Everett's 2nd Birthday!

Everett turned 2 on July 5.  I'm a little sad that he is not a baby anymore, but it has been amazing watching him become a little boy.  He is so fun to be around, and he loves learning new things.  Here are some pictures from his party on July 4, and his actual birthday.

California

Last weekend, we went to California for my sister's 30th birthday. We basically just hung out at my parents house with the family and then had an amazing BBQ birthday dinner for my sister. My dad does ribs better than anybody! We had lunch at the park with the Barones one day too. It was so nice to be outside in the cold, and get to hang out with good friends. On the last day of our trip, we went to Disneyland with our friend Alex and his friend, Melissa. It is so, so great to go to Disneyland with your kids. They had so much fun, and they were ridiculously good. We were not planning to stay all day, because we did not think they would be able to handle it. We were very wrong. They did great all day, and we ended up staying until almost 8pm. I can't even remember a day where one of them didn't cry or whine the entire day. I guess we will need to go to Disneyland more often. :) Below are a lot of pictures from the weekend...mostly of Kate, Everett and our nephews playing together, a couple of my parents with all of the grandchildren, and then our day at Disneyland.

Garden Update

Our garden is doing great! Maybe a little too great actually. I was not very good about trimming things back and our tomato plant is trying to take over the world. These pictures are from a few weeks ago, so it doesn't show the craziness. I will post some new pics sometime soon. Also, I wish our lettuce still looked this good. Some kind of bug has invaded, and I need to figure out how to deal with that before they completely destroy all of my cute little lettuce plants.

Easter

We had a very laid back Easter this year. It was nice! I did spend most of the morning making food, but I actually find that relaxing. We did an egg hunt at our house and gave Kate and Everett their Easter baskets. Some of our neighbors had an egg hunt in the park next to our house, so Brian took the kids to do that one. After Ev's nap, we went to the in-laws and did another egg hunt. According to Kate, you cannot have too many egg hunts. We ended up with so much candy! I'm still trying to slowly throw it away without anyone noticing.

Family Zoo Day

We have a membership to the Phoenix Zoo, but the four of us still had not gone together. A few weekends ago, we finally were able to make it happen. Kate and Everett love the farm area, so we had to go there. They pretended to drive tractors, played at the playground and said hi to all of the farm animals. Kate really liked the turkey and was trying to walk like one. Before we left we went on the train ride. We had never done that before, and the kids really liked it. It is really more of a tram, but if you call it a "ride" then I guess you can call it a train.

First Diamondbacks Game of the Year

We went to one of the Diamondbacks exhibition games before the season started a few weeks ago. I can't remember when this was or who they were playing, so apparently I need to pay more attention. The kids are very happy that baseball season has started again. Me too, especially since the Dodgers are here in a couple weeks!

Visitors!

I have been really bad about blogging...again. I am going to make up for it though by doing 4 or 5 posts now. So this is the start of what we have been up to the last few weeks.

In March, my family (well, most of them) came to visit. My brother-in-law and my youngest nephew couldn't make it this time. It seemed like we mostly ate, but we did some other fun things too. One day we went to Brian's parents house and went on a boat ride.




Another day we went to the Phoenix Zoo. The kids really liked playing at the Little People Farm playground. We also went to the petting zoo, where they were able to pet and brush the goats.

Plant Week

Last Monday I was not feeling well, so Brian brought these orange tulips home for me!



A couple of weeks ago we started getting fruits and vegetables from a co op called Bountiful Baskets. This was what was in the basket this week. So far everything has been really good, and we have been eating so much more fruit because it's there.



This is our new lemon tree! It is so cute, and it already has a flower. Just the one flower already smells so good. I can't wait until spring when it will have even more.



We also put in a new pine tree and some other new plants.



Brian just built this garden box for me. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will have pictures of it full of cute little vegetable plants.



Kate with the seeds we planted for our garden.



The lettuce plants are already coming up. The cucumbers have come through now too!



Here is another "before" picture. This is our patio, and we would like to make it a cool outside dining area. We think we found something we like, so next week I should have the "after" picture.



And another "before". Under our fountain I always plant an herb garden. It's not looking so good right now, but soon it will be pretty.