Baby Owen ~11 Months Old~

No sign this time. He won't hold still long enough to get a picture with even a portion of the piece of paper. Notice I had to trap him with my legs to get this picture.
Highlights in the life of Owen include:

• He eats anything and everything (good when he's in the highchair, bad when he's on the floor)
• He has started sleeping through the night every few nights (all that teasing makes the rest of our nights really unpleasant)
• He stands up for little bits of time, then collapses to the floor in laughter because he thinks it's so funny
• Come to think of it, he thinks a lot of things are funny and laughs a lot and it's this funny little "eh-eh-eh-eh-eh" laugh
• He's still on the move, all over everywhere, crawling like crazy, including up the stairs if they aren't blocked off
• He loves throwing balls, especially on the wood floor, crawling after them, throwing them again, crawling after them ...
• He loves pushing cars around on the floor (I don't know why, but I'm surprised he gets this concept already)
• He is quite the musician; he still shakes everything and hits things together until they make the loudest noise possible; he has added the alligator xylophone to his repertoire and he can play the kazoo like nobody's business (seriously!)
• He babbles a little, but still doesn't talk much; he'll say "ma-ma-ma-ma" and "da-da-da-da" and try to copy some sounds he hears; he coos along sweetly when you sing and he'll copy Putty when he meows with a little "ow"
• He's the sweetest, cuddliest (when he wants to be) little kid and I love him to pieces
  

Tomato Diseases/Pests

Does anyone know what is wrong with my tomato plants? The leaves have these ugly brown areas. Blight? Rot? Curl? I hate diagnosing plant diseases and pests. The newer leaves seem to be healthier so maybe it's nothing to worry about.It's on my basil, too.
Also, as long as we're on the subject of pests, does anyone know how to get rid of those pesky little baby grasshoppers before they become big, disgusting, hungry grasshoppers? Any help is greatly appreciated.

We're Half Way There

No, more like a quarter of the way there. It still has to be stained (still looking for a "professional" stainer--if I do it myself I'll notice all the flaws and Casey just has too many other "projects" to do), and there's a lot of patching and painting to be done with the walls and molding and such, and then the carpet runner can be installed and THEN we will be done with the stairs. I'm really thrilled with the results so far, though. Just in case you're wondering ... we do have more balusters on the way. They forgot to order them. But I'm proud of myself for not settling for any old thing in the catalog. I insisted on getting what we wanted in the first place.

Never Say Never

(It's only almost a year later ...)

For those of you who thought it would never happen (everyone, that is), here is the beginning of our new stairs. Our custom newel posts are up (but the tops aren't on) and I'm very excited about them. Anyone up for a job doing some staining?

The Great Outdoors

Sorry I haven't posted for so long. It's not that it's been boring around here; it's been absolutely crazy. All 3 boys have been sick since Friday and we've had lots going on. The craziness continues through Thursday, but I need a break. So here are a couple updates ...

This is Evan with his new obsession, the umbrella.

This is the beautiful rainbow that appeared after the lovely little rain showers that kept Evan entertained for so long.

This is my pride and joy. My square foot garden (er, the start of it). I was going to say that this is Phase 1 of my square foot garden project, but it's more like Phase 3 or 5 or so. This large area started out as a big, hilly mess of weeds and rocks (LOTS of rocks) and trash. The people before us used this area for RV parking with a dog run in one corner. I picked up rocks (LOTS of rocks), Casey tilled it up, I picked up more rocks (LOTS more rocks), then started leveling it out ... not a fun task! Thanks to the sandbox (partially seen on the right), the dirt/sand/grass was built up incredibly high on that one side and I had a very difficult time leveling it out. It's still not completely level, but good enough. Oh yeah, and that's our new peach tree. YEA!

After all that, I got to work building my square foot gardening boxes (kinda time-consuming). I rolled out that garden cloth stuff and staked it down, then filled the boxes with the special mixture of compost, peat moss and vermiculite (also kinda time-consuming). Then Evan helped me plant seeds and a few starts (very time consuming, but he enjoyed it and loves to see the "planets" growing). Within a few short days, seeds were germinating.

I know, I know, I don't have this box marked out in square feet, but we all know how tomatoes get crazy big and I don't mind have a box devoted purely to tomatoes--Celebrity, Early Girl and a variety of cherry tomatoes--and one basil plant (1 died before I transplanted ... not a good start).

Here is what is planted in the box below:
1 watermelon (transplant)
2 corn
2 cucumbers (1 is transplant)
9 peas
1 cauliflower
18 beans
1 broccoli
4 lettuce (2 varieties)
1 cantaloupe (transplant)
1 zucchini
16(?) carrots
1 squash
various radishes interspersed
several garlic chives (pest control ... and eating, I suppose)
several nasturtiums (also for pest control)
Can you believe that? I'm so excited about this. And the best part ... virtually NO weeding! Yea, serious. This may be as far as I get this year, but I'm surprised I got even this much done. It was hard work, but I look forward to wondrous results. And in the next few years I'll finish up this garden area. Eventually I'll have more boxes. I'm planning some skinnier ones that will be devoted solely to raspberries (if I can get them to live) and strawberries since they both spread so much. And a couple more so I can do more canning and freezing and such. And I'll be putting some sort of bricks or square paving stones around each box, adding a path of bricks or paving stones from the lawn to the gate (which will someday be a wooden fence) and then filling in all the spaces with small river rocks or something. The vision is beautiful. Hopefully I'll be able to realize it and do so within a year or two.

10 Years

No pictures today ... they didn't have digital cameras way back when we got married. Just wanted to tell Casey "Happy Anniversary," thanks for putting up with me for so long, and here's to eternity! :) Love ya, babe!

Gone Tomorrow ...

I did it. I didn't think I'd be able to, but I finally got Evan's hair cut. Casey and I decided on "The Beckham" (a cute little faux-hawk) as the haircut of choice. Evan was pretty good this time, considering it took a lot longer than usual and she used the clippers on him. He usually cries the entire time (even without clippers!), but this time I really prepped him on how much fun it was going to be and how it doesn't hurt and such. He was good to go until I got him dressed about 20 minutes before we had to leave. Then he said, "Shelby can't cut your hair." We tried our best to keep him thinking and talking about all sorts of other stuff during the haircut. But Evan drew the line with the clippers. He protested and cried and got only very slightly violent (poor Shelby has gotten severely kicked and hit and screamed at in the past), but she pressed on and in the end Evan was none the worse for wear. I think it turned out so cute. Here is Shelby, working her magic:





And the end result ...



Thanks, Shelby. Another job well-done.

Note: I just want to be clear that I did NOT cut his hair because of pressure from all those who think boys should only have short, clean-cut little missionary haircuts (you know who you are). I love his hair long (and I realize now it makes his body-to-head proportion a lot less noticeable). I just wanted him to be able to play hard outside in the miserable Utah heat this summer without getting a bright red face and sweating head (well, no more than any normal 3-year-old, anyway). So until the next snowflake falls (um, just ignore today's weather), the faux-hawk will stay. After that, maybe it will be the Brad Pitt or the Johnny Depp or maybe just the king of the world. We'll see ...