The Beach!

It was such a nice weekend away. The weather was pretty good, the fellowship was fantastic, the uninterrupted sleep was amazing, the games were hilarious. We all shared in food duty and each only cooked once all weekend - what a treat! I didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few...

The kids stayed with my sister on Friday, and my parents (mostly with my dad) the rest of the weekend and had an absolute blast. Thanks for helping us to get away! We needed the rest.

Good day sunshine!

Read this

If you haven't yet, go to my sister's blog and read her most recent post. I threw away our bath toy holder. So scary.

Life Beside the Creek

Gardening (and a shout out to Drake's 7 Dees!)

This is suppose to be an incredible weekend, the perfect weekend to work in the yard! I LOVE it. We are going to do a lot yard work this weekend, all starting with a trip to my very favorite garden center in the whole world... Drake's 7 Dees on 165th & Stark (I can be biased and advertise, it's my blog!)!! I love it there, it's fun for the kids, it's beautiful, everyone is very helpful, and my kids get to see grandma and grandpa. Plus the product is top notch.

So, before I go I wanted to know from some fellow gardeners - what veggies grow well in your yard? It's always nice to know what other people are having success with. I'll share too...

Here's what has done the best in my yard:

Zucchini squash, Carrots, Roma tomatoes, Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes, all kinds of peas, green peppers, jalapenos (though they are mild), basil, and parsley, strawberries.

Here's where my garden lacks (things that I try to grow but always fail somewhere along the way:

A big slicing tomato, chives, cilantro.

So, two questions:

1. What grows best in your garden here in Oregon?

2. Do you have success with the areas that my garden lacks? If so, how?!

Also, I wanted to give a good link that helps me a lot with my yard work, click here. It gives monthly suggestions as to what you can be doing to care for your yard. Everything from when to fertilize your roses to when to plant hearty veggies, etc.

Okay, enough advertising. But I do hope you think twice before you head to Walmart for your garden needs. Actually, think twice before you go to Walmart for anything...it's just not a very pleasant experience. Not that I don't go, but I try to avoid it as much as possible!

Friends

Eric's best friend from college (and best man in our wedding) along with his girlfriend Meghan came to visit us this past weekend and we had such a blast! We laughed to the point of tears several times, we played lots of games, ate lots of yummy dinners, started a great friendship with Brad's Meghan, and just had a great time with great friends. It was hard to see them go. Here's some pictures from their visit! I didn't take very many, but there are some good ones at the waterfalls...

Our little family

Brad and Meghan

Ponytail Falls (1/2 mile hike above Horsetail)

Brad making Elsie laugh - the kids LOVED Brad and Meghan

It is sad that they live 12 hours away. But there's no way we can let another 4 years go by before the next visit! It was way too good to be together to let that happen.

Easter Sweetie-pies

Question

I was wondering if anyone out there has some good websites for kids to go to - learning, practicing on the computer, having fun, etc. We go to PBSkids.com but that's about it. If you know a good one, leave me a comment! Thanks :)

My Favorite

I think that gardening is by far my favorite part of house-making. Not that it is a requirement of being a stay-at-home mom, but out of the house-making that I do, gardening is my favorite. Here's what's growing in my kitchen nook...

Tomatoes (Roma and Sweet 100)

Jalepenos, green peppers, onions, lettuce

cucumbers and zucchinis. Oh and Jenna is growing some Easter grass :)

Keepin it real

Tagged by Keely to show what a mom of two looks like half way through the day:


Keepin' It Real
Here are the rules:
Take a picture of yourself right now.
No primping or preparing.
Just snap a picture.
Load the picture onto your blog.
Tag some people to play.

So, this is me, half way through the day.  I am SO glad that this is when I sat down at the computer to check the blogs and emails because, Keely, if you would have caught me even 30 minutes earlier I would have been a total wreck.  Not that I look great in this picture or anything, but at least I am all clean.  It's house cleaning day so here I am all showered and fresh after a hard 1/2 day of cleaning.  

I shall tag... Faith, Jenne, and Ang 

Swag-tastic

I must continue to promote SWAGBUCKS because it is awesome! (In case you don't know, Swagbucks.com is a search engine that rewards you with Swagbucks for searches you do. Those Swagbucks can be exchanged for merchandise, gift cards, etc - I already have enough points to trade for $60 at Amazon.com!)

Now I have my very own Swag code! If anyone hasn't signed up yet, sign up by clicking here and enter the code MEGANMINGY (it is case sensitive) and you will start up with 5 Swagbucks!! (This code is for newbies only, and expires on Saturday at midnight).

If you are already signed up, here are a few ways to earn extra bucks...

1. Go here for earning tips - such as getting a swag toolbar or making it your home page.

2. Invite friends to use swagbucks. Every time they win, you win! This is my swag-secret.

3. Swagbucks also has a facebook, twitter, and blog where they give out free codes to earn bonus Swagbucks.

Thanks Lord

Thanks Lord for sunny skies, warm weather, dirt, happy kids, a beautiful day.

so i don't forget

Elsie's new Vocabulary:

bye daddy, hi daddy (first sentence)

nigh nena - Good night Jenna

dooce - juice

a-pa - Grandpa

a-pa - Grandma

o we oye - I love you

mo - more

dak do - thank you

peas - please

dodoo - tv

NO - no

NO - (sometimes means yes)

uh huh - yes

Spring Clean

I have to confess, in the past couple months my house has been such a disaster area. I have had lots of excuses for things being messy, unorganized, and cluttered...but really no good excuses. So, after reading an excellent chapter entitled 'The Honor of Working at Home' from the book, "Feminine Appeal" (which by the way I highly recommend, especially for a group), I was convicted to take charge of my house once again.

I spent Spring Break spring cleaning. I focused on one room each day, deep cleaning and organizing. I also went through the drawers in the girls rooms, sorting out what didn't fit and searching the "next stage" clothing bin for what we needed in this season. I didn't do things perfectly, but I got things to working order and it felt great. Today was the last room - Elsie's.

I wanted to make her room a bit of a big girl room, adding some fun toys for her to play with. I decided to take all the house type things from Jenna's room and pass them on to little sister. Jenna was excited to pass her toys on (which I was pleasantly surprised about) and also helped me set up a new toy cupboard for Els. As you can see from the second picture, she was really proud of her accomplishment. Jenna also took some time this afternoon to teach Elsie how to clean up her mess (I hope she was listening to her own lesson!). It was cute. So, here is Elsie's toddler room (no more babies in this house...for now).
Jenna chose what to put in the cupboard. She was careful in choosing books and toys that Elsie loved, and was excited when Elsie opened the door with a big smile.
So, every room was deep cleaned. HOWEVER, as Elsie's room was getting cleaned up, the rest of the house was mysteriously getting messier and messier! Here's what a couple of the other rooms looked like when all was said and done...

You see as we cleaned, we found new toys. And as I was filling a bin with toys to hide for a season (only to bring out when we need a change of pace) it somehow kept turning up empty. My little mess maker and her big sister were reeking havoc. But at least I know the rooms are clean deep down. And these messes are easy to pick up now that things aren't such a disaster under the surface. Anyways, on goes my journey as a worker of the home.