Planting Potates and the rest of my garden

 We finally planted potatoes the other day! I dug a shallow grave and placed several pieces of the potatoes on the ground. I barley covered them up with some dirt, then I added a handful of grass clippings to the top. Every time Will mows the lawn he'll them place a another handful of grass clippings to the top. Why grass clippings (or straw) you ask? So when it's time to harvest these potatoes I wont have to dig a huge hole trying to find all those potatoes. They'll be hardly covered by dirt and very assessable!

 This is the back row of my garden where I have a few fruit trees.

 This is the entire main garden area. We will be putting in a fire pit near the top area soon. We completely redesigned the garden from last year and added that huge white watering pipe in the back.
We have onions, green onions, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, garlic, zucchini, cabbage, peas, carrots, corn, broccoli and cauliflower growing in there! Towards the bottom of the garden there are still 8 rows empty. We planted 4 rows of corn 2 weeks ago and next week we will plant another 4 rows...and then another. YUM!

 On the side of the garage I have my herb garden with a ton of basil, cilantro, mint and parsley.

On the window side of the garage I have my strawberry patch that Will planted for me! You can't really see the plants that well but there is well over 50!

I also have several fruit trees around the yard, a raspberry patch (that is 5x larger than last years!!), and pumpkins all over the yard.
I love gardening. I love watering. I love weeding. I love being outside. I love it all!

Holy Contractions Batman!

Last week was busy, like always. But it was physically busy and I felt like I was running around to every activity I was participating in. I went on several 2 mile speed walks, a gnarly hike, major work in the garden and the normal chasing after lot of kids. Well, it caught up with me and I was feeling it by Friday night. And it sucked! My back was killing and the contractions started.
For me, I have those braxton hicks nonsense for 5+ months of my pregnancy. For me, they are in a very isolated area, feels more like a side cramp, and last 7-10 minutes. They suck, but they're nothing like the real contractions! I usually start getting those real contractions 2 week before the little baby joins our family. So when I started getting them at 8 weeks to go, I was shocked. Worried. And knew I had to slow down!
On Saturday I put myself on bed rest and took 2 naps, aww heaven. But I still felt like crap. Sunday, I went to sacrament only and laied in bed for the remaining part of the day. Aww, heaven again. Felling a tiny bit better but still having some contractions. (The contractions were NOT regular. They were 3's and 4's. If they were stronger or more regular I would of gone to the hospital. I did chat with y doc and we were both on the same page!)
Monday, I did a little more, but slowly and I took a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. A couple small contractions, but feeling better!
Tuesday, I did a little more but again, slowly and reminding myself to watch how my body is feeling. Another nap in the middle of the day. My body is loving me again! A couple small contractions in the late evening. Getting better!
Wednesday I'm proud to say I was contraction free! Yeah!
I don't like to slow down. I want to be on the move and get things done, but I will sacrifice for this growing baby in my belly!

Beautiful Weather for a hike!

 It's been perfect weather lately, so I was extra excited to tag along with the Scouts on a hike! We went on an awesome hike, Rattle Snake Gulch, 2.5 miles. It had such a great view of the valley!!

Kindergarten Spring Sing and Talent Show

 Last Thursday was the kindergarten Spring Sing and Talent Show. The morning kindergarten classes got together and sang several adorable songs. The last couple were Mother's Day songs.

 Next, we went back to Gavin's classroom and the children performed various talents. Of course, Gavin wanted to play the violin. He played a new song he's learned, the Fiddling Song. He did great!

Happy Mother's Day!

 Happy Mother's Day to all my good friends out there and especially to my own mom! I hope all of you are having a great day! I headed home during church to drop something off and was surprised to find this on my counter. Scott had to leave earlier and has to work all day so I wasn't expecting anything to be waiting for me.
Roses, sour candy, a funny card and a chick flick. Awesome!

 All the boys made these cool flowers for me in primary this morning. They also handed out tomato plants to all the mom's in our ward.

 Tyler wrote a darling card and made me this necklace. The circle one has his thumb print on it.

