Our Spring/Summer Garden 2016

Josh and I look forward to each spring when the weather begins to warm up because that means we can get in the garden. Some of the first crops we plant each year are new potatoes, corn, and garlic. 

Bless my heart, corn about kills me every year because of all the times I have to go stand up the plants after a thunderstorm or strong wind, but it's worth it in the end. Just know that if you ever eat corn at my house a lot of hard work and love went into getting it to the table! 

This was our first year to plant garlic

2016 New Potato Harvest

This is our guest bedroom closet after every potato harvest. We've learned to keep the room cool and dark and the potatoes last a long time. We rarely have guests and when we do, they laugh but don't seem to mind :)

Sadly, the birds ate all the blueberries and these bushes didn't make it. I was really looking forward to fresh blueberries too! Maybe we'll try again sometime in the future. 

Our squash and zucchini plants go crazy every year. We usually give them some fresh homemade worm tea a couple of times and that stuff makes them grow so much!

Our row crops-purple peas and lima beans

Corn is ready to harvest!

I love playing around with different arrangements in my flower pots around the pool. I usually try to follow the formula of having a "thriller", a "filler", and a "spiller" in each pot. 

I restained our Adirondack chairs and they look so much better!

Pole beans...sadly, these did not work either. 

I'm switching back to the bush bean variety next year!

Onions

Garlic...almost time to harvest!

My sweet Barkley. He follows me step for step when I'm working in the backyard. 

He doesn't want to miss out on anything!

He's just the cutest :)

Summer Bucket List Days 1-7

Each summer Eli and I make a Summer Bucket List of all the things we want to do while we're on summer break. Most of things we list aren't elaborate or even expensive but they give us purpose while we're home for 2 months. Each night he crosses off the things we did on our list that day until we're all finished. We count up how many days we're out for summer vacation and then try to list something for each day. This summer I chronicled our adventures on Instagram and I loved looking back at all the collages I made of the summer fun we had. 

The night before summer break started Eli and I sat down with our markers and made 

Our Summer Fun List for the summer. It was as long as our refrigerator! 

Day 1: We visited The Sno Co., a local snowball stand that sells THE BEST

snowballs around! 

Day 2: We rode our bikes to the library to do some reading and 

then came home and spent some time by the swimming pool. 

Barkley even joined us for some fun. 

Day 3: We took Barkley for a walk, played basketball, got ice cream at the 

coffeeshop downtown, bought some new books from the local bookstore, met Grandpa E for dinner, and had frozen yogurt for dessert! Whew! Day 3 was a BUSY day!

Day 4: We went back to the coffeeshop with Grandpa E (his favorite place when he visits) and then shopped a little downtown. Eli found this How to Build Paper Airplanes book and Grandpa E bought it for him. 

Day 5: We went fishing that morning at our local pond. For lunch we took Grandpa E to the Malt Shop and then came home to do some swimming. 

Day 6: (Memorial Day) Grandpa E had to leave but before he left he and Eli did some science together. Eli loves doing science experiments with him!

Day 7: We met Zue-Zue for lunch at Johnny's and then went bowling with the Atkins family.

Yay for the program "Kids Bowl Free"! We all had a blast! Eli asked Cooper to come home with us and these boys spent the afternoon swimming in the pool.

April iPhone Pictures

April was a very busy month for our family-Kailey's baby shower, my trip to San Francisco, Kaelyn's birth, and much more.  Here are pictures from the rest of our month in April that all get wrapped up in this post :)

Jeff and Finley came to eat supper with us one night.

I ran the LSU Dental Dash 5K with my running buddies, Carrie and Angela. We had lots of fun and even got some new toothbrushes. Haha :)

Angela's daughter, Taylor, is in the pre-dental program at LSU so she was there to help with our registration and hand out goody bags at the end. 

Eli's first treat from the ice cream truck this year. 

Front porch sitting with this cute puppy. 

My new wooden planter my dad built full of my beautiful snapdragons.

My new door hanger that I made for spring. 

I can't even tell you how many of these I made for friends and family. 

Our Family Christmas-2015

Eli woke us up bright and early (5:00 AM) to tell us that Santa Claus had been to our house. He was so excited and couldn't wait to see what was under the tree! I grabbed my camera, started the coffee (really strong coffee), and went into the living room with Eli. 

Eli knew that Christmas Eve was Elfis' last night with us, but he was excited to see that Elfis had left him a new Christmas movie. We love all the Buddies movies and knew this one would be great just like all the others!

This year Eli's three gifts he asked for from Santa were a set of drums, a Buzz Lightyear laser gun, and new arrows for his bow he got for his birthday. The first thing Eli grabbed was the Buzz Lightyear laser gun. He started blasting everything around him! 

He was momentarily distracted from his three gifts when he noticed how full his stocking was. He grabbed it and started going through it to see what Santa had stuffed in there. 

Eli's loot from his stocking. 

My stocking

Josh's stocking

Eli started pulling out the presents from under the tree and passed them out. We didn't get him very much,  just a few little things. Josh and I normally do small gifts for each other or no gifts at all. It's so much more fun to watch Eli open all his! 

He got a new Swiss Army knife to use when he goes camping. 

New headphones

A new Bible

An LSU belt buckle

Eli found a letter from Santa Claus tucked in the Christmas tree and asked us to help him read it. Santa told him that there was one big gift from us and Grandpa E under the tree. He wanted Eli to open it last.

Eli was surprised to see that it was a set of electric drums! Josh, Grandpa E, and I wrote Santa and told him we wanted to get the drums for Eli and asked if Santa would get him new blue drumsticks. That sounded great to Santa so that's what we did!

My favorite picture I take every year is this one below. I love seeing the giant mess on the floor where lots of special Christmas memories are made every year. What a fun day!

While Josh started assembly on the drum set, I popped some cinnamon rolls in the oven and made more coffee. It was going to be a long morning :) Eli started playing with all of his gifts. 

It didn't take long and soon Eli was jamming along on his new drums! 

My favorite feature is the headphone option. This is biggest reason you get electric drums :)  Especially when your kid is just learning how to keep a beat...

My little rockstar in training

Eli with his Christmas gifts. 

After everything had been opened, Daddy came out with one more gift. It was a very special gift that Josh couldn't wait to give him...a new hunting gun (such a rite of passage for little boys down here in the South). Eli was bound and determined to kill a deer this season and he needed a hunting gun to do that. Josh and Eli were both excited about getting to use it on their next hunting trip. 

Barkley came in to get his Christmas gifts from Santa. I didn't get a picture of his gifts, but he got a brand new leather collar and a big Busy Bone from Santa. He loved them both :)

The rest of our Christmas morning was spent playing with all of Eli's new gifts. Zue-Zue came over to see everything that Eli got from Santa and she stayed and visited with us for a long time. Some of the grown ups might have taken naps, which were DESPERATELY needed! It was a fun day but it was over before we knew it. I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas as well!