Cali posted this idea on our Bits of Everything Blog last April! It has taken me long enough, but I finally got it done. We used fun pictures all from 2011. At the end of this year, I hope to do another one of pictures from 2012. The kids love looking at the pictures and remembering all the fun things we did in 2011. This is way better than putting the pictures in a book!
It really helped cheer up this sad hall way, don’t you think?
At our family reunion this summer we attempted to take our own picture! We set up the tripod and look what we got. Luckily, the blinking light got the little kids’ attention so they were all looking! What a fun time we had all together.
Yep, I’m behind again. Here’s a few pictures to get us going.
With no grass or anything pretty for a backdrop, we are making do with the deck. Hopefully next years school pictures will be prettier.
I seem to be quite accident prone lately. First, I fell down twisting my ankle, but my knees took the brunt of the fall. They have been tender for a week now. Second, I was moving some rock while working out in the yard and pinched my finger. Ouch!
Our goal this year was to get a garden in. The grass and sprinklers will have to wait, because this year the focus is on the garden. This is our trial run, just to see what happens, what grows, and what doesn’t grow. First we had to bring in dirt. A. Lot. Of. Dirt. Fill dirt, and top soil dirt.
We also brought in some rocks to outline the garden with.
We finally got some seeds planted, a little later than planned. I’m excited to report that plants are growing! I don’t have much of a green thumb, so I’m trying my best to keep everything alive. Except the weeds, we are trying hard to keep those down and out of the garden. It’s a little tricky when our neighbors on both side of us are weed fields with no houses on them yet. I wish I could afford to get rid of their weeds and throw down some grass seed. We could have an awesome field of grass. Too bad.
Yesterday, I was weeding the garden when I noticed a little surprise by the potatoes.
I nest with 4 speckled eggs! The momma bird wasn’t too happy with me this morning when I turned the water on. Too bad my potatoes need water. It will be interesting to see if she stays, if they hatch, or if the momma bird abandons them. I’ll keep you posted!
Here’s proof that we have been working hard! You’ve got to love a yard full of mud. I’ll show you how we are doing on our garden soon.
This is Kim and Kris of the DIY Dish. Kris was actually my little sister’s elementary school teacher and taught at the same school as my father in law. They were so fun to visit with. They thought I looked so much like Ashlee. (I’ve heard that before!) I was so excited to learn that they are opening a quilt shop in Logan!! Yeah! Logan needs this desperately! It is called My Girlfriend’s Quilt Shoppe. I can not wait to visit them and see their store.
This is Camille Roskelley of Thimble Blossoms. She was very busy, but I kept bugging her until I was able to get a picture. I loved seeing her new fabric and patterns that are coming out soon! I think I need to make one of everything.
These are The Hale’s of The Ribbon Retreat. I think Lanae was my very favorite person that I talked to. She was so much fun. We visited on Friday and then she walked by again on Saturday and we visited some more. We just hit it off. I think if we lived closer we would be good friends. She told me a little about her story of starting The Ribbon Retreat. It was fun the hear how it all came to be. She only works 1 day a week and her husband works 4 days a week both for The Ribbon Retreat. They have 30 employees. Amazing. Being the great friends we are now (ha ha!), I hope that she will advertise on Bits of Everything someday.I love making new friends.
Kyler has been very busy. It seems all I post about is him. This time, it’s not as fun. Last week he crashed on his scooter while going down the neighbor’s driveway. He crashed hard! I had to go pick him up, he couldn’t get up on his own. It was very obvious that his left arm was broken. Off to the doctor we went for x-rays instead for going to Logan as planned. We came home with a splint and a sling for the left arm.
Because of the nature of the break, we were instructed to see an orthopedic surgeon. We had to wait until the next Wednesday (and I had to beg for that!) to have an appointment with the specialist. While discussing Kyler’s left arm, I told him of my concern for the right arm as well. He had not been using it, he was even turning on the light switches with his mouth! All he did was look at it and knew that there was a fracture there too. The x-rays confirmed another fracture. 2 casts here we come.
I wish I had taken a better picture of his broken left arm before they set it into place. It was very crooked. Setting the bone into place was very painful and hard for me to watch my boy hurt! But, the doctors were great and very confident they got it into place.
We will get both casts off in 3 weeks and then replace the long cast with a short cast that will then have to be on for another few weeks.
As if Kyler hasn’t had enough. He has been throwing up all day today. It’s been a rough week and a half. Here’s hoping it gets better from here on out. 🙂
Here are my cute kids on Easter Sunday. I love the ties I made for the boys, so bright and fun. No, didn’t make Kaylee’s dress, that’s too much work. 🙂 We enjoyed a nice quiet Easter at home this year. We had a lot of fun hunting eggs in our new house – lots of new hiding places! The only bad part of Easter is when Kaylee got frustrated when she couldn’t find her basket. She was mad. Luckily, she got over it and still had a fun day.
Instead of Kyler having a birthDAY this year, it felt like he had a birth MONTH! It has been over a month since his birthday, but we are just barely done celebrating. He was lucky enough to have a date with mom and dad a few days before his actual birthday. Then, we had a fun birthday dinner on his birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Cottle. A few weeks later (due to our moving into our new house) we had a friends birthday party. And finally yesterday, lots of family came to support Kyler at his baptism.
It was a special baptism day. We had most of our families here to support us. We missed the few that weren’t able to come. We were even lucky enough to have some great-grandparents that were able to come see Kyler on his special day. That was very lucky! Even though it was rainy and snowy all day, it was still a perfect day.
I’m so proud of Kyler and in his choice to be baptized. I am lucky to have such a good, smart, and handsome boy!
