Emily and Stacy at the Meadows Mall

Our Garden Part 2

This a picture of our first big tomatoes

The Sunset

Our house sits on a bit of a ridge that it is considered the highest point in the Subdivision. The back of our house faces the west. One of the downers of the back of your house facing west, is the hot summer days (the sun sets in the west- remember). The Summer sun beats down and stretches it's warmth so lovingly into the interior of my house. Not always an invited guest, especially when I'm cooking over the stove. But, having the sun set in the back of my house also means we get to enjoy some beautiful sunsets. I have discovered that I rarely take the time to look up and take in the beauty around me. I think the sky is beautiful. The cloud formations, the variation in color of the clouds and the vibrant colors in the sunset each night. We were outside the other day and I looked up and saw the sun disappearing into a cloud. It was BEAUTIFUL! I ran and got my camera. Unfortunately, I am an amateur photographer so the images arn't probably as beautiful as I witnessed, but I love them anyway. We really do live in an amazing world. Not one detail was left undone when God created it!

Our Garden

My mom grew up on a dairy farm. They had fresh produce and fresh milk every day. I loved going to the farm almost every year. I have fond memories of my time on the farm. I grew up in Austin, TX. I was a city girl. When I went to the farm, I would kick back and just enjoy farm life. We would run through the corn stalks, sleep in the haystacks, milk the cows with our cousins, play in the reservoir, and feed the baby calves. I loved it there. The smell was always something I had to get used to, but I loved being on Grandpa's Farm. My Grandma had a pretty good sized garden and she would have us pick some of her fruits and vegetables for her. I remember the summer my brother Greg asked if he could grow a garden in our backyard. Of course my parents agreed, so from that time on, we had our own garden. My brother and my mom cultivated and pruned the garden. I liked watching things grow. While we have lived here, in Missouri, I have wanted to grow a garden. Finally, after the convincing of a persistant sister-in-law, Cammy, we have our very first Garden. It has been fun planting things and watching them grow. The kids love to pick the tomatoes. (The picture posted is of the VERY FIRST TOMATO from our tomato plants.) It is one of their chores that they actually enjoy doing. We don't have a very big garden, we started small and hope to expand next year. It takes work to have a successful garden and I'm not sure I'm really good at it, but I do love reaping the rewards! Thank goodness for my 5 little helpers who help water garden and pick the vegetables. Having my little garden has helped me appreciate the farm that my Grandpa had and for the gardens we had in Texas and Utah. I admire their hard work and willingness to cultivate the land and tend to their crops. I had this salad this week. I used the tomatoes we grew and a cucumber from my mother-in-laws garden. It was delicious! Well worth the work that takes to grow it! I also make my Zucchini dish at least once a week with the zucchini's, tomatoes, and basil from the garden. Yummy!

My Church Bag

So, I'm not sure why, but I decided to start a project this week. I decided to make a bag for church. Something that would fit diapers, coloring books, crayons and snacks for the kids. I kind of made it up as I went along. I love how it turned out! I can't wait to make more. We all wore hot pink, black and white to match my bag. I spent so much time on it, we had to match it!!

July 8th -My Birthday

So, I turned 36 this year!! I had a great B-day week. Jason was so nice to let me go out with my friends, go to movies, and go shopping. He also helped clean my craft room which gets so out of control- it is like the catch all room for everyone's stuff. Not anymore, I'm claiming it back!! I had a great birthday on Wed. My friend, Natalie, made me a strawberry pie. She came over and we had some together. I'm bummed I didn't take a picture of it! Cammy, my sister-in-law, came over too and she ordered pizza for all of us. It was so nice. Our babysitter was sick, so Jason and I didn't get to go out that night. It was a great day and amazingly enough, I dont' feel any older!! The day after, Jason's parents brought me a yummy White Mouse Strawberry Cake from a French Bakery. It was soooo good. They really do an amazing job. I don't even want to know how many calories are in a slice of that cake!!

Going Stainless

After a MONTH of trying to fix our old fridge, we got a new one. We had a repair man come out 3 times to "fix" our fridge and before we poured any more money into the old one, we decided to get a new one. We went stainless this time. I was really nervous about the fingerprints and anyone scratching it or denting it, but it actually hasn't been too bad. I love it! We got an incredible deal on it too. It is cool, when we open the doors, the LCD lights come on and it looks like heavenly light shining on the food. When we first got it, we used to sing as the Angels (although we don't actually sound like a chorus of angels!!) as soon as we opened the doors and saw the light. It was funny (I guess you'd have to be there!) Anyway, we are glad that we have a working fridge again!!

