Lisa and John

We got a late start on our garden this year.  I had a hard time convincing my mind and body to actually get out there and plant anything.  But, we still have our strawberries.  (Which haven’t produced hardly ANYTHING, thank you!)  We also got some potatoes in the ground and they are looking promising.

As far as our bucket garden, it seems to be doing well.  I don’t think I have all the information and so it isn’t working just how I intended, but the plants are doing well.

In order for it to grow properly, you are supposed to put up a trellis support system.  We decided we would also make a frame that we could maybe cover with plastic.  John made a little “hoop coop” like we did for our chickens and it works great so far.  We haven’t covered it with plastic yet, but I think there is still time before winter sets in.  We hope to extend our season a little bit and maybe have some greens into the winter.  We’ll see if it actually happens!

My tomato plants are out of control and I wasn’t sure how to plant a bunch of “secondary” plants around them.  Apparently, I was supposed to “prune” the tomatoes to make that work.  Who ever heard of pruning tomatoes?  I guess I need to do some internet research.

We have gotten some pickling cucumbers out of the garden, a few tomatoes, some peppers, etc.  The potato that I planted is starting to die, so I think it may be time to harvest the potatoes.  I’ll keep you posted on that.

Avy uses the garden as a jungle gym.  Her friend is joining her here.

I guess that is about it.  The verdict is not out yet on the success or not.  But we are excited to try something new and maybe get even better next year.  I like not having to think about watering this part of the garden.  It is all automatic.

Calvin has moved through all his Cub Scout ranks.  The highest award that a Cub Scout can achieve is the Arrow of Light.  Calvin earned this award and it was presented at a special pack night in June.

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Bro. Pappas is our wonderful Cub Master and he brought his gun for a special Arrow of Light ceremony.  There were two boys that received the award that night.  He spoke about the early hunters in America who cherished their guns.  This particular gun is a Hawkins Rifle.  50 caliber.  Muzzle loader.  Black powder rifle.  It was a great gun.  (Still is–he has taken down deer with this rifle.)

As part of the ceremony, both boys were able to go into the church parking lot and shoot this awesome gun.

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Here is a picture of the Pappas’.  These are their mountain man outfits.  Sister Pappas makes most of their stuff by hand.  Very cool!

We had a fun Cub Scout Cook Out with our wolf den in early June.  We made ice-cream in a bag and cooked s’mores and pigs-in-blankets.  It was so much fun.

My neighbor Sister Nelson graciously allowed us to use her back yard.  It was the perfect setting for a fun cook out.

We brought DUCKIE along with us.

My fearless co-leader CeCe.

I’m not sure where Ivan was when I was taking pictures.  But he was there as well.

It’s great to be a CUB SCOUT!

Calvin turned ELEVEN on the 17th of June.  We had so much fun fishing and swimming last year so Calvin wanted more of the same for this year’s party.  We went to Spanish Oaks Reservoir and we all had a great time.

Calvin is 11 years old!

The scenery was beautiful.

The boys had a great time fishing.  No fish were caught, though.

We ate sub sandwiches and had a yummy CHOCOLATE TRES LECHE CAKE.  It was very rich and wonderful.

Happy Birthday, Calvin.  We love you so much!

What do you do when this little cutie shows up on your doorstep?  All the way from Georgia?

And this one?

You give their mom a hug!  Sorry about that pic, Tauna!

All the kids played well together for our 3.25 hour visit.  Then, our dear friends were off to complete the rest of their journey.

Before Christmas we had the opportunity to go skating twice in one week.  At the same place!  First, John has his company work Christmas party.  Then, we had a home schooling Christmas party.  Both were a lot of fun.

For the company party, John’s bosses gave out a ton of tokens, so Calvin and Ivan spent most of the time playing arcade games instead of skating.  But, they had a blast!

Calvin with one of his “winnings”.

Reed had fun scooting around.

John took Avy for a stroll.

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We invited Mary and her girls to come with us to the home schooling party.

Avy and Emily had fun pushing each other around the rink.

Natalie did great with the scooting.

Both were a lot of fun and we hope to go again soon.

I am trying to instill in my children a love of service.  Helping others is really what life is all about, right?  And, it feels so good.  At least, to me, it does.  My children are not quite so sure yet.  I think, though, as we go along my children will look forward to opportunities to help others.

