Carter, me and our green thumbs!

I figured that I needed to grow a garden this year. I told Joe we would save lots of money on vegetables but when you factor in the cost of the wood for the raised bed, the dirt, the seeds, the plants and the fact that we have only harvested 6 tomatoes and some peas we are definitely just counting it as a learning experience instead. For some reason we grow beautiful pumpkin vines, squash plants and watermelon plants but NO ACTUAL VEGETABLES themselves. If anyone knows why that would be please let me know. The first thing Carter asks EVERY morning is to go look at our tomatoes and peas- thankfully they grow okay. He loves it when the tomatoes start to turn orangey-red and his eyes shine with excitement. That is all I need to remind me of why we are growing a garden!

Grandma Time!

Well this is another post that is a few months late in coming! We are so blessed to have a Grandma Benson- everyone should be so lucky! Joe's Mom is amazing and every time we see her the trips are too short, and we miss her like crazy when she goes. We love you Grandma!!

Ode To Brittany

Many moons ago (almost 3 months!) my sister Brittany and her brave husband James drove 16 whole hours here with their entire family (three kids 5 and under AND Britt's pregnant with #4) in the ultimate show of love. My sister is one of those supermom's who puts all of us to shame and I always enjoy being around her and gleaning tidbits of her vast mommy knowledge. In my almost 2 weeks with her I learned many things. Here is a brief list:

--How to do Ellie's hair with elastics!
--How to cook ribs and onions straws
--That chalk + spray bottles= hours of entertainment
--How to make a raised bed garden planter
--That I can and should make my own jam
--That you can easily fit two adults, five kids AND an Ikea bookcase in one minivan (Joe- I want one!!)
--Dollar stores are indeed awesome
--You can be pregnant and dang cute
--every mommy needs a power nap (there's no shame in it)
--And, she lives MUCH MUCH MUCh too far away...

And a big shout out to James for being totally awesome and finishing Joe's entire honey-do list. Joe is quite pleased that I no longer nag him about all of those things:). I have, of course, found plenty of other things to nag him about.

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Somehow I have no pictures of James, darn! And I forgot to mention that Grandma Bensons trip overlapped a little and all the kiddos LOVED her (no surprise there:).