Garden and Grandparents

I finally worked up the courage to plant a little garden this year.  I was lucky enough to have my parents visit one weekend in May and they were a big help getting it set up.  I'm trying the square foot garden method and everything I read said to start small the first time, so we're starting with one 4 by 4 foot raised bed.  Spencer and Esther were as excited as I was to play in the dirt and then to plant the seeds and plants.  We planted carrots, cucumbers, green beans, peppers, onions, yellow squash, and tomatoes.  My goal this year is to make mistakes so even if nothing survives I'll know what not to do next year!

Here it is two weeks later.  It's like magic to see how the seeds turned to plants and the small plants got bigger!

Ammon surprised us by not being as shy as we thought he might be and made fast friends when food was involved.

Thanks for the puzzle, Gramma!

The park was another big winner.

The main motive for their trip was to see Spencer's last soccer game.  For his first season he did a great job, though Daniel and I observed that he seemed more excited about socializing with the other teammates than actually playing the game!

Here's his first game back in April when it was COLD outside.

We also had a bonus visit from Daniel's parents last weekend.  Once again we discovered the best way to warm up to Ammon is with food.  Thank you again for going out of your way to come see us!

This and That

Time for a little catch up from March now that April is almost over!

We don't have picture perfect pictures from Easter but here are some snapshots of the eggs we dyed.  Fortunately the kids really like hard boiled eggs too, so they actually ate them as well, helping to balance out all the sugar they got!  Spencer and Esther make a good team because Spencer likes the white part and Esther likes the yellow.  Ammon still eats the whole thing.

After a morning outside in the snow (back during that big storm) the kids had some hot chocolate and we pulled out some candy canes to put in it.  This is what Spencer came up with when I wasn't looking.  These will be the little things I'll miss when the kids are grown.   Good thing I have grandchildren to look forward to!

With the blog time "Becky's Blurb" it's funny how rarely Becky shows up.  That must be because I do all the blabbing.  Esther wanted a picture of the two of us so we snapped this the day the big storm started.

Ammon absolutely LOVES going outside and gets very upset when Daniel leaves and doesn't bring him along.  It took some adjusting to get used to walking outside with shoes on but now he is constantly bringing his shoes to us, begging to go out.  (This is the photo I told you about Nancy!)

The reason we no longer put the gate up.

I just love this picture Spencer painted.  He is the blue person and the orange people are friends of his, with Ammon the little person next to him.  Once in a while we do get an art project in and it amazes me what they come up with.  Esther is now old enough to join him in another art class (taught by a friend in our ward) and I can't wait to see what they create.

Ammon Getting Around

I tried posting this like two months ago, but for whatever reason it didn't work.  This was from his first birthday, when he still needed his little walker to get around.

When it Rains it Pours

We had a huge puddle (mini pond) in our back yard after a very heavy rain this week.  Spencer and Esther were really sad to see it gone the next day, but we are just grateful our house was okay.

My goal was to have a monthly post and, for anyone who still checks it, I completely missed March!  I'll have to split it up with a few different posts, but here are some photos from our crazy snow storm, which the kids also loved.  I couldn't complain too much seeing how happy they were.  And if it's going to be cold and yucky there might as well be some snow to play in, we didn't get near enough this year.

Ammon's 1st Birthday

Our little Ammon is one!!  We had a great day celebrating his birthday (February 7).  Spencer and Esther were so excited for him to open his presents and played with most of them the whole day.  Fortunately for them he didn't mind sharing :)

 Spencer and Esther helping make the birthday cake.

Ammon is our first child to like cake!  Perhaps it was just the fudgy chocolate frosting but he had no problem gobbling it all up.

 

 It looks like we have another climber.  I've had to hide this rocking chair because he uses it to reach all kinds of things.

 More climbing, he loves the piano!

He took three steps on his birthday and has been increasing since then.  He still prefers to use furniture and toys to hold on to but he's getting there!

Esther is 3!!

Esther was very excited about her birthday this year, being reminded by Spencer since Christmas that it was coming up next.  She wanted a chocolate cake and pink ice cream and fortunately ate enough dinner to get her dessert!  We are so happy to have Esther in our family and love all her giggles and grins.

She's at the age of knowing that pink and princesses are cute, it must be inevitable, so I indulged in getting a few of the typical girly characters.  She loved them, even if Spencer had to remind her what their names are.

The hope was that the cute hairbrush would let us brush her hair more often but it's still proving to be a battle...she's not that girly yet.

Christmas

Here I am finally posting Christmas photos.  We enjoyed spending another year at home and tried out some new traditions.  One that went over well was to have a "Bethlehem Dinner" on Christmas Eve.  With such picky eaters at our table, we thought we'd cater to the kids' tastes so we could have a meal together that they would actually eat.  Although the food was not entirely authentic, we chose some foods that people may have eaten at the time and place of Jesus' birth--flatbread and fish (tuna!), boiled eggs, olives, grape juice, cheese, grapes, and fresh pineapple, because it looked so pretty.  The kids loved it and ate everything, except the olives, and Daniel and I appreciated the easy prep and clean up.  We'll definitely be doing this again as long as the adults are outnumbered.  It was also a good way to create a reverent mood before acting out the nativity story after dinner and to give the holiday a little more focus on what it's all about.

Christmas treats before going to bed.

Snapshots from Christmas morning:

Someone was very excited! 

Esther has the best expressions!

Spencer was eager to help open and check out everyone's presents and luckily Ammon and Esther didn't mind.

These race cars from Santa were a real hit, they played with them all morning until the batteries died!  We spent the rest of the day relaxing, playing with new toys and grateful for such a happy Christmas together.