Anna's Photo Blog

We have a local store called Anderson's Seed and Garden. It is a fabulous place, where you can buy seeds by weight and just about anything else you need for a garden.

L decided she would have her own seed store, and she has been collecting seeds all summer-from the food we eat as well as from the weeds and flowers around here.


M made a sign for her too:


She hired M to help her run the store, and she paid M half the revenue. Here is L's Seed and Garden, under our apple tree in the back yard. Notice the piggy bank on the bucket, and there is a stick behind it, which is for scanning bar codes.


They have great customer service and were very helpful when I made my purchase. On this particular day, they were selling potted plants. L, as a self-proclaimed "botanist of wild edible plants," dug up edible weeds and potted them in yogurt containers to sell.


On this day they were selling seeds.


Here is a close up of what was for sale that day: moss, peas collected and dried from our garden, yellow columbine seeds gathered from the front yard, apricot pits, dandelion seeds, and cherry pits.

Here are some peas we picked.


L planted a moss garden.




And here is Sparkles. He is so beautiful!


Here is Baby A after helping me weed the garden. She LOVED it! (That's some raspberry mixed with the mud on her face.)






Here is L with her pumpkin that she grew. It weighed 16 pounds, and she was so proud of it!! (M's pumpkin is still growing, we'll have a picture of that one eventually.) Shortly after we planted the seeds, L found a recipe for pumpkin cookies in the Friend magazine. Ever since then, she has been looking forward to harvesting her pumpkin so that we could make pumpkin cookies from it and give them to our neighbors. We did, and it was so much fun.


I found the most beautiful garden spider living in our tomato plants. I had actually been hoping and looking for one since I planted a garden last year. We took a bunch of pictures and then threw him a grasshopper to eat. It was fascinating to the girls (and me) to see him wrap the grasshopper up.

I am trying to catch up, so forgive me for lumping two months worth of pictures into an entry, AGAIN. As I am looking over all the pictures to post, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for our children and our family. We have three of the VERY best kids ever! (I am allowed to say that because this blog is mostly for their grandparents. ) And not only are they so cute, they have kind hearts and they are sweet and good and so very enjoyable! It is a privilege to be their mother! It is impossible for me to put into words the great joy that I have in my family. Nothing beats that feeling that comes in those moments when everything is going perfectly in our family as we work, play, and love together. It is no wonder that the family is ordained of God. The family is where we have our greatest joy, our greatest blessings, and our best opportunities for learning and growth of all kinds. And, I have come to understand so much more about God and His nature and His relationship with us through being a parent. What blessings!

(Wow, I just wrote a real paragraph on this blog. Just don't get used to it. )

And now, onto the pictures:





L lost her first tooth!




Goofball M wearing the ears she colored from Primary. (They are on a string tied around her head.)














This is the train at the American West Heritage Center.






Their favorite part was riding the ponies. There weren't many people there so they got an extra long turn.

We got some kittens this spring. They are so incredibly friendly and sweet.


The gray one is named Sparkles. He is a boy, but the name was picked out months in advance, so he is stuck with it. He is very cuddly and loving.








Tiger is a girl. She is also very loving.



They both are very gentle and put up with anything. I think they really truly love every minute with L and M, even being carried around like this:







L and M are very gentle and good with them, but Baby A gets a little too excited and wants to grab them. She has managed to grab them a couple of times, but they do not retaliate at all. They both will just sit patiently while I work A's hand open. (Even the time Baby A grabbed Tiger's face with both hands!) And then they will scurry two feet away so that they are just out of reach. Over the months, Baby A has gotten pretty good at petting them softly, so as long as A is on my lap, Tiger and Sparkles love to rub up against her and be with her. They are smart and know that if Baby A is by herself, it is best to stay just out of reach.