Growing Garden

Our garden has taken off and is coming to fruition! We are successful gardening virgins, yipee! We have picked several savory cucumbers and small tomatoes (though neither Jim or I like tomatoes, but Bryden LOVES them...she may hate them after this summer! Ha! I am going to try my hand at making homemade spaghetti sauce and salsa with most of our larger tomatoes...and the neighbors will be getting lots of freebies!). We have picked lots of white and purple beans and are going to plant more purple beans, we really like them (they taste like green beans). We have two watermelons started and two budding. Three green peppers are in the works and lots of basil! Our climbers are growing out of control (cucs, watermelons and canteloupe) and I had to build a structure for them to climb (which I might add I am very proud of my handy work!). We are so stoked from our success that we are going to add on in the fall and try some broccoli, then add more fruits and veggies next year! We want to do corn and try strawberries! There is only one tomato that is about ready in the pics, we had already picked them today. Enjoy the pics!

This is our garden two months ago...

And this is it now! Whoa, I know!

Large tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes (Bryden's favorite! She picks them off the vine and eats them right away. What she doesn't eat right then, we leave on the counter, and by the end of the day, they are gone!)

Our only sunflower that took...the head is finally starting to come out! It measures about 6 feet tall!

Green Peppers...these take forever to grow!

White Beans

Large and small tomatoes - the large will hopefully be red in about a week, and the small will be ready in a few more days, but they are constantly growing and making more

Cucumber - once these get started, they grow pretty quick. We have two kind, long, narrower ones (English Cucs at the grocery I think) and then the regular kind you usually see. They will be like 5 inches one day, and the next will be 8 inches and ready to eat...we love to snack on these throughout the day.

The start of a watermelon

And a pic of all the climbers taking over

Fun Friday

A couple weeks ago, Bryden had her first sleep over at a friends house. It went really well, so tonight we invited her friend Rachael to have a sleep over at our house. They had tons of fun playing endless dress up (the neighbor brought over some hand me down dress up clothes later in the evening...on to round 12 at that point!), running through the sprinklers, playing on the swing set, and then Jim finished the night off with a fireworks show...which the girls loved. Here are some cute pics of them enjoying their time together, and of Emmy just hanging out outside this afternoon (Soooooo funny!!!).






Check out my awesome photography skills...I was trying forever to get this shot, and finally got my settings right, it looks like a waterfall!

Cashed in for the night!

Maine

We went to Maine for a week and a half to visit with Jim's friends and family, and we had a great time. Apparently, we brought the nice weather as well...we had gorgeous, cool days with no humidity, it was awesome! We had a really nice time with Memere and Pepere and all of Jim's family, as well as the Collard family...thanks everyone, we wish we could have stayed longer! We also got to visit with my Dad's family a bit in Pennsylvania, they are our pit stop since they are about half way to Maine, we stop and visit and crash there for the night to rejuvenate for the rest of the trip...and it was needed! We decided to take the Johnny Napp Party Bus (aka, a medium sized camper) this trip. There are pros and cons to taking it, but it sure made the trip longer! We are glad to be home, and sleeping in our own beds, but had a blast as well! Click on the pics in the Smilebox to enlarge them, and there are a couple pics below the Smilebox as well! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Bryden, Emerson and Jonathan (cousin) - our PA folk!











Aunt Malinda and Emmy













We had to make a pit stop for Bryden, but there was no where to park the camper, so we went to the back of a deserted parking lot and made use of the grass space...this is me dying of laughter while trying to hold Bryden so she could go!

Yeah, so, in my family, if we ride in a camper, there is always some sort of malfunction, and the party bus didn't disappoint! Luckily, it was nothing major, but several minor problems to contend with along the way...here are some pics of Bryden helping Daddy solve one of those problems!

Independence Day

Happy July 4th...and thanks to all our military, in past and present, who serve our country and allow us the freedom's we enjoy each day! We went up to Wintergreen with Nanne and Grampa for the weekend and had a great time! The weather was perfect Friday and Saturday and they had a lot of cool stuff going on, especially for kids! Bryden and I got to do some trampoline jumping (B did a flip!!!), Daddy rode the mechanical bull (we are both paying for our endeavors today!), Bryden played in the jump arounds and got to make ice cream, we all enjoyed the craft fair, and of course, an AWESOME fireworks show. We will definitely go up there again for the fourth! Enjoy the pics, there are definitely some precious ones (click on the pictures to zoom in and get a better look)! I will get some video up sometime...

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Cute Pictures

We have produce!!! Yea, we have had quite a few cucumbers come to fruition lately, here are a couple cute pics of Bryden shaving our most recent cucumber to nibble on! And here are also some cute pics of Emerson having belly time...all with her hand in her mouth! Enjoy!




















"Enough already, it is just a dang cucumber Mom!" (That is what I read in her eyes anyway)












Cute Emmy
Flirty Emmy

Shy Emmy

Virginia Beach

Bryden and I dropped Emerson off to spend the day with Nanne, while we went down to spend the day with Aunt Chandra. We were going to go to the beach, but the water was a little to cool still to really enjoy it, so we decided to stay at Chandra's and swim in her pool. Uncle Murat has a sweet underwater camera that we used to get still shots of Bryden diving under water and some videos too. Bryden did such an awesome job diving under water for her whirly birds...several times she was under water for like 7 seconds! Sprinter in the making with that hypoxic capacity :o) I also wanted to go to the beach to get some pics for Bryden's book we are making to help her learn to read, and in the mean time, we got some great shots of us in the dunes! P.S. The ugly yellow shoes that Bryden is wearing, yeah, they were what she picked out for reading 5 words. We went to Wal-Mart and she saw them and I told her she could get them if she could learn to read 5 words (that is my personal goal this summer to help her learn how to read. She can sound out the alphabet, now it is just putting them together!). So, yesterday she learned to read pit, cat, mitt, hop and kit! Yay Bryden, boo for ugly yellow shoes! Enjoy!

Check out this cute video!