Here are a few things we have been up to lately…..

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Early in November, some home schooling friends and their families met up at Maple Dell and we did a service project.  We sanded the benches in the scout camp’s chapel.  It was a lot of fun.

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Calvin and I took one evening and went to the LDS Home Storage Center.  We canned some food for ourselves and for a sister in our ward.  Calvin had a blast!

Here is a picture of Brenna who is expecting her second child next month.

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I don’t have any pictures, but we also spent an hour at the LDS Bishop’s storehouse.  We bagged oranges and grapefruit into 5lb. bags.  We got to go into the warehouse and see where they store all the food.  The boys weren’t so sure they wanted to be there, and Avy had a fit in the baby backpack, but I figure it will take time for them to get used to the idea.  I had a wonderful time.

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We attempted to make some soft pretzels for some of our neighbors for Christmas.  The recipe wasn’t that great, so we didn’t give very many away.  We did something else instead.  But, it was fun to make these for others, even if they didn’t receive them.

This is the one Reed (5 years) made of Baby Jesus.  He did it all on his own.   Wow!  Doesn’t it look great?  We did give this one to our neighbor, Sister Nelson.  She is the only one who got one, though.

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We also had the opportunity to “help others” by watching our neighbor’s children while they packed up their house to move.  Lulu, Bubba, and their new baby sister were a delight to watch.  We will miss them!

Avalon loved holding the baby and feeding the baby.  She can’t get enough!

She also enjoyed being the “baby” and getting into the baby’s car-seat.  Too funny!

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We did a little cousin gift exchange for Christmas and the boys made some beaded necklaces for their girl cousins.  They turned out very cute!

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Well, that is all I have for now.  If you need service rendered or can think of good ideas for children’s service activities, please let me know!  Helping Others is fun!  Right?…..Boys?…… Right!

It has been a busy month, but we are loving every minute of it.  I have lots of posts, but no time to share them.  Ha!  I was able to swipe some pictures off of Ivan’s new camera and make you another Smilebox Slideshow.  Here are a few pictures of what Christmas looks like around the Pratt house.  (Taken by mostly Ivan and a few other family members.)

We just want to wish you a Merry Christmas and we hope your day is special in many ways.  This was the first year that our Children actually woke US up for Christmas.  Apparently Calvin was up around midnight and could not go back to sleep!  Too funny!  Avalon LOVES all her new clothes and is wearing just about all of them simultaneously.  There is a fire in the wood-burning stove and we are toasty and happy in the love of new presents and warm monkey bread.  Just being together as a family on this special morning is wonderful.

Have a blessed day celebrating Christ’s love for each of us.  We love you!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Ivan turned EIGHT today and we had a GREAT birthday party to celebrate.  He invited several of his closest guy friends and we decided on a Science theme.  It was a blast.  Literally!  We got this idea from a website where they list hundreds of different party ideas and someone had posted a “Mad Scientist Party” idea where they had hired a guy from a company to come in and do science tricks.  (They lived in LA!)  I thought to myself, “I can do that!”  And, the idea was born and took off!  John and I really had  a lot of fun putting it together.  And, it was pretty low key, too, so that was nice.  We got some pics from the fun and you can look at this slide show.  Not pictured was the diet coke/mento experiments or the cornstarch slime ol’ stanby.  Also, for party favors we gave out glow sticks, pop rocks, and they each took home lots of slime.

The boys absolutely loved it.  They said it was the best party they ever went to.  One child also said, “Boy, you sure have to wash your hands a lot at this birthday party!”  Another child said, “Wow.  I only sit at home watching tv and being bored.  You have a lot of fun at your house.”  Ha!

Anyway, just thought I’d post these pics before they get lost in the rest of my “to do blog” ideas.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I taught my last “Healthy Cooking with Your Food Storage” class in November.  This has been a monthly class that I have taught in my church for the women.  We have done lots of fun stuff and our last class was on PIZZA.  Who doesn’t love pizza?  We made some fun gourmet pizzas along with a couple traditional kinds.  We all just brought lots of toppings and then played around with the sauce and toppings.  A sister in my ward even brought some home-made mozzarella and feta cheeses.  We used a %100 whole wheat crust which teaches us how to eat food from our home storage.  It was so yummy!  I think we all left a little over-stuffed.