Flower Bed Update

Back in May we decided to make over our flower beds. They were awful and I hated them since I moved in my house. When we finished I had planted flower seeds because they were cheaper and I had never done that before, and I've been anxiously waiting for them to come up and bloom since I stuck the seeds in the ground. I'm finally posting an update on my flower beds!!



Before any flowers:


After:



Bed on the right before:


After!:
(My sunflowers are only supposed to be about 5 feet tall, and they are coming in around 7 feet right now!! They are so close to blooming, I bet it's any day now. I will post a new picture when they finally decide to bloom for me!) Also all the purple and pink flowers in the front didn't grow from the seed packets I bought. None of those came up, so I bought those on clearance.


Bed on left before:


After:
The sunflowers don't like this side of the door as much, but they are slowly coming along.


I'm pleasantly surprised at how well flowers from seeds are doing, they didn't come up everywhere, but they've done an alright job. It looks much better than when I first started, that's for sure.

Garden Update Weeks 5 and 6

I know this is a lot of pictures of my garden, but I want to have week by week pictures to see how much it changes.


Week 5


Week 5 - Box 1


Week 5 - Box 2


Week 5 - Box 3


Week 5 - Box 4


Banana pepper, week 5


I already have a zucchini growing on my itty bitty plant!


Salad straight out of my garden! It was so good


Week 6


Week 6 - box 1


Week 6 - Box 2


Week 6 - Box 3


Week 6 - Box 4


My cantaloupe is starting to climb the trellis


My banana pepper, right before I picked it! I have two more growing on it already.


My spaghetti squash plant


My zucchini plant right before I picked my first one. There are 3 more growing on it!


My first zucchini and banana pepper!

Daddies boy

Ethan is a major daddies boy! His dad is his best friend. We wake up every morning to Ethan shrieking "DAD!" over and over again until he goes to get him out of bed. If I go up to get him, he glares at me and says "Dad!" wondering where his dad was and why he didn't get him instead.

Ethan is also a baby that loves to be outside more than anything. He would play outside all day long if we would let him. He screams at us when we bring him back inside. It gets a little boring sometimes just sitting in the backyard, so Mart has recently taken up whittling wood while he sits outside and watches Ethan play. Because Ethan is such a daddies boy, he copies his every movement. He refuses to play if Mart is playing with something of his own. So Mart has to share his toys.


Ethan whittling his own tiki man just like his Daddy. I guess he also wanted to go for a ride in the car, since he was sitting in our spare car seat while I washed the fabric. What a goof.

"Cool Dude!"

Trek

Out of nowhere, George randomly decided that he wanted to go on the Trek with the youth of our Stake. I am pretty sure he is just doing it to try and prove a point to Mart instead of the reasons why he should be doing it, but whatever his reasons are...at least he wanted to go.

They were all set to leave Wednesday morning at 5am. Early Wednesday morning I heard a crazy thundering going up and down our stairs (right next to my room) and grabbed my cell phone to check what time it was. It was 5:30am. George was late, but he wasn't here when I got up so he must have made it. He had stuff to take with him, in the loose sense of the word. He was just going to wear a flannel shirt and a polo shirt with a cowboy hat, but my mom had a shirt that she was going to use when she went on the trek, so she let George borrow it and a hat.

I made him try it on and pose for me, he felt a little funny so he wouldn't just stop and smile, he kept looking away. This is the best picture I got of him, sorry it's fuzzy .. he wouldn't hold still so the camera wouldn't focus.

George, new lip ring and all ....



Finding a way to release all the built up energy of feeling weird in that shirt and hat.



He'll either be back later today or tomorrow. Guess we'll see how it went!

Long last few weeks.

It's been a while since I last blogged. We've just had a few crazy weeks.

I don't think very many of you know, but we have not been on good terms with Mart's parents for almost a year now. It will be a year next month that we have gone up to visit with them or talk to them or basically acknowlege their exsistance. We have had brief run in encounters with them, but never something we wanted. We don't agree with several of the things they are doing and have done in their life and now that I have a child of my own, I refuse to put up with parts of it. A few days ago, Mart decided it was time to go up to their house (which is 4 blocks from my house) and have a family counsel. He took his brothers and sisters up with him and they were gone for two hours. They talked about a couple of the things that needed to be talked about and now we are waiting to see if they are actually willing to change and put some effort into having a family. We'll see what happens.

Also the last couple of weeks Mart and George had some problems and George lived away from home for about a week and a half. The same day as the family counsel, they talked through it and he is back here for now. We'll see what happens there as well.

As for our little house guest, we have decided to keep her. I'm a sucker, I know. I can't stand the thought of her not having a home and Ethan just fell in love with her. He loves to play with her, I think it's because she plays back and is small like him. We also learned that she was born the same day as he was. I think it was meant to be.

Also, today is my Uncle Kevin's birthday. He passed away last August. I can't believe it's almost been a year since he's been gone. I miss him. Today in his honor for his birthday I made Mart and George steak and mashed potatoes ... a very Uncle Kevin meal. I am probably also going to make a birthday cake as well.

Happy Birthday Kevin. We miss you.

A lesson in shaving

I guess you're never to young to learn how to shave correctly.

Ethan was watching his daddy shave a few weeks back and thought it looked pretty cool. Daddy gave him his first shaving lesson. He thought it was pretty fun.

Garden Update weeks 2 and 3

It's been a while since I last blogged, things have been crazy around here. My garden is now onto week 4 and is getting big fast! I wanted to take weekly pictures of it to see just how fast it is growing. I haven't taken week 4 pictures yet, but here are week 2 and week 3.



Week 2

The whole garden:


Box 1: (spinach, lettuce, herbs, peas, beans and onions)

Box 2: (eggplant, cantaloupe, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, arugula, chard, radishes and black beans)

Box 3: (All corn)

Box 4: (Beans, carrots, turnips, parsnips, beets and tomatoes)

Week 3

This week we put up the trellis'. We built one for the peas, cantaloupe and cucumbers. It's a way to save space. It'll be interesting to see a cantaloupe hanging from the trellis.

The whole garden:

Box 1: (spinach, lettuce, herbs, onions, peas and beans)

Box 2: (eggplant, cantaloupe, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, arugula, chard, radishes and black beans)

Box 3: (All corn)

Box 4: (Beans, carrots, turnips, parsnips, beets and tomatoes)

Close up of the peas starting to grab hold of the trellis.

2 of the 4 tomatoes starting to grow on my heirloom tomato plant.

My banana pepper. It is a lot bigger this week! I'll take some updated photos soon.

And the perk of week 4, I have eaten fresh radishes! The radishes have only been in the garden for 3 weeks. The shortest amount of time and they are already ready to eat. Pretty fun! They were very tasty with ranch dressing.

Bullseye

We've started something new. Every Monday night Traves is going to come over and we are all going to play darts for our hang out/family time on Monday nights. This last Monday was pretty much my first time ever playing darts and I got a bullseye! Yes, I am proud of it. :)