

Krissy, Sterling and Jade posing--no smile out of Sterling, though.

This took a few tries, but we finally got Peter to smile with Elena.

We spontaneously stopped by the Durfees on our way home. They were so sweet to let some of us take showers (they still had water). They even fed us homemade brownies and put on a great movie--The Greatest Game Ever Played. We barged in on them so early, they didn't even get dinner. By midnight, when we left, I realized that most of them just got a brownie for dinner. Sounds like I have some payback to do, huh? We had so much fun with them--we only missed Anton--he was out searching for arrowheads on the Grand River.

Jonah and Sharlee putting the mowers away. Yardwork is a family affair.

As soon as we arrived Peter started sweeping their concrete. We thought he was just happy to help, but he was only clearing a path to ride his Ripstick.

This is Brittany, their oldest daughter, keeping the flower garden beautiful and weed-free. Doesn't she have the greatest smile?

The Durfees garden puts mine to shame. I was a little chagrined 'til I found out she's done a garden for years. This garden will hopefully be my role model for next year.

Jadey and Moo-moo by the corn.The Durfees have some beautiful horses--Joann rides in the English style and it's so pretty to watch and fun to learn. Jade can't get enough of horses!

I love this picture of Anton & Mischa. It seems to bring up all my feelings of summer and the Missouri country life. This summer, more than any other, has brought with it feelings of anxiety in regards to my kids growing up too fast. The days seem to fly by and I can't hold on to them. We have one year left with Anton and he'll be gone. What do you try to teach your child when you have one year left with him? I'm so grateful for family and this beautiful world we get as our testing ground. I'm not a world traveler yet, but every place I've seen has something of beauty that tempts me to stay. There is so much to be thankful for.

Anton And Peter In Nauvoo

This is back from when we were in Nauvoo and Anton taped it on his own camera. I thought you might like to see a little bit of his humor. Make sure you mute the music at the bottom first.

Lots of Pics!

Mutual Night! We're preparing for the trek in October and we have 4 trek mutuals and three pre-hikes leading up to it. Joann Durfee is our trek master and she always goes all out. This night was no exception. We worked on memorizing The Living Christ, our trek song (which is awesome), then worked on our trek journals. The kids all had fun putting them together--even the older ones. Josie Durfee and Elena planning their pictures together...

Cute girls--Rebecca, Sharlee Durfee and Niki. Doesn't Niki's hair look cute like that?

Handsome boy--always with a good attitude at mutual.

It was hard to get a pic of Peter--he thought it was funny that I was trying so hard. Jax and Max Bingham spent the night and went with us to mutual. Check out that hair on Jax!

Who is that? Amazing we caught him on camera! This took about twenty tries to get this!

This is Sara, Sheri, and Krissy, with Max Bingham in the background.

Jadey and her dad--they all really had fun decorating their journals.

Of course, the boys couldn't leave without playing some basketball. We're so excited to have a real live basketball court at our church, even though it's a really small one. There is a group of boys who play together 3 times a week at 5:30 AM. That's Peter making a shot with Jonah Durfee in the background and Sterling in the bright blue shirt in the foreground.
We're suprised that Sterling is having a lot of fun at the early morning practices. He and Peter get themselves up and go without any help from Mom and Dad.
We had a little time this week to spend in the garden. Our corn is growing, but not as big as we'd like--too much rain. Doesn't Brig look like a cute farmboy?

Moo-moo loves the new toy the Hansons gave us. She can't ride it by herself and is constantly asking Peter to push her around. Something is wrong with my blog. I can't upload any more pics so I'll post this and try to send a separate post. See you soon, Danie!!!