The Latest and Greatest

Seth has been rolling over for about a week.  He folds himself in half like a little rolly polly and rolls.  Once he's on his tummy he gets his little knees underneath him and scooches himself around on his head.  This doesn't make him super happy, but it is super fun to watch.  He is a strong little guy!

He loves music, always gives me big smiles when I sing to him and sometimes he tries to sing along.  He is starting to grab at everything, hair, toys, hair, my breakfast plate, hair.  Ouch!  He especially loves Kyla.  She likes to squeeze his cheeks together and say "chubby chubby."  He laughs and laughs.

Kyla and I spent the afternoon racing yesterday.  She got a flag from story time and used it to wave us to start.  The race consists of jumping off the stool, sliding, playing the piano, cooking some noodles in her kitchen, then sit down on her cat chair.  Today, we tried it again with her friend Tylee. 

Tylee waved her to start, yelling go Kyla! Slide Kyla!





Then Kyla hurried to the top of the slide and...


 That was the end of racing.  Her face hurt a bit for awhile.

She ate a homemade popsicle and put the stick in our silverware drawer when she finished.  "What a great helper!" I told her as I sneaked it into the dishwasher. She has been loving brushing my hair, and while she does she repeats over and over "Bepunzel, its too dark Bepunzel."  I finally realized what she was trying to say and replied "But Mother, I want to see the floating lights, its my birthday!"   Then Kyla/Mother Gothel screeches "NEVER! You can never see the floating lights!"  It is a little bit creepy funny.

Kyle has been on a Wizards of Waverly Place kick with me.  He says he's doing it for me, but I know he secretly loves it.  After a few weeks we're on about episode 50 out of 90.  Unfortunately Kyle started skipping the title song, "Well you know everything's gonna be a breeze... Yes Please...and so on."  You have to admit the show can be pretty hilarious. We also stay busy with volleyball, basketball, softball, and trying to avoid the bugs.  More on that to come...

Until then...I leave you with us. 

Its Growing!

Its true!  And its beautiful!  to me...

Those sweet peas are going to be delicious.  They might be my favorite vegetable.  The onions, wow, we'll have a few too many.  We have a low onion consumption at the Hadley Home.

Cucumbers though, Kyla can eat a large one by her lonesome.

This one is grown from seed.  You can see where the starter failed on us.

I took this picture of Kyle from the car with both kids on my lap.  

That's how we roll.  

We have to take turns hiding out in the car with the kids because this thing is right on the river and the mosquitoes are thick.  We step out into a swarm of them, and while in the car we watch them kamikaze at all the windows.  Yuck!

We kept burying our beautiful potato plants.  This is not the correct way to grow them.  They grow like crazy and we thought we had to bury them every day.  They seriously grow 1-3 inches a day so it was getting a little nuts finding enough soil to cover the things.  I finally did a little youtube search about growing potatoes and it turns out, we just need to cover the bottom, where the potatoes will grow. If the "tubers" (potatoes) see the sun they turn green and I've been told a green potato can kill you, though youtube just said it would make you sick.  We welcome advice about potatoes.

Can't wait for these babies.  A sweet lady a few plots down covered these for us with netting to keep the birds out.

You know I've been dreaming of this stuff so I can make my grilled basil chicken. 

Oh, the thought of it.  I'm salivating.

We thought they died, but the tomato plants have been resurrected!

Our beautiful lettuce, but something else thinks its beautiful too.  In the bottom right corner you can see something ate some.  Its my lettuce punk.  Stay back.

Here she is in all her glory.  Amazingly enough, everything we planted is coming up, even the parsley, darn it, what do you do with parsley?  

Kylarina

My little ballet dancer.  

Don't be alarmed.  After a few moments of delicate Kylarina music, my scary voice disrupts the flow of things.  

    

And one more little snippet, don't mind the toddler toilet in the background, but I had to add this.  Its my favorite move of hers.

Bubbles and Babies

Some days, like yesterday, oh boy... I wondered if I would ever sleep again, or maintain the degree of sanity I cling to.  Then there are days like today - I had time to sweep, mop, and even vacuum - and wow, the world seems right side up again.  Not to mention as of 4:00 this afternoon we FINALLY have air conditioning, just in time for this rainy cool weekend.  I'm enjoying the 50 degree air breezing past my ankles right this moment, hooray!  Here is a taste of our bubbly evening.

 

Oh, and a few little giggles to sign off with.

 

Dolls

Kyla, your doll is really creeping me out! I've walked by it 12 times and had to double-take every time.


I swear your dolls look so real...


Wait a minute!!!





Oh Seth, I'm afraid this is only the beginning!



You're a great sport kiddo!

T-Shirt Refashion Numero Uno

Again, at Target I found something I loved. This time a shirt for Kyla.


This one wasn't even so expensive, but I wanted to try it myself. I had seen this cardigan at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar and wanted to try sewing knits. I had this old shirt that was dying, but I love the color so I couldn't bear to throw it out. Instead I cut it up. I used one of Kyla's shirt like a pattern. I left the original hem intact.
I used the existing sleeves but left extra room at the top to gather them.


I sewed the bodice pieces together at the shoulder seams.

I pinned the sleeves and then baste stitched the top so I could gather them.

Then sewed them on.


Then I pinned and sewed up the sides which also finished the sleeves.


Now for the collar. I saved the original collar and just pinned it to the inside of the raw edge...


sewed and failed. You can see how its poking out at you.


Take two, I gathered the front like the sleeves and just stitched around it twice.
This one turned out much better.

Now for the flowers. I cut a bunch of strips from the original T-shirt and rolled them.


I tried three different flowers and can't say I love how they turned out. I made them too big I think.


But Kyla likes her new shirt, and I love working with knits!

Gardening 101

Okay, that is the class I need to take. We are just winging it. The Rangely Community Garden is officially up and running. The Hadley's have planted their little parcel.


We threw some seeds at the ground: sweet peas, carrots, green onions, onions, zucchini, cucumber, basil, parsley, cilantro, watermelon, green beans, spinach, lettuce, and cabbage.

We bought some starter plants too: cucumber, strawberries, jalapenos, bell peppers, Anaheim, habenero, tomato, and seed potatoes.

After one week, our little sweet peas have pushed their way up towards the sun. As far as the rest of the seeds go, they may be lost, I'll let you know.


I LOVE knowing that at least every other day we get to take a family trip down to our garden and spend time together. Its the best!

Chili sauce, who knew?

My new favorite thing



How did I not know about this stuff?!

My Aunt Carolyn makes these amazing Grapes of Wrath meatballs. I saw the recipe included chili sauce and called her to see which strange looking bottle in the Mexican food section of my grocery store I should grab. "No," she said, "Its by the ketchup." That's right, its pretty much glorified ketchup and oh so yummy.

So far I am eating it on meatloaf once a week, and I didn't even like meatloaf before. I love it on my meatballs and I found an interesting looking macaroni recipe with chili sauce. I think I'll have it on eggs tomorrow. Yum.

Have you used this stuff? Do you love it? What are your favorite ways to use it?

I can't get enough.