Soil Therapy

There is something therapeutic about soil on the hands. Russ and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary by pulling out the old dead pine tree and replacing it with a smaller, ALIVE version! I would have liked to have put a larger tree in its place but the small one we planted was $150 so we decided we'll just have to let it grow to the size we have in mind.

Here is a shot from inside the car just after we hooked up a tow-pull and yanked the dead tree out. It came out quite easily...too easily, in fact!



After we planted the new tree in the front along with the three fruit trees in the back, I spent 3 days planting perinneals inbetween the rocks with great hope that they will spread throughout the years and make the area beautiful. We have a long way to go with the yard, but we are finally seeing a little progress. I planted petunias and violas in the front as well. If the snow would just stay away from us until fall.....keeping my fingers crossed!





We are super excited about the fruit trees in the backyard. At the nursery, we found that many of the trees have been grafted to contain several varieties of fruit. We bought a peach tree with 5 different grafts and a cherry tree with 4 kinds of cherries. (One of the cherry varieties is Rainer - my favorite cherry. It has a whitish/yellowish skin with some streaks of red throughout.) We also bought a Gala Apple tree and are excited for next year when the tree will start yielding fruit. For now, I'm enjoying the beautiful blossoms of the peach tree.



I have found that when depression or sadness sets in, I just need to get outdoors with the intention of making my hands and feet dirty. Maybe this is just the southern girl in me, but it is my personal therapy prescription!


Oh - Russ is also setting up some buckets for me to plant my tomato and pepper plants into. I've grown them from seeds and am excited for our salsa garden. We bought some water walls which are supposed to help the plant produce 6 weeks earlier and 6 weeks later without the weather playing a factor in production. I'm feeling like quite the farmer, but very happy in this role.

MeKenna's Baptism

What a wonderful day we had for Kenna's baptism! She was the only child baptized from our ward and so we were able to cater the program around her and have everyone speak that she wanted. Brenna talked on baptism and Aunt Patti spoke on the Holy Ghost. Her siblings and cousins all sang, "If The Savior Stood Beside Me" and it brought tears to my eyes. She even had her own, personalized beautician inbetween the baptism and confirmation. What a princess she was and is! (Thanks again, Brindi!)

Unfortunately, we lost our camera at the Stake Center so we don't have any of the pictures we took before hand nor the ones we took right afterwards.

Everyone came back to the house after the baptism for pasta and alfredo, marinara or another sauce that Russ likes. We had homemade bread sticks, snicker salad, green salads, banana pudding, cake and Brindi's famous treat spread. Again, I don't have pictures because we lost our camera. :(

One of the best surprises the day of Kenna's baptism was that the Gallups came to see Aunt Patti. It has been many years since they have visited so it was really nice to see them together.

For journaling purposes, the following people attended Kenna's baptism: Russ, Debi, Brenna, Tanner, Carter, Taylor, Chandler; Brother Rick Uribe (Conducted), Sister Mia Chase, Grandma Carol Curry, Aunt Kristin & Uncle Michael York, Aunt Patti Alexander, (Cousins) John & Danika Pope, Dan & Suzanne Gallup, (Kenna's Teacher) Dannielle Petersen along with her husband and baby Carter; The North Family - Jed, Laura, Deven, Amber, Bubba, Jared, Mikel, Ciera, Taylynn, Taryn and Zane; Brindi Nichol; Grandpa Dean Scadden (who witnessed), Grandpa Richard Scadden (who witnessed), Grandma Marie Scadden, Aunt Tina & Uncle Steve Estoque with Brandon, Amanda, Lauren & Nate; Uncle Kory & Aunt Melanie Scadden with Sadie, Ian, Sam and Ava; Uncle Jeff & Aunt Stephanie Scadden with Addy, Tyson, Jackson and Boston; Aunt Lara & Uncle Chris Lifferth with Amelia; Mark Davis, Marcelo Gomez, Ruth & Todd Mecham with CJ, Mindy & Avery Houghton and Brother Reggie Rappley.