The Fruits of Our Labor

I guess I should say "The Vegetables of Our Labor" because we didn't plant any fruits...Anyway, here are some pictures of our backyard and all that we have planted over the last week.

Here are Gerber daisies, pansies, rhododendron, green beans and cucumbers.

These are the rose bushes that the previous owners planted. We planted some bell peppers in between them along with some irises.
Here we planted tomatoes along the fence and some squash in front of them. There are also irises and some other things in this area (from the previous owners).
Here is an attempt at a picture of the entire backyard. It is huge!!

Now we just wait and see if all of our hard work will pay off!!

Are you keeping up with the comment challenge?? Remember tomorrow is the last day. If you are confused...see the previous post!!

This, That and The Other

I feel like I am playing catch up. Our trip to Washington threw me off a little, so let's do a little flashback. Stay tuned to the end of the post for a final thought and a contest!!!

The Saturday before Easter we went bowling for a friend's birthday. Our town has a bowling alley, but it isn't really kid friendly. A town about 45 minutes away has a great new bowling alley so we hit it up...smoke-free and all!

Kennan didn't care to watch his ball roll down the lane!

Brayden helping me bowl! We were close to breaking 100...
Kennan and his friends!
Easter Sunday was great!! We had a wonderful turn out for our children's time and egg hunt. Here are the kids with Kenny (he was the storyteller!).

Brayden egg hunting in the nursery (we couldn't go outside because of the rain).

Kennan and Mason

Since we've been back from Washington, the weather has been perfect!!

Perfect for sandbox playing (Brayden and Gentry)

And perfect for popsicle eating (Kennan and some friends)

My cousin Chris and his wife Laura moved not too far from us last summer. So, Brayden and I were lucky enough to travel to the closest town when their youngest was born on Thursday. It was fun to spend the day with them in anticipation for little Brinley's arrival!

Chris, Maddie, Laura, Emma and Kendall

The girls with Brinley just minutes after she was born!

Sweet baby!

We have spent the last few days doing yardwork. The people who lived here before us did an amazing job with the flower beds. We have 2 huge ones that line our fences in the backyard. It has been a pretty overwhelming task to keep up the work they had done and we are learning a lot!! Today we pulled weeds and planted green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and parsley. I can wait to see and taste the "fruits" of our labor in the next few weeks/months.

The kids loved digging and planting!

Kennan planting the green beans.

Brayden Lynn

The sweetest 20 month old!

Kennan Joshua

My favorite 4 year old!

My final thought:

If you are like me, you use Google Reader for your blog reading. This is a great tool, but it usually means that you read the post from the reader and never take a look at the person's actual blog, which means you probably never comment on the blog. I know I do this...and then it drives me crazy when no one comments on my blog!! Everyone loves a little love on their blog so I have an idea...

Here is my challenge for you:

For the next 5 days (and longer if you keep it up), I challenge you to comment on at least 3 different blogs each day. That means at the end of the day on Friday you will have made at least 15 comments on different blogs. Come back to this post sometime on Friday or Saturday to let me know that you did it. Then on Sunday I will pick a winner and you will receive a fun spring/summer gift.

What do you think? Are you up for the challenge? It can't be that hard!!

Washington in {LOTS} Pictures

This last week, our family took a vacation to Washington state. Some of our very best friends from Seminary moved there last year and we were dying to go for a visit! Kevin and Alisa have 2 girls, Hannah is 2 weeks younger than Kennan and Abby is about 8 weeks younger than Brayden. We had a wonderful time being in a part of the country we had never seen before!

Brayden and Abby

Kennan and Hannah
Bath time!

We spent a few days in Seattle...here we are on the monorail to the Seattle Center

Brayden doing some artwork at the Seattle Children's Museum

At the Children's Museum

Our little construction worker

The Pike's Place Market was a favorite spot! We went there every morning...

Kennan really like the monk fish!

This is the view before they threw a fish OVER my head!

It was hard to get, but you can see the fish's tail in the top left of the picture!!

I LOVED all of the beautiful, fresh (and CHEAP!!!) flowers!

We had a picnic lunch one day and attempted...

to take...

a group picture!! This is as good as it gets!

We took a little hike...

Made some homemade ice cream... And had LOTS of fun with friends!

On our flight home, Kennan decided to draw some pictures for the captain and first officer. When he gave the picture to them, they invited him to sit in the cockpit and wear the captain's hat. Kennan loved it (and so did Mutsy, the dog)!!!

A Sneak Peek!!

The weather was great today so we dressed the kids up in their Easter outfits for a little photo shoot.

Happy Easter!!

In 4 Months

my baby girl is going to be 2 years old. That means she is now 20 months old...which doesn't sound too old, until you do the math and figure out that she is 4 months away from the big 2!! Here are some things you might want to know about our little girl...

~In the last 2 weeks Brayden's vocabulary has exploded. She has recently added the words "elephant", "lotion", "towel", "shower" and they are all very understandable.

Brayden posing with a baby elephant statue at the FW Zoo. ~Brayden loves to run "fast fast". She will chase anyone around anything and she will sometimes just challenge herself to a little race "fast fast" down the hallway.

Running "fast fast" at Lala and Grumpy's house.

~Brayden continues to adore her big brother. She would follow him to the ends of the earth (if he would let her!). She doesn't care what he is playing...she wants to be a part of it!
Playing cars on Grammy and Pops' fireplace.

~Brayden is quite a little busy body. She is always on the go and is not content with sitting still. (By this age, Kennan could sit still for story books and 30 minute TV shows...not our Brayden!!) She still chooses not to listen when we say no, even though I know she totally comprehends what we say!!

Attempting to take baby Leah for a walk in the stroller while using the Easter basket as a purse.

Lipstick, heart necklace and upside-down sunglasses anyone??

Funny girl!
~Brayden is quite the little jokester and loves to make us laugh. She will jibber-jabber for a few minutes and then look at us and laugh. If only we knew if she was telling a joke about us, or if she just wants us to laugh along with her!!

Yesterday at lunch, Kenny had his sunglasses in his shirt pocket and Brayden decided she needed some also. Then they both needed to put them on (upside-down of course, do you notice a trend here?).

When she was done, it was time to put them in her shirt pocket. Problem was, she didn't have a pocket. She is great at improvising!!

As you can tell, Brayden keeps us on our toes and always laughing!! I am sure these next 4 months are going to fly by and the next thing I know, I will be doing a "Brayden is 2" post!!

And not to be left out, here is my sweet 4 year old.
Kennan is spending this beautiful 80* day inside with strep throat. Yesterday he was fine and playing with friends and today he is feeling so sick. My poor baby...I feel like he has really been through it all with sickness the last few months.