Eric has majorly gotten into gardening the last year or so. Last year he got tired of the tall grass by the fence so he dug up a 2 ft or so bed along the whole fence like he did in the back for our fruit way for flowers and herbs. He researched which herbs were the "prettiest", got seeds, and diagrammed it up for how tall they should get. I chose some of my favorite flowers and herbs I actually do something with now. I kept wanting to figure out when they bloom and if they were annuals/perennials though Eric just went with it so I keep telling myself document how it grows and we can always change things around just because its planted doesn't mean its permanent and can never change.
Here Rachel and I are bundled up to help plant the seeds that could be planted the fall before on November 5. We planted garlic, lemon balm, mint, larkspur, bearded iris, german chamomile, lilies, lavender, columbine, snap dragons, forget-me-nots, and roman chamomile.
Then besides the new beds Eric got interested in growing all our own seeds so he got a seed growing cart from Burpees and mapped out our garden. We wanted to start small and then add something new to the garden each year. Somehow Eric keeps jumping the gun what with the fruit way last year and all these flower/herb beds this year. The reason being that neither of us have garden on our own much (though our families had gardens growing up) so in order to figure out how to take care of the plants not too mention the harvest at the end in small amounts. We started with carrots, bell peppers and tomatoes in 2010 (moved in too late in 2009 and with me expecting Aaron in Aug it didn't seem like a good idea, besides our garden area was filled with roses we had to deal with). Here Eric and the kids are preparing the dirt to plant the first seeds on February 8.
As usual I was mistress of the seeds and Rachel was all over. You can see the cart in the background where Aaron is with its special growing light. We planted 4 kinds of peppers and some parsley.
We wrapped up by Miriam and Eric giving them a good watering. Next planting date St Patricks Day.
All seeds germinated within 2 weeks and here they are almost precisely 3 weeks later. Wish us luck in keeping them alive and being able to get them outside safely!
Here Rachel and I are bundled up to help plant the seeds that could be planted the fall before on November 5. We planted garlic, lemon balm, mint, larkspur, bearded iris, german chamomile, lilies, lavender, columbine, snap dragons, forget-me-nots, and roman chamomile.
Then besides the new beds Eric got interested in growing all our own seeds so he got a seed growing cart from Burpees and mapped out our garden. We wanted to start small and then add something new to the garden each year. Somehow Eric keeps jumping the gun what with the fruit way last year and all these flower/herb beds this year. The reason being that neither of us have garden on our own much (though our families had gardens growing up) so in order to figure out how to take care of the plants not too mention the harvest at the end in small amounts. We started with carrots, bell peppers and tomatoes in 2010 (moved in too late in 2009 and with me expecting Aaron in Aug it didn't seem like a good idea, besides our garden area was filled with roses we had to deal with). Here Eric and the kids are preparing the dirt to plant the first seeds on February 8.
As usual I was mistress of the seeds and Rachel was all over. You can see the cart in the background where Aaron is with its special growing light. We planted 4 kinds of peppers and some parsley.
We wrapped up by Miriam and Eric giving them a good watering. Next planting date St Patricks Day.All seeds germinated within 2 weeks and here they are almost precisely 3 weeks later. Wish us luck in keeping them alive and being able to get them outside safely!
Thursday morning Jan 26 we took a ridiculous amount of time to get out of the house not leaving till after we hoped to be in Delta (anybody else have hard time leaving the house?) and met his parents in Delta. Deb had lunch already for us, ate and were on the road. The kids did fabulous as we only stopped for gas in St George getting into Vegas after dark. Now my kids list of states they have been in has doubled from just Utah and Idaho to include Arizona and Nevada, hooray! We stayed at the Silverton casino/hotel which was waay bigger than I had ever been in before. In fact the kids and I never left the whole time we were there.
Here are Miriam and Aaron in their first hotel room/bed. Deb got us a room with 2 queen beds and Miriam always slept in other one and did great. You can also just barely see their new stuffed animals Grandma got them; Miriam a bobcat (appropriate as Eric calls her that) and Aaron a fish (even though we tried to talk him into cuter ones). On the right is Rachel crawling amongst our belongings. 
Aaron and Grandma watching a movie on the computer. They watched lots together. Saturday the guys went to training and we took a leisurely breakfast and packed up to check out at noon. Deb couldn't get the rooms for Saturday night so we ended up doing over to Mesquite for that night. It was perfect time for the kids to take a nap driving over. We found a nice diner for lunch when we got there and then let the kids play at a park before we checked in to the Virgin River casino (luckily all rooms were outside and we didn't have to go through the casino this time).
Had a lot of fun Jan 13 with pizza/movie night. We let the kids make their own pizzas. I had to take a picture of the masterpiece because Aaron carefully put the pepperonis on with one olive slice in the middle. He really may end up a chef, still quited interested in all things in the kitchen. They then watched Bambi while Eric and I watched Lord of the Rings (extended version we just got from his brother) in our room. Eric mixed the pizza dough up in our new bread maker and it was tasty. We also tried out my new pastry roller which made the best looking crusts I've ever seen.
Aaron modeling, or so it looked when I had to get this picture on Jan 16. Grandma Delta got the kids cowboy boots on a clearance awhile back though much too big, the kids still insist on wearing them periodically. This morning they had been playing something with all the cowboy stuff (love that they are more into imaginative play these days). The cap guns was from Santa and are working out well as Aaron goes around pointing it and saying,"shoot, shoot" or hoot depending on how it sounds. 
I couldn't resist taking this sweet picture of Rachel sleeping on January 10. She does pretty good taking apx 2 naps during the day. I get her sleepy then put her down and she will cry for a few minutes and then be asleep. She wakes in the morning quite happy, but always crying from naps perhaps she's just saying come and get me! 
This has been a crazy winter with hardly any snow or if it does its gone in 2 days. Here are the kids playing outside without shoes or coats on Jan 3!! Good bye January!
Friday we surprised him with balloons at work when we went to pick him up for lunch out. I think the kids enjoyed the balloons more than he did. 
We went ate at Pizza Pie Cafe, enjoying all their unusual pizzas and most especially their desert pizzas. Rachel did pretty good hanging out in the high chair playing with toys. The other two got rambunctious towards end when they just wanted to run around. 
Next stop the BYU dinosaur museum. Every since we started going to museums Eric's wanted to come here and it was on our agenda with the culture museum but we ran out of time. Eric has been a dinosaur lover his whole life so he loved sharing his knowledge with the kids. This museum is great for kids because of the quality of fossils but also the smallness that lets them get a good feel without overwhelming them and getting bored.
