A little of this.... A little of that......

I cleaned off the camera card to my little camera, so this post is going to serve as a catch up for September.  Our church had a fun barbecue at Sugar-house Park.  The kids enjoyed playing in the stream and eating free snow cones.  Alex wore longer shorts (Doug calls them man capris), which didn't work with the water so Nadya improvised and tied them up with elastics.  She is so resourceful!  Needless to say, it didn't help much.  Alex's shorts were still drenched!

The kids played hard!  In fact they were dead tired that night!

Alex snuck in and slept on Carter's floor.

We have been productive around the house lately.

After six years (yes, six years!)  the front door is finally painted!  

We are still getting use to it, but I like it.  

I have enough paint to paint the other two outside doors.

Humm????  I wonder how many years it will take me to do those?  

Doug also built nesting boxes for the hens, (no eggs yet) fixed the boat, cleaned up the garden, and 

cleaned out the storage under the patio.  Phew.........I hate all these projects and we still have a list about ten items long  lingering on the fridge!  It is suppose to serve as

a motivator, and I guess in some ways it is. 

We have been wanting beanbags for the basement toyroom/pool table room and were able

to pick up two lovesac bean bags for a steal!  Originally, they were listed on Craig's list, but these particular bean bags came up casually in a conversation at church.  Sold, sold, sold........  

The kids love them!!!! The colors are perfect, and they look brand new, but I must admit they are bigger than I anticipated.

We picked a bushel of tomatoes from our garden and made 37 pints of salsa with Aunt Tracey.

This was the first time the girls had canned and they loved it! Hallie quickly became an expert

on hot peppers and jalapenos and Nadya cut up the garlic and green peppers.  They both peeled and squished tomatoes, their favorite part.  I am pretty sure Aunt Tracey will be wiping tomato juice from her cupboards for weeks! 

We plan to can peaches this weekend. Nadya is besides herself with joy!  Who knew canning food could be so entertaining to 11 year old girls?????

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Do you remember this spring when we planted our garden?????

My, oh my, how our garden has grown!

Carter is just like his dad.

He loves flowers, gardens, trees, and all things green.

I often find him picking something from the garden.

So, if you're in the neighborhood, stop by 

and enjoy a tomato or two.

I think we have enough.

(Doug only planted around 20 plants!)

Planting Tomatoes

The boys helped Daddy plant Tomatoes in the garden, the day before yesterday.  We always aim to have our tomatoes in the ground mid March.  Alex only lasted for one or two plants, but Carter hung on for the entire planting festivities.  Carter is a lot like his dad.  He loves to have his hands in the ground. 

Carter asking "Daddy, What's that"

Daddy, "Oh, that's the magic."

So cute........ 
Carter wanted to help to add the magic.

And I am happy to report, that it looks like our weeping pussy willow survived the gopher.  Yay!

Goin on A Gopher Hunt........... We're Not Scared.................

Doug has the green thumb in our family.

Perhaps it has to do with growing up on a farm,

or having his degree in Agronomy.  

Nonetheless, he wears that hat in our family.

About 5 years ago he started a major project in the back yard.

He took out our entire hill of  overgrown, dense sumac bushes.

(Okay, wait......  I do remember moving many, many, many railroad ties. 

I guess I can't give him all the credit!)

We terraced our hill and slowly started to replant it.

This was prior to any planting-

Slowly, we started planting.  We had fun picking out flowers, trees, bushes, shrubs, bulbs.

(ahh... my wittle Alex! So cute!)

So when we discovered a gopher was eating the roots to our rosebushes for an appetizer............

and  moved onto our hill enjoying our weeping pussy-willow for the main course, we declared war!

 A Victorious War too!

The other day the boys were outside playing on the trampoline when they ran in screaming with excitement.  

It seems after checking the gopher traps many times with no luck, this time they finally laid their eyes on a real bonified gopher.  And they couldn't wait to tell Daddy.  We called him and told him we caught the gopher and daddy told them to wait until he got home to take a better look.  So, we came inside and together we googled and learned all about gophers.  We even found a fun little game to play on the internet about pest control.  When Dad got home we went outside to take a better look at our prize.  It was a Botta's Pocket Gopher and it would no longer be dining on our hill.  When Alex asked what we should do with it Carter suggested that we wait until we have  five gophers and then cook them for dinner.  I do believe that boy has spent way too much time on Grandpa's farm!

(The Boys checking out the gopher....  I can't wait for our hill to be green again this Spring!)

Valentine's Day!!!!

We made heart pizzas using tortillas.

  The kids LOVED them and they were so easy!

The girls had heart hair.........

And I got Tulips.....

I love Tulips and Lilies.......

I love the Spring....

Can't wait for warmer weather!!!!  

I got Doug flowers for the yard too.....

Doug has the green thumb in this family and spends

hours and hours in the yard.

I probably get more flowers from him each year than any one else I know.

Only, they are always the ones that go in the ground.....

Very occasionally, cut ones...  

But mostly ones we can plant in our yard.....

Tulip Time!

Have I ever mentioned that in the Fall of 2003
(I was like 9 months Preggo!)
we planted 1,500 tulips?
We'll we did.
Let's just say they've multiplied!
This is a pre-clean up picture.
We have been doing all of our Spring-Time clean up and the yard is looking great!
I, however, neglected to put sunblock on in time and learned my lesson!