Yes, we are very alive!

I know it's been over 2 months now since I've really posted anything, but I just couldn't do it. The internet connection here has been KILLING ME! Dial up is so slow, so it would've been a huge waste of time for me to even attempt to blog. But now we have wireless (thank you promotion!), so I will be coming back to the blogging world. We have been very busy the past couple of months. Mostly we have been outside....gardening and cleaning up the back yard. I love living out in the country. It's such a blessing to have so much land to live and work on. Alexander and Isabella are both doing well and really growing. I have been making all of Alexander's baby food (which I did when Isabella was a baby, too), and he loves it. I though for sure at his 6 month check up that he'd be 20 lbs., but he wasn't, he was 19lbs, 3 oz.....close enough. He's a big boy. He can sit up on his own now, which is fun, and has just started rolling from his back to his stomach. Isabella's memory amazes me every day. She is such a smart little girl, and she's so observant. The other day we walked past a lady who was smoking.

I: Mami, that lady blows smoke outside.
C: That's right, she is. Blowing smoke is very yucky. It makes you sick and it hurts you.
I: No, Mami. It won't make me sick.
C: (stop and look at Isabella.....you know, the "this is serious" look) Yes it will Isabella. It will really hurt you and make you very VERY sick. We don't blow smoke, okay?
I: Okay, Mami.

My baby brother (who is 19....not quite a baby anymore) smokes, and he lives with us. Isabella sees him smoke frequently. The other day we were all outside and Tanner (Tio) came out to smoke.

I: TIO!!!!!!!!!!
T: ISABELLA!!!!!!!!!!
I: Tio, DON'T BLOW SMOKE! You get sick. Mami says don't blow smoke, k?
T: Okay. (Continues to smoke)
I: Tio, you's all done. Don't blow smoke anymore, k? Don't get sick. It will hurt you.

Tanner just looked at me. I think he was a little annoyed that a 2 1/2 year old was scolding him, but he looked proud, too. Like, "good job, sis." How do you teach a 2 1/2 year old about these kinds of things. Well, at least I got my point across to her.

Ronald built a really nice bench for our wooded section behind the house. I need to get a good picture of it, but take my word for it, it's nice.

Alexander eating Isbella's jacket during our picnic.

Papi and Isabella during the picnic. She was really into those pears.
Trying to take herself for a walk.....silly girl.

Me and the little bear. He doesn't fit in the snugli anymore, so sad.

We get to enjoy many delicious meals made by Isabella. She loves to cook for us.

Oh what a love-a-lee GARRRDEN!

In March Ronald broke up the ground and tilled a big, beautiful plot of soil for the garden. I went to The Mill and bought "The Farmer's Almanac" and some peas (they were WAY cheap there) and went to work. Since then, I have planted lots of early crops, and pulled lots of weeds. It's so exciting when you plant your seeds to see them come up out of the ground. If only they grew as fast as those dag-gone weeds. Yesterday I went out and weeded around everything but the lettuce, beets, potatoes, and corn, and today when I checked out the garden, there were those weeds again. At least it keeps me busy.

My first tray of seedlings (minus the broccoli....they are in the garden already). These are mostly herbs....basil, cilantro, oregano, lavender, and eggplant on the end.

That is zucchini coming up....isn't it beautiful!? I colored toothpicks so that I would know what is what. Still waiting for the melons, peppers, and eggplants to come up.
Cucumber and tomato seedlings (and an eager Isabella, too). Isabella loves that we are growing vegetables. When I go out to work in the garden, she always wants to help. She insists on having her "alligator" (cultivator) and says she's gonna get those weeds. We have such a good time together.

Cucumbers

Guess what I found in the garden today.....the CORN!!!!

One of the strawberry plants I rescued. When I was pulling the dry, dead leftover weeds before we could till, I found 4 surviving strawberry plants. I dug them up and transplanted them into pots. Yesterday I built a raised bed, hulled 10 loads of beautiful dirt from the compost pile (BOY WAS IT HEAVY!) and put the plants in the nice soil. This plant is already making 2 runners. This summer I'm going to pinch all of the blossoms off so I will get lots of runners, then next summer we should have a lot of new plants. Can you believe I've already pinched off about 7 little blossoms? It was kind of sad, but it's for a good cause.

Two beautiful rows of peas. I love love LOVE have fresh peas. They are sooooo delicious! You can see the raised bed of strawberries on the left.

Pototoes....I need to hill them up soon.

Beets!!!! They are so stinkin' hard to find, they really blend in with those weeds.

One of the broccoli plants that I started from seed and transplanted into the garden. I think that Peter Rabbit must have found our garden, because a few of the plants are missing. But he hasn't been back since, thank goodness.

Beautiful lechuga!!!! (Lettuce)

Spinach

I love radishes! They are so easy to grow, and the grow fast (in about 40 days)! If you look closely, you can see the red of the actual radish on the plant on the far left.

All of the beautiful onions. I hope they will dry well this summer.

An Update

ALRIGHT.....things have been really REALLY crazy the past couple of days. Here's a quick update as to everything going on right now.

