New Things

I am having Kate try to eat baby food. So far, it has not been a positive experience for her. However, Kate is thrilled to sit in her high chair.

She is even happy to hit a teething biscuit on her tray.

But try and feed her, and she gives you a puzzled look and immediately turns away and spits out the food. She hates it! She also hates bottles. I had an episode last week where I wanted her to bottle feed as I had a lot of medicine in my system, and she wouldn't even try it!

Kate has been fussy lately due to her lack of mobility. The rolling has helped, but she really wants to stand up and see all around. We had an excellent exersaucer with Max, but unfortunately it didn't survive the move (a part was misplaced). Yesterday we found this on Craig's list. I picked it up in the afternoon, and Kate has been thrilled.

She liked the Johnny Jump-Up for about 5 minutes. She wanted to play with something, not just bounce.

My "little" girl is growing up quick! I am amazed at how time flies.

Rolling

Kate is rolling! We have been working on it for some time in physical therapy, and it finally clicked for her! She is not a consistent roller, but she will get there. Max is always happy to show her just how to do it.

Last week I was really sick. I had Rob stay home from work on Thursday to take care of me. Kate had an ear infection too. Max was just getting over his sickness. I am finally feeling better. I think I will even work out tomorrow! Yay!

Our garden is growing. I had to replant some corn, but other than that everything is popping up. Hopefully we will have an abundant harvest.

I will sync my pictures to the computer for tomorrow's post. No pictures tonight.

All Boy

Max is the very definition of boy. He loves:

Tractors (Little Rock Garden Expo)

Dirt (Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum)

Trains (Amy and Casey Foote's House)

Balls (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Drums (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Helicopters (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Water (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Goats (Mary and Jeff's house in Alpine)

Drilling with Grandpa (in South Jordan)

Pliers with Grandpa (in South Jordan)

Deer (in Alpine)

Buffalo (in Alpine)

Horses (in Alpine)

Mowing with Daddy (in Little Rock)

Watching Curious George the Movie and Eating Popcorn

Hammering at Home

More Tractors (He really cannot get enough of these)

Lions (at Little Rock Zoo)

Firetrucks (in Memphis, TN)

Hiking (at Pinnacle Mountain)

Max has been talking more and more each day. He uses 2-3 word phrases, and we are amazed at how much he understands. The first 2 word phrase he used was when we were staying with my sister, Mary. Max found a cookie downstairs one morning quickly ate it. He then came and asked me, "More cookie?" It was pretty cute. Max is sleeping on a twin bed now in his "new" room. He usually has his striped blanket and 2 blue blankets each night, a stuffed cow, and a stuffed dog. He still has his binky, but hopefully we can break him of the binky soon. He is wearing size 4 diapers, but fits into size 3 too. Max is growing up so quick. We love watching him learn and progress.

Bread Day

From 6:30 to 10:00 this morning, I made 2 loaves of wheat bread, 2 loaves of French bread, and 4 loaves of braided bread.

I wrapped up 2 loaves of braided bread and 1 loaf of French bread to auction off tonight for a church fundraiser for the youth.

Garden

When we moved to Arkansas, one of the things we were really excited about was our backyard. It is huge! Max and Kate have a playset, a trampoline and plenty of space to kick a ball around. The previous owners had a fenced in dog run, but we saw it as a perfect place for our vegetable garden. Here is the space:

As soon as the weather was nice enough, we started to work. We didn't like the bush outside the fence, so we took it out.

Max was a good helper.

Next, we had to remove the grass. Rob rented a sod-cutter from Home Depot and whipped it out.

While he had the sod cutter, he cut an area on the side of our house so we could put berry bushes in.

After taking the dog house and cement pavers out, we put boards around the fence to keep the dirt from washing out.

I turned all the soil with a shovel.

We had a dump truck of supersoil delivered to our driveway to add to the garden.

Rob was up before 6 am one Saturday to start moving the soil to the back. Max was eager to help him when we woke up.

All the soil is now back, and the last board is screwed into place.

We put weed paper down, so we wouldn't have to do extra weeding, and then started planting. We have corn, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, garlic, shallots, onions, peas, beans, eggplant, pumpkins, watermelons, zucchini, and cucumbers all in the ground.

Rob designed a drip system for watering. He found a piece that will allow six drip lines to be connected at one spot.

I mentioned earlier that Rob cut the grass out on the side of the house so we could put berry plants in. Here is the area now. Raspberry, blackberry and blueberry (pots) bushes are in the ground and doing well.

This picture shows a contraption hooked to our facet. It will allow us to put the drip lines on a timer to water. It should work wonders!

I did not take a picture of my herb containers, but I have cilantro, oregano, basil and parsley growing in pots on the deck. They are doing excellent. We hope the garden really thrives. It is our first year trying a garden, so we recognize we may have over/under planted certain things. We are excited to be following the prophets advice and sowing seeds of self-reliance.

A Post a Day

I am going to try and update my blog on a daily basis. It may be trivial things I put on here, but I want to remember what is going on in my families life. I will try and post pictures, but it may not always happen.

Yesterday Robert took a test for work called the Series 7. I will admit I was a bit worried about how he would do. Rob studied on Tuesday night until about midnight, and then Max wasn't feeling well and Rob decided he could sleep in bed with us. Max kept snuggling up to Rob all night (which was fine with me), but as a result Rob slept very poor. I fed Rob French toast for breakfast, sent him with a lunch and hoped he would stay alert while taking his 6 hour test. After a long day, Rob came home with good news. He passed! 84% He only needed a 70%. Hooray!

I decided to get a season pass at the zoo a couple of weeks ago, and it has been a wonderful investment. The zoo isn't far from where we live (about 20 minutes), and it is pretty small. We can fly through it and still have an afternoon! I took Max and Kate over this morning. Typically Max walks the whole time, but as he isn't feeling the best, I had him sit on top of the jogging stroller. We had a great time.

I am hoping to go running when Robert gets home from work. I am really trying to get back into a decent shape. 24 more pounds to go! I have a goal to run a 1/2 marathon this year, so if anyone wants to join me, just let me know!

Kate Update

My Baby Girl is growing up so quickly! At her 4 month appointment (about 3 weeks ago), she weighed 18 pounds 13 ounces (99%ile), was 26 inches long (95%ile), and her head was 16 3/4 inches around (86%ile). We have switched pediatricians, and it has been sooooo much better. Kate is moving her left arm regularly. As you can see in the picure below, her left thumb is pointing down. The last movement we are waiting for her to do is suppination (turning her thumb up). She has come a long ways though. We are so proud of her.



I take Kate to physical and occupational therapy twice a month. These two ladies, Jenny (holding Kate) and Gladys (holding Max), have been awesome. They have taught me how to help Kate progress. THANK YOU GLADYS AND JENNY!!!

In March our family went to Utah for Sheri's wedding. While we were there, Rob blessed Kate. It was a beautiful blessing. We were so glad we could have her blessed with family there.

Kate loves to hide under her blankets. She thinks it is so funny. You can see her peeking out from the blanket, all smiles. Just this week Kate has started laughing. We love you Kate!