Mathew and the Briefcase

Mathew is a cool kid. He knows what he likes and he's not afraid to be himself. 

And he likes this briefcase. It holds all his most important items quite nicely.

Off to school! Hold your head high, Mathew!

Check in

It's time to make our trip to Kansas City to check in with Everly's geneticist.

He agrees with me.

She is fabulous from top to bottom.

A powerful force

Don't be ashamed, my love. You are this chocolate cake were MFEO.

Photo shoot

Some people hire photographers and coordinate outfits to get just the right picture of their kids.

Then there are the people that accidentally snap a gorgeous photo sitting in the dentist waiting room.

Garden 2017.. an abundance of onions

It feels like I'm a little late getting my garden in. I usually run out in February and poke a few peas into the frozen dirt just to make sure I get full advantage of any early sunshine. 

Not this year. I waited till a few weeks ago to get the peas/lettuce/kale/basil/parsley in the ground. And I've been a nervous wreck ever since. I just know those nasty bunnies are going to sniff them out one night and eat all those tender shoots down to the ground. 

I went out today...ready for the worst...and to my surprise, they haven't eaten a thing! Except every single strawberry plant. I decided we better take advantage of our bunny reprieve and spend the day putting in the rest of our plants and seeds and then putting up the fencing around the gardens. 

Not my favorite task in the world. But a couple of cute helpers and John Mayer on shuffle made it doable.

I only have enough fencing for 5 of the beds and since I ripped all the raspberries out this year, that leaves one vulnerable to those repellent rabbits. Curse you, bunnies! You horrible hares!

Luckily we have an entire bed of volunteer green onions that don't seen to tempt them.  

I let Everly dig around and smash all the onion stalks because I knew I'd need to remove all the old crusty ones anyway. 

Not before we got a picture of our Dr. Seuss onion.

Horton?

My new experiment....hopefully  the peas will be ready to rip out about the time the bell pepper is in need of the old-bean-tower-turned-tomato-cage-turned-pepper-support.

Or...

The peas will completely shut out the light and and kill the the pepper plant, then succumb to the mysterious powdery mildew that strangles the life out of them every single year.

On the bright side, I discovered a good use for the large shells that the kids drag home from every camping trip we take. One of these guys makes an awesome shovel and hoe all rolled up into one handy tool.

It's caveman agriculture. And it's the next big thing.

Common ground

Ethan has caught the bug. Guitar is his new thing and he takes it everywhere he goes. He even managed to convince his early morning seminary teacher to let him practice his chords throughout the entire class. 

That strikes me as a very "Mark" move. You wouldn't believe the stuff he gets away with, just because he has the guts to ask. 

And I love it.

A smokey eye

She is the only girl I know that can get hit in the eye with a baseball and her injuries result in better eye makeup that I have ever achieved.