Tis the season to be gardnening....

"'Tis the season to be gardening fa la la la la lala la la!"

Ahhhh!  I LOVE this time of year!  Everything is alive and blooming!  It's the time of planting yummy fresh produce!  What could be better?  The only downside is the blasted weeds.  

This year we are planting more than last year.  I'm so thrilled.  Our stake area is doing a community garden again this year.  We didn't participate in it last year, but Brian thought it would be nice to this year.  Last year, whenever anyone had a extra produce, they would take it to church on Sunday and those who needed it would be able to have free fresh produce.  It was so awesome how it brought people in our ward together.  Last year, I felt so blessed!  We had so much produce we didn't know what to do with most of it.  Most of the time we gave it out to family and others.  We seriously made out like bandits!

This year, Brian and I are planting a ton of things.  Things we haven't tried planting yet.  Here are the things we are planting this year: Basil, beans, beets, bell peppers (both green as well as a kaleidoscope variety of sweeter ones), butternut squash, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrots, cilantro, corn (the yellow and white mix), garlic, onions, oregano, parsley, peas, potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, vine peaches (basically cantaloupe-it came free with a purchase of other plants), watermelon, and last but not least zucchini!  

I cannot wait to get started on my garden!  It will be a lot of work, but hey, it will make the time I have left of this pregnancy go by much quicker, right? 

A long days work

Today was a long day!  I started the day off using a "claw" tool to loosen up the weeds and dirt so it would be easier and quicker to weed my flower bed.  I then decided to take a break and go get some rubber mulch for my planters.....and to help with the weeds.  After my break, I decided to go back outside (since Tali was napping) to sift and throw away all the weeds.  Here are some before and after pictures of what my yard looked like with and without the weeding and mulch.

BEFORE:

This picture is a little embarrassing which is why I decided to do some yard work today.

 Here are my pretty tulips....and my not so pretty yard.

AFTER:

I love it so much more!  I still have more weeding to do so I can lay down more mulch, but at least it's a start and looks a whole lot better than before.

Awww....my beautiful flowers!

Here is my other planter that I was able to get done today.  I love how much cleaner and nicer my yard looks now!  I just hope it's easier to maintain.

I had started working this morning around 9am taking breaks every few hours to eat and finally finished around 7:30pm. Talk about a long days work!  I am so done........at least for a few days.  :)
At least this time I only got a sunburn on the backs of my hands.

28 Going on 24

Yesterday was my 28th.....I mean 24th birthday.  It was a pretty fun day.  Brian had asked me earlier "so how old are you again twenty......" I told him I was twenty five, but I think I liked his answer better "....four?"  I figured twenty-four sounded better than twenty-five.  :) 

It started out going to the zoo.  It was a little chilly, but not too bad.  The only downside was that it was a lot busier probably due to the fact it was Spring Break for some kids.  My friends Heidi and Jen met me there.  I still cannot believe how out of shape I am.  I am reminded of this with each visit to the zoo.  

When I got home, my good friend Chelsey called and wanted to take us out to lunch for my birthday.  It's always good to see my really close friends.  She's been in Iraq for a while but was able to come home on leave for a couple weeks.  We ended up going to Su Casa which is a Mexican restaurant.

After lunch/dinner, we went home and made yummy fruit pizza!  :)  Mmmmmm!  Every year for my birthday since I was in high school and discovered this delicious dessert, I have had it as my birthday "cake" instead of an actual birthday cake.  This is SO much better!

I decided to try drizzling chocolate over some of it to see how I liked it.  It still tasted pretty good!  

I couldn't wait to dig in!  

While Tali was waiting for us to put on the finishing touches of our fruit pizza, Tali was enjoying a chocolate covered banana.

 She was in Heaven!

HAHA!  I LOVE IT!

Yesterday for my birthday, Brian had gotten me a couple of karaoke mics because my previous ones had broken because they were super cheap.  So now I can't start having more karaoke parties again!  Anyone interested????
 

Today Brian is taking Tali and me to the BYU Ballroom Dance Concert.  Since he had to work on my birthday yesterday, we decided we could just celebrate it today as a family.  Brian and I had gone to the BYU Ballroom Dance Concert about four years ago and really enjoyed it, so we decided to go again and take Tali this time since she also loves dance.  I can't wait.  It will be so much fun!

Happy Easter!

Easter was great!  Not only was it General Conference weekend (which had some pretty amazing talks I might add), but we got to relax for the most part, color eggs and eat Peeps and chocolate for breakfast...and then we ate waffles!  :)

Here are some pictures of Brian and Tali coloring eggs on Saturday.  It was such a great day to spend with my family!

