Green Thumb

I just wanted to post about our garden because I'm pretty proud of myself :) Our yard may be a wasteland of dirt and new poplars popping up everywhere, but the garden represents some major sweat and hard work, ha. For real though, I even sprained my thumb weeding this week and now I can't really grasp anything with my right hand. 

We moved in a little late for the usual planting season, so we didn't have high expectations. The night we actually had time to do it, we ran into town to get seeds. There was a slight miscommunication with the peppers and we somehow ended up with several full rows of hot habenero or jalapeno peppers. Let me know if you are a salsa maker. Then we came back with a little bit of light left and a storm approaching. Landon and I hoed like crazy and spread some miracle grow in that soil as fast as we could. We were sticking plants in like lightening to avoid any lightening striking Landon, who was holding the shovel. Luckily, we got everything in--partly in the dark--about 20 minutes before the rain started.

When we started the endeavor of this year's garden, I told Landon to keep it small-scale. There are only two of us, and with cherry season, I knew I would have to take care of it by myself. And yet, he is always the one who chooses how much we plant, ha. With our little guy around, I could only weed about a third of it a day, so it took 3 days to finally weed it, and then a few days later I had to start all over again. Kinda disheartening. And then I discovered Preen. It's awesome--weed preventer. I put it in between the rows and this week I weeded the whole garden in like 15 minutes. 

I've also had to watch some youtube videos on how to harvest our crops, since neither Landon nor I know much about any of them. We had no idea when they were ready, or how to harvest them, or how to water. It's been mostly guess and check, but I thought I would consult the experts when figuring out some things. Despite the poplar trees trying to grow in the middle, and the gopher taking half of our lettuce, we are pretty happy with how it's turning out.

This is actually from Grandma and Grandpa Rowley's garden, but I laughed and thought you might like it too. He loves his veggies.

Summer Lovin'

I love summer. Only when it's HOT outside do you just want to jump into freezing water and not think twice. I love it. Tyson and I have been to a few play groups or parks and he is beginning to love the water activities. I use him as an excuse to play in them myself :) 

He has some hand-me-down water clothes. The shirt is borderline too small and the shorts are pretty long, so he's just a thug. I love it. 

A couple of weeks ago we got to go with Nana and Papa Draney to feed the ducks/geese. Chris and Lisa were in town. It's hilarious to see Tyson with Hannah. He is so excited to see someone his size that he has to give her hugs or pats. 

With the huge geese, at first he was a little nervous.  They are bigger than he is.

But then he decided he was going to chase them. It was awesome, but I had to make sure he didn't get pecked at. He was a little too daring.

Just thought I'd show a pic of him trying on my shoes. He comes all day long saying "Shzz" and trying to have me put them on so we can go outside.

We also got to take a few days and go to our first DRANEY FAMILY REUNION. It was awesome. So fun to see some of my cousins that have moved so far away! Tyson loved the sand, but not so much the water.

It was the Washington coast so Landon and I thought we might try wetsuits for some warmth. It turned out the water was pretty warm anyway, so we had lots of fun trying to boogie board and ride the waves. I think the beach is my favorite place to be of anywhere. I love the waves, playing sports on the beach, the sand castles--or this time it was a huge hole to China--the laid back beach atmosphere, the small-town shops, the kite-flying, it's all great.  We even got to light some fun fireworks. A few of them would shoot off a parachute, so we had races to see who could catch it. It was great. Landon was pretty proud that he won--although he cheated. He is kinda known in my family for cheating, ha. But he's so funny about it they don't get mad.

We also stayed in a house that had air hockey, ping pong and pool, and a hot tub, so we made sure to get in our share. It was a great and relaxing trip before the cherry harvest!

The little man at 14 months

I haven't really been on the ball lately with our move, but I thought that I would give an update for family who are far away. I also don't have my camera, so I only have a few pics from my phone. As lame as that is, I might not have time to blog for a while again, so I thought something is better than nothing, right?

So that you all can get to know our little guy better--here is his life, in a nutshell, at 14 months. 

He is definitely the child of a fruit farmer. He loves all fruit, but especially watermelon. He would make his aunt Whitney proud.

Aside from running all day long, he can often be found climbing into things.He doesn't just "get into the cupboards" (which we have finally got child-locks for), but he has to get IN the cupboard, or the bowl, or the drawers... which is usually followed by a yell of  "AH! AH!" to tell me he doesn't know how to get out.

He also really likes to see the lights go on and off. It keeps him distracted so that he'll eat more at mealtimes if Mommy turns the lights on and off. He also is a fan of carrying long stick, curtain rods, and the like. Probably not safe for anyone in a close radius, but he loves it.

He is pretty proficient at stairs these days--both up and down. If there is just one stair it's even better. He feels like it's a chair just for him and he'll go up and down on it for 20 minutes at a time.

He's all about putting things on other people, like sunglasses. Not so much on himself, just on others. Except shoes, because that means he can go outside. So he is always putting on Mommy or Daddy's shoes, or his own. 

He is learning lots of words, like "shoes" or "da" which means dog. He knows they say "woof woof", but doesn't seem to remember any other animals. They often like to woof too. "Ba" can mean bird, or book, or bubbles, or ball, depending on the context. "This one" for when he's showing you something. He seems to copy more words every day.

The kid is a singing and dancing machine. Put on some music and he will be bouncing or doing hotfeet or running in a circle and often singing along. He's got great moves--I tell him it's from his mommy ;)

When he gets excited he YELLS some babbling while standing up on his tippy toes and pushing his chest out. Cracks me up every time!  Also, while in big groups, he assumes any laughing is because of him, so he will go to the middle of the group and bend his knees to bounce while people laugh. I'm not sure why, but it's hilarious.

He is now a fan of fireworks. He did the above stance while trying to yell "So Cool" like everyone else. He also got to see them at our beach family reunion and loved them. 

He was also in his first parade and rode the motorcycle with Daddy. So cool.  

He has learned to maneuver his arms so that he can't be picked up. He has found it very useful when he's in trouble. 

And he's famous!! At least to the people who get this coupon magazine in Richland, ha. They used our kids for the cover of the ad magazine along with the Fresh Picks coupons. I thought it was pretty cute.