Pox

So in case you haven't heard, my poor baby has chickenpox. No, not the older two girls, they're vaccinated. Just poor Cailin. How did this happen? I have no idea. Part of me is glad she has it now, when she's not coordinated enough to scratch her itches, but most of me just feels bad that my poor baby girl has these red blistery-welt things all over her body. Also--being quarantined=crappy. Too much tv, too much bickering, not enough fresh air. I'm hopeful that it will pass quickly, as she isn't scratching at her sores... poor baby girl.

These pics were taken first thing this morning, she's got a lot more spots now than she did then--amazing how quickly they pop up.

Tulip Festival

So back in April (the 26th, to be exact), my Grandma, Aunt Marianne, myself and my girls went out to Thanksgiving Point to see the tulip festival. We picked a perfect day, where the weather was nice, but not too hot, and the bloom rate (or something like that) was around 70% (meaning about 70% of the flowers were blooming at that point). It was beautiful! I feel like I should apologize in advance--I didn't take many pictures of the flowers. They were so pretty, but I know that I don't love looking at pictures of flowers--I prefer pictures of the people I love, so here they (mostly) are.

What I saw a lot of (and loved):


and this:


They have a big koi fish pond, which the girls loved. Great-grandma Wilde spent a couple quarters on some fish food, and the girls had a blast tossing it in to the monstrously large fish:


The girls also loved the fountain in the Secret Garden (made to resemble the book, which I loved). Janey in particular liked to play with the fountain's spray, and since it was mostly hitting herself, we let her... :) :


The girls were also just being so funny--they love taking large amounts of pictures and making as many faces as they can...:


This is really hard to see, but there was an owl with her babies by the waterfalls:


And last, but definitely not least, while we were there we saw this snake:


which decided to not just slither under our stroller for shade and protection, but to actually climb (slither?) INTO the basket of our stroller! I freaked out, and couldn't do anything, but my grandma grabbed that snake by the tail and whipped it right out of the stroller. I was way impressed... and a little freaked out. I mean, it was a harmless garden snake, but still--in my stroller with Janey and Cailin? I don't think so! And just to give a little perspective, those pavers are at least 4 inches across--that was a monster of a garden snake!

Ahem.

It has come to my attention that lately, I seem to have fallen off the blogging bandwagon. Turns out, having three kids takes a lot of time and energy, as do a lot of my other goings-on. I have a million things (ok, not really a million, but lots) to post, so I will attempt to get things caught up over the next little bit... but no promises. Believe it or not, sometimes I get tired. Too tired. However, now that Cory and I are all caught up on Castle, and most of our shows are over for the summer, I can foresee a little extra time to spend here. Hopefully I will be here again soon. In the meantime, a few pics for fun--

Every girl needs a good pair of heels...


and a dance partner



and a little music to have a good time dancing the day away.


A comfy place to rest is also important (please note the slippers--believe it or not, I personally did not place them in the middle of the floor. Thank you).



And please take note, the hair on top of Cailin's head is now long enough for a ponytail. How did this happen? (and what about the rest of her head? The hair is looking a little sparse on the edges...)

This Year's Garden

So in years past, my garden has looked like this:


Now, there's nothing wrong with having a garden built like that in a normal place, but you wouldn't believe the weed issues I have here! As far as I can tell, the area I'm using as a garden has never been anything but a weed patch, and as a result, getting rid of all the weeds, with their seeds everywhere in the soil, and their runners, and however else they reproduce, was practically impossible. It didn't seem to matter how many times I sprayed, they just wouldn't die. Add to that our bad soil, and I was ready to try something new this year.

After researching things a bit, I decided I wanted to do some boxes. I thought at first I'd do the square foot gardening method, but I don't need as much produce as I feel like that would actually produce. Plus, I'm starting way late this year, and I'm just not confident enough that my plants will mature quickly enough to justify purchasing all the plants that method would require. So, for this year at least, I just planted the plants that I would like the produce from.

For the last few days, my garden has been pretty much all I've been working on. I bought 2 x 6's and had them chopped down to be 8 ftrs and 3 ftrs, then used those to build my boxes (my dad and Cory actually did most of this work, but only because there were only 2 hammers. I did hammer in one nail... :)). I placed the boxes, and then Jake pounded in my stakes (because he likes to use a sledge hammer...). Then I found soil and mulch and had it delivered to my house--5 cubic yards worth of materials, if you're wondering. That's a LOT, I promise. I've spent the last two days moving dirt and mulch while my kids ran around the yard and generally played in the dirt. I am so impressed with how well they've done outside--makes me want to fence off my yard so they can just go play out there all the time. Maybe some day... Anyway. Without further ado, here is my beautiful new garden--I'm so excited about it!



The pile of dirt left over... to be used in a flower bed in the back yard, among other things, I guess...


How the girls entertained themselves:


and the remains of where the mulch was...


So glad it's done, the garden's in, and I am able enough to do this. I really, really love accomplishing such a project, and I can't get over how beautiful I think it is.

Things I Never Want to Forget Part 2

--How when I asked Janey to give Breanne a piece of her candy, she spit out the one she'd just put in her mouth and tried to give her that one instead of an un-sucked-on one.
--The way Janey calls Breanne "Fran"--which just so happens to be her Great Grandma Price's name.
--This moment today:


Janey had pushed Breanne off the board they're sitting on, but then said she was sorry, scooted over, and put her arm around Breanne when she sat back down, and asked her "Fran! Fran, are you ok?" Breanne responded by putting her arm around Janey, and they sat like that and watched a video together on PBSkids. They're such good friends, when they want to be.

Cailin's 4 Months!