Spring has come and gardening's begun!

The daffodils and crocus came up first. When the crocus finished blooming, the tulips came up. They opened today, Saturday, March 31st for General Conference.


This bee was incredible. I've never seen a bee that had an orange stripe across its back. But they exist! http://www.choosingvoluntarysimplicity.com/tricolored-bumble-bee-bombus-ternarius/

I've also never seen a yellow flowering holly. Online I found this may be 'mahonia aquifolium.'
Our view from our front door if we step outside and look northward.


And this is a view of our house as the leaves are beginning to come in on the trees.




Simon just planted some strawberry plants and covered them with our window winter insulation plastic.

Shearing Shrubbery

I spent a couple hours this morning trimming our bushes that had become quite overgrown.
I borrowed an electric trimmer from our neighbors who manage an apartment complex and a ladder from our next door neighbor.

Valentine's day

Simon was very sweet for Valentine's day. He gave me his own plant arrangement--combining a mini rose bush with a vine like climber.



I can't figure out what the climber actually is. Here is where it comes from and its classification (http://www.costafarms.com/public/PlantLibraryView.aspx?Id=166&Letter=A).







And I gave him a multimeter!

You could only read the screen on his old one if you pressed on the screen.

Continuing to Quilt

After four and a half months of the pieces sitting in a box, I've made progress on my quilt. I hit a slump of lack of vision and creativity after cutting out and beginning to sew. I had my main pieces and a few plans for how they might fit together, but then it seemed too busy and I had few ideas for how to put it together.




Plans and ideas for how to put it together based on pictures I took and moved around in a photo program.


After playing around with the actual squares, I decided not to follow my previous sketches. Simon helped me figure out and move squares around to a dozen different arrangements. This was how we determined I would put it together.





The last picture is how it fits on the bed. I now need to figure out What I want to do with the edges...

Christmas time!

We went to see the lights at Temple Square with the singles ward. We enjoyed sitting in on a few of the musical performances in the Tabernacle and the Assembly Hall.

  

Here is our Christmas wreath I made this year.

We didn't get snow for Christmas but we got some decent frosts leading up to Christmas.

Christmas Eve we enjoyed a relaxed evening.

Simon played his cello for a bit and I was 'not' listening. He plays beautifully. I love hearing him and wish he played more.

I made a chocolate pie for Simon and he is enjoying it immensely! 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Changing Seasons

I've had fun decorating our door. I bought this wreath as is at a thrift store for $1.50 or $2 with the intent of using at the base for my Christmas wreath. But it seemed seasonal, so I put it up for halloween and decorated with ghost and black cat cut-outs from my Maceys grocery store paper bag. The tape didn't stick very well, so some fell down by Halloween.

After Halloween, I wanted to have an autumn theme. I took off the orange and maroon raffia and put two straw figures that the girls in the singles ward used as table decorations for a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. 

 I think they look pretty cute together.

We also decorated our table and shelves with gourds and corn and pumpkins. 

Time passes quickly. No sooner do I decorate than it changes yet again. Yesterday I spent hours cleaning and rearranging furniture so that we can decorate for Christmas. I moved this shelf, so that our Nativity is now more centrally placed. 

 We went out last night (Saturday) to find ourselves a Christmas tree. We decided that since we have all the decorations and lights and stand to splurge. We paid $35 for our tree. We bought it from a family-owned stand and decided that it would help support them. Isn't it beautiful?

We hung our stockings over the fireplace :-) 

Simon loves our 'stove' heater. I do too.

 We laid our rug back down across the floor after everything was set-up. It's amazing how cold the wood is against our feet. The outside temperature has been resting between 20-35 or 40 degrees.

We're looking forward to the holidays. We get to spend Christmas in Utah this year and we decided to deck our apartment festively. 

Amy's adorable kids

I've had the neat opportunity to spend time with my cousin Amy's kids throughout the last year. There are so many fun moments we have together and I never have my camera with me. But, I often have my phone in my pocket and while not the best camera, it works!

June 23, 2011

We took a walk one hot, summer day to a nearby park. We had an adventure finding it...taking several wrong turns and making the trip there about twice as long as it otherwise would have been. 

We came upon an injured butterfly. It had a hole in its wing. Using a stick we picked it up to put it a bit higher in a tree instead of stuck in the grass. The butterfly climbed up the stick and onto Olivia's arm. Ethan then also wanted a turn. I strongly cautioned them NOT to touch the butterfly's wings. They obeyed.

June 30, 2011

One of Olivia's and Ethan's favorite places to go is Jumping Jacks. We've gone a couple times and they've LOVED every minute. 

Afterward, we stopped by the snow cone stand for treats.

November 1, 2011

And for the past several weeks I've gotten to watch this bundle of joy. Grant is almost always a delight. He smiles and laughs and loves his brother Ethan so much--he idolizes him and watches his every move.  He is ALMOST mobile. He desperately wants to be crawling and walking and scoots along the floor.

November 8, 2011

Grant was a bit more stoic today. He only napped half his usual time and so wasn't as giggly and smiley, his normal temperament. Ethan and I made chocolate chip and a few pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.