Tali absolutely LOVED coloring eggs....especially with her Daddy.  

Brian and Tali were showing off their hands from coloring eggs.  I think Tali liked the fact that she could get her fingers dirty and it was okay.  Tali thought it was the coolest thing EVER!

Our finished product.  We didn't do very many colored eggs for the mere fact that there are only three of us and we didn't want to be eating hard boiled eggs every day for a while.

Our baskets (Brian's, Tali's, and mine).  The Easter Bunny had left Brian a Mario Bros. Wii game in his basket.  Tali's basket got loaded with Play-Doh (with little imprinting stuff), a Sesame Street coloring book, Alice in Wonderland, and some flash cards that have shapes, numbers, and colors.  She actually surprised me with how much she already knew!  In my basket, I got a little bit of candy (because I didn't want to be on a sugar overload for weeks) and some gum.

Between General Conference sessions, Tali went outside (luckily it wasn't that cold and the snow had melted) for an Easter egg hunt.

She was a little upset when we had to go back in the house. 

She of course had to show Dad all the eggs she found. 

She was having so much fun looking for the eggs.  We had to help her a little to find the eggs and she would get so excited when she did find them.  I thought she looked absolutely adorable in her dress!

She's definitely a "Daddy's girl"......

but she'll always be Mommy's little princess!

I wanted to take some photos of Tali in her Easter dress because she looked so darn cute!  They didn't turn out how I had hoped (mainly because she was done taking pictures and didn't want to smile), but I thought she looked adorable anyway.

My sweet little princess!

We had to do family pictures in our Easter clothes. Tali of course had to do silly faces too. 

I love my life and my family!  Does it get any better than this?.....

I think not.

6 Months!

I am now six months along in my pregnancy eventhough I was recently reminded that I look further along than I really am, but that's okay.  My baby is healthy and that is all that matters.  

Yesterday, Brian and I took some prego photos (along with Easter photos which I'll post in another post).  I figured, why not kill two birds with one stone?  Wow, that kind of sounds gruesome if you think about it.  Anyway, here are my six month prego pics.

 

My hubby sure does love me!  :)

We're so thrilled to be having a little boy.  The only thing is, in this photo, the onesie kind of looks like a speedo.

HA!  I think it's cute he's so supportive.  He's trying to make himself look bigger so I don't feel so bad.  He makes me laugh.  

 For Easter, Brian got a Mario Bros. Wii game in his basket.  We joked about how he will be playing it whenever he gets a chance....that's okay though because I play with him too!  :)

 

 I was trying to bribe Brian with chocolate to forget about his game.  I don't think it was working.   

Busy Week

This past week has been kind of crazy busy.  We had taken a trip to Rexburg, Idaho for one of my friend's wedding.  I've known her since I was five years old.  It was actually pretty fun.  Here are some photos from the trip and wedding.

I love this picture of Tali.  She cracks us up.  A donut in one had and an apple in the other.  I especially love the powder all over her mouth!  She really enjoyed having donuts, apples, and waffles every morning.

Oh how she loves her daddy.

She even steals his glasses to be like him.

We took this family photo in front of the Idaho Falls Temple and the Idaho Falls.  We had some time to kill before my friend's reception so we decided to drive down to Idaho Falls and explore and do a little shopping.  :)

This is me and my friend that got married.  Her dress was just beautiful.  It reminded me of something a Greek goddess would wear.

A few days ago, my nephew had celebrated his 3rd birthday.  We went out to my sister's for cake and ice cream. 

  

 Is he a cutie or what?  It must run in the family :)

My sister made this birthday cake for him.  She's so talented!  I thought it was super cute.

Tali was trying on her uncle's hat.  What a little ham.  She loved hanging out with her cousins.  

Yesterday, I went with my cousin Mike and his family to the Living Planet Aquarium.  I decided to buy a pass considering it was as much as going two times a year.  I'm pretty sure I'll go more than that considering I LOVE the aquarium!

Tali LOVED watching all the fish, rays, sharks, etc.  The whole time, Tali kept saying "Fish! Fish!"  The aquarium had just opened a new penguin exhibit last weekend and since a lot of kids were on Spring Break, it was pretty packed.  We still had fun though.

You can't really tell in this picture, but they had different sizes of penguins on the wall that you could "measure" your child against (kind of like at the zoo with the gorilla exhibit).  Tali is standing in front of one of the penguins.

I love my daughter!  She just struck this pose as she was in this coral reef area.  She's so funny!

Tali loved hanging out with these guys.  It was so cute.  Tali had so much fun with them. 

I think that pretty much sums up my last week.