Our First Garden

It seems that we have had a lot of firsts this past year and among them....TA DA!...our first garden. With such a big back yard and such a warm climate, I decided I would like to give it a try. At the very end of March, my dad and Michael came over and built me a garden plot. The yard had one when we moved in, but it was sunken and in the part of the yard that never gets much sun so we moved it. First, dad tilled up the area.

Then dad and Michael moved the beams to build the plot. Dallin "helped" wherever he could (and some places he couldn't). He dug around and moved rocks and was very excited to be a part of it all.
They even put in some tomato plants and cages. Here is Dallin sitting in front of our newly planted garden.
I told the kids that they could NOT walk in the garden because it would kill the plants and then we could not eat the food. So...this has become their favorite past time--garden rail walking. I think they got the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it. All in all they are pretty careful though. In this picture, you can see little sprigs of green starting to come up.
We were so excited when our garden starting bearing fruit! Dallin helped me pick it, and I think that he would eat almost anything that came out of our garden with enthusiasm. He thinks it is all delicious. We got a ton of green beans and quite a few squash and tomatoes. The peas shriveled in the heat and the pepper plants produce the tiniest peppers I have ever seen, but at least we are getting some. It is getting less and less with the heat, but Dallin loves to find any veggies that are "ready" and pick them in the evenings with me. It has actually been a nice bonding experience between him and I-planting and watching it grow, tending the garden and picking the veggies together. We have both really enjoyed it.
With some of the severe weather, vacations, etc. our garden has been neglected the end of this season so we did not get as much as we could have possibly gotten(and that is also why there is no picture of what our poor garden looks like now), but I think it was a really good learning experience for me and the kids and we are definitely going to plant another in the fall! Wahoo-fresh produce!

Hot Fun in the Summer Time!

About a week ago, we went to a ROCKstar playgroup at Monica's house. It was a pool party for her kids. She rented a GIANT Little Tikes mountain/water slide and the kids had a blast and a half. It was super fun and just the kind of day that we needed. In the top picture, you can see Dallin in the orange shirt at the bottom getting ready to climb and Kate is getting all crazy and bouncin around. Crazy kids! LOL
Unfortunately, we received our very first sunburn that day. Boo! We had almost made it 4 years sunburn free. In my defense, I DID apply SPF 50 twice to Dallin during that 3 hour block....it wasn't enough. He has such a fair skin tone that he was quite crispy. He never complained about it hurting though, and we were quick to apply LOTS of aloe.


Kate was sunburned too, but not as bad as Dallin's . Hers went into a tan...his shoulders peeled. Good times. Good times. I thought the bottom picture was funny after they had been aloe vera'ed! Smile and Say Sunburn!

Kate's 2 Year Old Pictures

Kate's 2 year old pictures went really well. I really liked our photographer at JC Penny. It was the same one we had for the sibling pictures (Lisa). Somehow, even with my terribly uncooperative kiddo, she turns out beautiful pictures. Here is her entire shoot for your viewing pleasure!
THESE ARE THE PICTURES WE ORDERED- The top picture we ordered as well. I thought it really showed her personality and liked how they made it read "I Am 2" Cute!

I think she looks like such a mischevious pixie in this picture.

This was part of her pouting tantrum. We thought it was so "Kate" that we ordered it and put it on the "I Am 2" print.

Ready for my close-up! What a little diva!

This was my favorite pose. I liked how you could see how long her hair is getting and the cute bow on the back of her dress.

All smiles! Sugar n spice and everything nice.

THESE ARE THE PICTURES WE DID NOT ORDER, BUT THEY ARE STILL PRETTY CUTE!

She totally looks like she is tapping her foot in this picture. She WAS being pretty sassy right here and wouldn't do what the photographer asked.

I liked this picture, but I thought her hand floating in space looked weird.

This is the one we used on the "I Am 2" print

This is the one we used on the "I Am 2" print. What a clown!

This is the one we used on the "I Am 2" print. I think she looks like she is serving it up on a tray.

ENHANCEMENT PICTURES THAT WE DID NOT ORDER (they used the pictures you just saw and did cool stuff with them)

I actually thought this was pretty cute and timeless and may do this myself at another time.

Our 4th of July!

Yes, we DID in fact have a wonderful 4th of July. My mom and I took the kiddos to the Round Rock 4th of July parade. We got a primo spot (right in front of Golden Chick!). Nana even bought the kids ice cream. They ate the gumball eyes and then mostly let it melt all down their hands. This was kind of gross for Nana (who will probably not buy ice cream at a parade again) since she was holding a very sticky Kate. When the parade started, we caught lots of candy and a few toys and necklaces. It was quite a long parade (it lasted for an hour!!) and I was ill prepared by not having brought any ice water...fortunately...Golden Chick to the rescue! I bought us some bottled water and the kids (who had stopped grabbing candy and were watching it scatter about and asking to go home) started to grab candy again (still not as fast as when the parade first began...but at least picking it up). We are STILL eating the candy....s..l..o..w...l...y. We will definitely go again next year!
After a nice nap at home, we went over to Nana and Papa's house for some yummo BBQ with the entire Sharp family! Papa had smoked a briskit...mmmm. The kids played and passed the time until it was time for fireworks. I don't think night time has ever come sooo slowly! We marched across the street and hiked across the golf course with our lawn chairs and children until we found just the right spot on a little hill, and we set up camp. We were actually able to watch 2 different fireworks shows at the SAME time from our vantage point. No loud booming though. The kids enjoyed rolling down the hill through the entire thing. I'm not sure they even noticed that fireworks were happening . LOL-well, maybe they glanced once or twice. They definitely had a good time and so did we! Happy 4th of July!