Garden Update

Have I mentioned how utterly proud I am of my garden? Well - I am! I am SO stinking proud! Food is growing, ACTUALLY growing! And pretty darned good I might add! :-)

It hasn't been without it's problems tho - the wind knocked over my tomato planter and all the tomatoes on the bottom got broken. The hail killed several things... actually I killed more than the hail did trying to protect it from the hail. Sigh. But, overall things are growing and I can eat them ... AND I have been doing it totally organic! No harmful pesticides or growth enhancers! I got this great book from the library that I may not give back (just joking Chris....) and it has tons of organic tonics that help your garden, yard and flowers! I recently treated my garden to a pest pulverizing salsa - to get rid of harmful bugs! It smelled so good I wanted to eat it - except that it had 6 jalapenos in it and it would have been way too hot! But, it worked! I have made a friend with a crab spider. Yes, I said it - a spider. Don't get me wrong, we're not hanging out having iced tea or anything but we are "co-existing". He lives on my tomato plant, and eats all the bugs and promises not to sneak up on me. In turn, I let him live. Symbiotic relationships are so nice!

My yummy spinach

Here are a few pics! Today I think I might make a salad with my lettuce, spinach, cilantro and radish! ;-)

Above - Some of my lettuce, and one of my radishes! YUM!

My bell peppers are just starting to grow, and an overall view of the upside down planters.

Here are my cherry tomatoes - you can see one is almost ripe! Ya! The one looked like it had a seed growing on the outside, so i picked it off, and it left a scar. Ooops. This is where the spider lives, he was camera shy today. The second pic is a close up of one of the bell peppers.

basilSome lemon boy tomatoes

Well, that's all for now, have a great day!

On a sad note - I came home from work to this.... apparently (or we're guessing) that the wind broke my tree. :-( Anybody know of a great deal on tree's????

Some more mom nuggets...

Here are a few more things I never thought I would say, let alone hear! Enjoy!

"Kaitlyn, why are you licking your arms?!" "Well, I didn't wash very good."



"KAITLYN! SHOES WITH DOG POOP DO NOT GO ON THE TABLE!" "Did you even wash your hands after you touched the poopy shoes?" She sniffs her hands, and says "they don't smell like poop!"

My First Garden Food!

So - yesterday I got to eat my first, grown from seed, garden food!!! I pulled two radishes and made a delicious salad (with store bought salad stuff (for now!))! I have to say how incredibly proud of myself I am! I have several more that are ready but I didn't want to be greedy on my first harvest!

He He He!

Look what I grew! All by myself!

My baby is 4!

This day was sad and happy all in one! I took some time in the morning before everyone was awake to reflect on the past four years. Man - time really does fly. When you are a kid it seems like the days last forever, but as an adult there is never enough time in the day, and before you know it - four years has gone by. sigh.
Anyway - we decided to have two parties, one for the "princesses" and one for the family. Kaitlyn had been asking for a "Cinderella" party since last October. She was ecstatic! She looked SO adorable! All the girls had a great time and I have officially become two of the girls party planners. ha ha ha! That made me feel good! Thanks to all our friends and family for making her special day "special"

Here are some of my favorite pics and video's of the day! Check out the slide show on the right for all the pics. (you can click on it to see the full size version)

Here she is on her new bike!

All the cuties!

YES! I WON! Breanna was SO excited!

A cute video of the girls rocking out! This cracked me up! My girl is so cute! ;-)

Here she is, acting all grown up!

Speaking of cute, here are a few pics of the cake and cupcakes that I made. I am so proud of those butterflies! They were devils food cupcakes with homemade peanut-butter butter cream icing! TO DIE FOR! The cake was something I dreamed up - and I think it turned out pretty darn cute! I know Kaitlyn loved it! Which - in my book is all that matters! How did I do Sarah?

"That was a cheap shot"

Awhile back I wrote about some of Kaitlyn's new words. "Peecheought". We have been asking for a while now what exactly is a peecheought. I would give her a cookie and say "Is this a peecheought?" She would laugh and say No. "I would watch a show with her and something funny would come on - and I would say "man that was a peecheought" and she would look at me like I was from another planet and say "No it isn't."

A few weeks ago we figured out that "peecheought" was from the Garfield movie. So we watched it over and over, but Kaitlyn would either fall asleep before the part, or lose interest. We figured out that it was probably something that hurt, and was probably funny.

I gave up learning what peecheought meant. UNTIL...

Jamie and Akasha were really brainstorming and figured out what it meant!!!!

Odie throws a pillow at Garfield and Garfield says "that was a cheap shot!". That was a peecheought."

Mystery solved. Thanks detectives Busch and Scarrow.

another thing I never thought I would say.

So - I have always wanted to write a book about all the things I say on a daily basis that I never thought I would say. They are my little mom nuggets of wisdom.

Here is today's nugget:

"Kaitlyn, you DO NOT rub watermelon on your forehead!!! Watermelons are not for FOREHEADS!".

Here are a few other memorable nuggets:
"Kaitlyn, my boobs are not for honking."

"Daddy's underwear are NOT, I repeat NOT a hat."

Hope you enjoy them as much as me!

