Welcome, Jonah

I know I said that I would be posting last night, but Dan was on the computer working so I didn't get the chance.  But on a better note, yesterday, my cousin, Michelle, had her sweet baby.  Jonah Thomas entered the world late last night and weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces.  We are so excited for Michelle and Greg and their first child, Jonah!

In honor of her delivery and his birth, I decided to post pictures from her baby shower a few weeks ago.

 After the showers that she had, she was all set for baby.  Lots of nice things!  We got her a plentiful supply of cloth diapers and a baby food maker.  I don't know who is more excited for her to use them, me or her!

 Magnolia and Boothe were great little helpers unwrapping gifts.  Sometimes even before Shell could read the card, they had the gift ripped open and were ready for the next.

 The 2 pregnant ladies.  Both expecting boys, although Jonah is now here.  Brooke's baby, Raife, will arrive late July!  Lots of boys this year.

 The Grandma-to-be and the Mommy-to-be.

And just for good measure, a little bit of Boothe.  Pure feistiness all wrapped up in the tightest hugs, biggest kisses and sweetest smiles!

I'm Back

It's April and after a 3 week hiatus and an even longer time of neglect, I'm back to blogging.  There are several reasons for my lack of posts.  Mostly I just needed a break.  I've had a lot of committments lately and something just had to give.  Also since January, we have been sick a lot, tired a lot and we have had so many cloudy days that I have not been taking many pictures at all.  I prefer natural light so when it's not available, I'm not much in the mood for taking photos.  We also got an iPad for Christmas and most of my computer time has been spent on that and I haven't figured out how to upload and edit photos and post to the blog from the iPad.

But, alas, spring is here and even though it's been rather chilly outside, the sun is shining and spirits are up!  Time to get back on the blogging bandwagon.

I'll be back tomorrow with a more substantial post as it is 11pm and I'm off to bed!

Garden Planning

I have begun to think about and plan my summer garden. Some things can be planted as early as April 1 so it's not to early to start planning what veggies are going in this year and getting the seeds ordered. If you live in Indiana, I found a great site that tells you when to plant certain vegetables based on which zone in Indiana you live.

Purdue horticulture program

I also came across a great guide for which plants to plant together because they help in the other's growth and which to avoid planting together. This works no matter where you live!

List of companion plants

We are going to plant a couple rows of sugar snap peas early in the season and try to replant later in the summer for a second harvest. We also are going to plant a bunch of carrots since ours did so well last year. We harvested about a years worth of carrots last fall and are hoping for the same outcome this year. And lastly, we will put in a couple hot pepper plants. We did these 2 years ago and they were really fun the grow. They would look really nice in landscaping too. We froze a lot of our peppers and are just using the last of them.

Our garden area is pretty small so we may turn up the soil behind our garage to use as a second small garden. There isn't a great deal of sunlight back there so I need to do some research into what would still grow ok back there. Any suggestions?

My parents have a huge garden where we grow all of our green beans, tomatoes, green peppers and onions. If we didn't have their yard to use, we'd have to find room to grow those veggies too.

I can't wait to get started. All 4 of us have such a fun time checking on the garden, finding the first small growing vegetables and picking the ripe ones.