A couple of weeks happenings

Been an eventful couple of weeks. We spent the first week at home because Logan had the flu. He was sick with a fever, cough, sore throat, etc. for about 5 days. So I canceled all of my piano lessons and we holed ourselves up in the house and mostly drove each other crazy. Glad that's over and the good news is that no one else caught it.

It was also my birthday this week. Probably my favorite gift was a whole set of aprons homemade by my mom. They are all really cute. She made one for me and a matching one for Kaylinn. My mom took me out for lunch on my birthday and we we went out for dinner that night (Mike, Logan, Kaylinn and I) to a Hibachi grill. That was the kids first time and they really enjoyed the experience. It was a pretty low key birthday, but I thought it was perfect--just the way I wanted to celebrate.

I felt the baby move for the first time last week. It's starting to increase in frequency so that is exciting. I don't know whether to be happy about it or not. I am excited about the new development, but it gets old fast, so I'm leary that I am experiencing this for the first time at 14 weeks.

I watched the documentary Food Inc. this week. Really disturbing, but informative. So if you are interested in being disgusted about what you eat, but learning a lot I would recommend it. I wouldn't recommend it for the weak stomach, though, because it was pretty graphic at times. I had known most of the information already, but having a visual with it was pretty traumatizing. As a consequence I made my own bread this week (first time since I've been pregnant, so that was productive).

We had the Allen clan over last night for pizza and a UofU football game. The Utes got smashed, but it was still fun to hang out together. Speaking of large gatherings, I volunteered to host Thanksgiving dinner this year. It will be my first time so we will see how that goes. That means I get to cook the turkey (first time for that, too). I also get to organize everything else. Mike keeps telling me that I am crazy because I am pregnant and all, but it is a small group this year and I figure I can squish everyone in my house so I might as well right. Bring on the adventure. I will keep you posted on how that goes.

I was almost lost and gone forever

Well, the most embarrassing thing about coming back to blogspot was looking and seeing that it has been almost 5 months since my last post. So here are my excuses. First: it was summer. The summer was so crazy busy, I didn't even have time to think (or rest for that matter), let alone blog. I had the kids signed up for everything possible (mostly it was a defense against too many video games). Five days a week we were going and going. So here is the abbreviated version of our summer activities. For June and July Logan went to Arts in the Park 2 days a week while Kaylinn was at Preschool Arts and Crafts. This is when I did my grocery shopping and also tried to squeeze in as many other errands as I could. We went letterboxing one morning a week with our Allen cousins (look it up if you are curious, it is lots of fun). Logan did track and field which was 3 afternoons a week plus track meets (He placed 3 times in the 1600m and the long jump). Kaylinn had a dance recital in June, I had a piano recital for my students in May. I trained to run a 5k in June--placed first in my age division. We had playgroups--Kaylinn on Friday mornings and Logan on Friday afternoons. By August I was starting to feel pretty run down. Some of those activities were over, but they were replaced by a solid month of swimming lessons every day and our vacation of the summer--a family reunion in Montana. Add into that mix both Kaylinn's (Fairy Party) and Logan's (Spongebob Water Party) Birthdays.

Kaylinn Swimming Lessons

Logan Track and Field

So that is my first excuse. And honestly, I had vowed to start blogging as soon as the fall came and things went back to normal calmness. And then I decided to work more. SO the fall promise got delayed a bit. I went from the 10 students I had last spring to 20 this fall. Logistically it was quite crazy. I spent a lot of time and the music store trying to straighten out materials for the whole crew. I spent lots of time on the phone trying to straighten out times and answer parents questions. It took a good month before that was all straightened out and things settled down.

And then came the morning sickness. About September I first started feeling really crappy. Okay, maybe I should back up and make the announcement: I'M PREGNANT! WOOHOO! I am 13 weeks right now...due May 10th. And I'm planning on not finding out the sex of the baby. I would like to have a surprise in the delivery room. Okay, back to the narrative. So I pretty much spent the last two months napping or laying around. I Read lots of books and watched a lot of TV. It's been the last couple of days that I've started feeling better(hallelujah!). I had my first appointment last week. I had an ultrasound and saw the baby and it's heartbeat. It is so amazing...even the third time around. The baby was laying on its stomach and kicking around a lot, it looked like a turtle. A cute turtle. My cute turtle. So the baby has received its first nickname.

