Flowers and Spice and everything Nice

A few weeks ago JD and I decided to get things ready to plant our vegetable and flower garden this year. We also added a spice garden! I can never choose what flowers to get because I love them all. I made a second trip a week later and picked up some snap dragons and another narcissus. Am I a complete dork? Our herbs and spices haven't come up yet, maybe it's still too cold, but we have lettuce and strawberries and some baby carrot sprouts so far.
This is from the day I planted the garden...

This is what it looks like now. A little messy because of the wind and rain!

Little Miss Mischief

Emma has decided lately to get in to EVERYTHING. A few of her favorite things to do are pull all the books off the bookshelf and get in to the pantry to pull things off the shelves in there. I can usually keep her out of the places I don't want her to go by shutting the door, but now she can open the doors by herself! I thought we had the house baby proofed, but she managed to get in to one of our cupboards and drop my crock-pot top and it shattered! I have dropped that thing a million times and nothing has happened. Leave it up to a baby to figure out how to break things! Besides making messes she now opens the door to the laundry room and gets handfuls of the dog food to feed to Belle. So cute, but so dirty! Oh, what is a mom to do? I guess taking pictures is my only option.

I can't believe she is big enough to open doors!


This is a whole box of corn starch! Thanks for the help cooking, Emma!

Christmas

Christmas, as always, was a blast! This year we spent Christmas with the Tate's in Phoenix. We had a great Christmas Eve with the whole family. We read The Nativity and the kids (and some adults-including JD the donkey) acted it out. It was so cute to see Emma dressed up as Mary. Grandma Tate also did a fishing game and the kids had fun going fishing for toys. Emma wasn't quite as interested in it as I was.

Having Christmas in Phoenix means we get to spend Christmas morning with just our little family. We had a few little mishaps (like Emma throwing up) before we could get going with all the festivities. Emma was really excited this year. She started with her stocking and needed a little coaxing to figure out what she was supposed to do, but she did much better with the presents. She helped open the presents and gave each one a hug, including the clothes. She even sat on her Noah's Ark (not a riding toy) and was having so much fun!





We went back over to the Tate's for some good food and some time with the family. It was a great Christmas!

Ben's Graduation..

Congrats to my brother Ben. The whole family had the chance to go to Texas for Ben's graduation. After getting his bachelors in industrial engineering he went back to school for an MBA. We all flew down and spent a long weekend crashing in Ben and Cindy's house. Thanks for the hospitality! The kids had a blast and so did the adults. We were able to play Wii (so much fun) and have a mini Christmas since we were all together. We were even able to share a little Christmas with others and take them some baskets with food and games and other wonderful things.
Grandma and Grandpa Gilbert did a great job with the gift for the kids. Kid laptops and tents were a hit all around. There was even a visit from Santa who brought EVERYONE something special. Emma wasn't too sure about him. I have to admit one of my FAVORITE parts of the trip was a night at Chuck E Cheese (where a kid can be a kid). I don't have any pictures of this right now, but I will add some when I get some.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving all of my side of the family met down in Thatcher to hang out and eat some yummy food. It was so nice to be all there together. I miss having all of my siblings close. The nieces (yes there are finally two girls) and nephews all had fun playing together and getting to know each other again. We were able to shoot off rockets and just hang out and have a good time. Thanks Mom and Dad for hosting us!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY EMMA REESE!

Oh my baby is already one! She is getting sooooooo big! We had a birthday party for her on November 1st at a park by our house and the family showed up to help celebrate. I kind of did a panda theme with her invites and cupcakes....an experiment, but I had fun...

Some of them did not travel very well and their heads fell off.
Emma was dressed in all pink and had so much fun playing and eating her cupcakes and pizza. I love this little girl so much! Happy Birthday Emma!

Trick or Treat...Emma's sick

Okay. Here I go making up for lost time. get ready for a bunch of posts. Emma's Halloween was bitter sweet. At the trunk or treat she got her first taste of a lollipop and she loved it! She would not give it up and made it all the way to the tootsie roll center of the tootsie pop!



When Halloween rolled around she had an infection in her throat that moved to the area of gums where one of her teeth was coming in. Needless to say her mouth was sore and she was not a happy girl! I did get a few pictures of us handing out candy though.