Lots of growth. This first picture shows that sunflower grew from 54 inches to 72 inches in one week...that is over 2.5 inches a day! The back garden is growing. The sunflowers are shooting up (6 feet now for the tallest). The aphids are evil buggers destroying our watermelon and cantelope plants. The watermelon is bigger than the cantelope now. Tomatoes are cruising. The heat doesn't seem to hurt the plants, they just need lots of water. The back cantelope is going nuts. The back watermelon is being eaten by aphids. The spray doesn't seem to kill them. The peppers are setting and looking healthy. We have some ladybugs and ladybug larvae but they can't keep up with the aphids.

click to see slideshow->

Gotta sneak in the update tonight since I won't be around to do it tomorrow.

Watermelon is the big news this week. The little one we showed last week is growing a bunch! Plus there are at least three others set on this plant.

The sunflowers are still growing. You can see one is just about passing up Adam!

The cantelope is looking more like a cantelope too!

Oh yea, and we picked two tomatoes.

We also had an aphid infestation. But we think we have beat it...we'll see.

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We harvested our first two tomatoes today. Here are a few pictures (click here to see them). We also have a couple of videos Becca shot.

Enjoy.

Mom eating tomato:

Man-up Tomato Challenge:

OK, I know Mike and Melinda would be interested in these...

Here is a view of the garden one week later.

The biggest news is that the little cantelope we thought we had grew! It is amazing how much it grew in 7 days. One of the pictures shows Adam holding it.

It also looks like we have some watermelons that set as well. We'll see if they really did and what they look like in 7 days.

Our little garden under the window gets much more sun than the back gardens. You can see this in the sunflowers that were planted a week or two behind and have now caught up and passed the other ones. The tallest ones are over 36 inches now! We'll see if they make it to 12 feet.

Finally, we picked our first tomato...but the bad news was that the birds picked it first. So we put some screening around them to keep them out.

click to see slideshow->

So several weeks ago we put in some grow boxes and decided to see if we could get a garden going. We have been lucky as the weather has been good to us for the most part.

I realized we haven't taken any pictures of the process yet and thought this might be as good as it gets!

Here is what we planted.

Three different kinds of tomatoes. The roma are growing the best although the others seem to be coming on now. They all have some tomatoes on them. I think the roma has like 8 and the other two have two each.

We also planted Adam's soy bean plants he brought from school. Those are really interesting. One's leaves were eaten off and we thought it was dead but it started sprouting new little leaves. Then one day we noticed they were gone! But several days later another new set came out. This happened about four times and now the little stump has withered at the top. But not after giving its all! The other two bean plants are almost identical but one is twice as large as the other. I'm sure our soil is not that great and maybe it got in bad soil.

With the beans we have a strawberry which is healthy but not putting on any fruit after the first ones got eaten by birds. But it is still growing new leaves so we are patient with it.

We also had a green pepper plant. Its leaves were really being mangled. It seems something likes the new green leaves. I manhandled it a couple of times squishing what I think were aphids (the ants love being on it). Now it is much happier and there are not more ants around. (they are all on the soy beans now!)

We also planted a cantelope and watermelon in the boxes at the back by the fence. They had a rough time going. The cantelope seems to be doing better. The watermelon is like a minature little thing with tiny leaves. It is just about ready to sprawl.

We also planted sunflowers across the north end. I was always amazed at how tall they got. These can reach 12 feet with up to a 14 inch diameter head. I thought the kids would love them and I knew they would grow even if everything else died. We planted these by seed and it was fun to see them break through the ground. They are now taller and thicker than anything but the tomatoes and they are just about to pass them up now.

We have another grow box outside our bedroom window. This gets more direct sun for longer so we planted a cantelope and watermelon along with several sunflowers. This got started at least a week later than the other ones but it is really coming on now. The cantelope is much bigger than its sister plant and it looks like it has set maybe two cantelopes. The Watermellon is going nuts and covering the whole area. I think each of its tendrils is growing about 3 inches a day! No watermelons on it yet. The sunflowers are going pretty well here too.

Anyway, that is the update so far. Hopefully we remember to take pictures later to compare. Mike encouraged us to learn about faith by working with our garden. We have learned a lot.

