moving sticks.

We've had several trees and limbs blow down with the storms over the last month.  

I enlisted the troops to help with some cleanup.  

They made trip after trip.  

It was pretty cute.  

this week in the garden :: june 20

As I weeded in the garden today, I was reminded of our first garden.  

The famous one.  **wink, wink**

The one in which Ella learned to walk.  

The one Miles saved from squash bugs.  

The one with all the cute signs.  

The one that produced more than any other year since.

The one I documented quite well, mostly for the sake of the two little people in it.  

And I decided I need to spend some more time in the garden with my camera.  I don't lug it around as much these days since I'm still carrying Emmett and all 24+ of his pounds around with me most of the time.  But I certainly want these sweet moments captured.  

You're only this little in the garden for one summer.

He was so happy to find our new signs today! 

Ooooops!... maybe a little too excited there, Buddy!

You can't turn your back on this one for even a second.  He's tearing off the Elmo signs and eating 1/2 ripened tomatoes off the vine.   

And loving them I might add...

If you clicked through to some of the posts from our first garden (up top), then this photo of Ella might be shocking.  She's grown so much!  

Mr. Busy....    

He has to re-do whatever we do.

We put veggies in, he reorganizes them.  

Miles preferred to be called "Indiana Miles" today.  

Ella couldn't stop telling me some story of what she's going to do with the vegetables when we get back to the house.  

She talks with her hands.  

And Emmett points at everything he sees all the time and grunts.  He's telling us about something here...

So I'm very thankful to have this one shot of everyone's eyes at least looking at me. 

Ella - 4 years

Indiana Miles - 6 years

Emmett - 14 months

in the garden: spring 2013 edition

Our garden has been another fun adventure so far this spring.  

We planted broccoli for the first time.

There were loads of peas, kale, lettuce and spinach for the picking.

We had plenty of radishes and are now enjoying our "rainbow" carrots. So far we've pulled red, yellow and orange ones.  Still waiting to find a purple or white.  The kids eat them on the spot!

Some of the tomatoes have finally started turning red.

Squash is coming off daily. 

Here's hoping the squash bugs hold off a little longer so we can fill our bellies with loads of this stuff!

Happy Father's Day 2013

When I was 16 years old I went to a Christmas parade with Britton and his 2 year old nephew, Grahmm.  Grahmm fell asleep sitting in Britton's lap in the car while we waited for the parade to start.  I knew, as I watched that teenage boy snuggle with his tiny nephew, that he was the kind of dude I wanted to marry.  Honestly, I knew then that I wanted to marry HIM.  

And now, I watch daily as he snuggles, loves on, teaches and plays with our own children.  

Man, I called it.  

He's the kind of dad I knew he'd be and I'm ever so thankful.  

I did not, however, see the beard coming.  

goodbye to the exersaucer.

Exersaucer is such a weird word.  If you don't have a baby, you might not even know what the heck.  But it is a highly functional, worth-hauling-in-the-back-of-your-car-to-wherever-you-might-be-spending-the-weekend, life saving device that all three of my children have spent time in while I did things like fold laundry, fix lunch and hide in the go to the bathroom.  

But you can see that on it's highest setting, Emmett's legs are no longer able to extend while he sits in it.  

Boo.  

Before it left to go to it's new home - {we are chunking baby stuff right and left around here...yay for no more storing the huge baby toys! and yay for facebook, which found this toy a new home in less than 20 minutes} - I took a few pics so I'll always remember how sweet he looks in it.  

THE cuteness.  

Peace out exersaucer.  

You did good work.