The saddest garden

So I planted our garden 17 days ago... and we have NOTHING growing.  Most of the seed packs said we should see sprouts within 10 days.  I am not sure what I did wrong... seeds too deep?  too much clay in the soil?  not enough compost?  too much compost?  not enough water?  too much water?  I prefer to think it was our pesky squirrel who stole the seeds much like he stole our prayer flags, but he has a large family of baby squirrels to feed, so it makes me feel just a little better.  Except for that I think I kind of hate squirrels.  And now the cute little row markers look like tombstones to me.  RIP Arugula.  RIP Spinach and Cilantro.  RIP dear Kale and Beet Medley.  I'll give it a try again next week.  Does anyone have any suggestions for better results next time?

Vacaaaation!

Brianna and I just got back from a 4 day trip to visit our brother, Bryson and his wife Natalie in Memphis.  This trip involved flying into Little Rock, renting a mini-van(which I ended up loving!) and driving 2.5 hours to Memphis. And we took the kids!  On the drive to the airport Brianna and I talked about what we were thinking about the trip and decided to look at it as a VACATION!  This means, after being woken up repeatedly by tiny feet and hands kicking and pushing, Brianna sure did deserve that 3rd cup of coffee the next morning!  And, when Zoe smeared her teething biscuit ALL OVER the rental car seat belt, I just let that one go because we were on vacation!  And should we stop at the Sonic and get Cherry Limeade and Cheddar Peppers... Um, yes please.  And on and on... the feeling that we were in "vacation mode" allowed us both to relax more, allowed the kiddies to go a bit wild, and we let go of scheduled naps and mealtimes, etc.  It was awesome!  This may not be a huge revelation, but it really did work and we had a wonderful visit. 

Bryson and Natalie are doing so well and I am so proud of them and inspired by them.  They are both amazing with kids, it was really cute to see them having fun with Zoe, IlaJane and Finn.  Bryson is going on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic next week!  Memphis was really interesting... so beautiful and then ugly (but we mostly saw the beautiful parts).  The zoo and Shelby Farm Park were awesome, Finnley said, "This is heaven."  These are some of my favorite pics from the weekend:

Frontier gave us a whole row to ourselves!  YES

Uncle Brysee

Ringing Finnley's neck/ CHEESE!

OMG, what is this heat and humidity all about???

Beautiful field in Shelby Farm Park

The Mississippi seriously is BIG

A prayer for a squirrel

Tim's parents gave us some colorful prayer flags with wolves on them, so a couple of weeks ago Tim hung them in the apple tree in backyard.  SOMEHOW the other day, I noticed almost all the flags were missing and there was just a scrap left in the tree.  I went to investigate and this is what I found... a sad lone flag left in our tree ... and half the flags in our neighbor's tree!  Due to the tears and holes in the remaining flag I believe it to be the result of the resident squirrel I see in our tree.  I only wish I had seen that fat squirrel carrying the prayer flags across the fence and into another tree... what an awesome picture that would have been!  That squirrel is going to have one sweet and spiritual nest!  :) 

 

And since I was in the backyard taking pictures, I thought I'd show you Tim's fence he built around our garden plot.  Isn't it cute?  We had the problem of Tres going into the garden and pooping (not the kind of compost we are hoping for) and so Tim put up this sweet little fence made of twigs.  If Tres were to merely bump into it, I think it would fall over, but Tim is hoping it will be a "mind-block".  hahahahaha... we will see.  We've outsmarted that pooch before!

A rush of blood to the head

Zoe has been sort of getting into a crawling position lately, but hasn't quite made the transition to actually crawling... this intermediate stage is pretty comical....

and since it's been in the 70's all week we've been spending a lot more time outdoors which is fabulous.  And she loves playing with the rocks.  Yep, rocks.  It reminds me of this awesome article I read a while back about the 5 best toys ever.

New shoes

I've been really into running again lately and I just got these new shoes yesterday and wore them all day to start breaking them in.  They are a new brand for me called Newton and they have this very elevated rubbery piece on the sole where the ball of your foot hits.  They claim to actually massage your feet!  I am about to go on my first run so we will see... I am hoping for a foot massage and that great fast feeling you get when you run in new shoes for the first time.  The other thing these shoes are supposed to help with is forefoot running instead of allowing your heel to strike first.  I have been trying to run more on the balls of my feet like they talk about in Born to Run, but it is HARD.  Okay here goes....

 
Back from that jog and my calves are killing me.  Think I might need a few more days to break these shoes in.  But on the plus side, Tim said they were a 10.5 on the scale of 1-10 of hotness.  Yes!  :)

Funny Face

Zoe is 9 months old today!  This is a fun age, she is so interactive, expressive and chatty these days.  She has said her first word, confirmed by both parents and it's.... "Mam".  Not so much "Mama" or "Mom" but more "Ma'am" like a southern gentleman.  Here are some recent funny faces:

After pulling herself up in her crib for the first time I imagine she was thinking, "The view is INCREDIBLE from up here!"

Deep thoughts with Baba

Sitting in a chair is just lovely!

 

 

MMM... BREAD.  I wonder where she gets this?

Waahhh!  (this picture is just so you know Zoe isn't 100% perfect)

Nikki McClure

When we lived in Tacoma I saw a lot of art by Nikki McClure (who lives in Olympia) and does paper cut illustrations and writes children's books.  I love how the images are extremely precise yet totally natural and how rich a picture can be with just black and white or a few colors.  We have a few of her books and they are some of my favorites.  I read this great interview and video of her and wanted to share.

And all of a sudden, I find myself reading a lot of kiddie books and I am amazed at how good some of them can be.  One of my favorites was 'Blueberries for Sal' - do you remember it?  I had forgotten about it completely until I read that interview and then I could see the pictures in my mind perfectly.  It is crazy to think that Zoe is getting pictures from her books ingrained in her mind too.  Well, actually she pretty much just puts them in her mouth right now... not sure how much is being 'ingrained'!

And here is the video of Nikki McClure.  Seeing it reminds me so much of the Pacific Northwest!