Birthday Princess

 I can't believe it's been 3 years with this sweet baby girl.

 She seems to have had a fabulous day.  This is her in the birthday hat she picked out for herself.

 Grandpa dressed Giggles in her ballerina outfit and bows so everyone could see how pretty she was.

 Grace has definitely mastered opening gifts.  She was very excited about it all, and then promptly threw it to the side and moved on to the next gift.

 She is obsessed with Doc Mcstuffins currently, so she got a Doc Mcstuffins doctors kit, and a lab coat.  Definitely a hit.

 She also got this new bike and basket, and the bunny slippers she's wearing.  It isn't every day that you have a girl in a lab coat flying down the street on a bike.  Making a a house call I guess.

 Happy Birthday Gracie Girl!  

Birthday Date

 Grace got to go out on her birthday date with my parents tonight.  She went to Build-A-Bear and then Red Robin for dinner.

 This is Grace showing us "Giggles" when she got home. Her report on the evening was "Mom, that was awesome."  My parents' report was that Grace was "good, but bossy."  Nothing we didn't already know there.

She loves Giggles, just watched some of her favorite cartoon cuddled up with her, and is now taking her up to meet her other toys and go to bed.  Such a fun birthday date for our sweet girl.  Now to get ready for her party tomorrow.

Hot Hot Heat

Time to play catch up again.

 Evan just finished up another baseball season.

  I have learned it is really hard for me to watch my children try to learn a sport.  He had a blast though, and I learned a little more patience.  By the time all 3 of them are in sports I will either be very patient, or down right crazy.

 We went camping.  We headed out for 4 fun days in "the jungle" as Grace declared it.

 Day 1 we had a fun little hike.  The kids did awesome.  The boys walked the whole 2 miles, and Grace only wanted to be carried for a little while.

 We asked them to go stand by this tree with all of its moss for a picture, to which Kyle responded "I'm not too sure about this." His cautious nature is kind of fun.

 On the way back they got a bit concerned we were lost and they were very excited when they figured out we weren't and came running to tell us they knew where we were.  Go figure since we were on a trail the whole time.

 

 The next morning while we cleaned up camp to head to the next campsite Grace decided it was a good time to puke.  With her you never know if she is sick or just puking for no reason, so we headed home.  Turns out she wasn't sick, just cold, but Kyle got carsick on our way out, which ran us out of clean sweatshirts, so its good we decided to head home.  It was a fun 24 hour camping trip til the last hour.

  Evan is working on wakeboarding.  He is getting so close to getting up.  Hopefully soon.

 Kyle, the master flagger (if he hasn't fallen asleep in the boat again).

Last but not least, our crazy garden.  We were under the impression our 4 ft tall tomato cages would be sufficient, but after last year, and now these 6-7 ft tall beasts, I'm not so convinced.  Luckily Brandon was able to improvise.

Long Overdue Update

Instead of attempting to do a lot of posts, I'm just updating the last few months all in one.

The beginning of May Brandon and the kids got in a car accident.  Same car I wrecked in December, but the front end this time.  Thankfully they were all fine, but it made for quite a seen as my parents and I all rushed out of a fireside after seeing Brandon's text.

After 3 weeks or so we finally got the car back, and as Grace has said numerous times, it is "nice and shiny." We have now replaced the front and back ends and it is looking good.

 The boys both played spring soccer, and Grace became a decent spectator.  

 Kyle liked it enough that he played the summer season too.  He has come a long way since last year and apparently has decided to be a defender.  He stopped many a goal and could care less if he ever scores one.

  

 We bought a zoo pass and have managed to use it twice so far.  I see many more trips in our future.

  

 We visited Grandma Jean and took the traditional pictures in the tree.

 Lots of time with grandparents.

 We had a little preschool graduation welcome to summer party with some friends.

 We caught 2 squirrels that were destroying our tree and garden and released them a few miles away.

 Both boys did swimming lessons the first 2 weeks of summer.

  

 Katie and Baby Paige were here for 6 weeks and we spent a lot of time playing with them. 

 We visited where I grew up and the boys got to fish the same place I used to.  

 My dad even snagged a few starfish for them to touch.

 Last night we went to a fireworks show and took a few pictures at the capital building.

Now if I can just stay caught up and not have to do one of these very long posts again soon.

Garden 2012

 Brandon here with a look at our little, but productive garden.  This has been a fun year for trying out new things in our garden.  Not so much new in the produce selection, but new as in methods to the madness.  We love the little raised beds in this corner.  They get a good amount of afternoon sun.  Cool thing about this years garden is that most of it is grown from seed.  I don't have a great place to do starts inside, so I wondered how I could do tomatoes and peppers without the traditional indoor starts.  We discussed tenting the raised bed to make mini greenhouses and what do you know, IT WORKED!   I made little A frame roofs for each bed with 1x2 furring wood and attached clear plastic painters drop-cloth with a staple gun.  Sorry I didn't get a picture, but t kept it just hot enough to keep our seeds alive through a very cool March.    In this picture, you can see our tomatoes: 3-Brandywine heirlooms, 3-Black Krim heirlooms, 2-sweet cherry, and 1-Yellow pear heirloom; some garlic, walla walla sweet onions, green onions, cilantro, Serrano peppers (need more tenting), zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, and lettuce (the massive bushes in the front right)  We are planning on harvesting the lettuce more aggressively and replanting again since it grows so well.  We may just try growing lettuce with the tents right into the winter.   Oh the two pots on the right hold some ornamental gourds and to the right of the oak tree is a new strawberry patch.

 

Moving right along, along our back fence, you can see our beans (under heavy attach of noxious slugs)  and peas in the distance separated by the viola.  This may be the last year I do beans here.  I don't think there is enough direct sun to get these things moving.

The peas, on the other hand, seem to like the shade and are creeping right up the stringers we put up.

Next to the house we planted two blueberry bushes last year.  So far, they are ridiculously full of berries and seem to be overwhelming the small bushes.  We wonder if we should build supports for some of the branches that are bowing to the ground.  The kids are very excited for these to ripen.

Kyle's 5th Birthday

 After a week of celebrating Kyle is finally officially 5.  He started his celebrations with a trip to Toys R' Us and Red Robin with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday.  According to him it was awesome.  He got a huge Lego set that we all got to help put together the next morning.

 Sunday we had his family party.  He wanted an Angry Birds party, but we couldn't find Angry Birds wrapping paper, so if you look close you can see that Brandon drew one on all of his gifts.

 We had 3 very excited children for present opening.  He got lots of Angry Birds stuff and Legos which is just what he wanted.

  

 Such a cute boy.  I hate how old he looks though.  I'm not ready to send another kid off to Kindergarten.

  Angry Birds cake courtesy of Daddy.

 Then Angry Birds cupcakes for preschool.  Lucky he has a Dad who can decorate cakes.

 Preschool party on his birthday.  They played games, colored, and had root beer and cupcakes. 

 Showing off his new outfit which apparently makes him super fast.  He has worn it 3 days and slept in it 2 since Sunday.  Today it is in the wash.

It is amazing how much he has grown up in the past year.  He has definitely come out of his shell which has been so fun to watch.  It makes me less nervous to send him off to school.  He has done preschool, soccer, and swimming this year, and he loved soccer enough that he asked to sign up again for summer.  A year ago you couldn't get him on the field without holding somebodies hand and this year he ran right out there and scored 3 goals.  He is starting to read a little which is very exciting too.  I can't wait to see what the next year brings for him, I just wish the time would slow down and I could keep my little boy a bit longer.