Sliding into 4

Four years ago yesterday I was laid up in a hospital bed busy bringing our sweet baby into the world. After 30+ hours of labor Claire Elizabeth Larsen came into the world at 1:30am on July 5, 2007. Our lives changed for the better. She sits next to me now oblivious that I am writing about her and watching The Wizard of Oz.

She is the most wonderful daughter I could have ever dreamed up. She is sweet, kind, loving, SMART, beautiful, a leader, strong willed, I could go on and on for days. I think she will be a wonderful mother if she chooses to be. Watching her with Sam is incredible. She cares for him like a mother and never wants him to be upset. If he is crying she will sing, talk, play with him, or give him a pacifier. She tries to teach Ben new skills everyday and everyday she is learning new skills. She thrives in making friends and is not afraid to try new things (Foods not included).

For her birthday we had presents in the morning after breakfast. We got her some stickers, a couple of new night gowns for summer, a floor puzzle, and a slip n slide. The slip n slide was a huge hit! We got it out of the box, laid it out down the hall, and blew it up. We decided to put it to use in the afternoon and I managed to get some great shots of the kids and the slide in action. She is super excited to go to the zoo and have cake at her GG Frank and GG Naomi's house after. I think this will be a great 4th birthday for her and Travis and I love her to the moon and back!

Ladies in Red

For years I have wanted to have a garden and grow my own food. Apartment living was never conducive for farm life (Too small) along with the Oregon Coast (Cold, not enough sun, salt, harsh wind). We had plans of grandeur when we moved to Sleepy Sandy and planned to redo the yard immediately after we moved in. Weather it was lack of funds, an 18 month old daughter, or being 6+ months pregnant it was put on the back burner until we got help with all of those things. On a few previous blogs we tracked the progress of our yard and all the helpers who gave of their precious time a little over a year after we moved in.

The yard looks great now that it has had time to establish over the past 10 months. This spring we got a little more done with the help of Steve, Travis's dad, who built two 4' X 10' planter boxes for us to grow our own veggies. This was so exciting for our family! The kids were thrilled and I was thrilled! I have been striving to have this for quite a while and now it was here. Two huge boxes of dirt. Two boxes of dirt..............hmmmm........now what? Travis thought we should try to grow everything from seed. Great! Wait? We don't have a green house. No green house! No problem! Just get dixie cups filled with dirt put them on a baking sheet or thin plastic sheet, place them on a heating pad, and cover them up with cling wrap. Instant green house! (We got that idea after seeing Travis's brother Matt's set up. His was much fancier than ours.)

We waited. Every day we checked. After week 1 the kids had no desire to check on the seeds. Wow mom, what a fun project. Put dirt in cups and then go look at it everyday. The seeds finally started sprouting and the wind was put back into the sails of our hopes and dreams. unfortunately not everything we started from seed worked out. At one point we moved the seedlings into Sam's room to get them away from the cats who thought we served them greens on a silver platter. One day the door to Sam's room was left open as I was putting away clothes and the cat tried to jump into the window. Not only did he not succeed but he knocked the entire tray into the air. It felt like it was happening in slow motion. Every cup (Which was about 25 dixie cups full to the brim with dirt and just watered) went into the air and all of it's contents went flying all over the room coating the floor, bookshelf, rocking chair, and wall in a great muddy mess. Needless to say the cat survived as did a few of our plants.

I have been told that I have placed my veggies too close together. Too bad. Next year I will take that under advisement but for now I was just too excited to have a lot of several different kinds of veg in the ground. We are growing tomatoes, all colors of bell peppers, onions, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, corn, tiny pumpkins, carving pumpkins, and watermelon. It is a lot I know but I just can't help it. I have to go look at it several time a day and marvel at the progress. I love that we are able to do this and I am pouring love into it. Travis thinks it is silly that I drag him out to look every night right after all the kids are in bed. I touch and smell them. I speak wildly about them to him and discuss all the plans I have for when they are ready to be harvested.

The title of this post is Ladies in Red. The reason for that is because I had to hire outside help once I noticed that my veg was being assaulted behind my back. It was being attacked by tiny ninjas (Green worms and aphids). Here I was pouring my heart out for my garden and it was disappearing before my eyes! What jerks! Not wanting to use any form of pesticide I found out that ladybugs are awesome at getting rid of pests. We released them last Friday when the sun started to go down. The kids were in hog heaven getting to hold and watch the ladybugs in action! Since we did that 5 days ago there hasn't been 1 bug on any of our plants! No more munching and crunching. It was fun to see them flying all around our yard and the benefit was huge. I even got some pictures to help remember how beneficial and fun it was.

Sam's blue period

With all 3 of our kids there has been a group of photos taken by me where the overtone of the picture is blue. This has never been intentional and yet now we have Sam's blue period. Interesting. He is also making a myriad of faces and enjoys sucking on his top lip occasionally.