Garden!!!

Ok, so I have not posted in FOREVER! I am going to cheat the dates on my next few posts, but I will do just one a day, so that it won't pile up all at once because you might miss some! Anyways, I thought I would start with something general, like our yummy garden food. 

This is a basket of food I picked....

  

And then I did this:

And here it was! YUM!:

And then there was this yummy food:

(I know we should never let the zucchini get that big, but oh well, the skin was just tough)

And then THIS:

Happy gardening!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a pretty fun 4th of July. We woke up early and walked down to the Freedom Fest Parade. It was a VERY long parade, but fun. Here they are waiting for the parade:

I made "L" boy's shirt. I just drew it onto a white onesie with fabric markers.

Our yummy end of the day dessert!

 Mostly we just spent the day at home, out of the heat. At night we let the girls do some sparklers, and then watched the Stadium fireworks from just outside of our house. They are far away, but big enough to enjoy. Happy 4th!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY "L" BOY!!!

One year ago at 6:15 AM the cutest little baby boy in the world was born! He is the sweetest cutest thing ever and I'm so glad we have been able to have him here with us and can't believe he is 1 already! Here are some pics of the day he was born:

AND NOW ONE YEAR LATER! (We couldn't pay someone to do pics this year, but I took these this morning, and I think they are SO darn cute!)

Oh, and on Sunday, we had a tiny little party with just us and my parents. He got a couple of presents and he had Applesauce cake with cream cheese frosting! We didn't really take a ton of pics we mostly took videos, but here is a couple:

Garden Food!

So, over the past month or so we have been getting tons of greens from the garden! Kind of too many to handle, really, but it has been great. I don't have nearly enough pics of it all, I may have to borrow some from Will to update this with later, but here are a few:

Broccoli

Peas when they were still blooming. We ended up getting about 10 lbs of peas!

 Here's one batch of shelled peas we had with a dinner. Yum Yum!

I also had a fresh picked salad with them:

Here is another freshly picked lettuce salad. I only wish the tomatoes were ours, but they will be in a few weeks! Can't wait! We have been using our own spinach every day in smoothies, and have tons of different lettuces we can use with practically every meal. We also have more broccoli to pick and some cabbages now too! 

HAIR CUTS!

Ok, so I'm totally cheating the system here changing days and all, but we have just been TOO busy to blog! I don't know what we've been doing, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Anyways, the girls have been begging me and begging me to let them get their hair cut. So many other girls in the neighborhood have had theirs cut, which had nothing to do with it, lol, but anyways, I finally caved in. I didn't want to spend $10 a pop on them, so I decided I'd give it a shot, since I have trimmed in the past I figured it couldn't be much harder. So anyways, here's the pics!

Before, back

 Before, side

AFTER!

Before, back

Before, side

 AFTER!

About 4" off of "E" and 6" for "W"

This cute "L" boy also got a little bit of cutting action. I trimmed about an inch or so off the top so I could spike it more easily.  Here is a sort of 'before' a couple weeks ago or so, but it was getting some good length on top.

AFTER!

End of School!

"W" had a great year of Kindergarten! On their last day the whole school participates in the Dance Festival. Each grade or class does it's own dance to perform for everyone. She is in that group somewhere!

 Here is a picture of her with her teacher, Mrs. Ferrin, who we LOVE and her assistant Mrs. White.

 And here's a pic of Mrs. and Mr. Ferrin. Mr. Ferrin did this extra class with "W" on Mondays where they got to learn and discover new things with him. He is actually our Stake President as well, such a busy man, and SO wonderful. He loves the kids and they love him too, it was such a fun year! Can't wait for "E" to have Mrs. Ferrin next year!

Before and After Corner Shelf

So, I did a little project a couple of weeks ago and I am now finally posting it since I took my final picture. My mom gave me this shelf she had because we really needed something in our living room, specifically to hold our 5 gallon fish tank that has been on our dining room TABLE! Anyways, when I got it, it had a very lovely paint job, I must say, from the 90's I am sure, and it was hiding anyways, so it didn't really matter, but here it is:

I decided to go with spray paint and was wanting to go for kind of a mahogany look, which wasn't completely possible with spray paint options, but I did like the end result anyhow. I finished it off with a shiny coat to give it a fancier look, so here is the end result:

Not too bad, right? Now, to figure out what to do with my lovely wood paneled wall...? Oh, and we just got these couches from a neighbor, they aren't too bad, especially considering they were free, and all we had in here before was a love seat, and a rocking chair pretty much. Anyways, it is finally coming together after only a year! Ha, maybe in 10 we will finally get it all in order?

Happy Birthday to Me!

So, as is usual being a mom, I didn't expect much but a quiet time at home with the family, and maybe my mom, for my birthday. I also woke up on my birthday with pretty much no voice, thanks to my cold, so sorry to anyone I didn't answer the phone for. :) I knew that Will was making me something with a little help from the kids, but that was it.

SURPRISE! Will, had actually planned something for us without me knowing! I never expect it really because it always requires planning ahead, which can be hard for both of us. ;-) Anyways, he said I couldn't have my present until a little later, so we just hung out a little when he got home from work, (which he managed to get off early, which is also VERY rare) So then the doorbell rang and my mom was here! (Now, I kind of DID know she was coming, but I just thought it was so she could be here to hang out with us and eat and maybe we'd go out all together or something?) So, I opened my present which is what he had been working on:

He bought the box at Michaels, and added some beautiful artwork to it. He did the wood burning, which is impressive for his first time, I must say, and then the inside is just awesome too. He found a way (via TouTube :)) to transfer a picture onto the wood, It looks really cool, and then each of the kids put their hand prints in the bottom.

Inside he also go me this:

And also inside was 2 tickets to see Oz: The Great and Powerful at 6:30 and an envelope of 3 restaurant choices. I guess we were going out together! I'd say he hit a home run with this one. Thanks Hun! It was a fun night for sure. And thanks mom for watching the kids!

Earlier in the day I DID still make myself a cheesecake for dessert, so I did know we would be having that. :) I found the recipe on Allrecipes, of course HERE. Read the comments for extra tips, I didn't do it exactly as it said, added a water bath and some sugar to the crust etc., but it was great! I also may have cooked it a bit too long, but it was still good!

So I'd say it was a great birthday, and I have a wonderful husband and family! Thanks!