Easter & Emma's Birthday

Where does the time go?  You would think that a simple blog would be easy to keep up with, right?

Easter has come and gone, and Emma is now 2.

Our yard had enough nicely in bloom for Easter.  The orchid tree was in full bloom, though it is pretty much done now.

The daffodils bloomed fairly nicely too.  Having planted them in December, we wondered if they were going to come up at all.

The weather has been pretty nice this past month.  We have enjoyed spending a decent amount of time playing outside.  

The kids have loved being able to run around and play.

Too bad that it won't last though.  The last couple of days we've already hit 100, so here comes summer.

Emma's 2nd birthday was fun.  We just had cake and opened presents.  Ezra was almost more excited to try and play with things than Emma.

 She's remained our good eater.  She eats a lot larger variety of things than Ezra does.

Easter was fun.  The Easter bunny left the kids a little play tent that they've thoroughly enjoyed.

Looking for eggs in the house was great with the kids.  It was fun to see them search around for them, though they still needed a few hints.

Emma was really proud of her new dress.  Both of the kids have been growing a lot so it has been interesting keeping them in clothes.

 For our traditional Easter dinner we had ribs with guava barbeque sauce.  It was great!

All Hail Spring...

The orchid tree started blooming! We can't wait until it is in full bloom it will be awesome.

The kids have enjoyed playing outside more.

They have been playing with Shawn's old toy trucks. Too bad they don't still make toys out of steel.


Emma had given up naps quite a while ago, but recently has still been taking some short ones. She'll just pass out on the floor or the couch or wherever.

Yesterday, we took the kids out to try and fly the little kite that we have since it was pretty windy. The kite flying wasn't too successful, but the kids had fun running around. We went out and got a larger kite, and of course Ezra picked out the biggest one that he could find. It was dark by the time we got home though and we couldn't try it out.

After all of the wind came the storm. It started raining last night, and has rained for most of the day, except for when it was hailing...

We'll see how much damage the pea-sized to marble-sized hail has done here after a couple of days, when everything recovers from the initial shock. Surprisingly, it looks like most of the blossoms on the citrus trees are still intact.

Springtime is upon us...

So spring is basically here. The weather has been really nice (with the exception of the random ridiculous wind & dust storms, but you can't have everything right?)

Ezra is enjoying being in Sunbeams at church. It is amazing to see his understanding of things growing so much.
He is everyday more and more our "little man".

He is still a pretty funny kid sometimes though.


Emma continues to be our little girly-girl. She loves dressing up almost more than anything else. That being said she does like to play roughly with Ezra as well.

Her hair has started to curl a bit. At least when you get it wet.

She's our better eater as well. She'll eat a lot more varied things than Ezra will even think of, though we have to keep reminding her to slow down at times, as she still hasn't quite figured out that you don't have to always shove as much in your mouth as you possibly can.

She's loved having the fresh carrots and peas out of the garden. She asks for a carrot almost every time we go outside and look at the garden.

Last weekend Shawn's parents came down and we all got together. It was fun to see everyone and spend some time together. We even made a trip out to the farmer's market. They had a little petting zoo that the kids really enjoyed.

Doing things outside this weekend, the kids decided that we needed to have a "picnic", so we got the blanket out and some snacks and they had their picnic in the backyard. They loved it.


Everything in the yard is either blooming or getting ready to bloom.

This is some cilantro that we've just let do whatever it wants.
We finished the first pea harvest a couple of weekends ago, since it didn't really freeze much this winter. The plants were spent so we picked all that there was. Actually ended up with quite a bit.


The lemon tree has started blooming as well. It should be a pretty good producer for us, which will be nice.
We planted some jasmine and some lilac vines, and they are all blooming as well. Between the jasmine and lemon tree, the yard smells amazing.


The one that we are really excited for is the orchid tree. It hasn't bloomed since Emma was born due to hard frosts last winter. It is covered in buds and we have seen some in the area start blooming so it should be any time now.

Spinning

Ezra & Emma have discovered the fun of spinning chairs...

One month later...

The last month has been pretty full, but it's been good.

Before Christmas the kids had fun making cookies with mommy.

They were both good helpers.

The kids made out pretty good with all of the presents. Ezra really got excited with opening everything. His were all opened before anyone else was done. Emma, on the other hand got too distracted playing with the toys to open things too quickly. It was nice to have a year of Christmas at home where we didn't have to drive for a few days.


We enjoyed having Susan's parents over. The kids thought that playing games with grandpa was the best thing ever.


We had a nice meal of smoked turkey. We cheated and only smoked parts instead of a whole bird... it's just easier that way.


The day after Christmas made for a good day to go to the zoo. The kids really enjoyed themselves, as did the rest of us.


Grandpa even took Ezra on a camel ride, which apparently he really didn't care for, but that's okay, it was memorable at least.


And out of all the animals, of course the favorite was the tortoises.


For the night before New Year's Eve, we went and visited with Kelly & Cameron. The kids had fun playing on the stairs, like always.


At one point they got a little tired and decided to lay down for a bit.

On New Year's Eve we just stayed home and played games around the house. We figured that we might as well start/end the year right with our nice surf & turf dinner.


The weather has finally stopped being rainy and colder, and our normal Arizona winter weather has come back. The kids have enjoyed being able to play more outside in the backyard.
Ezra is even starting to sort of figure out of how to throw a frisbee.

For Shawn's birthday we had some ribs, having a smoker is a wonderful thing. Eventually we'll get a nice one, but for now the cheap one does a decent job.

Susan even made a vanilla bean cheesecake with some of the vanilla beans that she got for Christmas. It was really good.

Our winter garden has been doing very well. It is kind of interesting having two main growing seasons. We'll see how the freezes go to see how much we'll replant here in the spring.

The kids like to help dig in the dirt, and seem to like to help do things in the garden. Hopefully, that is something that lasts.


We've picked all of the lemons from our tree. There were about 14 total this year. I suppose that at some point we will have a ton of lemons and will be giving many away, but for now we enjoy the few that we get.

Emma actually ate a whole little carrot out of the garden. We were both proud. We've got peas that we'll start harvesting soon, along with more carrots, lettuce, spinach, cilantro, and eventually some broccoli and cauliflower assuming it puts on.


Finally got the gravel in the backyard, which makes it seem quite a bit more finished, and makes the yard a little more fun to play in without there being mud everywhere when it rains. 12 tons is a lot of gravel. Luckily, Shawn got talked into renting a little skid loader to move it from the street so it only took about 5 hours or so to move it all. Our great home teacher and his son came over and helped spread it and that helped out a lot.

As spring comes, there will be quite a bit more planting, both of flowers and vegetables. Likely, the army of quail will move back into the yard when the tomatoes come on, but there should be plenty to share if we get as many tomatoes as we did last year.