Brekenridge 2nd Honeymoon

Obviously I wrote this a while ago and it was just sitting around in my drafts folder forever!

Breckenridge Mining Hike

This is a special remote post from Breckenridge Colorado where Mike and I (with no children) are enjoying a relax, rejuvenate, and reconnect vacation. It has been so mellow and relaxing. We are loving it!

But I wanted to talk a bit more about the gardening. Mike suggested that I bring it out further and take out some of the existing lawn. I said sure, but I'm not sure why I did it. It's a lot of hard work to pull out grass, so that was quite a project and then I had all this space that I needed to fill. I about doubled the size of my vegetable garden. So I decided to intermix flowers and vegetables (mostly because I didn't know what the heck I was going to fill all that space with). Then I just kept planting more and more things. In the end I have 23 tomato plants (half of which are roma), 12 bell pepper plants, a few eggplants, some tomatillos, anaheim peppers, popcorn, beans, three types of squash, peas, beets, rhubarb, onions, and there are probably more that I am forgetting right now. Then I have marigolds and petunias, a good 100 gladiolas, a poppy, a wildflower mix, and a sunflower house. I also planted the beans, corn and one of the squash as a three sisters garden. I decided to make my garden more organic and interesting looking. Instead of a square, I made more of a B shape with the border flowing and curving. I took a gardening landscape class and talked to a professional about my design ideas. She rejected them. She told me I shouldn't do it...but I did it anyways. I have to admit that it was a little disappointing to me. I had spent all this time working on the garden and when I had pretty much finished planting I turned around a looked at all my hard work and it so far amounts to some small seedlings and clear dirt where the seeds have been planted. Not the big beautiful garden that I had in mind yet, but I will have patience and wait for it to grow and then I will be happy with the fruits of my labors.

Then there is the other garden. My parents have a piece of land that my mom decided would make a great garden. So she and my dad cleared away 1/4 acre and she invited all of us to garden together as a family on the land. I like to call it the family plot (my mom keeps asking who is getting buried there, hehe). I have been out there a few times to work on it with my mom. We have done snow peas (4-75 foot rows) and corn (3, soon to be 6-75 food rows). We also have 3 varieties of watermelon, 3 varieties of pumpkin and 3 varieties of winter squash. So I am here to tell you that this is gardening in mega proportions. I may have possibly bitten off more than I can chew with this gardening business this year. When the late summer and fall comes and I am buried in produce you can all come back and say I told you so. But I am very happy with it. I have found great joy in my garden. It is nice to go out there and tend to the garden. I kind of get to step away from the craziness that is life and being a mother and find peace in my garden. I am very proud of it and of the hard work I have put into it. Also my new favorite author for gardening books is Sharon Lovejoy. They are fast reads bursting with great ideas so you should check them out.

My other big yard goals this year have been about furniture. Well first of all to get the deck finished. By fall last year, the floor was done, but Mike still had the stairs and the railing to go. As of Memorial day weekend the stairs are done. Mike's 2 brothers Fuzz and Steve came over and helped him get it done in one day. Their help was invaluable. Steve's family came over as well and the cousins played all day while Jen and I chatted. Then we topped the whole day off with a birthday party for Taylor. I also that same weekend became the owner of a porch swing. I am so excited about this. I am already loving just sitting and swinging. Plus I finally have a place to sit on the front porch. The next thing on my list is a patio set so that we can eat meals outside on our new deck. I have also been working on getting non-plant accents for the garden. My favorite place to shop for them has been DI. It's been a slow project, but that's okay because I have been getting things as I have been finding them and getting them really cheap. So yeah, things are moving forward well and on schedule and I am happy for what our yard is becoming.

Catching up...because I never seem to get around to posting...

Yeah I'm really behind. I blame it on the garden. It has sucked up all my time lately. I seem to spend every spare minute caring for it or reading to improve it or shopping for it (sorry Mike...I suppose this is where all the money is gone to.) But it is making me so happy. I have just fallen in love with gardening this year more intensely then ever before.

