How does your garden grow?

David and I spent all day on Saturday attempting to make a garden box because the built in garden boxes connected to our house don't get enough sun. We didn't want to waste time using wood screws so we found extra nails from around our house buried in the dirt. Probably not so safe for the kids but there were tons from the renovation before we moved in. We dug up about 40 nails, no joke. So we're attempting a garden this year. We don't really know what we're doing but we figure this is a $75 investment in a new hobby for the summer and if we get food that'll be a bonus. Hopefully we'll learn by trial and error and get better each year. I wont mention that as I was taking this picture the side Ashton was leaning on fell right off. In a more permenant residence we might have taken the time to use screws. But this year we'll keep hammering away and go by our self a brace or something.

Ashton couldn't get over that we actually paid money for cow poop. All day long he asked if were really going to grow food in it and then kept trying to say manure and laughing his head off. It's so fun to have a 4 year old.

Since we're amatuers and only bought enough soil to fill up our half box we started the kids on their salsa garden for FHE tonight. Mallie kept trying to cross pollenate the peppers and onions. Over all they did pretty well planting and are excited to water them. Hopefully it works.

And look Mom, I'm alive! I can't remember the last time I posted a picture of me on this blog. These are the best kinds of Family Home Evenings. So glad the weather is nice and we're finally starting our very own garden. Now I'll fight the urge to read the Secret Garden for the 2nd time this month.

Spring

One thing no one can ever complan about the military is the time off. 30 days paid leave a year? Awesome. The Friday off before every 3 day weekend even more awesome. We love it. Also there are some random things that go on that are good for a few freebie days off. Here they have a goal to reach 100 fatality (auto related) free days. They have a sign on the way off base that keeps track for all of us. In Feburary we finally reached 100 so everyone gets a free day off. David's commander scheduled it for last Friday. We originally had plans to go to Nauvoo but found out a few days before it was supposed to rain the whole weekend so we bailed.
We chose the next best option. Driving an hour to Chuck E Cheese (Target and Hobby Lobby were also worth the drive)!

Some parents are too good for Chuck E Cheese. They say it gives them headaches because it's so loud and dirty. We are not those people. I've got to tell you, I think David and I had as much fun as the kids. We brought our little $25 coupon and got pizza drinks and 110 coins that we couldn't even use all the way the entire 2.5 hours we were there. We played tons of games with the kids, basketball with eachother, deal or no deal, skii ball and had a blast.
This is David and the kids on a GIANT rocking horse. Check out how low the tables look beneath him. It was hilarious to watch it rock back and forth as the whole place stared. And you know what? He didn't care. Look at that grin he's loving it.

Then as if we didn't have enough fun about halfway home from our drive from Springfield there is this gift store and a giant candy store. David was feeling spontaneous and kept saying if we don't stop now we'll always wonder. So we woke up our sleeping kids to come check it out. We bought some candy and a used Peter Pan DVD to add to our collection.

This was Mallie about 2 seconds after we got back in the car. We left at 9:30am and got home at 4pm. I would say over all it was a successful day. Not to mention I revamped the kids summer wardrobe for a total of $30 at Target. Why can't it work like that for adults??

I used to think just Texas had crazy weather. Apparently Missouri follows the same weather pattern. Here was the hail storm. My kids love to eat ice so I was grateful we finally got a hailstorm during the day so they could go eat the ice like they did in Texas. If they happened to grab and eat a worm with the ice we'll call that protein.

We have two huge trees in our front yard. One has bright green leaves and the other is this brilliant purple.You can see the other purple trees up the street too and our bushes are all full of pink and yellow blooms. Spring makes me so happy.

Thank you daylight savings...

This week has been full of perfect 70 degree weather and with the added hour of daylight I'm pretty sure this is heaven. The Missouri bugs will hit soon with the heat so we're taking advantage of every single minute. Even tonight after spending the whole day outdoors I went outside to put something in the trash and told David the weather was just perfect. So we packed up all the kids who were already bathed with brused teeth and went for a jammie walk. The kids loved it. It's the simple things like Hannah holding Mallie on her lap the entire walk and not complaining that make me so happy. I adore these munchkins. And then there's this story I had to document. Remember that time I convinced David to let my buy a loveseat that doesn't match anything??

Since we've been married we've made exactly 3 major furniture purchases. Our dining room table, the recliner (that I wanted so badly for late night nursing but now hate because if it's size) and our new tv stand which I'm not even sure counts as major since it was still a cheap one we had to assemble ourselves for a $150. Everything else has been given to us by family and friends (see that hutch - I owe it to Cindy!) and we are so grateful. So when our tax returns came around this year I begged and pleaded for David to allott me an amount of money for new leather couches and then we'd put the rest towards loans.

