My garden ... what a blessing

HK shelled all of those peas. Some of them were extra big - oops. The smaller they are the better they taste. On Saturday I sat on one end of the table with HK at the other end. I worked on snapping the ends of all the beans I picked. I picked 3 and a half pounds (1600 grams) of bean that morning. They are just starting to reach the right size for picking. HK and I enjoyed an hour of talking and working together. She actually worked the entire hour. She is learning that being provident is an important life skill that is very rewarding. She dropped a few peas and we talked about being careful and how every pea counts. One pea may not seem like much, but it adds up. Just like one row of peas doesn't really amount to much (may be a $1.50 worth or one bag of peas from the store) but when you take into consideration the corn, peas, snow peas, red and yukon gold potatoes, red, green, and walla walla onions, squash and zucchini, cucumbers, roma, plum, and big beef tomatoes, basil, lavender, cabbage, carrots, spinach, and four types of pumpkins - well, it adds up. It's so worth the work!

Here you can see the shelled peas, the always out of control zucchini plants, my red onions (I'm going to have to plant some more spinach so I can enjoy my red onion/spinach/feta cheese/bacon salad.), and my genovese basil plants. I found that the basil did better planted right in the ground, rather than trying to transplant it.


Here you can see the 1600 grams of green beans, my best cucumber plant, the beautiful white blossoms of the jalapeno plant and an up close view of the basil's curly leaves.



Our first crook neck squash! And the sun setting near the mountains (I was messing around with manual mode). We may or may not have a jack-o-lantern pumpkin this year - but at least there is hope with this little guy showing up FINALLY! And I forgot to delete some of the photos but this is the echinacia I bought on clearance - it's a perennial, so next year it should look a million times better.


The corn silk is just now showing up, as well as the tassles. Again, playing with my camera settings - low f-stop of 4 something. Walla Walla onion - I never saw this on my yellow onions last year. Can you say SALSA?

Again I forgot to delete some of these but I love the view from the upper section of my backyard.


Carrots and grass clippings, a baby Spirit Bush pumpkin, three baby Pumpkimons, and looking west over my garden.


9 half rows of green bean plants, the last of my snow peas, finally a sweet slice cucumber, and the ultra amazing cone flowers (all things denote there is a God - I so believe it when I see beauty in nature)


Squash plant, two pics of our out of control lemon thyme (want some? it transplants easily) it's just over taking my rock stairs. And last but not least - Roma Tomatoes! Every branch is loaded like this. Again: SALSA time is just right around the corner!

Another FREE Scrapbook page to download

If you want the font I used here, it's by Autumn Leaves AL Handcrafted. I used a path to add my text quickly to the curve.
You can do this by selecting the blue line with your magic wand tool in Adobe Photoshop. Then go to the very bottom of the Paths Pallet and click the little icon that says "make work path from selection" when you roll over it. Then click on the Text Tool and move it to the upper left part of your path (you'll know when you are there because it will change slightly) and click - then start typing. Duplicate that layer, move it below, select all of the text and start typing something new. Have fun!



Haeley is almost done with her final set of swim lessons. Shown is the butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle strokes.

Pinedale, Wyoming

Such a neat area! The photos don't do the mountain range justice. It's much more beautiful in real life. I've never seen anything like it. We will definitely go back. Check out some of the wedding photographs we created while we were there. Click on the images below to see them larger.

New Bridal Portraits on Website

I just uploaded new bridal portraits to our photography blog. I took most of them. Tyler took a few as well. Can't go wrong with this amazing couple! Let me know what you think.

We've also been hiking

I really enjoyed this hike. It took most of the day. The kids really enjoyed it. And the temperatures in the mountains are much nicer than in the valley's. We started out with coats. It was overcast and chilly but soon warmed up and the coats went into our packs.



and here is the wildflower version of the same page. I included my thoughts on flowers. If you want to read it, click on the image to see it larger and you might be able to read it.


Another FREEBIE! Feel free to click on this and then save it to your computer. I thought I'd share this fun page with you as well!

Catching Up with Summer

Somehow it's already July and I'm not sure how that happened. We are already done with one set of swim lessons, we've been to the library countless times, and then we enjoyed 3 days of 4th of July celebrations. I'll have to post those photos soon. Haeley has mastered the front crawl and backstroke. She is learning the butterfly and breaststroke. She has joined me for lap swim a few times. Oh, I started swimming again. It's wonderful to glide through the water, back and forth, across the pool. I love the repetition, the quiet solitude. We also photographed a bride last night and her soon to be family. The photos are gorgeous and I can hardly wait to post them. Busy, busy. Have a great week!

Weekend Fun

We enjoyed a little weekend fun at Grandma's house. Our yard is slowly growing in, so maybe in August we could actually put down a slip and slide somewhere. I am going to add links to some of the photography we've been doing lately. Feel free to let those families know what you think of their images or let me know what you think. We are still offering $35 for each photo session referral and we'll pay you as soon as they pay their minimum commitment fee. Hope you are having a great week! Now back to folding laundry...

