Megan's Baptism

I have a little confession.....

I forgot to invite the ward to Megan's baptism. 

The only reason that any non-family members ended up being there was that I asked a few of them to play the piano and lead the music. 

Oh yes. And the Bishop was there.

At first I felt pretty awful about my mistake, but once the program started and we were in the middle of singing "Joy to the World" (one of Megan's favorites), I really started to feel the Spirit. And I looked around me and I was grateful that we were just a small group and that we all knew each other and loved each other. 

Megan was so happy to stand with her Dad.

John and Shannon and their little kids were there to show their support. It's no small thing to travel 3 1/2 hours each way with little kids in the car. We felt the love.

Grandma Kathleen and Grandma and Grandpa Fields all traveled to be there for Megan on this special day.

She radiated happiness.

Megan wore the same dress that I was baptized in. Mom brought it all the way from Utah...on loan from Aunt Heidi. I hope that all my daughters will be able to wear it.

After the baptism and confirmation, we returned to our house for visiting and Pork Barbacoa....with the missionaries. I have never been awesome about checking my calendar before signing up to feed those fellows. :)

Laney also loaned out some of her dress ups to the Grandparents...who took it all perfectly in stride. 

Joe was sporting our old cowboy hat while Jean checked her plastic Cinderella purse for hidden treasures.

I got a kick out of the next few pictures:

My mom doesn't just wear the scarf...

She wears. that. scarf.

It was a beautiful day.

Boy Scout Camp 2013

Now, I wasn't at Boy Scout camp, so I can't exactly write about it.

I will tell you what I do know about that week:   IT WAS HOT.

Like...fires of HADES...hot.

But he was there with his Dad.

And he was bonding with his fellow scouts.

Learning essential lifesaving skills.

Like how to make flotation devices out of you clothes....if you happen to be drowing while wearing your father's church clothes.

And the best part....the ride home.

The garden and a new love

The garden is in full swing. The beans are on. The tomatoes are on...those I planted and the many many others that came up in the compost pile. The cucumbers are on. The jalapenos await their destiny in salsa. The bell peppers are ripe for the picking. There are cantaloupes aplenty. 

But I have discovered something new. 

I have fallen in love with beets. It turns out that if you water your garden on a regular basis, everything grows better AND tastes better. 

The beets are like little purple jewels of earth candy. 

I am totally bummed that I only planted 2 rows. 

I have also discovered that carrots absolutely, positively, no doubt about it, don't even think about not doing it....MUST be thinned.  If you can bring yourself to pull out most of those sweet little baby carrot plants, the rest of them will have room to grow.

And then you will have the fun of pulling up the big ones:

And it is so fun.

Butter box

OH.

MY.

WORD.

Megan turns 8

Megan awoke to a giant mylar strawberry balloon and a box of Fruit Loops!

Her birthday dinner was Pork Barbacoa, with sliced strawberries. Yeah!

She took the time to make complimentary place cards for each person.

Her request for her cake was to be able to decorate it herself, so she went with blue icing, an '8' candle and the word "Babtism".....I know....I just didn't have the heart to tell her. 

She was so excited. 

She allowed Mathew to light the candle....an early birthday present for him.

And she opened up her gifts....most noteably, her sparkly, LED lit, dragon statue.

Her "Friend Party" was at Chuck E Cheese and she invited her friends Kayli and Cory from school, Ella and Zoe Romine, Aidan Flynn and the McCauley boys. I didn't get many pictures because I was too busy divying up tokens and counting heads.

I know she had a great time and I was so glad that she felt special and loved on her birthday. She had cupcakes decorated with little miniature balloon on the end of wooden skewers. They all looked like little floating balloons and they were really cute.

I was thankful that Courtney stuck around and took over the baby rocking so that I could keep the party rolling.

She had a wild and wonderful time!

The truth about canoeing

Here's the thing I'm starting to realize about canoeing....

We heave that thing up on top of the van and we strap it down...I mean, we really secure that sucker. Then we load up all the kids and all the life jackets and we head over to the lake and everybody is all ramped up for this great canoeing time...

But when it come right down to it, what they actually want to do is poke sticks in the sand and look for muscle shells.

They are thrilled to paddle around in the canoe for maybe 15 minutes. 

They could do THIS....... for HOURS.

Which would have been nice to know BEFORE the heaving, securing and strapping.

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