Ronald lost his full time job at Maaco. This is a tricky thing because obviously, we need the income to live, but we both HATED that he had to go to work at that not so friendly place every day. So we were glad for him to be free from being a slave, but very sad for the job to be taken away. Ronald was planning on putting his two weeks in when he found a different job, but his employer decided to cut things sooner. I cried. He's still working at Target in the evenings, part time. It's been nice having him around, and kind of weird, but I have definately enjoyed seeing more of him. I have missed him tremendously.

The Tuesday after he lost his job, we met with a realator, Boyd McGinn (who we just LOVE, and highly recommend). He came to our house and we signed all of the paper work to put our house on the market. He said we needed to de-clutter....take 50% of the things out of each room, then take another 50% out, and call it good. So, we went out to Target and got boxes galour and I began packing Tuesday afternoon. Well, we decided to let a family from our church, who's moving into the area, to live in our home until they found another home to rent. So.....I went ahead and packed all of our stuff. ALL OF IT! Sommer F. and Marley O. came and helped me out on different nights (thanks SOOOO MUCH!) and Bente U. watch the little chickens for an hour or so. I couldn't have done everything without them. Saturday we MOVED OUT!!!! Yes folks, in 4 days we packed and moved. Just about all of our furniture is still at the house (it'll show better than way), but everything else is out. So we moved out Saturday and moved into my Dad's house, where we will live for the rest of our lives. I am very excited about this. I love love LOVE the family land. It's out in the middle of no where, and there is so much beauty around.....plus it'll be great to let the kids run around (and I can have a large garden).

All of this week, I've been unpacking, and I am just about done. I really don't know how I did it. But let's just say I have never ever been so exhausted in my life! It's not easy to pack, unpack, feed a family, play wifey, mami, and nurse a baby all at the same time. I'm greatful Heavenly Father gave me all the strength that I prayed for every day. Boy, do I feel loved by Him.

Alexander had his 4 month check up on the 12th. He's 16 lbs 14 ozs!!!!!!!!, and 25.4 inches. The boy is definately growing. I'm convinced that I make pure cream. Gotta love the rolly polly babies! I have really been enjoying my children lately, even among all of the craziness going on, they have really brought me so much joy. I'm so greatful that they are so good and calm (well, most of the time). It makes things so nice.

Today I went out to the garden plot and pulled tall weeds for 1 1/2 hours......and only got 1/4 of the garden done. It was a lot of fun.....seriously, but I just had to stop. (I wanted to sleep and eat....and the sun was starting to lower in the sky.) I can't wait until we can plow the ground in a few weeks and I can plant my peas, radishes, spinich, broccoli, lettuce, and potatoes. I love having a garden. It teaches me a lot about faith and patience and how to care for life.

Since things have calmed down a bit the past couple of days, I decided Isabella could go back into her big girl panties. Today she insisted on putting them on herself, so I let her. Somehow she put them on sideways. I did take some pictures, but I'm not going to post them (you never know who's looking at your blog).....let's just say it was very VERY funny. Half of her hiney was sticking out. While I was trying to take a picture of it, she kept running around in circles, she thought I was going to get her. She loves to play that game.

I glad to be alive and well. I'm so SOOOOO thankful for a strong body and mind. Without them, this would've been a not so good couple of weeks. I'm also so greatful that Heavenly Father loves me and listens to me. He also answers my prayers just when I need him to (and always when he thinks it's best), and I love him for that. I hope that I can listen to my children and help them the way that He does for me.

Good-night, Little Bear

I will really miss this bear suit, when little bear out grows it in a few weeks (or less....sniff sniff). This suit is how he gets to sleep, without being permanently attatched to Mami. Plus, he just looks so cute in it. He truely is my little bear.

Happy Birthday, Ali!

I have known the Rennie family for, literally, my whole entire life. They are like my second family. Ali's birthday was a few days ago, so Patty Rennie invited us to her birthday dinner. We went to Andrea and Brian's new house. The dinner was yummy, and the company was wonderful. Plus, I got a tour of the house (sorry, no pictures from the tour).

The birthday girl and her new camera!

Ali and Javier (her boyfriend)

Andrea and Brian

Patty and little bear

Papi, here's your picture with the tooth pick in your mouth

Amy kept tickling Alexander's little foot....

and he LOVED it!

My handsome son.

What the.....?

Sunday morning, I wake up and hear Isabella calling me from downstairs.

"Mami, I poopied my diaper. Come change me."

"Okay, punkin. I'll be down in a minute!"

I peek down the steps to see what she's doing, and I see this......

She had unzipped herself and attempted to change her own diaper. Good thing she really didn't poop, or it would've been a great big mess! Silly silly Bella.

Dinner and Dancing

I love love LOVE to dance!!!! About a month and a half ago, Ronald told me that he would take me dancing. She we thought that we would invite the Finnigan's to go with us. We went to Outback before hand (waiting forever.....about 70 mins!), and then went to dance. We went to a place called Swing time ballroom. It was so much fun! For the first 45 mins, you learn some basic moves (they were teaching the swing), and then after that it's open dance. It was a small crowd, and I really enjoyed our time together. Ronald and I stayed until about 9:30pm (the Finnigan's left earier....thanks Ben, for hanging in there!). I was sad to go, but I was in heaven. I haven't been that happy in a LONG TIME! I also learned the Rumba, and Fox Trot, too. I hope we get to go every month (wink wink......get the hint, baby?)