Camping - Elevenmile Reservoir

We decided to try a new campsite out this time - and I couldn't have been more pleased! We went up to Eleven mile Reservoir. If you don't know where that is, it's west of Colorado Springs about an hour or so, past Woodland Park. I can't believe I've lived in Co my whole life and never been there! It didn't take very long to get there, but it seems SO far away. Despite the rain - the TONS AND TONS OF RAIN, we had a great time! The scenery was awesome, the amenities were great and when the sun shined it was a really beautiful place. I'm really glad that our campsite wasn't near the lake though, there was thousands (no exaggeration) of these "mosquito like" bugs (they weren't mosquito's but looked similar). That was really gross, but overall a really fun trip and I can't wait to go back! Kaitlyn had a fabulous time, and was so bummed when we were leaving. She said "I thought we were going to stay forever!" Mike said, "don't you want to go back to your home? Don't you miss it?" She promptly said "No!". He laughed and said, too bad. We went with Jamie, Mike and the kids - all four dogs - and Rayme's family. It seemed like there was something for everyone - and I think we all had a great time! It wasn't a bad start to the camping season!

Take a look at the slide show on the right.

Garden!!

I have wanted a garden for years, and for Mother's day this year my husband decided to build me a raised garden bed! He and my brother in law Mike, built me this beautiful cedar garden bed and drilled my buckets for upside down planters. I must have been too caught up in the moment because I didn't take a single picture (and that is just NOT like me!).

I decided to do half store bought plants and half seeds. I have to say that I am really proud of myself! I am just going for it! I really have no idea what I am doing but I'm sure I'm going to get something out of it! Here are some picture of our progress!

Here is Jamie helping me plant carrots and Jalapenos!

She is really excited about the garden!

Don't I look so happy!? I found a quote recently "The best place to look for God is in the garden, you can dig for him there".

Here are some pics of my stuff!

Basil!!

Heirloom Tomatoes (green zebra) and some brussel sprouts from my neighbor!

Some Green onions and some red onions, I think there is a cantaloupe in there too - followed by more bell peppers and some giant Marconi peppers.

My upside down tomato planters! I know - they aren't the most attractive, but SO effective! I am so super excited about them! Can you see my babies? One yellow pear tomato and like 3 or 4 cherry tomatoes! My Raspberry bush!

Baby Marconi Peppers

Some Mint

Q

We had a hail storm while we were camping, and I was so worried! But - all in all they didn't fair too bad! I lost one whole stem of flowering tomatoes - hopefully they will still bloom more. My beans came up (pic to the left) and my peas are doing awesome! My jalapenos got a bit beat up but they still bloomed! My carrots are coming up in troves! YUMMY!

Well - that's it for now, I will be updating continuously!

Unforgettables!

Number 1)





PLUMP:
noun (plural plums)
Definition:

1. dark red fruit: a round or oval smooth-skinned fruit, usually red or purple, containing a flattened pit. 2. A fruit recently discovered by my 3 year old, which is "delicious for her tummy"!

Used in a sentence:
" Mommy, can I have another one of those plumps, they are delicious for my tummy!!!."

Number 2)

Pecheeought. Pronounced PEE-CHEE-AUT.
Noun? Verb? Adverb? Yes? I think.
This definition is a little harder because I'm not sure what it means. I know it has been used in several applications as follows:

A. "I bonked my head and that was a real pecheeought!

B. " Aunt JJ you are such a pecheeought!

C. "Peecheeought, I forgot my brushy!"

D. "Cheyenne is going to eat my plump, that is a pecheeought!"

Easter 2009, this and that

Well - Easter has come and gone again. Another mound of eggs dyed, and a ton of deviled eggs made in return! We started off our Easter weekend by going to see Mike's dad in a play about the crucifixion of Christ, and the Resurrection. Mike's dad played Jesus and he did a fabulous job! Who knew he was such an actor! We got home and dyed eggs - and except for the two spills and Kaitlyn painting her hands instead of the eggs - it was a great time! Akasha, Jarod and I tye-dyed eggs with food coloring and it was pretty cool!
I got up early the next day and went in to "Betty cracker mode". I baked blueberry orange muffins for everyone, warmed some spice cake with cream cheese, made some fresh carrot/apple juice and Mike cut up some fresh pineapple. And - I baked a pineapple upside down cake all by 10:00! The kids found 70 real eggs and 52 plastic eggs! No one knew what the plastic eggs had in them - they were a special delivery from the gramma bunnies! Kaitlyn was particularly interested in them -over the "big eggs" which was weird (she must have had a sixth sense about it). She got A.D.D. and decided to go through her basket, and popped open one of the plastic eggs and a dollar popped out. Jarod looked over - and started grabbing up as many plastic eggs as he could find! It was too funny! You can see the pic to the right (in the slide show) with all of them holding up their "cold hard cash"! Thanks gramma bunnies for the cute eggs - man those kids were so excited! Thanks to Jamie for taking the rest of the pics of the day - as my camera's batteries died. Oops.

Oh yea - Jamie, Mike and the kids are back home! They made it safe and sound! Looks like they are going to be staying with us for awhile, as they can't get post housing for 4-6 months, they can't register the kids for school in the springs until they get housing. So everyone will know how to get a hold of them at least until school is out!