Cute Brig's made this, another drawing, and a flower pot. Gavin made a darling card that said I am the "priteest" (prettiest) mom in the world! Jackson drew an awesome picture of us together in the beach in Santa Barbara with a heart melting poem. Will is taking on all chores and responsibilities for the day.
THANKS boys!!

Susan G. Komen RUN

 My cousins in Utah have participated in the Susan G. Komen race for a cure for the past several years. Now that we live here, and I wasn't in Santa Barbara visiting, Scott Will and I participated. It was awesome! We have these fun tee shirts made up that said Debbie's Double D's (Dudes and Diva's). And on the back was a picture of my cousin Debbie who recently passed from cancer.

 There was a sea of people there! It was inspiring. There were children, men with tu-tu's on, families all dressed a like, individuals, wild costumes, 90 year olds, and everything in between. It was neat to be part of such a wonderful organization along side my family and thousands of others.
Scott and I have participated in the Relay For Life the past several years and have enjoyed that experience as well.
See you all next year!

A Chocolat Shake for Breakfast??

Yep, that's what I've been making 2-3 times a week for breakfast. It's not exactly what you think so let me explain! My awesome cousin, Angie, introduced me to this yummy treat a while back. As the weather has been getting a little warmer, and being pregnant, I remembered this yummy drink.
Now, I'm not a milk drinker at all. I really try to drink it while pregnant but it's hard to do. I have to add chocolate sauce or something to it, and that's why this shake is so good!
I put a handful of ice in my blender with 2-4 C of milk. I add 2-3 scoops of chocolate Slim Fast powder! (You probably could use the can form too. They also have strawberry and vanilla flavor!)That's the great secret. It comes out like a thick chocolate shake, without all those extra calories and fat. Now, let me make myself clear, I'm NOT taking Slim Fast to watch my weight while pregnant. It's just a great substitute for me!
I sometimes add a banana or other berries to it. YUM!
So, if you're not a milk drinker, but need a little more calcium in your life (all us girls do!!) then try this!

NUMBERS

This week's photog group came up with some creative pictures describing the word NUMBERS. I received 2 additional pictures, but I had already made the collage...

Scout-O-Rama

 Last Saturday was the Scout-O-Rama and we had a blast. The Jamboree Scout Troop 707 had a booth to show fire building and the product Stove in a Can. The scouts are selling the Stoves for one of their fundraisers this year. There was a lot of interest and the boys had a fun helping other scouts and kids to build fires.

 There were hundreds of other booths teaching how to do scout stuff and also a toon of games, like Wacka-A-Scout. This was Nathan's favorite. He would laugh and laugh because it was ok to hit!

 The biggest attraction were these huge trampolines in the center of the conventin center. Those boys waited in line 2 hours to do this! They jumped over 5o feet in the air and loved every minute of it!

Thank you Scout program, it was a very fun day for all of us!

Would YOU do this??

One of my favorite blog's I follow is One Hundred Dollars a Month by my good friend, Mavis. (We've never met and technically we're not friends. But, I love her like a dear friend of mine. So in my mind we are good pals!)
Anyways, the other day she wrote this post about reclaimed food from the store. Go here to read it all. She stopped at one of her local grocery stores and asked the produce manager if she could stop in every week and pick up some "scraps" for her chickens. They agreed and this is was she has received the past 3 weeks...

 The above two photos are after her and her daughter have gone through the boxes and seperated the real "Uneatable" food from the food she feeds her family. Mavis has a ton of chickens and a compost so nothing goes to waste at her house. Below is a shot of how she received the food.

Part of thinks this is pretty gross, but then the larger part is wondering why the stores don't having waiting lists of globs of people wanting these food scraps. Yes, I would love the free produce. Yes I have 3 or so hours to go through it all. Yes I have chickens who would be happy fat chicks if I fed them this every week. And yes, I have a compost in my backyard for the rest of it.

I actually asked a local store last year, after we bought our chicks, if I could collect some scraps for them (not even thinking I could possibly feed my family some free fruit and veggies!) They said no because a year earlier some lady did the same thing and one of her chickens died and she was all mad at the store about it. Lame.

