Our Garden

It has been quite the roller coaster of a ride for this garden.

• Ryan grew plants from the seed. They all died.
• Ryan bought small plants to replace them. He planted them May 22. May 24 it snowed 3 inches and killed half the plants.
• Ryan bought replacement plants.
• We accidentally used mulch that inhibits growth.
• We dug it out a month later after no growth and then things have been great since!

The stake has provided a bunch of land for us to have family plots.

We have green beans, hot peppers, bell peppers, cantaloupe, zucchini, green onions, celery, lemon cucumbers, and several plants of tomatoes.

It looks like a bunch of weeds, but it's not. Not the best picture, but we sure have a lot of produce from our garden! Wahoo!

One of our giant zucchinis. I've been learning LOTS of new recipes to use up all our produce! :)

Some more pics of the first harvest. We have even been giving away some of our food. Love it! Good Job Ryan!!!

Happy Anniversary!!

After going through my pictures, I have realized that I have failed to preserve a tradition of ours. When we got married 6 years ago, we made a goal to go to a different temple every anniversary. We have succeeded in that goal (thanks to having 13 temples in Utah alone) but I have failed to document several of these years. At least we have the memories! I love you Mr. Ryan Alkema!

2004 Bountiful Temple

I had to sneak this one in because most people don't know Ryan was on crutches our wedding day and so the bride romantically carried the groom away... :)

2005 Manti Utah Temple

2006 St. George Temple

2007 Salt Lake Temple

2009 Draper, Utah Temple (Oops! This is out of order)

2008 Mt. Timpanogos Temple

2010 Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Love you babe! Hope to have a pic of us in front of the Hong Kong Temple by 2044..ish. :)

Big Girl Bed!

I've been avoiding this step for a while because I've been so sick, but my super easy-going child made this transition too easy! Two days in a row she asked to sleep in a regular bed for nap time. I thought, "why not?" if she gets out, I'll just put her back in the crib. (she hasn't figured out how to climb out yet.) And two days in a row, she did great in the bed and didn't get out once.

So we set up the bed the next night and nap times and bed times have been smoother than ever. She'd normally cry for about 5 minutes in the crib then fall asleep or just talk to herself until she did fall asleep, but every time I put her down, Sadie says, "Sadie don't cry. It's okay." So literally, she hasn't cried once. I know I'm one lucky duck, so I'm expecting something wretched to happen. It's been 5 days now... keep your fingers crossed it will last!
Her first night in the toddler bed.
Checking out her newly arranged furniture.
Good job Sadie!

Yes, I'm awesome...

I caught my first fish... ever. Can you tell I'm excited???You can kind of see my baby bump here...I'm 20 weeks in this pic.
The fisherman in the background had a measuring tape and got it out for us... it was 15 inches long! Pretty good eh? Too bad it has to be over 18 inches to keep it.
P.S. I actually did very little to catch this fish. Ryan baited the line and cast it out. He left for a few minutes, so I reeled him in! Ha ha! It still counts though!

Already missing California

We had a great time in Napa visiting with Ryan's family. It was beautiful weather and wonderful company!Sadie got a cool new backpack from Grandma!
Ryan and Jesse at the A's game. We were so stoked to have the Stouts back from Japan, if only for a few days!

We went to the Oakland Temple as a family to witness Ryan's brother, Nate, receiving his endowments. It was such an amazing experience! It is such a blessing to have so much family in the temple!
Ryan, Richard, Erin , Diana, Nate, Stef, Logan, and Jesse.
The Alkema boys!
We had fun fishing... especially because Ryan did all the work baiting and fixing all the lines!

We had to get a family shot because this will be the last time all of us are together again until Nate gets back from his mission in 2012!
Sadie and her cousin Kelsey had a blast all week!
At the beach with Sadie, Kelsey and Uncle Nate
The boys playing 3 flies up with the frisbee!
Tiffany, Sadie, Aunt Patti, and Ashley relaxing...
Ryan had to take the girls exploring to find crabs!
They only found little ones, but the girls got to hold them! Cool!!
We had to document these cute cousins in matching jackets! Too cute! (Kelsey, Sadie and Mia)

It was such a fun week, we didn't want it to end! Ryan has been working way too much, so it was a fun getaway because we got to spend so much time with him!!! We miss you Alkemas and we miss you beautiful California!

Happy Independence Day!

To celebrate independence from those crazy Brits, we began by mapping out the uncharted waters of the free highland water pad. Fortunately Sadie maneuvered herself skillfully through the rocky aquatic terrain without washing up to shore.
Lets face the facts friends, Ryan is awesome and creative, truly an underpaid master of innovation and imagination; we believe he is the first in our worlds history to invent red, white, and blue pancakes.
Cheers mate.

This is our good Bishop fixing the annual Bishopric Independence Day Breakfast. It was so fun, they all did a great job!
This is our 1st councilor in the bishopric, Brother Rushton.
Sadie had a wild streak over the weekend. She didn't come home until one in the morning and tried to hide her gecko tattoo but we're no idiots; we're encouraging her to discover who she is and try new things. Don't be mad grandmas... we all know about your tattoos too.
Look at this beautiful girl, so innocent and full of curiosity and adventure.
We had so much fun at the Freedom Festival down in Provo. There were so many fun things to do, we just couldn't do it all!
Here is the instinctual battle over unclaimed territory; we're pretty sure Sadie is attempting to convince a recent rival that all of the blow up balls are, in actuality, hers and she can't have any.
We also had a bbq with some friends from our married student BYU 141st ward. It was so good to see everyone, but we didn't get the best pics. :( But we were loving the smores.

Another exciting event was the arrival of the Cardon fam. We definitely missed Paul, but the kiddos sure had fun together.
How cute is this little chika?
Raeanna and I had to be our own photographers, so this is the best we could get.
I like this picture, but it's too bad Hannah isn't exactly smiling. Oh well... ;)
One of the best weekends of the year!!!! LOVED IT!