Crawling Girl

That's Savannah - she is crazy cute - like a wind up toy - and she's getting faster everyday.

She also likes Alec's swag.  It was left on the back pavers for weeks so Alec could sleep out as often as possible pre-wedding - Samantha's a swag camping kind of girl but I suspect she will draw the line at sleeping in our back yard on a regular basis.

Jesse's chapter

War and Peace in our Times: A Mormon Perspective was released officially in the US on September 11 so Jesse, Louisa and I celebrated at Monty's.  Jesse's chapter is titled 'Non-violent responses and Mormon Attitudes: Reasons and Realities'.

Click here to go to a review of the book that mentions Jesse!

Peet the Poffertjes Boy

Peet is working for Lee on Saturday mornings selling poffertjes at the Yandina Farmers markets.   And spending his money on concerts, clothes and chocolates!

Farmer Max

Max has taken to all things farming and food gathering.  His birthday dreams were all about a compound bow and cammo clothes - he didn't dare to imagine they would come true since that is way outside our usual birthday budget.  But come true they did -  and he was a happy and surprised twelve year old.

And this is why Max cried when Alec told us he was about to propose.

As keen as he is to go hunting and raise some meat chickens, Max is also keen on the gathering side. 

He collected a couple of kilos of mulberries and we made mulberry sauce, mulberry tarts and mulberry clafoutis.  I believe there are more mulberries coming this afternoon.

And toady, before it got too hot, Max cleaned out the fireplace and put the ash on the fruit trees.  It was a big job but a fire and s'mores for dessert kept his enthusiasm high.

Louisa ..

.. is a bit miserable and sore - but it won't last forever - just until the braces come off.

In which we get Samantha!

So here's what happened:

Alec and Samantha were friends before Alec's mission - then Samantha wrote to Alec (and vice versa) while he was away - and Samantha and Jesse became best of friends.  This meant that we all started thinking that Samantha was really part of the family - and we whispered to each other 'I hope Alec marries Samantha.'  But we swore each other to secrecy once Alec came home.

And so, when, with no pressure from any of us, Alec and Samantha started officially dating, we smiled knowingly at each other and kept our lips sealed.

Imagine our delight when Alec announced that he was planning to get engaged.  (It's true that Max cried, but that was about losing Alec not gaining Sam.)  Alec brought out the ring and we smiled some more and tried it on.

Then one Saturday afternoon we all got text messages saying: She said yes :) 

And by the time we all met up that night our cheeks were sore from smiling.

Now the engagement party is done and dusted and the wedding is just two days away.  We can hardly wait.  Aside from being perfect for Alec, Sam is perfect for all of us too.

(At the engagement party - there was bunting everywhere, pretty tablecloths that will one day become baby quilts, flowers by the armful and happy people everywhere you looked!)

Alec ..

..was looking at the blog with Samantha a few nights ago and noted that there was nothing here about his homecoming.  That reflects solely on how spasmodically I blog - and not at all on how happy we were to have him home.  Here are the photos to prove it:

There was a line for a hug, the order of which was carefully worked out in the car on the way to airport! As you can see I got the first turn.

Then Roger, and on down through the family, then Lee and Joan and David and Beth and Daniel, Monica, Simone, Robert and Samuel.

It's not an easy thing to get a photo of all of us - but this isn't bad. (Kathleen was working - she met Alec for the first time that night.)

We took him to the beach the second weekend he was home. 

Before his mission, Alec had a hankering for a surf board but pragmatism won out and he waited till he got home - but not for long.

There are no photos of Alec on his surf board - too far out - but Roger took Louisa and Max out for a try on Mitchie's surfboard.

It seems like he's been home forever now (and that almost true - this was at the end of November last year!) - but a mission sure does take a long time.  Good as a mission is, we're glad to have him home.