I love how I see the kids go out there a couple of times during the day to look over the garden, pull a few weeds and see who can be the first to spot the new things. Their friends also go out there and they walk around and inspect things. Should have done this years ago!

We'll see what survives the brutal summer temperatures. The engineer in me wants to put a mister and screen over the tomatoes so I can lower the overall temperature and increase the humidity a bit to keep setting tomatoes. We'll see. I don't like tomatoes but my sweetie does!

click to see slideshow->

Our stake sponsored an outstanding Aaronic Priesthood encampment last week. Nate, McKay and I got to go from our family and Joe, Daniel, Josh, and Andrew also went. Each ward was asked to provide a short entertainment. Our ward decided to learn a Maori Haka. Nate ended up being the leader, McKay is on the far left.

We haven't uploaded pictures in some time. Here are some of the surprise visit with Elizabeth, Joseph and baby Jopes. We also have Becca's graduation and even some cub scout ones. I think there might be some birthday ones as well. I think it starts with us opening a package from Melinda! See them all here.

Brett, Aedan, and I were lucky enough to have Utah visitors over Memorial weekend. James, Heather, Manny, and Eliane all came to visit and to see the baby! They fell in love with him. (I'm pretty sure they wanted to take him home with them.)
We had lots of fun. Here are some pictures!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

Grandma Free in all her trickiness and Joseph and Elizabeth's and all their willingness surprised us! Here are some videos of the event. Wow, it was amazing.

I was in Walgreens this morning picking up a few photos and they had a display of tshirts for babies. They cracked me up. So I shot of few of them with my phone camera. So the image isn't the best but hopefully you can read them.

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Here is a video Joseph posted of some fun faces and sounds...aahhhh. This could get addicting!

In Mike's latest letter he described some training they did. They focused on helping missionaries see how to be creative in teaching the doctrine. Here are some pictures he sent of parts of the training. If you didn't have a chance to read his letter let me know I can get you a copy.

click to see slideshow->

Here are the first shots of Aedan. Sorry some of them are from the phone. But hey, they are still pictures. I'll add some more video to these later. Click here to see more.

Born April 21, 2009, 6lbs 9.8oz, 19inches.

One of the pictures is a video in case you missed it you can see it here.

Here is a picture I stole off of Joseph and Elizabeth's blog. You can try this link to see the pictures in picasa. Pictures Here Or just watch the slide show here. :)

Our good neighbors to the west moved last week to Connecticut. One of the things they were trying to get rid of was an oversize bean bag chair. Turns out it was very oversized. Tonight we proved that by getting our whole family on it at the same time. Amazing the things you can figure out to do when you have a free Sunday evening together...

Okay. So, i think we bought "Hailey" (the rust bucket that doesn't run) back on valentine's day. What a great present from a wifey, huh? Me letting Brett buy an old broken down car for all that was in our bank account at the time. haha.
ANYWAYS. She has been Brett's project. Every Saturday when he gets home from work, that's what we generally spend our time doing: figuring out how we can fix up this car and make it run.
First, Brett replaced all the fluids and switched out the oil filter. He had to take the gas tank off of the car to clean it out, and then he found a hole in it, so he had to get that welded up. SO, after that, we were hopeful, thinking that she might start. A couple turns of the key in the ignition, and it sounded like she wanted to go...But then gas started shooting out of the carburetor. Oh, sad day. :( Brett was so heartbroken. ANOTHER thing to fix before the car could start.
Brett is so smart, though. He got a cheap rebuilt kit, and for about $20, it's like we have a brand new carburetor now. (It looks so new, partially because i cleaned off all the metal parts, and now it's nice and shiny. When you open up the hood, it seems to glow, it's so clean!)

After Brett rebuilt the carburetor, it was time to try again and start Hailey up. :)

FINALLY! SUCCESS. The engine was running great, no leaks or fluid shooting out of anywhere. So, Brett thought he would take her around the block for a drive.
NEW PROBLEM: Apparently there is something wrong with the transmission. She doesn't want to go into drive or reverse or any of the gears. Hmmm... So, i guess we have some new things to work on. He'll ask around and figure what ne needs to do next for the transmission problem and see if we can't figure things out.
Oh well. When Brett is feeling down about the car, he says he'll just sit behind the wheel and start it up and remember that he was the one that got her to run. :)
Maybe, just MAYBE, we'll have Hailey driving before Aedan is here. :)

Don't want to dominate the blog here... But hey, these are great! Here are a couple more pictures...aaahhh.

click to see slideshow->

Here are a few more pictures of little Joseph. These were taken within a couple of hours of the birth on March 17, 2009.