But, I wanted to go back and post some pictures and talk about some of the things I have missed writing about. First I do have one Easter pic to post. This is the kids in their Easter outfits (courtesy of Grammy Humphrey). She makes Kaylinn and her little cousin Ezri matching Easter dresses each year. We go and get the girls picture taken together at a professional photographer's. Then she bought a new shirt and tie for Logan. My favorite part? Kaylinn's cute dress gloves. I found them at the consignment sale and absolutely love them.


Next we went on our first camping trip this season, two weekends ago. We stayed in Green River and spent one day at Goblin Valley and one day at Arches National Park. We went with some good friends of ours. They had never been any further south than Provo and they were just amazed at Southern Utah's beauty. I cooked dutch oven dinner and then breakfast. We had some interesting weather the second day (including an amazingly powerful cloudburst complete with hail), but there were some breaks in the storm and we got to see Arches. The kids had a blast. I think the highlight for them was climbing around Goblin Valley. I was out there with my camera, just soaking it all in. So maybe the weather wasn't perfect and I forgot to pack a few fairly important things (pancakes stick pretty badly without some type of grease on the skillet). But all in all I think it was a fabulous weekend.

Easter Festivities

I should write about all the Easter things that we are doing this year. The Easter traditions in my family start with the first day of Spring. A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to be able to focus on Christ during Easter. So instead of an Easter egg hunt and the Easter Bunny coming on Easter, we shifted those activities to the first day of spring. And so we wouldn't be doing it alone, we invite our whole family to come over and search for eggs that the Easter Bunny has hidden. We also have a big brunch and a whole lot of fun. This year went really well. The early Spring weather was pretty chilly, but at least it was dry and sunny. Then on Easter we focus on Christ. We have daily devotionals, talking about his life. Typically we focus on the last week of His life. This year, however we have been learning about His visit to the Nephites after his death. We learn a song together as a family. This year we are learning "I Wonder When He Comes Again." We have a couple of special meals. The one we have every year usually we do towards the weekend where we have a leg of lamb and talk about Christ being the lamb and his sacrifice and resurrection. That one is served on my best china with candles and formal presentation. Even if they don't love the food, the kids feel so special with the formal dinner preperation. Then on Easter morning I love being able to talk about Christ's death and resurrection. We make resurrection rolls for breakfast. We can focus on the true meaning of the holiday that morning. The spirit that is in our house as we focus on learning about Christ. I always hesitate to tell people about this in that I am afraid that I am going to come across as being self-righteous. But really the reason that I share these ideas with everyone is that I want you to be able to have the same wonderful spirit in your house that we do when we study Christ intently and seek for the true meaning of Easter. If you are interested in this in your own family, a great resource is A Christ-Centered Easter.

Now this doesn't mean that we forgo all Easter Bunny related activities the week of Easter. If our friends or family are having Easter egg hunts, we are so there. In fact another tradition in my neighborhood that a few days before Easter we all get together in the small neighborhood park and a good 30-50 kids hunt eggs (plus the moms can get together to chat). We love it and have a blast. We just came from there this afternoon. The kids have been antsy all morning for it to be time to go hunt eggs. As usual it was so much fun and we came home with a good haul.

On why my house has (literally) gone to the dogs.

Okay, I love dogs. I think they are really good for me emotionally. They make me get outside and get more exercise than I normally would. I enjoy their happy and forgiving personalities. There is something totally satisfying about teaching and training them. However, I am not done (hopefully) having babies. And I have learned that babies + dogs = too much stress for Jessica. So until my youngest is in grade school and I have the time and energy to spend on a creature that takes a lot of time and energy, I am not going to get a dog. I am happy to dog-sit for anyone pretty much anytime though. It's doable in short spurts. When my friend Anne told me that she was going on vacation and they didn't know what to do with their dog, I happily offered to take her. She is a five month old puppy with lots of puppy energy. She is a really good dog though, very trainable I think. Then my mom reminded me that I had said that I would take HER dog while they went on vacation over spring break. So that makes TWO dogs that I now have for the next few days. The funniest part of this whole thing is that both dogs are named Abby. Just call the one name and they both come running. Ah, good times. On the up side they keep each other entertained and neither of them need as much attention from me. On the down side they have lots and lots of energy. I am very afraid of the well being of my garden. I hope it can survive. But look on the bright side, right? It's fun and it gives my children exposure (and hence reduces fear) of animals. It sure mixes things up and keeps things exciting around here. And I think that the beginning of next week will seem soooo peaceful and calm. That should be nice.

