My Garden!!

This is so exciting to me!  This is my first garden and these beautiful boxes were built by my awesome husband.  I've planted a lot of things considering it's my first experience with gardening but look at it go!  

In the far box I have walla wallas, garlic, red onions, jalapenos, and sugar snaps.  

In the middle box I have radishes, broccoli, four tomato bushes, two varieties, three vine tomatoes, each different, and behind those I planted cucumbers and zucchini.  

In the biggest box I planted two different types of leaf lettuce, carrots, scallions, cilantro, cabbage, three strawberry plants, all different, and finally, three raspberry plants.  

In two pots I have potatoes growing and all along the hillside in my backyard I have many different types of squash and pumpkins.  That is my favorite part and why I started all this!  If everything grows I should have an overwhelming amount of pumpkins and I can't wait!

The tomato, strawberry and raspberry plants started as plants.  The walla wallas were starts and the rest I planted from seed.  It is very rewarding to watch them grow.  I love it.

This type of gardening is called square foot gardening and allows you to really utilize your space.  In this box I've left 3 sq ft empty for now.  Not sure what I'll plant in them yet.  The white stuff in case you're wondering is diatomaceous earth which is basically crushed rocks and shells that is supposed to act as a natural pest control.  It's abrasive texture cuts up the critters that crawl on it.  I didn't spread it very evenly as you can see.  I also lined my beds with copper tape to repel slugs.

 My first pumpkin!

Hayden's 7yr Birthday Pictures

What a handsome guy!  I recently posted about Hayden's birthday but hadn't gotten these back yet.  For more on his special day scroll 3/4 the way down here http://sterlingandjenny.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-05-21T22:34:00-07:00&max-results=10 

Some people we love...

A friend of mine gave me some great advice and we started implementing it into our family home evenings a couple months ago.  One Monday is spent doing a spiritual lesson, another an activity, another a cultural lesson, and lastly a service project.  All of which are started with a song, prayer and scripture of course.  I feel indebted to my friend for this idea.  I don't remember if this is exactly what she does, but either way, she jump started this idea and I am in love with it.  It has brought excitement, knowledge, and a new sense of selflessness to all of us.  Mondays are our favorite!  This was our first service project we did, pulling weeds.  I believe we filled over 14 grocery bags in all!

 Way back in March when my sister came to visit with her now fiance, his brother came too and we loved him right away.  He is a great guy and we hope to see him a lot more!!

 A little bowling is good for everyone.

 Celebrating.

 Excellent form Gavin!

 She wants my baby....and that sounds funny.

 We don't see these cute kids nearly enough!

 He quite enjoyed his Popsicle, and we quite enjoyed their company!

 To say these four little boys love their Grandpa would be an acute understatement, and I think it's safe to say, Grandpa is in his favorite place here.

Happy Birthday to Me!

My really good friend was in town visiting her family and we were able to sneak away the morning of my birthday to enjoy a pedicure.  It was, as always, great to see you Erika!  I hate that our visits are so few and far between but what can you do?  

After lunch Sterling and I took the boys to the park and enjoyed the sunshine and just being together.  I failed to get a picture of Erika and I, but I have several from the park.  That evening Sterling took me to Brix 25 for dinner and it did not disappoint...well dessert did, but dinner was fabulous.  It was a good day.

 His hair is so fly.

 This is one of my favorites.  I love seeing his teeth, and his nose all squinched up.  No, that's not a word but it seems perfect.

 I love his expressions.  One of the coolest things I get to do as a mother is watch them see and experience new things each day.  Their excitement, wonder, and joy for everything, is a good reminder to stop and smell the roses, and to enjoy the simplicity of life and the beauties around us.  We are blessed!

  

Noah has an extremely gregarious personality and I admire that characteristic in him.  He makes friends on every playground we visit and I can't help but think of him as a missionary and how great he's going to be!

 I remember the days when the slides looked much smaller next to him.  Again with the time that won't stop!  For now though, I'm grateful these free playgrounds provide ample thrill for them.  In a couple of years they'll experience Cedar Point and not much will appease them after that!

After dinner we walked around the water and then went on a hunt to find some sunglasses for me.  We were unsuccessful there, but did stumble upon what I think is the biggest camping chair in the world, complete with 6 cup holders.

Campers Have S'more Fun

We recently went camping with some friends we love and had a great time.  It was nice just to visit, without cramming a bunch of planned activities in.  It was a relaxing, enjoyable three days with our favorite family.  Here are some pictures...

We had to work hard convincing them to play Red Rover but snapping this photo was worth it.  Put to music, it'll be a tearjerker at their wedding.

It's not funny, and yet it was hilarious.  Noah may be a little competitive.  Yesterday after losing at UNO, he said and I quote, "I'm never playing that game again!"  Competitive coupled with sore loser perhaps.  I don't know where he gets it from.  This is him, mid-punch, after he couldn't bust through their chain.

Cheeeeeeeese.

Awww.  Uncle Snowman.  It was super sweet watching these two together.

Obviously I love the little guy, but let me talk a bit about the bigger one.  He is awesome!  My boys adore him.  He's a great friend, always nice and helpful.  There's a reason he's an older brother!

We were all impressed when this little guy climbed the pole like nothing!

Aaaaaaand, I was impressed by this guy.

World's best wedgie.

Haha.  I think Marcus was wishing he was on the other side.

Fun people.

Noah is very photogenic.

Some pictures I found on my camera.  No wonder we get along.

He seriously makes us laugh really hard. A lot.

I love this guy.  Here we are at our grossest, and yes, if you want to look 50lbs heavier, you may borrow my junior high coat.

I have to remind myself when choosing photos to upload that I'm doing this blog for me.  It's one of my journals, filled with things I want to remember.  So while some pictures, maybe most, mean nothing to those who follow this blog, each one means something to me.  This next photo is definitely for me.  I want to remember always, the way he looks at me and this is a good one for that.  He loves me.