Thursday, July 26, 2012

A new kind of vegi


Look Mom, I picked a BIKINI from the garden!  Woops, I what he meant to say was a ZUCCHINNI! 

Porter is my garden picking buddy.  He loves to go and check to see if we have any new vegies and I have to remind him frequently NOT to pick things before I give him the go ahead.  He was totally proud of himself the morning he picked this beauty!
When we can't find Kam and Porter, this is where we look first...in the pea patch! They are sooo excited about the garden produce, especially the peas and our huge raspberry patch that is just starting to produce!

Speaking of "garden buddies" ...Morgan loves the garden too, not the weeding part, :) but the planting, tending, harvesting, part.  We dug up a few of our red potatoes last night and she was right there excited to see how big they were.  I decided to try growing my own tomatoes this year and I'm sooooo excited, they actually worked out and Morg's spotted our very first orange tomato!  We have TONS of green ones but just a few that are starting to turn.  Salsa, salsa, salsa!!

This is Morgan checking for zucchini, (not bikini's) in our biggest zucchinin plant...I think we have 7-8 plants but this one is awesome!  I know we're seriously crazy for having so many plants but the kids love delivering it to the neighbors (even if the neighbor's lock their doors when they see us coming) hahah! 
Another garden lover, Jordyn, actually, she doesn't like weeding, doesn't like the spiders, doesn't like getting dirty, but loves picking shirts full of peas to snack on--see how stuffed her shirt is?  I always loved the pea patch as a kid!!  I didn't like eating them, just picking them, and I thought they were pretty disgusting.  But, because my siblings liked them and I didn't want them to think I was crazy, I swallowed them whole and pretended to LOVE them!

Here are our 7 tomato plants!  I'm almost giddy with excitement that I actually grew my own.  Morgan claimed one tomato plant for her own and she checks it faithfully!  I love to garden and love when I don't kill something off...I've done a lot of that over the years.  The sight of this little red tomato hanging on the vine just makes me smile!!!!!!!!   

Here is our garden, the thing that requires tons of hours a week but the thing that is teaching my kids lots of great lessons of hard work, following the prophet, self reliance, taking careful care of something you care about, not to mention, weeding, watering, harvesting, etc.  The first section is all raspberries and the 2nd section we are growing beans, peas, onions, potatoes, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and corn. 




Thursday, July 19, 2012

more music camp (pool edition)

One of the highlights of music camp is swimming in Aunt Lori's backyard pool after a long day at classes!  The kids never tire of the pool and when we finally drag them out, they love the backyard shower in their swimming suits that Uncle Brad designed!  It's pretty awesome but I don't think I took any pics of it this year, dang! 

The kids had fun practicing their swimming skills they picked up at this summer's swimming lessons.  Kaleb isn't totally confident yet swimming on his own but he's definetly not afraid of the water at all.  He spent the week trying all kinds of fun stuff like flips off the side of the pool and hanging from the basketball hoop and dropping off in to the water.  He'll be swimming in no time.  The twins are not afraid of the water at all but can't swim just yet but they love the water and will try just about anything!  The 3 older girls are fish!  I never thought I'd say that about my kids because they all started out being afraid of the water but now it's the opposite, thanks to swimming lessons!  Jordyn was all over the pool this year and swimming with no problem, Morgan was practicing diving and swimming beautifully, and Regan loves the water and swims really confident now, so it was a worry free year at the pool!
 
Porter thought he was so funny pretending to jump in the pool time and time again.  He had Kamryn laughing so hard she probably wet in the pool :):)

The kids found this old pool that kept deflating so they turned it in to their "raft" and they pretended for hours with it. 
Porter and Kaleb jumping off the side of the pool! 
Kamryn jumping off the side (not to be outdone by her brothers)

Jordyn showing off her tricks for us! 
Regan lounging in the pool! 
Kaleb and Jack having a good time together, Jack rarely takes off his goggles and is as daring as the rest of them!   

Porter being a goofball with his goggles and Kate and Jordyn being silly with their long hair 


This was the kids favorite trick and I happened to get only Morgan doing it.  They would stack the tubes and then get a running start and jump right through the center.  It was so funny to watch and pretty much entertained the older kids for hours!

Kate, Jack, and Kaleb doing their trick of hanging from the basketball hoop and then dropping in to the water!  Kate is an awesome swimmer -she and her older brother Todd are on the swim team in Rupert and both do awesome!  Wouldn't it be awesome to have a pool in your backyard???

and even more Music Camp!

Leaving for classes in the morning with Aunt Lor 
Regan waiting for her turn to perform 
Morgan anxiously awaiting her turn at the microphone! 
Regan getting ready to perform! 
Jordyn with her voice instructor, Janna Rae Christensen 
Morgan with her voice instructor, Leslie Mauldin

Jack and Kaleb getting ready for Children's Chorus! 


Camp Buddies!


Children's Chorus performing their songs!  Darn they were cute!

Music Camp 2012

We enjoyed another awesome week at Music camp last week in Rupert!  We've been attending the "Rise Up and Sing" music camp for 7 years now and every year just gets better.  The kids love everything about it, the teachers, the classes, the performances, staying with cousins, Aunt Lori's pool, dressing up, wearing makeup for the stage, choosing their songs, being on stage, comedy night, meeting new friends, etc.  If you live anywhere even remotely close to Rupert or Burley area, you must check this camp out because it is just so much fun and the teachers are the best! The kids individual performances are down below so, Grandma's, check them out!  Check out the camp's blog at www.riseupandsing.blogspot.com! 

Kamryn, Kaleb, Porter, & Jack
A week with our cousins!  Yeah!! 
Morgan, Kate, & Jordyn
 


Lori and I!  
The kids on their way to their final performance (Mary Poppins)

After the big show, Kamryn is less than thrilled about leaving
Aunt Lori's fun house!  The little pill did this in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE!!  Oh, and my mom got to spend half of the week with us this year! It was so much fun having Grandma be with us! 

Jordyn (Music Camp 2012) at OneTrueMedia.com

Honor's Recital

Regan at Music Camp 2012 at OneTrueMedia.com

Honor's Recital

Kaleb at Music Camp 2012 at OneTrueMedia.com

Wednesday recital

Morgan (music camp 2012) at OneTrueMedia.com

Honor's Recital

Thursday, July 5, 2012

More Gem State Track pics

I was terrible this year about taking photos at the trackmeets. I guess I was too busy taking video of the kids' races so we decided to take the kids over to BHS for some running and picture taking a couple of weeks ago.  It's just too darn bad that my camera is so crappy (or that I don't know how to use it properly) because these could've been awesome pics but I thought the idea was fun and the kids actually seemed like they were having fun with it. 
DJ jokingly said we should try to fill the other 2 lanes--I cut them off purposely :):) 
I love how Porter is looking right at Kamryn and not straight ahead.  If his head was turned the other way you would see a huge grin pasted on his face! 
On your mark, get set, GO!! 
I love these pictures--Regan wishes we could edit the fly away hair! :)  
Mr. perma grin, aka, Porter Teichert!
Porter's running stance just cracks me up..he looks like he's going in for a karate chop.  

Kamryn loves to run!  She begs us to time her over and over again doing 50's and 100's although I'm not sure she'll have a future in running if she doesn't learn to bend her elbows a bit. :):)  She's "road rash" waiting to happen.  
DJ decided that the kids should try barefoot running and they all actually loved it.  It just made me hurt to watch them but all of them shaved a couple seconds off their times running like this so now they are all begging for barefoot shoes. (In their dreams)