We follow a conservative, simple garden schedule around here: peas and other seeds go in the ground on Conference weekend and tomatoes go in Mother's Day (and which is it really: Mother's Day or Mothers' Day?). All the plants are flourishing so far. Since moving here nearly four years ago we haven't yet had a boundless tomato crop. One year, the plants got some rare disease. One year, we didn't recondition the soil as we were told we didn't need to do it, etc... This year, I'm really hoping for oodles and I can hardly wait! I've felt so happy getting out in the sunshine, planting loads of veggies and flowers AND WORKING ON MY WALL! Seriously, nothing beats stone-smithing. I've already planned on using my leftover stone to build a smaller wall in my front yard to solve some garden-bed problems. Hooray for outdoors, soil and sunshine!

Bryce is out of school this week due to Kindergarten testing.
We've been having a great time together.
We bought flip-flops. He's kept me company as I finish up the wall in our back yard. He helped me build this:

We've been to two nurseries together, gathering plants. He's been my little buddy and it's been great.

However, it hit me earlier today that this is the final week it'll ever be just me and him. My baby boy begins first grade at the end of July and I can feel the loneliness of an emptying house already pressing in on me.

This is the true irony of motherhood. You spend all their young lives wishing for just a little extra time to get something done or a little 'me-time' on the side, but then you get more time than you've ever needed, just about they're getting so pleasant to be around. *sigh*

Before I was a mother, I longed for the joy of walking hand in hand with a chubby-fingered toddler. That was my image of contentedness. I still hold hands with my kids, but as they leap out of the car and go off to school, I barely get a hug before they launch into a world that I only get an occasional 'volunteer/visitor-status' visa.

I'm going to savor the rest of this week. Spend a lot of it looking into Bryce's every-changing, clear eyes,  listening to his latest observations about pill bugs and iPad games.

Life moves so fast.

Yard work has been our answer to every question about our plans or our thoughts in the recent weeks.
Here's a pic from the east side of the back yard last fall. Lush ivy on fence, lots of lawn, edge rimmed with river rock.
We had a desire to expand our vegetable garden opportunities and came up with a plan to change this area (the winter was really hard on that ivy, but it's growing back). We started by removing a lot of the river rock and sod.Cam carefully leveled out areas for gardening boxes......and then began building them.WOW!When it came time to fill the boxes, we got the kids involved in mixing up the soil.Dane planned out where the 44 veggie plants should be placed. Bryce and I planted them all, some of them while it rained. We also planted two peach trees (on the right). Although we're not finished yet, we're so excited about the progress than has been made. So much hard work!
I didn't help a lot because I've been working on the west side of the yard.
Just over the edge of our deck was a lawn that wouldn't grow. Too much shade, spindly little blades of grass...Last fall we had a cement patio poured.On May 16th, I began building a retaining wall out of river bed rock.
This is only a fourth of the rock delivered to our house.

The work is basically a little bit puzzle and a little bit Lego and a lot of chiseling.

The progress is mostly slow, but every now and again a whole bunch of rocks will align perfectly together, one right after another. Believe me, it's such a blessing when that happens. It's a bit taller now than pictured and I have to add one more foot worth of height over a 15 foot stretch, but when this thing is finally finished, I think I'm really going to proud of what I've accomplished. More pictures to come, when we're all finished!

Since our computer died weeks ago, we've found ways to survive...

Daddy's new I-Pad has helped.

It's obviously a fascinating piece of technology. I guess we've gotten used to it. I tried to "swipe" the screen at a Red Box, trying to rent a movie. This month, my sweet nephew was baptized by my dad and confirmed by my grandpa.

On that same day, my cousin got married and we hung out at the beautiful reception center with our family.

Here's Mandy, my sister and Bryce

Zealand loved going over this little bridge.

You've gotta take photo ops when you can!Cam took last week off of work so that we could work hard in our back yard. We got a lot done on Monday. He built a few square-foot-gardening boxes, took out portions of our lawn and leveled out other areas in the yard.I began to build my retaining wall by first hauling around 2,000 lbs of stone into the back yard.

The more it rained, the more our plans seemed to expand. We started getting bids and ideas for remodeling our kitchen.

This is Dane at a granite-slab showroom. Heavenly Father sure made some incredible rocks! We're pretty sure we've got the company chosen to do the cabinets, but there's much to be done before then. First and foremost is to do nothing until after I host my brother's fiancée's bridal shower.
But after that, Cam and I will play demolition crew and get the job going! We're really excited!

