Pictures with Momma

I don't have enough pictures of me and Liam. I'm always the one behind the camera. Without going into a long story, I recently got my remote trigger back and took some pictures of the two of us on my bed.

Liam's version of giving me kisses is offering me his cheek. 

Silly boy discovered that if he hit the button on the remote, the flash would go off and the camera would click. He's a smartie pants and so so cute.  

More Utah Fun

I think this post will wrap up our Utah adventures. I have a few more random photos to share from our trip.

 Liam saw snow for the first time when we went to Sundance to watch a student film that Uncle Dan worked on. 

I love this picture of Liam, Aunt Lacey and Dio napping together.

 Liam learned how to climb at the play ground.

 I let Liam watch tv for the first time. It was hard to keep him occupied when it was cold outside. He wasn't interested in Sesame Street or The Muppets, but he loves Yo Gabba Gabba.

 Riding in a pink barbie jeep at the play ground.

 Of course you can play with sand and a truck on the slide.

We spent hours in Salt Lake at the Discovery Center. It's basically a giant play room for toddlers. Liam had a blast.

One of the new words Liam pick up while in Utah is "button." He loves to touch the buttons on the computer.

 When Lacey and Dan were at work, Dio would always nap with Liam. They were buddies.

I sent this picture of Liam at the Salt Lake library to Dan right away. It made him so proud.

 These are cute. Liam isn't picky. He will put his hands down anyone's shirt.

Liam loved the driving game at the arcade.

Stealing Dio's collar,

  and bed.

We went to Tracey aviary in Salt Lake. It was lame. The highlight of the trip was our picnic in the park. I ate way too much Sonic in Utah, but I can't resist a limeade.

The highlight of our Utah antics was when Lacey and I gave the kids a bath together.

Liam smelled like dog shampoo for days.

We had such a good trip. I miss my sister and don't get to see her as often as I'd like, so I'm really glad that she let us stay with her and visit.

Lost Phone

Dan spent a good 20 minutes looking for his phone this morning. You aren't going to believe where we found it.

Can't tell where that is? Try this view.



His phone was INSIDE his computer. Dan built his own computer and has some open drive ports on the front that Liam can fit his little hand in. 

Nap Time Crafting: Super Hero Quilt

My mom says that I haven't blogged enough lately, and she is right. I've been really busy recovering from our vacation, throwing a baby shower, finishing a quilt and caring for a sick toddler. I did manage to finish the quilt to give to my friend for her baby shower. I loved how it turned out.

In addition to hand quilting for the first time, I also did a scrappy binding. It is now my favorite binding.

As soon as Mallory opened it, Liam had to investigate. He thinks it's his quilt, he loved to get on it when I was trying to sew. 

Such a stinker. Funny story. I had all of the blocks laid out and arranged on the guest bed. I didn't know at the time that Liam had figured out how to get up there until I discovered him rolling in the quilt blocks. It took me forever to get them reorganized.

I used Obsessively Stitching's "First Quilt Ever" tutorial. I think the pattern is usually called a disappearing 9 patch. 

Garden Update

It's been a week since I got home from my trip to Utah, but I have still not gotten use to how big the cucumbers in my DIY Earthbox have gotten. Remember what they looked like a month ago when I last updated?

I had added some cages and the plants started getting some tiny blooms right before I left.

Last week I came home to this: 

It is huge! Dan said that it is so heavy it fell over one night after some really high winds. It's a daily battle to keep the tendrils out of the screen, too. There are a few little cucumbers on it. 

Since we have the plant on our screened in patio, we have to hand pollinate the flowers. The variety of cucumbers that I planted have male and female flowers, instead of male and female within the same flower. Male flowers are attached right to the vine while female flowers have a tiny, undeveloped cucumber behind them. If the female flowers are not pollinated, the cucumber won't grow. 

female

male

Since we have so many more male than female blossoms, we've been pulling the male flowers off, stripping them of their petals and rubbing the pollen directly from the stamen into the center of the female bloom. 

Now for the sad garden news, the basil plant died. The pepper plant isn't looking so good either, but it is still producing. The tomato and spinach plants are producing like crazy though. Dan got 26 tomatoes and 2 cups of spinach while I was gone. The spinach might be on its way out though, it has gotten freaking hot.