My B(ee) Boy!

Have I mentioned that we have bee's? Yes, the real kind. The one's that make honey! It has been quite the adventure. We are learning so much. Vaughan has taken on the project of learning and caring for them full force!

How they came to be: I received an email about "someone" looking for yards that he could set up some beehives in. He would pay for everything and we would get 1/2 the honey. Sounded too good to pass up!

I emailed back and told him we were interested. He came and checked out our property and we were APPROVED! A few months later he came and set up the hives.

This is how they looked pre bee's! The week before we were to get the bee's (sometime in May) we noticed some bee's flying in and out of one of the hives. Weird... apparently a swarm decided to take up residence! So funny.

Unfortunately, when the bee's "arrived" some of the "bee kits" really struggled. And they lost many of them. It was so sad to see all the dead bee's. So they put a "healthy" kit in the one hive and a struggling one in the hive with the other bee's that had moved in. I'm happy to say both hives are doing Awesome!


Our hives are thriving and are twice as tall as they were in the beginning. Our beekeeper comes every month and checks on the bees and makes sure they are healthy and happy.


This is Vaughan and our beekeeper friend at one of our monthly hive check ups. Vaughan put this trellis in - complete with plants to create a barrier from balls and wandering kids! Thank goodness he did, 'cause one of our dust storms picked our trampoline up off the ground and smashed it into the trellis. It broke parts of the trellis, but no harm to our bee hives! I don't think our bee friends would have been very happy!

In July he pulled the feeder box off of one of the hives and found the bee's had started making honey in it. (They weren't supposed to) So he gave us the honey.


It was fun to get to taste the honey and sample the honey comb! Yummy stuff! I can hardly wait to harvest the honey. It's so mild and yummy.

If anyone wants to come check out our bee's and show your kids come on over. Vaughan loves to give field trips! It's pretty safe and he is careful with the kids!

My Favorite 4th of July celebration

The Fourth of July 2011 was spent a little differently than in the past! As it got closer to the day reality set in that we would not be traveling and that I really wasn't feel well enough to do anything too adventurous!

BUT I still wanted to have fun and spend time as a family and make some memories! I got a little idea and I started sharing it with my kids. It went something like this: This year for the 4th of July everyone is going to come up with some food idea for our celebration. If possible, it should have a 4th of July theme.

I told the girls I had seen some fun ideas on blogs and if they needed any ideas I would happily help them!

To be honest, I thought I would be met with some complaints. I didn't really expect that everyone would participate. I prepared myself to be disappointed. (Not very confident, huh!)

This was my most favorite 4th of July celebration ever. Honest. The ultimate best.

Everyone participated. The creativity was amazing! Even the ones that don't usually participate.

Case in point:

Exhibit A.
This is one of my favorite pictures. Yep, our sweet Heather really got into it! Came up with her own idea. Bought the ingredients and went to work! Look how cute her American Eagles turned out...
She - will never really know how happy she made me! LOVED IT!The other girls were great sports too! Heidi came up with Red, White and Blue roasted potatoes! They were really yummy. And yes there are blue potatoes. It almost ended up as red and white potatoes - but Grandma Moore came to the rescue when she found some blue potatoes and brought them over that day!


Hillary made a YUMMY fruit pizza that looked like the flag! Beautiful and delicious all in one!

Hope made these fabulous Rocket Dogs! And yes! they sent you to the moon and back they were so good! Pretty cute too - she had very little help! I was so proud of her!


Somehow I neglected to get a picture of Holli and my Mom! Holli was a life saver cutting the watermelon (a must have for any summer celebration) and wrapping the corn on the cob in foil for the grill! My Mom made a yummy carver's salad and Vaughan grilled the chicken and steak for us!

I saw these cute ideas for some drinks and put those together. (Something I could do sitting down!)
The red white and blue drinks AND the pop rock rimmed glasses! They were fun and added alot of festivity to our meal! I also had a cherry pie in the freezer and made a cute bunting to garnish it with!
I had spent the day cutting and gluing the bunting and the cute banner I found on the internet.
Then James did his part and got the laptop to work on the tv and we watched my Dad's favorite movie "High Road to China". It was so much fun. And a very special way to celebrate this amazing land we live in! We made lots of special memories. It was a day I will never forget!

There's a New Beehive in the House!

Hope turned 12 on June 24th. It's hard to believe it's been 12 years since she was a baby in my arms. But it's true, and believe me she won't let me forget it!

She is SO excited to go to girls camp this year. Poston Jr. High. And all the other exciting things that come with the teenage years. It's hard not to join her in the excitement! But I see all the little girl things of days gone by and I miss them.

Hope is growing into a beautiful young woman. She is a sweet girl with loving and considerate ways. She is concerned for others and their feelings - most of the time. I very proud of her and the beautiful person she is inside and out.



We celebrated her birthday with a yummy dinner of pizza and she blew out candles on her Beehive Cupcakes! (her request!) Then we opened presents. It was lots of fun. And I hope she felt loved.

She was lovingly welcomed into Young Women's by being "bee attacked" in our yard. Each of her YW leaders came by and dropped of a treat. She got her personal progress books and she is all ready to start earning her YW medallion!


It's been fun to watch her and Holli already start working on her YW medallion. Yeah, I REALLY love this girl stuff! And I really love our Hope!