How does my garden grow?

In early May, I spotted the first sign of growth in my garden!  Yay!  This is a squash plant sprouting up.

We will see what happens next!

Also, as part of a school lesson (letter S for Seeds), James and I planted some basil seed in this little planter.  The basil started to sprout as well!  So fun!

PEO & Weekend with my Niece and Nephew :)

This past year, Justin's mom was the State President of PEO.

To explain PEO, I copied this off my sister-in-law's blog (Thanks Rachel!)

What is PEO?

It is a philanthropic organization where women celebrate the advancement of women, educate women through scholarships, grants, awards, loans, and stewardship of Cottey College; and motivate women to achieve their highest aspirations. 

(taken from their website)

At the end of April, Justin and his 3 sisters met their mom and dad in Knoxville for the PEO Convention.  Mom Payne was in charge of the entire event, and this weekend, she would also "Go to the Daisy Patch",  meaning she would retire as president.

While the crew was all in Knoxville, Rachel's two kiddos, Adde and Payne, stayed with me throughout the weekend.  They are such good kids, and it made it easy having 4 kids by myself those few days. 

Before Justin left, he gave the kids a ride on the golf cart at ECS.

An evening of S'mores!

We took lots of walks!

It was beautiful weather most days :)

Adde cracks me up.  She is so sweet and girlie, and yet so good about getting dirty, being fearless, and keeping up with the boys.  What a great combination!

I think this picture describes her ;)  Her sweet pose as she stands in a muddy puddle :)

Another walk!

This time there were LOTS of puddles ;)

We went to church on Sunday, and they were just precious.

And one evening we drove to the playground in the neighborhood next to ours.

I love Payne's happy expression!

I wondered how the kids would sleep, but they all did super!

James slept on an air mattress next to my bed.  I captured this sleeping pose :)

Cracked me up!

While we were playing, Justin's family was able to honor Mom Payne in Knoxville.

The President!

Katie, Rachel, and Cassie as Honor Pages.  

Justin and Rachel

Justin's role was to say a prayer on one of the evenings.  

He had also made a dvd that the whole family helped put together.

It showed everyone the rest of Nonie's family including her 13 grandkids.

Everything turned out beautiful.

Mom Payne being honored.

Siblings :)

Siblings having FUN!

And they finished off their time in Knoxville with a stop at Mellow Mushroom.  YUM!

Well, we sure did have a hard time saying good bye to Adde and Payne.

They can come stay with us any time!!!

Our Back Yard and Garden

I know I already posted a little about my brother in law, Josh, coming over to help us transplant our trees.  He also brought over some other trees he wasn't using in his company.  Here are some more pictures that capture that day.  We are so excited to finally have some trees growing in our yard!

Planting a small magnolia :)

Watering it

   

Planting along the fence

The kids loved having the hose out.

Looks great!

Next the guys worked hard moving some railroad ties off the trailer and into the back yard where we would begin our vegetable garden!

Laying them down.  Uh, do you see what this first looked like over in our side yard?

Yay!  Justin mowed and cleaned up the sides of the yard.  Josh gave us some soil to start out with.  And I went and bought some vegetable seeds and small plants.  James helped me plant one afternoon.  We planted 4 tomato plants, 2 bell pepper plants, 4 mounds of cucumber seeds, 2 squash mounds, and 1 zucchini mound.

We will see how it goes!

Snapshots

Some more random moments captured in April:

Justin caught James red handed sneaking out of his room at nap time, trying to catch a glimpse of Lord of the Rings on TV.

Playing in puddles :)

Another trip to Lowes to get sand for the sand box!

Baby #3's First Ultrasound

On April 3, 2013, we had our first ultrasound for Baby #3 :)

I was 10 weeks pregnant, and my doctor wanted to make sure that my placenta was in a better place this time.  So far so good!

The baby's heart rate was 171.

My starting weight was 135, and now I weigh 137 gaining two pounds so far in the pregnancy.

 I am only a little queasy most mornings, but nothing I can complain about.  Thank you LORD!

But I am SOOO tired at this point.  All. Day. Long.  Looking forward to second trimester!

We are so excited about this baby!

James and Reese are excited as well and understand there is a baby in mommy's tummy.

Ok, and we always nickname our unborn baby.  They receive names we have chosen from Seinfeld, just for fun! :)

James was "Seven".

Reese was "Soda".

This baby's nickname is "Cartwright" from the episode where at the Chinese restaurant, the host mispronounces Costanza and calls him Cartwright.  So if you hear us talking about Cartwright, now you know we are talking about the baby!  haha.

Mow Down Cancer

Justin went out of town for a weekend in April, and I happened to notice a fundraiser going on in Arlington that very Saturday.  So the kids and I decided to keep ourselves busy and see what "Mow Down Cancer" was all about.  

When we got there, a tiny little mower was sitting next to the entrance :)

The first event they had was a donut eating contest.

You can also tell from these pictures that after that came the Duck Dynasty Look Alike contest.

The event had fun little games for the kids to play and they could earn candy.

Bean Bag toss

Golfing game

Enjoying their hard earned candy!

But the best part about the morning was the mower race!

They had made a race track in the grass and went as fast as their mowers could take them!

Which was actually kind of slow ;)  hehe.

James LOVED it!

Glad we could have some fun supporting a good cause :)

The Month of April

April weather is so great in Memphis.  I try to soak it all up before the hot summer comes around.

April was busy with track season and family in town, but we definitely found our down time and loved every minute of it!

A favorite spot for these two!

Sitting on a pile of rocks next to the rail road.

Life can't get much better than that!

Enjoying meals outside in the cool breezes :)

Silly!

Just a quick snap shot at church one morning. ;)

Wagon rides

More silly pics

School lessons continue (but have slowed down considerably!)

I think I get in one lesson every two weeks!

(look at that tongue!)

Oh so peaceful.

(this was probably one morning when I had to wake her up because it was nearing 9am!)

Daddy thought it would be fun to have a bird feeder right outside our dining room window.  He was right!  We watch the birds come and go while we eat meals.  Boy those birds go through a lot of seed!  That entire feeder will be gone in one day.  Or one morning sometimes!

Just some sibling sweetness :)

Uncle Josh works in landscaping and had some extra trees that weren't being used.  He came over and helped us plant one afternoon.  Finally!!!  Trees in our yard!  Two or three years ago we also signed up for the Arbor Foundation and paid $10 for a membership and got got 10 free trees!  (Thanks for telling us about this Nonie)  They came to us in the mail as tiny sticks that we planted.  This day, Josh also helped us transplant the 6 or so that lived and were becoming more established little trees ;)

Thank you Josh!  We love our trees!

You and Justin worked hard that day and we are enjoying the view of trees each time we step outside now!