Jessie, Brandon, Sam & Jack!: July 2010

Sam Loves His Boots

I got these yellow rain boots for Sam at a garage sale. It's the funniest thing because he just LOVES them. Also, he can't stop trying to wear Mr. Potato Head's little glasses. As you can see, they don't fit his face, but that doesn't stop him. The combination tiny glasses & rain boots is hysterical.

I love my Daddy. He's so cool!

Flowers of Summer!

Bleeding Heart

Wild African Violet

Columbines

I think Columbines are my new favorite flower. These grow right outside our front door. I guess I find it fascinating because I had never seen this flower until I moved to Idaho.

Pionies!

These beautiful Pionies grow right along side the Lilies in our front yard. Amazing!

I have never seen so many Hummingbirds as I have see here in Idaho. It's so cool! All day and into the evening you can hear them buzzing around. They chase eachother too. So, I put two feeders in the front yard- one right outside my kitchen windows. I managed to get a few shots. They are so fun to watch.

Lilies in July

Look at our Lilies!

June 2009

Our house sure looks different in the summer!

The Lilacs that grow in this area are amazing and they smell great!

Who's been eating my garden?

I woke up one morning and discovered that something had been munching on my garden.I went and borrowed a trap from the animal shelter, and BEHOLD! The culprit! We caught this angry little guy and released him far away from our house.

P.S... ironically, I later discovered that it was actually my chickens that were eating my garden, and probably not the raccoon after all. Oops!

Sam In His Pool

On June 26th, Sam and I went and got a little pool at King's and Sammy had his first afternoon outside in his baby pool. Now-a-days you'd be lucky to see him with a diaper on. We hang out outside- now Sam is always naked- and eatting snap peas from the garden.

My Garden Before & After

My vegetable garden was a HUGE project this year. I spent months moving plants inside at night and outside in the morning. Brandon helped, and I think I drove the poor man crazy. Growing vegis in Idaho is a little different than in California, to say the least. I failed to move some of my plants in on the first day of summer this year, the temp dropped below 32 degrees, and they froze! I couldn't believe it! It was summer for peet sakes. I guess that's life in the mountains for ya!

I planted EVERYTHING from seed, but I think I went a little overboard. I planted 81 tomato plants! Everyone I know got some plants for their gardens. They were like my babies. It was fun, but A TON of work!!!

Here are my plants before I could put them in the ground. They still took over our kitchen on May 31st.

I was finally able to put my lettuce and broccoli in the ground on June 16th, so this is the start of my vegi garden.

...And here is my garden on June 27th. It's starting to grow!

My Garden on July 3rd

A lot of my success in the garden this year came from this awesome cold frame that Bubba built for me:)

My Garden today

Here is my garden as of today. I have tomatoes, eggplant, red bell pepper, string beans, broccoli, spinach, cucumbers, squash, a ton of lettuce, and just about every herb you can think of. I can't believe I was able to grow all of this from seed- something I've never done before. Now, I must say that not everything is growing all that successfully, but it's not bad for a first try. For example: I can't figure out why my squash won't grow past 3 inches long, and my broccoli hardly looks like what you find at the grocery store, but it is still so much fun!

Chickens in July

Look how big the chickens have gotten... still no eggs yet though!

Brandon built this cute little coop (we still need to find some metal for the roof). Isn't it great!

Fruits of my labor

I spent months covering my Little Marvel peas with blankets to protect them from the cold, and now they are beautiful at oh so sweet! Sammy loves them. He calls them balls and throws them across the room!

Finally! Tomatoes! They're still green, but there's tons of them!

Here are the snow peas and sweet snap peas from the back yard. I have already frozen enough snow peas to have stir fry dinners all year! That's a sunflower growing in the middle:)