We were organic before organic was cool

Ha- I like to think my mom was organic before organic was cool, because that's just what you do.  You grow your food and you eat it!  YUM.  It's my 3rd year of my own little garden.. little yes, but fun.  My best thing this year is for the first time I grew my own lettuce and it's great!  We've been using it on sandwiches and last night made a good salad with it.  We have plenty, so we're hoping to eat lots of it.  My green beans have just started to blossom, so those will be coming soon!  Both my kids devour green beans, especially Stella!  The red cabbage I planted is looking amazing, the tomatoes plants are starting to blossom, but they are really small-- they are planted in a really wet part of the garden (where our sump pump drains kind of) and I don't think it's very good for them.. but we'll see!  The peppers are starting to grow and the onions too!  The carrot's are looking good- a bit sporatic, but I think I'll get at least 20 or so. I did a row of pea's but not sure they are taking off very well, but we'll be getting pea's from some farmers to freeze here soon.  I got a few radishes and I think that was about it.  Then up in the field by our house that my dad has, I planted 3 kinds of squash, pumpkins, zucchini, and some sweet potatoes.  Then my dad planted a few rows of sweet corn and another row of beans.  Between my two gardens, both my sisters gardens and my mom's garden, we should have some great food to can and freeze this year!  So as above, I think we were organic before organic was cool!  My green thumb is no where near my mom's, or my ambition, but it's slowly getting there!  My sister Beth also picked me a nice big bucket of strawberries so I actually made my own jam for the first time and I notice the raspberries in the field are getting close to being ready too, I'm hoping to do a few jars of raspberry jam too!

So last week I had to to New Orleans for our work.  It was the best show we've ever put on, we launched this great new product and in my 11 years of doing trade shows, I've never seen anything like it!  The booth traffic was amazing, we gave a Nook eReader away every hour in the booth for people that watched our presentation- that was a great draw! I also planned a reception that was also a big hit.  SO much work, SO hard to leave the kiddo's, especially Stella.  That was the first time I've ever really left her for more than 10 hours or so.  It was a pain lugging the breast pump there and hauling home all the milk (though I did pump and dump twice : ) but worth it for my girl!  Love being able to give her the good stuff!

Brendon has his hands full while I was gone, but they kept busy and they all did fine!  I did get sick when I got home for 24 hours, had a high fever but the next day I felt better.

The kids are doing awesome.  Stella stands by herself now and puts her arms in the air and smiles this amazing smile like "look at me everyone-  I can stand"!  I try to get her to come to me then, but her feet stay planted!  She has taken like 1 or 1 1/2 steps but not walking yet.  She loves going up the stairs and climbing on everything. She's such a great little girl, I love her to pieces!   Henry is such a boy... all he wants to do the minute he gets home is play outside with the neighbors!  We have some great neighbor kids, the twin girls next door and their brother Sam love Henry and Stella and then Henry has also started playing with the 2 boys across the street too- so most evenings if you drive by our house, there are likely 6 or more kids playing in our yard- I love that!  Henry hates coming in to eat dinner, and is usually "too busy" to take a bath he says. 

My sister Beth was due to have a baby last Saturday, I'm glad she didn't have the baby while I was gone!  Henry asked when her baby will come out and I said maybe tomorrow, and he said "No, I think Thursday", so let's see if he's right!  The gender is TBD, but I think most people are guessing boy, but I think we could use a playmate for Stella! : )

Here are some pics!

Stella at the library



This picture cracks me up- it's the Pagel cousins on Mothers Day- Landon was mad, Henry was mad because Landon was mad and Cooper was just fed up I guess!  They'll love this one when they are older!




My girl!




Love the sit and spin thing



Extra green beans growing in the field that dad planted- they are much bigger now.  This was a week ago




Stella just cruisin around the living room




My dad and Henry plowing up the field getting ready to plan sweet corn



Stella loves to sit on Henry's old potty chair!



The golf cart I got last year at a garage sale for $15!  Thank you Jamie Lindell for fixing it for us!




Brady got up in the morning and laid on Brendon to watch cartoons, then Henry woke up and had to copy Brady!  Classic boys!




Stella loves the remote- thought this was funny, she couldn't find it for a minute!



Henry and Stella love to sit by each other on the weekend mornings and even hold hands and share some cheerios! : )



Love her big blue eyes!