A garden story

We moved to Orem in 2011. In our rental, there was a beautiful garden! Everything was all ready to go, so we took advantage of it!

It was so much fun! And we got lots out of it!

These pictures are from our first harvest. During our 2nd year living there, we decided to plant turnips, just to see if they would grow. They, in fact, did grow. We were so happy with our turnips! Then Chris tried to make turnip soup. It was awful. After the first bite, we both decided that turnips were definitely not something we would try ever again.
So, in our minds, this gardening thing was no big deal! If you just plant things and water them, they grow, and then you harvest and eat and it's fabulous!
Then we moved to Idaho Falls, and were very sad to find that our yard had a lot of shade during the day, making it difficult to plant a garden. I tried doing a window sill garden for my herbs. It didn't work that well. But then, the city of Idaho Falls came to our door and said that we needed to have our apple trees trimmed in order to make way for the power line. I asked them to trim really far, because I hated that apple tree. I'm not sure if it was one apple tree or two, but at any rate, it had two trunks and looked terrible. They asked if they should remove it. So, low and behold, part of our yard now gets sun!!

Chris took a day off of school to make us a garden.

And Chris and his helpers made this:

And then we started planting! We thought that it would be fabulous like our last garden in Orem. However, we had a water problem last year. This happened basically because we have no experience in actually making a garden, and my parents were on their mission in Cincinnati, so they couldn't help. Thus, we were on our own!

However, the "expert" has helped (A TON!!) and, after I worked for about 7 hours this past weekend, along with some boys down the street (because of this) and now our garden now looks like this:

I never thought I would be so excited about dirt! Yay! So my dad will come help with our finishing touches next week, and we will plant! Davis is very excited and really really wants to plant cherry tomatoes, because he thinks it's so fun to eat them off the vine! I can't disagree with that!
Anyway, I have learned that, although gardening is hard an tiring, it is a lot of fun, especially when you have kids to do it with you. I also think it's a wonderful thing to teach kids how to do! We're excited for our harvest!

Catch up!

Oh, hi! It looks like I've been ignoring the blog for a while! Well, here we are, still alive and doing well! Here's what's been going on!

January
January was . . . January! Not much going on there. I started my UEN class, Social Studies Methods, which has been quite interesting. I finished it a few weeks ago, and here is my final project. It was actually really fun to engage my brain, instead of only doing mindless cleaning and laundry, which is what I feel like I do 90% of the time. I also signed up to work in the daycare at Apple Athletic Club, in exchange for a free membership, which is cool. Here are some fun January pictures!

 Our preschool group

 Two cute kids

 Reagan loves her hat she got for her birthday! And her birthday gloves too!

 The snow was crazy

So we stayed inside and made stuff!

February

In February, my parents left on their mission! They are serving in Cincinnati, OH and loving it. My dad is in charge of the medical for the mission, and they are currently serving in a YSA ward. If you are interested in their mission, here is their blog. After they left, we took our little family to the cabin and played. It was super fun, as it always is! Davis started taking gymnastics with his best friend, which he loves!

 At our friend's wedding. We talked about getting married with our kids. Reagan wants to marry Hilary, and Davis wants to marry Reagan. We will work on that!

 Little sisters like gymnastics too!

 Celebrating Valentine's Day at Reed's Dairy

 Reagan decided that she needs to wear a tutu every day, and perhaps every night as well.

 We love the cabin

 Reading books at the Apple.

The picture of Davis from primary. Gosh, how can you not love this kid?!

March

During March, my sweet Uncle Eldred died. It was very sad, and actually very sudden, even though he was 104 years old. We were able to attend the funeral, which was a great experience and made us want to be better people! Also, Chris's parents came to visit us! Yay! We had a ton of fun with them, and it was fabulous! They came because I was having a surgery, and they were planning on coming anyway, and I said, why don't you come and help out with the kids, and they did. They have also gotten their mission call, and will be serving in Fresno, California. They report to the MTC on July 3rd!

 Memories of Uncle Eldred

 My sweet grandma speaking at her brother's funeral.

 Playing with my cousin's kids at the funeral.

 Military rights at Uncle Eldred's funernal. Very cool.

 

 Dad helped us with home improvement projects, which was fabulous!

 We went to the cabin with Chris's parents for conference. So fun!

Remodel done!!

Wahoo!  We (meaning Chris) finished the remodel!  We love this room most of all in our house!

Our fancy camera is in the shop, so here are the photos we could come up with . . . .

 The best part--the closet!!

We still have a few touch-ups to do, and some decorating, but IT IS DONE!!  WA-HOO!!

We will love this room even more when Reagan arrives!

Remodel phase8

Have not posted this in a while!  But here we are!  I am not sure exactly what phase 7 was, so I will move onto phase 8:

TRIM!!  YAY!!

Chris did the trim on the closet twice.  Because it looked bad the first time!

It is amazing how much better this place looks with trim!

Remodel phase 4

Well, the bonus room is coming right along.  This week, we are FINISHING the painting and tile so that the carpet can be put in on Monday!  Wa-hoo!  That way, it will be finished enough to have furniture when Chris's parents come to visit.  Here are the walls, completely taped, mudded, and sanded.  Next step, texturing and painting!

 We found the original carpet behind the heater.  It looks like this.  Lovely.

 We also found some stickers behind the heater on the opposite wall.  The date on them in 1979, and they are still sticky!