This is Bryce's last week of preschool. It's bitter-sweet. Thankfully, he's completely excited for Kindergarten and is looking forward to having Ella's teacher, too.

I'm going to miss the string of waves he gives me as he runs up to his teacher's home. Today we celebrated B's birthday. She will be my niece as soon as her mother marries my little brother.This is our attempt at a grandkid photo. It didn't go over well at all.

The rest of the month is busy as well. Bryce is enrolled in swimming lessons. So far, so good!

Ah! I'm so glad to be back! I've missed blogging and hope that our computer troubles are at an end.

This is why I'm going to pretend that I can see Saturday instead of today in my back yard. Gardening=Good

Safe to say that Spring is finally here.

You cannot keep me inside (longer than it takes to feed my kids and write this post)Yesterday, I was over at my friend Angie's house planting and pruning and waking up my winter-tired muscles. Next week she's coming over to work at my house. It's much more fun to do with a friend.

I actually got a slight burn on my arms. BRING ON THE HEAT!!!

Today, I'm working in my yard on anything I can do before we begin the first of our big projects for this year.

We're planting our garden and getting ready for garden expansion, making our patio an entertaining space and building our own dry-set stone wall.

I personally have plans for the front yard that I'm really excited about. It's definitely a big yard year for us. Yay!

I *heart* my pruning saw!

this is all I need to see for a perfect summer day.

What is with the SNOW?!?
The ferocity of the storm has increased since I took this picture of my morning efforts to protect our tender tomato, squash, and cucumber plants. In the end, it may do no good. :(

We have pretty simple dreams around here (except the one where I want...oh never mind).

Since we moved here to this home, one predominant dream for us was simply to have a vegetable garden.

Over the past few weeks, Cameron has been building a huge raised bed box for the first phase of our garden. He has learned new skills with new tools and has accomplished this awesome task. He finished filling the area with a great garden growing mixture (peat moss, composted fertilizer and vermiculite) yesterday and we all went to Western Garden Center to pick out our plants.

Woo Hoo!!!

We left the nursery with twenty-four tomato plants and two summer squash and a chives. We hope to get more next Saturday.

We are so excited!!!

This morning, Ella told us that she wanted to go check on the tomatoes. When she came back into the house, she said "There aren't any tomatoes on the plants yet."

So cute! She wouldn't really remember our big garden from a few years ago anyway. But she was our hardest kid-worker, breaking up a huge block of peat moss by herself. The rest of gardening, she'll learn.

Ella is also part of our dream to have musically-skilled children. She began piano lessons this week and she loves it! She's practiced a lot since her lesson and each time she reaches the end-of-piece double bar she hollers: STOP!

The final dream leg that Cam is embarking on this week is his promotion. Long hoped for, long denied for the simple fact that we do not live and will not live where the main offices for his company are located. His talent and general awesomeness cannot be denied any longer and he has been given a job worthy of his abilities. I'd say his employees are pretty lucky. :)

Go Cameron! Go Daddy!

This has been the most gorgeous Autumn I can remember. I'm sure it helps that our home is completely surrounded by trees, that the drive to Dane's school is lined with gorgeous trees and that the near-by neighborhood yards are filled with burning bushes (the shrub, not the sacred phenomenon).

We raked our first meager pile of leaves yesterday. I assured the kids there was more to come!

Oh, my roses are also gorgeous in this beautiful weather!

First of all...my roses are blooming! They get half-shade, so they've taken their time, but man they are pretty so I can't wait until the whole bush is full!

Getting ready to go to Grandma Cindy's and Grandpa Ron's for a Father's Day lunch.

Mandy and Bryce checking out Ryan's dogs.

Wouldn't even be scary in a dark alley, would he? We went to my Grandma's house for cake and ice cream. Bryce 'shot' everyone that picked him up because his gun sound effects include a volley of spit. Lovely.
Ella and my Grandpa Paul

Ella and my Grandma Sharon (my mom's mom)

Back at my parent's house, feeding the pond fish
My brother Eric, Ella and Bryce

You can't plan those matching expressions.

The nicest part of the day was (after getting to talk to Cameron) being able to share some neat experiences with my Dad and he with me, as well as being able to tell him sincerely that he has been a truly wonderful dad. I even told him particular things that I thought he had been a success at. So glad he's my dad!