I'm drowning in an overgrown garden!!

This year I ventured to spend lots of time and money to plant this gigantic vegetable garden. My big successes were the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beets, watermelons, spinach/lettuce, and various squashes. My radishes, pumpkins, peas and beans did NOT do well at all. So I guess it was a success, the problem IS WEEDS!!! Everywhere that is NOT vegetable garden is completely covered in weeds!! Since our underground sprinklers didn't work this year, we had to use a big spreader sprinkler, and it made weeds grow everywhere else. So now that we're moving & need to get our yard/house ready to sell, WHAT DO I DO??? All these weeds represent hours and hours of backbreaking labor! I went out in the yard this evening for some intensive pulling, and it didn't even put a dent! I simply can't do all of this with Jeff working such long hours (he won't touch the yard besides watering it) and me being 7 months pregnant. ANY suggestions on inexpensive hardworking lanscaping people who can get my yard in ship-shape?? Just the thought of everything involved in moving and selling the house sets me in panic attacks. So suggestions and help would be much appreciated!!

Moving!!

YES! We ARE moving. But first you have to hear why! My dad got a job in Oroville (way up North, by Lake Palmer). They're moving within the next month to the little 2bdrm Lake Palmer house (5 hours away). We're going to be really sad to see them go. BUT they've been working so hard on their house in the last couple years! They put in 2 additions, they installed a huge wrap-around deck, they remodelled the kitchen and bathrooms etc... And they hesitate to sell it to just anyone. Well we've been having the problem of, how on earth do we squeeze 4 children into our little bedrooms?? We're outgrowing our house & need something bigger. So mom & dad are giving us a really good deal on their house & we'll be buying it when our house sells. We'll still be in Sunnyside ward, but we'll be living in Outlook School area out in the country. I'm REALLY going to miss living in town, I love living in a neighorhood & having neighbors, but we think that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Anyone up to helping us move?? We're really going to need it!!

Our Palmer Lake Trip

We went for a week-long family reunion to Uncle Dennis' house on Lake Palmer last week and had an absolute BLAST! Those of us who came were my parents, the kids & I, Amber, Steve & the kids, Rob & Rachel, and a few close family friends. For those of you who don't know, Lake Palmer is about 10 miles from the Canadian border about 2 hrs north of Wenachee. Our Uncle Dennis has two houses up there on the lake, and it's a great vacation spot where we have family reunions and fishing trips. We stayed in the big house (6 bedrooms) this time, and it was so nice to spend quality time with the family! Here are some of our highlights that we did together: We went on the fishing boat and caught LOTS of salmon, we BBQed some of it, and smoked most of it (homemade smoked salmon, to DIE for!). We swam off the dock to the floating trampoline and played around in the water with the kids. We paddled the kids around the edge of the lake with the paddle boat. One of us went out in the Kayak and got stranded treading water when it flipped (thank goodness that wasn't me!). We went out on the speedboat with the tube and wakeboard (no, the wakeboard wasn't me either. They wouldn't have let me anyways and it would have been a hilarious sight!) We hit balls in the tennis court & the kids rode bikes and roller skated. We went on walks and saw LOTS of deer. We picked fresh peaches and then when it rained we played board games and Wii. We had a family home evening night where we talked about how we can make our family stronger, more of a unit. And Dad told some of his Alaska hunting/wilderness stories that we love so much! It was an such a wonderful experience, thank you Uncle Dennis for providing all the facilities to make it so much fun!!

Here are some of our fishing pictures:














And here are some of our boating/tubing pics:













Swimming off the dock, boat & floating trampoline:








The wildlife was amazing! If you wanted to see the eagles or hawks, all you had to do was toss out a carp off the boat & wait! I once saw 5 deer at the same time, and Amber & her kids almost had a run-in with a bear. Last time we were there, the kids saw moose.







The view off the deck is so panoramic, (here's Janai playing on the deck) you can see almost the entire lake & the mountains are so HUGE! We also watched a meteor shower one night & the stars felt like you could reach out and touch them.






And of course, pancake breakfasts, games, and down time to relax & visit with eachother:












I'm still waiting on more pictures, when I get them I'll update my blog. Nothing like a family reunion to rekindle relationships and make you feel more of a close knit family. We missed you Cory, Minnie, Scott, Diana, Dan & Kimmie, it was SO well worth the trip up, and we hope you're able to join us next year!!

Happy Birthday Kalani!!

Happy birthday - Kalani is two!! And we threw a very nice family birthday party for him last week. Mom, dad, Amber, Steve, Minnie, Cory & all the cousins were there. We enjoyed a barbecue of hamburgers & salads, and then cake and ice cream! We completely demolished this choo-choo train cake that I fell in love with online & just HAD to reproduce. It took forever, lots of sweat & tears put into that baby, and we ate most of it!! Kalani is my sweet baby boy, but he's growing up and not a baby anymore! Before we know it a real baby will be here & he'll be one of the middle children! I love my sweet little baby boy, and it was so fun for us to all celebrate him as a family!

Computer CRASH!

Can you believe it? I went an entire week (or was it more?) without a computer! I felt as if I'd cut off a limb. Didn't realize how attached I am to being able to jump online whenever I felt like it & drop someone an email, type up a church lesson, print some labels, do a quick google search, or visit blogs!! It turned out that the motherboard to our old computer was shot & we could keep the hard drive, but we'd still need to buy a new computer. I found a decent refurbished one on Amazon for a good price, and we'll have that 2nd hard drive soon enough! So I'm finally online again, yay!