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Here is the first picture taken of Joseph Hord Free, by his Dad's phone. He came right on schedule at 8:50pm. He weighed in at 6 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long with lots of dark almost curly hair!

I was accused of placing a bomb in my school, and was put on trial by the state. Of course I was found innocent, thanks to the four members of my attorney council, but if things went badly I could've been looking at ten years in prison. Pretty Scary!

I don't know how to make this a hyperlink, but this is the website.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11810007?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com
After you read this article, continue reading for extra notes.

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They have a full article and three pictures, of which I am in two. The First one shows our main judge, the awesome black guy with a British accent. He judged one of our trials when we were at Lakeridge, but I don't know if he recognized us. Other random notes:

The third judge (not shown) really liked my tie, and thought I was the best witness in the whole thing. I was the only witness who got individual comments from her.

Judge Chin (awesome black guy) said (I may be paraphrasing): "If there was an academy award for this trial, you would win it."

Those two judges both gave me best witness and a 10/10 score, the last judge gave me a 9/10. Those are VERY good scores by the way, and my teacher (Mr. Carpenter) said that they weren't inflated scores (they weren't giving me more than I earned.)

By winning, that gave way to me and Andrew, the blurry face in the first picture, the opportunity to sing our traditional "We are the champions" victory song. We slaughter it every time, but its always a fun way to celebrate. =D

We had a great family trip taking Jake to the MTC last week. We captured a few pictures along the way. Though we missed some of the best parts: a session in the Salt Lake Temple, an open house tour of the new Draper Temple, and visiting all of our friends and family in Utah. It was a great time.

We haven't heard from Jake yet but are confident that all is well. If you would like to write to him his PO Box in the MTC is 217.

Looking at the pictures you would think all we ever do is eat out! That just happens to be the only time we think about breaking out the camera!

Here are all the pictures:

Grandma & Grandpa were in town over the weekend for Jess's call opening, her endowments, and Jake's farewell. We didn't do too well with the camera but we did get these after a wonderful time in the temple. (Click on the picture to see a few more)

Mesa Temple

At about 7am Arizona time on the 12th of February 2009 the following occurred:

Here is a link to some high resolution pictures I posted to picasa. These are all formatted to print as 5x7s.

I'm posting here so I don't forget where it is again...and so more people can find them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jwfree/SomeFreeAncestors?authkey=7emkYgQZl70

or click on the image.

Jessica's call arrived today right on schedule. Only problem is she's in Provo--not Mesa! So just like last time we are going to wait patiently for a whole week to learn what it says! Last chance to get your guesses in....

Jake when through the temple and Grandma and Grandpa came down. How great is that?

click to see slideshow->

Some of you have been begging us to post these pictures for awhile. I know Rachel is dying to see them and Elizabeth Campbell too. Jopes and Elizabeth have been patiently waiting too. Marilee and Holly have been trying to get over to see it too but we have been sick with flu for a couple weeks and busy. We love our new place. The mountains are so close by and the view of the valley is beautiful. You can check out more pictures here on my photobucket just copy and paste this link into your browser!

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/Sunflowerl/Pleasant%20Grove%20House/?action=view&current=OurMountainViewoutsideourhouse.jpg

Please let me know if you can see them okay, Rachel. I resized them so that they wouldn't be so huge too.

Okay Here is this great Albino Buck as taken by a local photographer!!!

The Shots are amazing the other deer seem as blown away by the coloring of this deer as we are........ just had to share!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmnorthwoods/sets/72157607212510798/

Elizabeth and I decided to try some recipe that we saw a while ago. I got the recipe from Sis. Foster...the amazing women my companion and I stayed with in my last area. She sent me two cook books that she had made for our wedding. So, Doodle Wopps was a fun name and it looked good. So, with some of our left over ham we tried it out! It was really good and was very easy clean up. You can see pictures by clicking here.