Busy Busy

Been too busy to blog it seems like lately, which actually translates to there are exciting things to blog about. First of all, I finally finished Kaylinn's room. It is very bright pink, but I think I like it. It is a very girly room and now has the distinction of being the only room in the house that I have decorated. Hopefully more will be to follow, but right now I have switched gears to the outside of my house.

I am not a great gardener, and I get tired of it very easily, but I am really trying to be more motivated. I want a garden I can be proud of so this year I will jump in again and try (as I do every spring). Last year was a particularly bad year. I was very neglectful of it. I have started stronger than most years and it helps that its been very popular among my friends this year (indeed the news reports that it is popular for all Americans this year). I have taken 2 garden classes this year, I have been reading books and magazines like crazy. I have been writing and taking notes, making a plan for my garden on paper. Then I have been out there more than usual this year, although the real test is to come when gardening season has been going for a while. It has been spring here. All the flowers are beginning to come out and the trees are beginning to blossom. It has been flipping back and forth between winter and spring. We have been having beautiful warm days, followed by days of snowing. I have been trying to be outside whenever possible and working. The kids have also been spending every possible minute outside. Kaylinn has decided that her activity of choice is riding scooters and trikes and such. She just constantly wants to be doing that. She's still a little awkward, but if she keeps doing it as often as she is, she will have to get better. Logan got his first sunburn of the season this week being outside and playing.

So the first thing that needed to be done was to amend my garden. My amending material of choice is horse manure. There is a fairly large horse farm just a couple of miles from my house. They rotate their manure, so you are actually getting last years poop. That is a good thing because it isn't as hot (compost literally gets hot from a chemical reaction and then can burn your plants) and also it gives seeds a chance to die so that you won't be planting weeds in the garden along with your manure. The best part is that it is free. The stable hand will charge you $5 to load it into your truck or trailer. That is about as cheep as amendment will come. My mom and I both needed loads. This year we are actually doing a plot of land that my parents own with a HUGE garden. (she just planted 4-75' rows of sugar snap peas. So we needed multiple loads for that. Then I took a load to a friend (she took Kaylinn for a long time that afternoon, so I felt good about having "paid" her for that). Six trailers full of manure and none of our menfolk could take time off work so we decided to do it ourselves. Anyhow, we did 6 loads of manure that took us about 6 hours. I felt so sore and dirty by the time we finished. I named us the manure mamas. We laughed and had such a good time all day. Plus the weather was beautiful, which always makes things more pleasant. I am so glad that I get along so well with my mom. It is awesome to be her friend!

Yesterday Mike and I dropped the kids off at his parent's house and then spent pretty much the entire day going to the Draper Temple Dedication. We actually went to the temple. We had to arrive about 2 hours early and spent quite a while waiting for our session to start. President Monson gave the dedicatory prayer and President Eyring was conducting and spoke and also Elder Christofferson was there and spoke too. We got to watch it via monitor in a sealing room. Just getting to sit in the sealing room for a good 2 hours was an amazing experience. The sun was shining through the windows, making the room sparkle. It was amazing.

We came home and Mike rototilled the garden and lashed me some poles for peas to climb up (yeah for boy scouting!) I got some seeds into the ground. I have also started some seeds inside (first time) and they are doing marvelous (okay yes I have been talking to my plants). I'm pretty excited about it.

Then our church was canceled today. Apparently they did that for everyone who is in the temple district. Instead, today, they offered 2 sessons of the temple dedication that were broadcast to our stake center. Mom took the kids to church at her ward (because they couldn't just skip church today she said) and since her church is 8:30 am this year they actually took the kids last night. Mike and I enjoyed a nice night alone and then met everyone for sacrament meeting today.

Mike seems to be pretty busy lately with work and church and school and helping me rototil. (Right now he's busy watching college basketball--hehe).