Working on the Yard

We have been working on our backyard for the past few days (years, really). With the weather being nice, I've wanted to get the kids outside to play, but it hasn't been too kid-friendly back there. We spent most of Saturday cleaning things up and getting some plants in, and it's starting to look nicer back there. I've been wanting to get some patio furniture for a long time, so today when I was at Costco I splurged and bought the lovely "set" you see in the photo below!
I told Emily she got a surprise when I picked her up from school, thinking she would be all excited to have a new little table to sit at outside. Well that wasn't a good enough surprise for her by itself so I had to throw in an ice cream cone to sweeten the deal.

This bigger photo shows the whole patio/arbor area that we built last spring with the help of some guys from our ward. Someday it will have a nice adult-size table and chairs under it that we can all sit around and enjoy. On two sides of the patio Kevin built little planter boxes so we can have our little herb garden and tomatoes and such growing in them. You can see one of the rapidly-growing grapevines on the right side of the photo; there is another one behind the grill. Then on the far left in the background are the newly started mini rows of vegetables, and along the fence line we have six now year-old fruit trees budding with fruit.

So if we can get our green thumbs going we should have a fruitful season this year. Now if we can just get that patio furniture so we can sit out there and enjoy it all after the harvest...

Feels Like Summer

Yesterday it was over 80 degrees here, se we let the girls get their swimsuits on and play outside with the water a little bit. We lathered on the sunscreen, put the hose (just a small drip, really) on the trampoline, and they had a great time getting wet and jumping a little bit. Allison was pretty funny because although she is not walking yet, she will stand up on the trampoline and try to jump. It's just that forward motion that's holding her back, I guess.

Of course we had to have otter pops, too. Allison did pretty well eating hers, I just had to push it up a little bit every once in awhile but she would bite it off and hold it just fine. Emily of course is an otter pop pro by now.

This is a photo of Allison's teeth. You can kind of see them...her two front teeth are like two little round blobs sticking out of her gums, and her bottom teeth are all crooked. But at least she has some (8 I think now). Three months ago she had none!

Emily's preschool is having a recycling contest for the month of March. If they brought in a big bag of cans/bottles they could pick a prize from the treasure chest. We saved up all our cans and bottles for three weeks (trying to use a few more than usual, of course) and she got to take in her bags and pick her prize. She picked a little set of sidewalk chalk. As luck would have it, Daddy was coming home from three days away that evening, so we decided to put her new prize to good use and make him a sign on the driveway. Emily told me what to write:

Emily worked especially hard on the "fence" at the top and coloring in many of the letters and our family drawing. Allison helped by crawling through it a few times and smearing the chalk all over herself. She also tried to eat it, as she does anything she can get her chubby hands on.

Another of Allison's latest achievements is learning to eat with a fork and spoon. Well, the spoon is still coming along, but she did really well stabbing her mac 'n' cheese and getting it into her mouth. She ate almost her whole plate with the fork.
And this other picture I just thought was kind of cute. I am just now realizing she's pouting in this photo (probably this was the day of the sidewalk chalk, after she got stuck in the stroller to keep her out of the chalk), but her chubby cheeks and hair hanging down in her eyes...it's just typical Allison right now.

Allison and the Corn Dog

I put Allison in her high chair for some lunch today and gave her some blueberries, a roll and her sippy cup with apple juice, while I sat at the table next to her with a corn dog (don't tell my doctor!). She was eating the blueberries but kept pointing at the table...I finally realized she wanted my corn dog! I gave her Emily's leftover corndog a couple weeks ago when we were at the zoo and she loved it - well I guess she remembered and wanted some more. I tried to give her a bite but she grabbed the whole thing. Oh, well, she needed some protein with her meal, anyway. The video at the bottom shows her enjoying it. The rest of the photos are some of her recent exploits throughout the house.
Pulling all the books down from her shelf - she will sit in the pile and look at the books.

Finding crackers in the pantry closet - someone left the doors open on accident!

Yeah...mommy's credit cards.

The above photo is after she shoved half a banana in her mouth. She starts off taking regular bites, then when it gets "small" enough she just shoves the rest in her mouth. Silly, silly child.

In the video, if you listen carefully, you can hear her saying "mmm" when she takes bites, then at the end she says "cheese" to smile for the camera!

It's a Boy!

I went in for my 20-week ultrasound this morning, and we confirmed that we are having a boy! (I had one at 12 weeks and the boy parts were pretty obvious, but they said we can't know for sure until now.) He is due August 12 according to his measurements and August 18 according to my doctor's calculations. I vote for the 12th! Which also happens to be my older brother's birthday.

Emily has already named him Nickolas...but I don't think that will be his name. So now we have to shift gears from pink to blue - mostly just clothing since the rest of our baby stuff is already blue or gender neutral, thank goodness!

I took Allison and Emily with me this morning, plus Grandma Boam, and Allison was so cute, she got all worried that the ultrasound tech was hurting me or something and started crying. She was fine for the first few minutes, then she kept looking at the sonogram tool on my belly and back at me and got so upset. Emily was excited to see the "pictures" of her brother. He looks perfect and healthy so far.

The Twins Are Here!

It's already been a month now, but my twin nephews arrived on February 19, 2009. My little sister Lisa had to go in for an emergency C-section and the babies were in the hospital for about 8 days, but now they are home and all are doing well. It took a few days, but they finally got the names Jackson and Brandon. Big brother Ian (4) and sister Hailey (2) are apparently being very loving. Check out the photos and some of Lisa's posts on her blog. Congratulations Lisa and Adam! We are going to visit in April - I can't wait!