Would YOU do this? Is this too discusting to even think about? Or is this something to consider?

I feel like something has to be done with all this food. It's such a shame it goes to waste.

Senior Pictures

 One of my beautiful cousin's, Aleigh, asked me to shoot her Senior photos. We headed out on Friday to Wheeler Farm and here is just a taste of what I captured! She was so easy to photograph! Wheeler Farm was rustic and charming, it fit Aleigh perfectly. There were a ton of great pictures of her but these are the ones she likes the best. Her announcement will be on the opposite side of her image, all on one card. Adorable!

This Past Week...

 This past week has been super busy planning summer camps, organizing some fundraisers that are coming up, gardening, and keep up with the boys in all their endeavours.
Gavin and Jackson went in to get their eyes checked and to get glasses. Jackson's eyes corrected themselves and he doesn't nee glasses anymore. Gavin, on the other hand, has a stigmatism in both eyes (like Scott!) and needs glasses. These are the ones we ordered and they should be in soon.

 Cereal was on sale for $1.49 and of course I had a ton of coupons! I paid .99 cents each box for all this! And 2 days later I went back and bought 20 more boxes. THANKS Smith's! And coupons!

 Oh bruschetta, how I have loved thee. I have made bruschetta 3 times in 9 days. It's so good.

Jackson went to see a orthodontist to see how much it will cost for him to get braces. We pulled in the drive-way and this was by the front door! We parked right in front, how nice! Jackson thought he was a superstar with this VIP parking.

 Speaking of superstar, here is baby Elton John! We had huge dumpsters in our neighborhood where you could throw anything you wanted away, so we went through our yard and helped a could other of our neighbor's throw their junk away. One of the brothers found this and Nathan wore them all night. He loves them, still does!

 After we helped the last neighbor we built a bonfire and roasted marshmallow's, or in Brigham's case burned it to a crisp and ate it!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes Activity

On the 4th Sunday of the month in Primary is all singing time, love it! I try to plan extra fun activities for the children. I found this darling idea here. We would practice different songs for the program and a few Mother's Day songs and also play this game between each song. I would have 4 children choose whatever word they wanted to use for the song and we would sing it a few times. (Each of the words are Velcro onto the board to make it easy to move around!)It was a lot of fun and I defiantly got a workout that day!

Teacher Appreciation Gift's

Teacher Appreciation Week was this last week and I try to do something for each of the boys teacher's and here is what I came up with this year. I took two cute ideas and put them together and came up with this. I did put the cute note inside the glass vase. The boys were thrilled to ring in a little gift for their teacher's.

I also just saw this one on Pinterest, super easy and cute. I love this site and will use this next year!

Bruschetta!!

 This is what we ate last night for dinner, homemade bruschetta. Yep, that's it. A plate of brushetta and my boys downed it! So, I thought I'd share this yummy recipe with you all!

 4 large firm tomatoes diced up
1/4-1/2 C. oil
6-7 leaves of fresh basil
1-2 cloves of garlic diced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese OR thinly sliced soft mozzarella cheese
mix all together, spoon to taste.
May need a dash or more salt.
If too hot form garlic add another tomato.
The Parmesan cheese absorbs a lot of the oil so you may need to add a T. or 2 more.

 When dicing up basil crumple in a small ball and then dice. Makes it chop faster and easier.

 This is what is looks like with the Parmesan cheese. (I always have Parmesan cheese, but I do prefer the soft mozzarella ball sliced.) If you make it with the mozzarella, add all ingredients but the cheese. After you toast the bread, lay a thinly sliced piece of cheese on top and then a spoonful of the tomato mixture.

 I buy the sourdough baguette bread and slice it up or buy it like the above picture. Don't get the french baguette it's too soft. I cook the bread in the oven on 350  for 15-20 minutes. You want a slight crunch. Too crunchy hurts the roof of your mouth!

 See!! We all ate it up and loved every bite!