Cook Children's Photography

Cook Family Photos

Donna's Family Photo for her 80th Birthday

San Diego Temple Sealing

Senior Photos







Become a fan of Vanderbeek Images on FACEBOOK!

Free stuff!

Everyone likes free stuff once in a while, right?

See my examples on yesterday's post. Well, click on the first image here and then download the large image. It's a 12x12 page @ 300 dpi saved at 10 quality. And if you leave a nice comment on this post or yesterday's post, I'll email you the second page (a 12x24 inch two page spread) FREE!
Hope you have a great week!

First Harvest

We are a little behind up here in Cache Valley. It's been rather wet and cold and we are just beginning to hit temps in the 80's. I know, weird! I picked spinach leaves and cleaned them today. I am in charge of dinner tomorrow, so I thought a nice salad would be great! Nothing else is really ready yet, but I am so excited at how well things are progressing. I learned from our cold spring last year and bought black plastic to put around the tomatoes - they are already blooming and we have dozens of little tomatoes on our 14 plants. I started my onions much earlier this year - they might actually be ready this fall and I put them on the outside edges to help keep bugs out and so I can easily harvest all the rest of the items that don't take as long to grow. After I pull up a few things this fall I am going to try and add one 4x4 square foot garden and see how it works for things like fall peas, cabbage, etc. You can grow the same amount of veggies in 20% of the space using that method - it's just that I don't want to have to re-do my drip irrigation so I'll have to come up with something clever. We'll see.

My Eternal Family - San Diego Temple 2009

My mom's parents finally made the trek to the temple. They've been married for 62 years and now they'll be married for not just this life, but eternity. Grandpa is 84 and grandma is a few years younger. And what was even more wonderful is that my mom and her sister, their only children, were able to go with them and be sealed to them as well. My mom and her sister escorted Grandma and my Dad and Uncle Tony (their son is laws) escorted Grandpa through everything. It was pretty amazing to be there and believe it or not, the inside of the San Diego temple is even more beautiful. If you ever get the opportunity to go to San Diego, go check out this temple!

Photo Editing Class

Jessica Sprague's Free class- click here!

I'm behind but we're having fun!

First of all, I am a terrible videographer and I had a 3 year old boy sitting on my lap who was tired of the dress rehearsal and we were at the end of the 4 hours. Haeley had a blast and I really am upset that I missed taking video of the second song - she was so cute and smiled the entire time. Coleton was having difficulties. Her outfit was so adorable too. Of course, the ballet was so cute too! I love her costume this year. I got some fun photos to make up for it.

Oh and I've never uploaded video either so here goes!

Ready, Set, Register

Registration for CKmedia's Digital Scrapbook Experience is now open!

I will be teaching Better Photos for Storytelling and Photo Editing: Perfecting People.

Don't forget to download all of the Freebies- whether or not you are coming.

There is even travel and lodging information.

If you attend - please stop by and say hello!

Primary Party

Well, I'm experiencing a lot of firsts around here lately being new in Primary. Tomorrow is our first Primary party - a quarterly thing. We've divided it up into 15 minute segments and we are rotating through them. We figure on 60 people with leaders and children - we'll see. I am in charge of the Parable of the Pickle and I am going to have the children plant bush cucumber seeds. You can find the .pdf here.


The Primary President is in charge of the Articles of Faith section. We want to help them memorize all 13 and the children can earn a box of candy once a year when they pass them off. We are trying to have the children do this without competing with each other. Pass them off without other children around probably. But we want to give them an incentive. We have a struggling ward with wonderful people in it who just need a little boost. Life is, well, life. Anyway, the children will receive a bookmark focusing on the theme "My Eternal Family" (my husband took the photo of the Logan Temple and I made the bookmark) at the end along with a creamie pop and their planted seeds.




There will be relay races and games as well as serious activities such as the Articles of Faith Class, Word of Wisdom, and The Iron Rod obstacle course.

I wanted to share the Candy wrapper (notice this is not a candy bar wrapper - it's for things like Gobstoppers, Runts, Nerds, etc)




So feel free to print, cut, wrap, and glue them to your own candy boxes. If you share this - please give credit where it is due. Fonts are Autumn Leaves HairBrained, Arial, and Arial Black. It is 5.85 x 10 inches and I used Adobe photoshop and Illustrator to design it. I drew the children from an idea I saw online but it's not a copy - I just used the idea as a jumping off point.