4th of JULY

We had a very interesting 4th this year. I made sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies for two get togethers that night. Jason went golfing with his dad during the afternoon and then we went to his parent's house for dinner. We had filet mignon and it was mouth watering good ( if you're a meat lover and I AM!) While we were sitting there enjoying our mouth watering filets, the hugest raindrops came pouring out of the sky and pelting everything below. Luckily we were inside, but it did make us question whether or not we would attend our friends' pool party that night. Not to mention the lighting and thunder (not a great thing to have while swimming in a pool.) So, we let the rain pass and then we rushed out to the car and headed to the Clarke's house. They just got a pool in their backyard this summer. It was a lot of fun being there. Their pool is awesome. Jason had kids hanging on him and playing with him the whole time. He is a big kid, so it doesn't surprise me that he is a magnet for little kids. The weather was beautiful at that point until we got out of the pool and started watching the fireworks. I have never, in the 8 years we've lived here, experienced a forth like this! It started pouring again, so we went under cover and watched the fireworks explode in front of us. While the fireworks are going off around us, the lightning lit up the sky and the thunder rumbled through the air. It was incredible. I didn't even know you could light fireworks in the rain. Emily was freaking out. Fireworks aren't her favorite, but topping that with lightning and thunder- she just about lost it!!! She was in the Clarke's house screaming while we were outside watching the show. After a while, we decided to take her home. On the way back to the house, Jason's mom told us to come check out the fireworks at the Falls Golf Course (where they live). Although Emily was being freaky, we decided to go ahead and go to that firework show. It was great! I got totally drenched, but it was fun. The weather was crazy, but it was still a fun 4th!

St. Louis Cardinals Game

Every year Jason sings at the Cardinals game with a group from Boeing. They call themselves The Boeing Balladeers. They sing throughout the year at different events and places, but Jason only sings at the ball game because he thinks it is cool to be there on the field singing the National Athem. I would prefer to hear him sing a solo, but I'll take what I can get! I have never gone with him (he's done it for 5 years), so this year he wanted me to go and watch. They get free tickets to go, so that's cool. It's hard to turn down free tickets! We decided to take Tyler with us. We thought he would LOVE it! I was a little concerned that he might whine about being hot, hungry or tired 10 minutes after sitting in our seats (but I tried to be optimistic and tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's a boy, he's got to like it, RIGHT?? ) We got to ride the St. Louis Metrolink. Tyler thought it was cool. Jason bought him a ball cap when we got to the Stadium and he looked so darn cute in it! He did an excellent job walking throughout the HUGE stadium and was patient as I searched for our seats (Jason was on the field). Finally, after sitting in the wrong seats and getting kicked out of them, we found our wonderful seats in the nose-bleed section. "Tyler, see daddy, he's the ant in the red shirt!" (Ok, it wasn't that bad- but it was pretty far up.) At least I had the video camera and could zoom in on Jason and his group. They did awesome! Tyler was anxious wondering when in the world the players were gonna start hitting the ball. Then, when they started the game, Tyler didn't seem the least bit interested. It was hard for him to focus being up so high and all. And of course not even 10 minutes after the game started, Tyler said, "I'm hungry and tired, I want to go home" (Did I not think that's how it would play out? A mother always knows!) Of course Fred Bird (the Cardinals Mascot), Albert Pujols, the other players, all the chanting and fun music, the Jumbotron, and the beautiful St. Louis Arch you could see from our seats meant nothing to the boy. He just wanted to go home. I think he was just board. Jason and I were starving, so I got us some food. The Hardee's Burgers were HUGE. I got Tyler Dip 'n Dots. He loved them, it was probably the highlight of his night. During the 6th inning, we, and five other members of the singing group, got a tour of the FOX sports network broadcast room. That was COOL. We got to sit there and look out and actually see the baseball diamond out in front of us and the commentators were doing their commentating right in front of us. A guy showed Tyler how to adjust the camera angle and stuff. They were really nice to us and we got FREE bottled water while we were in there. The vendors at the Stadium charge $5.00 for bottled water. It's highway robbery! The bottle is just like any other bottled water, nothing special about it other than the fact that it is within the walls of the St. Louis Cardinal's Stadium. $5.00 are you kidding me? Anyway, after we spent some time in the Broadcast room, we decided to head out. Tyler was hungry and tired of walking, so we left during the 7 inning. We had to get back to all our other kids who were at three different houses. We rode the Metrolink back to our car. While we were on the Metro, We heard Tyler say, "Bratwurst." Jason and I looked at each other wondering if he said what we thought he said and then he said it again. We just started laughing! (Apparently he heard that word on Phineas and Ferb.) How random!! Tyler is the king of random thoughts. He is a parrot. He repeats what he hears and sometimes it will be days or weeks later. (He has an incredible memory, that should come in very handy when he starts going to school.) Curious to see what Tyler's take on the evening was, while we were in the car I said, "Tyler, did you have fun?" He looked at me and said, "It was AWESOME!" So, at least he had a fun time with mommy and daddy and he has fond memories of the evening, that's what we were hoping for! As for me, I loved being with my boys!!!






















Jason and Tyler on the Metrolink.