Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Growings On

Following Danielle's lead...

...I'm doing a post about what is growing in our yard (better phrased: What has the potential to grow in our yard).

The south side of the yard has a couple lilac trees and a magnolia tree. We planted bamboo in between (the clumping kind, so it won't go crazy). The bamboo should fill in nicely.

Where the flowers grow! What kind? It's going to be a surprise this first year.

...the steps to the hilly part of the yard.
This is the garden. Half of it is under the protection of a growing cloth to keep the bugs out while the lettuce and peas are still young. The other half is under cardboard to help kill the weeds before planting. Just to the left, is another small garden.

This is the strawberry and raspberry patch (with a rhubarb plant in front)

I love this ground cover and am trying to figure out how to transplant it lots of different places. Less grass = less mowing! In the background, you can see the fire pit, garden and berry patch.

We forgot how much Amya loves rocks until we made this fire pit. I will be redesigning it, so that it is less appealing to her :)This is part of the yard at dusk. And those are plum trees! We want to get more of these solar yard lights. They look very pretty in the evening.Here is Dan working on the pergola...more of that to come later!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Is It Possible To Measure The Difference Between The Male And Female Of Our Species?

I argue that it is. Here it is, in it's simplest form:
_________________________________________________________
************************************************************
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
...and just so we're all clear:



Monday, April 27, 2009

I Miss My Sister

...I haven't actually seen my sister since October, but that's not what I'm referring to. My sister has been in Italy for a week and a half, so apart from paying international fees and disrupting her when she is working, I can't call her! --actually, I disrupt her from working when she is in the U.S. all the time, so that part shouldn't matter.
I hate it when people are traveling because I know I can't get a hold of them if I need them, and that makes me think I need them more! Does that make sense?
So, I haven't talked to my sister since Friday, April 17th, when she was sitting on an airplane, ready to take off to Europe....and it feels like forever!!
Just to be clear, it is quite possible that I would not have talked to her in the past week and a half, but the fact that I can't talk to her, well, that makes it difficult.
She is the person I call when Amya has done something that either A) has me completely frazzled or B) has me completely floored....and that has happened a few times in the past couple weeks. Man, my sister is really missing out. She missed the story about Amya's 10 min. time out, when she screamed the entire time and was hoarse for hours....and when she pointed to my mid-section and asked if I was hiding a baby sister for her in there. Man, she is really missing out. I bet she can't wait to get home from Italy!

Happy Belated Birthday...




...Uncle Bryce! Sounds like you had a fabulous birthday!

Friday, April 24, 2009

From The Mouths Of Babes...

This is my pantry, the disorganized mess that it is. Amya likes to get my fabric grocery bags and go "shopping" in the pantry. So, that is the excuse for the bottom shelves. The top shelves? ...u-hem... ...anyway, today Amya found the fruit pectin and brought it to me and said, "Look Momma! I found chemicals!"
I don't know.
But it did make me read the back ingredient list! And I'm ok with it ;)

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Spring



I followed Amya around with my camera today. It was kind of fun to just be the observer and see what she got into, without my prompting or protests...




...she painted outside, then painted the door window. I thought it looked pretty, so I let her do it.









Amya found her sled and wanted me to pull her around


(OK, I may have gotten her to pose for this one)

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Happy Birthday Grandma Chris!

We love you and miss you! Hope you are having a great day!!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Introducing....

Emma Morgan!
Congratulations to Mom and Dad, Sonya and Pete...


...and big brother, Petey!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Happy Birthday Kara!


(you knew this picture was going to come back, right? -- probably for years, I'm guessing)
Hope you have a spectacular day today!!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

All in a days work....

If you've payed attention to the news at all lately, you've no doubt heard about the Pirates that took an American cargo ship hostage in a small lifeboat in the middle of the Gulf of Aden. You also may have heard that the first ones on the scene were the US Navy...and Insitu....flying an Insitu built Scan Eagle unmanned aircraft from the Naval Destroyer USS Bainbridge. The scan eagle UAV found the lifeboat and then loitered and provided aerial recon until the ships could arrive and continued to keep live aerial surveillance 24-7 until the situation was resolved.





Here's some of the details from a local news channel....


http://www.kgw.com/video/video-index.html?nvid=351879





Here's a photo of Captain Phillips (center) after he was rescued with the scan eagle team...



Here's a clip from CNN that shows some stills of the scan eagle footage...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnv_FQvsfGg


What Is Cuter Than This?...

Amya wore her big girl underpants for the first time today! She was very proud of herself. About 15 minutes after putting them on, she came up to me and said, "Momma, I peein' in my underpanties!"



Those aren't baby thighs anymore! She is starting to look like a kid!

Happy Birthday Uncle Kirk!

We hope you get spoiled rotten today!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs

We colored Easter Eggs today! It actually went MUCH smoother than I was anticipating! Kristen got it all set up and the kids threw in their eggs (literally).
Cole





Kailey



Sadie



Amya


Attempted Sleepover

Kailey came over today and we tried a new thing...putting them both down for a nap...together. If there is no update for this post, then we all know how it ended!








********Update********

Company left around 6:00pm. These pictures were taken around 6:10pm!

*******Update # 2*******

...and she slept through the night!

Here Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

...or atleast a few pictures of our favorite thing!





Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Getting Out With Friends...

...is a good thing! When the skies clear in March in the Pacific Northwest, you get out! Amya loves Ms. Kristen. When we go to storytime at the library, she has to know where she is at all times. If Amya looks over and Kristen has moved from the spot she was sitting, Amya feels like it is her personal responsibility to track her down and let me know her current location!
Sadie is as cute as a button!