How our Garden has Grown

I began college studying horticulture with the dream that I would one day own a flower shop. Not exactly what has ended up happening (I am a teacher :p ) but I changed that dream to having a beautiful and functional garden that I could enjoy at home. I am on my way!

I started working on my garden in October, since we no longer have dogs. I've planted flowers, fruit trees, berry bushes, and vegetables. We had a great tomato crop last summer before I installed the planter beds, so we've planted some more.

Here is Graedy tasting some of the first of this year's harvest.We have had many discussions about not picking the green tomatoes, but waiting until they turn red, like his wagon! I have found a few green casualties, but he's getting better! He likes to try to fit the whole tomato into his mouth at once...Here he is deciding how to attack the next tomato.
And his favorite "I love this" scrunched up face!
These next two pictures are mostly for my benefit. I have loved looking back through my blog and seeing how Graedy has changed, so I thought I would add these and check back in awhile to see just how much my garden has grown!And finally, a few close ups of the pretty flowers from my new little garden. Take a little break today and enjoy the beauty around you!My snapdragons have grown so well this winter. I think the trick is that I planted them much earlier than I usually do-back in late December, early January.
Pansies are so simple but so cute-I love their bright showy little faces!

The Fair, the chair, and some San Diego air!

Our county fair was a few weeks ago. Graedy enjoyed going through the barns and checking out all the animals. He thought they were pretty cool from far away,

but wasn't too sure about them up close!

Thank you...I've had enough!

The Chair

Our friends Tyler and Danielle moved back to Oklahoma a week ago and brought Graedy's old swing over. He found it while watching Nemo!

I guess he decided that he wants to relive the glory days!

Sea World

I have had several basal cell skin cancers removed in the last few years and the most recent was on my scalp. My fair skin just isn't meant for southern California! It doesn't help that I love just about anything that has to do with the outdoors, gardening, snowboarding-though not since college :(, wake boarding-which I'm hoping to do more of this summer, hiking, biking, etc. So I had it removed on Thursday and decided to take a mini vacation after some recuperation time. My brother Russell had a Dr.'s appointment for his broken arm (thanks to his stock car) and joined us at Sea World. We had a great afternoon-the weather was beautiful!Graedy was too busy checking out the sharks in Shark Encounter to be bothered with the camera!

To the Zoo

When Tyler and Danielle left they had tickets to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park leftover from their memberships and were nice enough to share them with us. On the bus ride Graedy was being a bit fussy so I gave him some pretzels. Graedy and I both had hats, so we decided that it would be OK for us to sit on the top level of the double decker bus. Graedy had chewed up his pretzel and spit some out in my hand. Before I could get to it, he flicked some off my hand over the edge of the bus! Hopefully it didn't hit anyone.

He really liked the Gorilla statues!

Tyler and Danielle-Thanks for the tickets and glad you made it back there OK. We miss you guys already!

The most hilarious moment of the weekend happened Thursday night. I wasn't feeling well after my surgery so I slept in one of the twin bed's in the room with my mom and Graedy. It wasn't pushed against the wall and I didn't feel like dealing with moving it so we left it where it was. I'm sure Graedy knew something wasn't right, and wanted to be with his mama because he woke up at about 11PM and wanted to be in bed with me. I kept waking up, worried that he would roll off the bed, even though my mom had lined up pillows and comforters to catch him if he fell. Sure enough, he rolled off about 2AM, waking my mom and I up just in time to hear him say "shooot man!" After checking to be sure he was OK, neither of us could hold in our giggles. We've been reading a Little Golden Book about Cars (the movie) and in the book Mater says "Shoot". That's Graedy's favorite part and he's obviously picked it up! He is such a little sponge right now!

Love You!

Since his birth we've seen it,


felt it,

said it,

showed it,

and watched it,

but nothing compares to hearing it! We've been working on it for awhile and Saturday morning we were sitting watching Nemo and Graedy walked over, gave me a big hug and said "luv you!" I can't even begin to tell you how sweet it is!