President Graff

I found out today that President Graff passed away on Saturday. He was the president of the Washington DC North Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was a wonderful man and a great leader. He was the father of 9. He also took great care of hundreds of missionaries for the 3 years he volunteered as mission president. He was my mission president for 'a little under a year' (you sisters remember that saying, right?). Actually about 10 months. When I saw him October 2008 at the 10 year reunion of the mission, he asked all about how I was doing and that he was glad to hear I was doing well. He made sure that I told Sister Graff about my cancer because they wanted to make sure to remember who to pray for. I felt right at home around Pres. Graff, meaning that although he was strict and didn't smile a whole lot (like my dad), he was genuine and full of love and care for each of the missionaries. He expected us to work hard, be strictly obedient to the mission rules, and be on time - no - be early to everything possible. He was serving as a sealer in the Seattle Temple and enjoying being a grandfather at the time of his passing. Sister Graff shared with me about his terrible car accident not too many months before the reunion. They almost lost him then. While I am sad for their separation, I know he was one of Heavenly Father's noble and great ones and he is already doing all he can to serve the Lord on the other side. He surely qualified through righteous living and faith in Christ for all the blessings of the atonement our Savior provided for us. Sister Graff is strong and I am sure her many children and Grandchildren are by her side at this moment. I pray that his family will find comfort at this time. Interesting little fact. President Graff's son married President Farne's daughter. President Farnes was the very next Washington D. C. North mission president and I served under him for the next 8 months of my mission.

Misty and Laura with Sister Graff

Life...

Just catching up on a million things with Tyler home. His trip was long and we are all so happy to be together again. I just finished this photo session and her order yesterday. Have a look and tell me what you think.
Family Photography

my G5 is live!

my computer is back from the dead - so when I get caught up after over a week without I will be posting some photos and fun!

Happy Easter

My children really enjoyed the Easter Egg hunt and there was only one egg that we couldn't find. CJ was the last of all of his cousins to find his eggs but he was a good sport. Grandma gave them books, sand molds, squirt guns, and bubbles to enjoy this spring. I gave them some heavy duty plastic gardening tools - which they enjoyed this morning (along with their butterfly nets) until it became too windy. I also gave them a chocolate bunny, m&ms, reeses pieces, silly straws, socks, and a few other odds and ends. Last night we finished reading the book "When the Stone was Rolled Away" from the Believe and You're There LDS book series. I think HK is catching on more to the story of Christ and his sacrifice and resurrection. CJ listened which is a great thing to get a toddler to do when the story only has one drawing per chapter.

I am learning more and more about Gardening too. I have to jot things down so I do not forget. My SIL said that once I plant my cabbage outside I need to get a pack of ladybugs too. I know that the local garden store sells them. I am trying to stay away from pesticides. I gave a tomato plant to my MIL and SIL for Easter and as thanks for taking care of CJ while I was away. Today I moved two more tomatoes to my old gallon pots that I sterilized. I am putting new peat pots in my tray when I take the old ones out. I am now planting lavender which I am super excited about. I finally got dill seeds to plant outside when I plant my tomatoes. They are supposed to attract the bugs away from the tomatoes to the dill - making them easier to see and dispose of. I have plenty of pepper, tomatoes, and cabbage sprouts. I have most of my seeds, including potato seed which I stored in my basement fruit room until I can plant them. Which reminds me, I need to call the landscaping place and find out about top soil and boulders....

Home at last - it was a long drive with it's unexpected twists and turns. But Orlando was beautiful for the 3 hours I was there. The wind was insane. It was with us the entire drive and even made me a little nervous at take off as the plane twisted back and forth before finally getting off the ground. Instead of 35 hours, it took 42 hours of driving and in 3.5 days. We were tired. We listened to the New Moon audio book and then read Peace Giver - quite the contrast. My mom had fun with HK and Tyler's mom had fun with CJ. I never thought I would actually drive across the United States again. I was 12 the last time we did that (from Ft. Rucker, Alabama to Ft. Richardson, AK - stopping in Texas to see Grandparents and then San Diego to see Aunts and Uncles on up to Seattle to see more relatives and then up to Anchorage.) This time we didn't travel quite as far and I was with my husband instead of my parents and brother and sister. Needless to say, I am glad to be home!

States and Cities along the way - I'd like to see Chattanooga, Tennessee again - probably in the fall


Wyoming


sorry, this one is not quite done. I am waiting for a photo of Orlando. Anyone got a title idea? I'm fresh out!


The End

breakfast conversation

It went like this:

CJ: I love Daddy. I love you too Mom. Do you love me?
Mom: Yes, I love you CJ, very much.
CJ: Do you love Daddy?
Mom: More than any other person in the world.
CJ: Oh, good!

This is one of those sweet little memories to cherish amid the potty training dismays and recent lack of a regular nap time. He sure is growing up quickly. His ability to speak so clearly at such a young age keeps me in awe. And I love how he puts his thoughts together. Although he still makes up words I can't translate.

Some of his other favorite things to say are:
"Oh, Mommy has pretty lips again!" (anytime I apply lipstick)
"Daddy at work?" (every morning)
"My Jeep. This is my Jeep and those are my keys." (every time he plays with his ride on escalade which he can now carry up and down the stairs without help)
"HK is my sister! I am her brother! I love my sister." (randomly throughout the day)