What God has joined together...

A few weeks ago, our family of 5 made a 19 hour trek across the southwest. And it was worth every minute of it for this very special family celebration.

It was a sweet ceremony in a little chapel surrounded by the hills in Prescott Valley Arizona. The weather was perfect and aside from the ring barer dropping the wedding rings, everything went off without a hitch.

The Bridesmaids (me and my littlest sister)

The proud parents

This is how much Austin liked the wedding...he fell asleep!

Jacob and the cute ring barer, cousin Aiden.

The Bride and Groom

Family Portrait

For the first time in over 11 years, all the cousins on my Dad's side were in one place!

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Gilson!

Berry Hunting

Spring in Houston just wouldn't be the same without a few key activities.

 #1 starting the garden, check. 

#2 spring break getaway to Camp Tejas, check. 

#3 strawberry picking at Froberg's, check.

Our recent visit to Froberg's in Alvin has completed our spring agenda :) While the boys were in a serious race to fill their buckets with delicious strawberries, Austin and I strolled along the rows slowly. Austin was not quite sure what he was supposed to be doing so he was happy to follow his brothers and step in a few mud puddles along the way.

He finally figured out what he was supposed to do with those berries after all.

But the boys were most entertained by the little snake that made it's way around the rows. I know that made their day to see a snake up close and personal. I, however, stood back, and...took pictures.

So now we are left trying to think of all the things we can do with these fresh strawberries. We froze some, made smoothies, ate them cut up, and I thought about a yummy strawberry pie.

So tomorrow for breakfast we get...can you guess it...strawberry muffins!

A Book Project

Reading is important. Loving reading is even more important. I didn't LOVE reading growing up. But I do now...whenever I get a chance to. I like to encourage my boys to read as much as possible. We borrow books from the library constantly, I stock their bookshelf with authors they love to read from and reading is incorporated into our bedtime routine.

This week, we took the opportunity to be creative with the book Jacob is currently reading, The Little House on the Prairie. There's lots of ways to be creative with the story you're reading. Sometimes we act it out, use puppets and make a play or make comic strip drawings. This time, my plan was to help them make wagons and a few paper dolls for the characters. Little did I know HOW creative the boys would get. They made a whole Little House on the Prairie scene, complete with Jack the dog, hay for the horses and a creek!

So have fun with your kids and what you're reading!

Mending a broken heart...

For those of you who followed me last year, you'll remember my original post about my very first garden. What you may not remember is any other posts about it. As a newbie blogger, I felt compelled to only blog the good stuff. (Not realizing the bad/real stuff should be included in this real life blog) And so what you never knew was what became of that promising garden.

NOTHING

The rains came and flooded it. And what was left, the bugs came and devoured it, all in 24 hours. Needless to say, after all that sweat and hard work, I was one sad gardener. I swore to never garden again. My heart broken and defeated.

After stewing over it through the winter, I realized there were a few things I could have done to prevent that catastrophe last year. For one thing, better drainage. The rain had no where to go last year. Trying to avoid pesticides, I now know there are bug deterring plants you can use in a garden like marigolds and cilantro.

So with courage and commitment about me, I restructured and started again. When you fall off the bicycle...get up again, right?

Flowering sugar snap peas...mmmmm. From my new garden!

Maybe we'll have home-grown tomatoes in our salads this year!

I hope, I hope, I hope!

What Brothers Are For

Brothers are for company on a fishing adventure

It's important to know you won't be alone...

They help you keep your concentration...

They watch your back...

Unless, they're too busy chasing their shadow...

Cowboys and a Cowgirl...

Every year in March, the big to-do in Houston is the Houston Livestock and Rodeo show. There are parades, concerts, carnivals, cook-offs and of course rodeo competitions. For a whole month, the whole city turns it's center of attention to all things cowboy!

We went to the rodeo they very first year we moved to Houston. We were excited to see what the big deal was about. After spending a million dollars in tickets and rides, shoving our way through endless crowds and spending overnight in our car trying to leave the parking lot, we promised NEVER to go to the rodeo again! (Our first mistake was planning to go on a Friday night.) The only thing we knew we would be missing were those ridiculous fried Twinkie's!

All that changed this year when we received FREE tickets and found friends that were able to go during the weekday. After some encouragement from friends to skip the over-priced carnival rides and head for the livestock show, we were skeptical but optimistic.

I'm glad to say, we found a much better way to enjoy the rodeo!

We got to see cows and their day old calves...

Big fat pigs and their piglets...

The kids got to plant sunflower seeds and take them home to germinate...

Pet fluffy little rabbits...

Patiently wait and watch for cows to be milked (frankly I'm surprised they still drink it after that demonstration)...

And because we're the meanest mom's in the world and wouldn't pay $20 for a ride at the carnival, their favorite ride of the day was the...

ESCALATOR!!!!

Crazy Thing

About a month ago, I brought in new mulch bags for the landscape in the backyard. It's springtime here so we've been fixing up the back yard and helping prepare for the new growth.

Well as things go around here, I didn't immediately get to those bags of mulch. They laid in the grass for quite some time until I was able to get around to them.

When I moved the bags to where they were intended to go, I notice a funky looking thing growing under the bags. I could only assume it was some kind of weed or even worse fungus growing in that dark wet spot. Eewwww I thought. I don't want to touch whatever that is, so I'll get Ian to take it out for me.

Well as things go around here, Ian didn't get around to it...ever.

So today I decided to brave whatever diseased, fungal growth it was and get rid of it myself. I pulled up half of it and realized these were no ordinary weeds. There were seeds at the roots of the plant. Confused, I tried to recall what seeds had been laid there because I don't ever remember planting anything in that patch of grass.

Then it came to me.

There was this....

And then this...

That's right. Some good, clean, pumpkin smashing in December. Well...I had to break them down for the compost, they boys were happy to oblige.

Anyways, back to the story. We have pumpkins. Pumpkins growing in our grass! Jacob can't wait for the harvest so I can make him some fresh pumpkin bread.

Panning Submission

Tonight is my photography class so I thought I'd post my submissions.  Our challenge was to take pictures with a low and high aperture and to create a panning (motion in background and subject in focus) shot.

Low Aperture

High Aperture

Panning (this is hilarious to me because we were playing kickball with 8 year olds!)

Spring Break

We live in the third largest city in the U.S with over 5 million people around us. So it goes without saying that one of our favorite things to do is to escape to the country and enjoy God's creation in nature.  There's no better way to do it than to go to Camp Tejas with friends! Camp Tejas is a Christian retreat center with incredible facilities. Not only are the accommodations cozy, but the views are gorgeous and the grounds are extensive. There's so much to do but none of it involves computers, TV or video games. Woo-hoo.

Some of the things we like to do there are...

Tree climbing...

Canoe tag around the ponds...

Friendly games of kickball, volleyball, soccer, basketball or tennis. 

Or...not so friendly in Ian's case!

Taking walks on the trails...

Hanging out with friends...

And perhaps the boys most favorite activity...going down the zip-line...

No matter where you are, conquering your fears always makes for an adventure. This year, for the first time, our 5 year old was able to tackle the zip-line. His only regret was that he didn't want to jump off but had to sit down to start. Still, he did GREAT!