Rainy Days

So there have been several rainy weekends since the beginning of the year. As a result, Graedy has found a new interest in mud!

Although the mud on his face is due to an accidental face plant, he thought it was neat for awhile.

I was trimming a shrub and Graedy had to be involved. He was walking on the edge of the planter bed, leaned toward the shrub, and down he went!

There were a few tears, but he decided that he was really ok.

Until this point-he was ready for it to be washed off!

The next weekend I decided that I was going to go get him some rain gear that I had seen. It's a bit big, but I figured that way it will last a year or two.

This is about the closest we get to a normal smile when the camera is out!

Fun at Home

Some of our fun little weekends and weekday afternoons...Crunching all the leaves that seem to end up in front of our door every time the wind blows.

He thought it was so much fun!

Happy guys!

My beautiful boy

Graedy's first picnic...in our backyard!

Big smiles...mid chew :)

There are days like these that remind me just how lucky I am to have such an incredibly happy child. We were at a friend's party and one of Matt's buddies commented "What do you guys do to that kid? Normal kids are not that happy!" To that I say, please, do not send me a normal child! I really don't know what Graedy would have to be unhappy about. He spends Monday through Friday with his Grandmas, who have tons of energy (since they haven't been up with him at night!) and play with him all day. He gets to hang out with mom and dad all afternoon and on weekends. He has so many people who love him, and he shows us every day just how much he loves us with his huge hugs, enormous smiles, and heavenly kisses, both blown and on our cheeks!

I had to include this one. I think we have watched Nemo about 100 times in the last two weeks. This kid is obsessed! He knows how to open the cabinet door, press the eject button on the DVD player, put in the disk, and close the disk drive. Just amazing.

And finally...Gready's new ride. We bought a little bike seat that attaches to the back of the bike about a year and a half ago. I told Matt that I wanted to look into getting a seat that rides behind the bike and has room for another little one (someday-not just yet). He and his mom found this one and I love it. Gready had so much fun. There are little pockets to hold a drink and Graedy decided that he was going to store his string cheese in one pocket on his first ride! Don't worry...he was belted in for the ride. This was after the ride, with the bike parked in the yard!

Anyway...hope he made you smile as much as he makes me smile! Have a great weekend!

The Fam at Disneyland

In February I was headed to Disneyland by myself with Graedy. Matt was very nice and surprised me by coming with us. We had so much fun!

Ohhh, I don't know dad....


Cheesy faces!


Finally, a decent family picture. As you may have noticed by now, Graedy is really into the crazy smile right now.


My two silly boys


Waiting in line for Toy Story at California Adventures. That is the most awesome ride. We went on it three times! I will go on that ride at least twice every time I go to Disneyland. Seriously! Matt, Graedy and I all had so much fun!

It was a great weekend and I am so grateful to have such a wonderful and fun family. I love spending time with my guys and look forward to more great weekends!

That's What a Hamburger's All About!

Just when I thought I couldn't love this child anymore! He is absolutely hysterical! We had just finished eating a burger and fries at In-N-Out in Yuma (as evidenced by the leftover hamburger bun near his diaper) and I looked in the rearview mirror and saw this. I couldn't stop laughing. He left it on his head for about ten minutes-just thought it was the coolest thing! It soon migrated to his foot and that kept him entertained for another 15 minutes or so. Sigh...I just love him to pieces!

Sea World with Grandma

Matt headed home Sunday after Sea World so he could make it to work on time and my mom came up to finish out the 3-day weekend. I wanted to go back to Sea World and she wasn't sure, we had just been there the day before and I told her there is so much to do that we had plenty that we didn't do the day before. He had so much fun on Sunday too! Graedy and Grandma lovin' the penguins.

We had to get some more strawberries and whipped cream!Gready and I at the tide pool. He doesn't look to sure but I got a smile out of him shortly thereafter...


See! Ahhh, we have been having so much fun lately!