I shopped and shopped and after a month finally decided on two full size leather beauties that could withstand the test of kids over the next decade. We moved the recliner upstairs to the nursery and the kids and I welcomed the delivery truck with open arms. That is until my new couches couldn't clear the front door. So they went around back and tried every angle before they measured them. Off by 5 inches. I was so sad I was ready to break a window to shove it through but instead I watched the truck pull out with our couches. Our living room was empty with our poor little brown couch staying put. I was too disheartened to try again because I had barely found those so we decided to wait till we move in 2.5 years to buy new couches. David and I decided that the recliner was to stay put in the nursery where it belonged all along so I had to come up with some extra seating for cheap to hold us by. Well here it is. I'm not sure that I should admit that I actually really love it. It's not comfortable and it doesn't match at all but I really do love it. So there it is... my gem - it'll definitely buy me another 2.5 years of waiting for new couches.

Number Four

Baby #4 is due the 29th of August. I don't know if David and I have been this excited and nervous about a pregnancy since we were pregnant with Ashton. We've been hoping for a #4 since April. After trying a few extra months than normal and a miscarriage at 12 weeks (baby had stopped growing at 7.5) in October we gained a whole new perspective and appreciation for bringing babies to the world and our family. Because pregnancy had gone so well for us with the first 3 I think we really felt jolted back into reality. It turned out to be something we both really needed. I know it's taboo to talk about miscarriages but I'm not afraid to go there. Mostly because amazing friends who had openly talked about theirs were some of my first phone calls when I started to bleed. I wanted to know exactly what to expect and what my options were and boy was I well taken care of by the women in my life.

So David and I got a much needed reminder that we're not in charge. We can't plan out all of our kids just how we want. It's sad to admit but until I miscarried I think we both believed we could. I know our hiccup of an 8 month limbo is nothing compared to what others have to go through trying to have baby. But I can say that I am so grateful to be reminded of the huge blessing it is to be pregnant it's definitely something we'll never take for granted again. I've always found it so much fun to hear the baby's heartbeat inside of me but now the sheer joy and anticipation that I feel when that doppler is on my stomach is indescribable.

So needless to say we are thrilled. And would you believe me if I told you it's pretty likely I'll be having my baby at the army hospital this go around... gasp. I almost don't believe it. But loans need to be paid down and free is free. It was an added bonus that I am not particularly fond of any of the midwives available in the area. So the mormon doc on base is a good second choice. I figure worse comes to worse I hate it and the rest of our babies are all born at home. I'll keep you posted.

To the man in my life...

When David and I were dating (you know for that 3 week period) I asked him why he wanted to be a dentist. His first response was "I want to be home." I hardly knew him at the time but I knew that was the best answer I could have hoped for. Then during dental school I realized I saw my husband arguably more than any other dental wife. David was the first one out of the door every afternoon to come home after he finished his work. Now, I could argue it's because who would want to spend more time at school than necessary or that he's an introvert so he didn't actually care about the social interaction but I know one thing... he never wasted a minute at school coming home to be with his family was his priority.

Now that he's done with school and living the life of an army dentist his schedule is a very straightforward 7:30-4:30. All of his hardwork in school allows him to walk in our door at 4:40 and not have to think about work again till the next morning. There's no doubt he's reaping the rewards of all that schooling.

So this morning I woke up and went through everything we've got going on in March. And the first thing that came to my mind is how amazing my husband is. Young Womens is a busy calling and I'm not even the president (shout out to the amazing Jeni!). I've never been RS president but I would say that is the only calling that could hold a candle to the amount of time put into the young womens program. Mutual, dances, super saturdays, girls camp, youth conferences, meetings and the constant thoughts of the youth that you're in charge of... I wish I would have said thank you more to some of my leaders growing up I had no idea how much of themselves they were giving.

So last night I left at 5:30 to take a soon to be spanish speaking missionary to dinner then headed straight to mutual. I walked in the door at 8:45 and here's what I wrote on the calendar and then related to David... so we're feeding the missionaries Sat night and then we're both teaching this Sunday. Next week I'll have to leave on Sat at 5 for the stake Super Saturday and then on Sunday we're hosting a fireside for all the youth at our house. The Sunday after that we're both speaking in Sacrament meeting. And did I throw a couple of YW camp meetings and mutuals I'll have during the week into the mix? And can I go to the gardening class tomorrow night at the church and will you put the kids down by yourself again?

And you know what his response was? Sure, no problem. He never has asked me if I really have to go to any of these things... he never asks me to cut back. He just picks up the slack and then lets me come home and talk through my entire night. I love that he knows all of my beehives and my concerns and hopes for them. He helps me think out and plan my activities. When we got married I knew he was great but we hardly knew eachother. As time goes on I see him in different situations and get to know and love him more and more I feel so blessed. Sometimes when I ponder how fast we met and got married I think maybe it was just dumb luck. But I know the Lord knew it was right and that's why I felt so strongly that this quiet, humble, family oriented guy was perfect for me. I had no idea just how amazing he was going to be about everything. So here's to my guy who has planned his life "to be home" because it makes all the difference.