Square Foot Garden

We have busy the past few weeks getting our garden ready for this summer. Since we don't have a very large back yard, Nate and I have decided to use the square foot gardening (sfg) method. Thanks to Marne, Nate's sister, for introducing us to this method of gardening. So far we have 2 boxes ready and are working on a third. We have planted some green onions, chives, radishes, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, brussel sprouts, onions, and peas. I am excited to see the first seedlings pop up through the soil!

I have also planted quite a few starts so we won't have to buy the expensive starts at the store. We have several assorted tomato plants, cucumbers, assorted peppers, and assorted flowers. They are taking up about 1/3 of the kitchen table, so it's a good thing we are still a small family. I put them in the sun room on sunny days, but it has been quite cloudy and not warm enough out there lately. I will take pictures of our first year of sfg and post them. Hopefully it will be a prosperous year.

Oh, we also bought some fruit trees for the back yard. We may have gone a little overboard, but it was so hard to decide what kinds to get. We bought a peach, nectarine and apricot, and then variety trees of apple, plum, cherry, and pear (they have several different varieties of the same fruit grafted to one trunk). The variety trees have fruit that ripens throughout the summer, so we should have fresh fruit for much of the summer. We wanted to get them in ASAP so we could reap the benefits of them before moving since they take a few years before they produce any fruit. I love having fresh fruit and veggies right in our back yard. Thanks Mom and Dad for showing me how to grow a garden growing up.

Kitchen Remodel

We have been busy the past two weeks working on our kitchen remodel. So far we have painted all the mounted cabinets and are in the process of finishing the doors. They used to be an oak color, but we are painting them parchment paper (it is a light cream color) and are going to "antique" them. So far they are looking great. The antiquing is hard, but I guess that should have been anticipated. We also bought some handles for the drawers and knobs for the cupboards. They are a dark brown (almost black) with some bronze showing through. I'm sure that has an actual name, I'm just not sure what it is. Those handles were pricey! They cost more than all the paint and everything else for the cabinets and walls combined. But I think we will be very happy with the end result.

After we get the cabinets done, we will be painting the walls. We have picked out a nice green color called "guacamole." I think it is perfect! Once we save a little more money we are going to replace the linoleum flooring with tile. We'd also love to get new counter tops since they are blue right now. We'll be keeping our eyes out for some inexpensive granite (hopefully) and then add a tile back splash as well.

You might be thinking our kitchen must have really needed some help, but it actually wasn't too bad. We just figure that since we are going to live here for a while, we might as well fix things up the way we want them. It will be nice to actually have cupboard doors on again soon. Right now Ian has free range and loves playing with whatever he can find in the open cupboards.

Birthday Bash

We had a bunch of our family come over for Ian's birthday bash on Saturday. We had a lot of fun despite having to wait for 2 hours for lunch to cook...sorry guys.

Ian and my sister's baby Caden. His birthday is coming right up, too.

The fam gathered around to watch Ian open up all his presents. Thanks guys. It's been nice to have a few new toys to play with, books to read, and clothes to wear.

My brother Greg and Dad patiently waiting by the grill as the chicken slowly cooks. (I'm just glad it didn't all turn into charcoal!)

My nieces Brooklynne and Kaitlin climbing our tree. They all had a blast. Boy am I glad we got a house with a pretty decent sized back yard...some of them around here were pretty teeny.

Gift opening time. Ian's cousins were all very eager to help unwrap his new things.

Time for the birthday cake! Chocolate with chocolate icing...we've gotta start this boy out on the right track.

The much anticipated first bite...it was a glob of red frosting...yummy!

Everyone gathered around waiting intently for Ian to really dig in...

It took him a few minutes, but he finally started going for it. We had to take it away from him so he wouldn't get too sick!

What a cute little messy boy!!

Time for a bath to get all that frosting off his face and out of his hair and ears!

Daddy showing him how to hit the ball off the tee. This bat is his favorite toy. He loves to carry it everywhere he goes...around the house, outside, to bed, in the car. I have to draw the line at the store though, so he doesn't start knocking things off the shelves as I cut out my coupons!

All in all we had a great time. It really does seem like he is older now that he is finally one. He is getting to be so much fun! We are still waiting for his first real word, but he does love to jibber jabber. He continues to be a very happy and outgoing little guy and we are just so happy to have him as apart of our lives!

A Day In The Life of a One Year Old

Here are some pictures of Ian's first day as a one year old. We had a fun day together. This is Ian holding out his one finger to show that he is one! (Okay he can't really do this yet, but if we say "Where's Jesus?" he points his finger at whatever he sees.)Practicing up on brushing his teeth. He loves to chew on everything so he loves to play with his toothbrush.

Just his cute little face. You can see most of his teeth, but he already has 2 molars for a total of 10 teeth! Holy cow!

I had a coupon for free lunch at Denny's and while we were there, they asked how old he was. When I told them it was his birthday they said he could get a free grand slam...so here he is dipping his fingers into the sticky syrup... It included 2 pancakes, 2 sausage, 2 bacon, and 2 scrambled eggs, but he only ate about 1/2 of a pancake and a few bites of egg. It was pretty funny to see this huge meal for such a little guy.

Here we are at the grocery store picking up a few last minute things for the weekend.

Finally, Uncle Mat arrives. Ian loves playing with Uncle Mat because Mat loves to play with him. You're a great uncle, Mat!

Playing around at Dad's last basketball game. You'll notice his graham cracker hanging out of his mouth. He walked around with it like that for quite a while.

One last look at Jesus before it's off to bed!

Walking Time

Well, Ian has starting walking pretty well now. Crawling is still his preferred method of movement when he is already sitting or when he falls, but he is starting to walk a lot more. It is so cute to watch him toddle around! He also loves to eat...we decided he must have my appetite! We're still working on his first word. He says dada and mama, but I don't think he knows what they mean yet.

Here are a few more pictures from Ian's recent sitting. They are just so cute I can hardly stand it!! He is so much fun and you can really see some of his personality shining through in these pictures. As you can see he is standing well on his own. He can also walks several steps (I've counted up to ten) when he wants to.

Photo Shoot

We went to Target for Ian's 10 month pictures yesterday and they turned out fantastic! I wanted to buy them all, but we are not made of money, so I signed up to see them all through the website. Here are a few, but I will probably post some more because they are so adorable! The photographer always does a good job and she even wants to send the pictures to see if Target will use them for advertising. I had him wear the top hat in celebration of the New Year.