a new marriage and a new baby

the new marriage is really a joke and the new baby is not ours in case you were wondering...

It recently became official - Josh and Lilly are getting married! I was team teaching with Lilly's mom, Jen, when I was pregnant with Josh and she was pregnant with Lilly. They were born about 7 weeks apart and we joked that Lilly was Josh's first girlfriend. We went to Lilly's brother, Cohen's birthday party two weekends ago. Josh and Lilly played outside on the swingset for a long time. I don't know who proposed because Richard actually witnessed it, but they finally decided to "get married". They would swing back and forth singing, "We're getting married! We're getting married!" Then Lilly kept trying to kiss Josh. She suggested to Josh that if they wanted to be "real married" they would need to kiss. Josh was not too sure about that and said he wanted to just be "pretend married". The four parents thought it was hilarious! We are all for this marriage as long as they wait about 20 years!

Last week Carrie and Paul had their new baby, Elliott Steven. He was born on Tuesday, April 29th and was 6 lbs 12 oz, 19 1/2 inches. I get to meet him tomorrow and I can't wait! Here is a picture of him at the hospital in the middle of the cutest baby yawn.

our nature bug

I had a good start to the year with my blog and then I dropped off the face of the earth..... so sorry. I still don't have those pictures up, but we'll try again soon.


Josh, our little nature bug, is really into plants and bugs right now. We planted some seeds 2 weeks ago and they are starting to sprout. Josh and Lucas helped me with the project. We have 2 flower beds at the back of our yard. We didn't really water them much last year and they are really far back so I thought that would be the perfect place for Josh's flower garden. We had lots of seeds - marigolds, sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and sweet peas. I made little maps of our garden and planned where to put each thing. Josh wanted to put in all of the seeds himself. I tried to sneak as many as I could to even things out and keep things moving. Lucas entertained himself and tried to eat mulch when I wasn't looking. It was quite a project! By the end I was just roughing up the soil, tossing seeds on and covering them quickly with dirt. The funny thing is those seeds are doing the best. Josh also has a mini greenhouse starting seeds in the bathroom with more zinnias and sunflowers. They are doing awesome and I think I should have started everything inside. Maybe next year...


Josh is also impatiently waiting for raspberries to grow on his raspberries bushes. He checks them out everytime we go outside. Richard and I call them the raspberry sticks when we aren't around Josh because they looked so small and sad all winter. They are doing better now with lots of green leaves. We also have 3 blueberry bushes ready to go in the ground. Can't wait to eat all of those berries!


Josh is really intrigued by dandelions. He thinks they are beautiful. I was torn between letting him enjoy the childhood pleasure of blowing off the white fluffy seeds and yelling, "Stop, you're ruining our yard!" He was so confused about why I wouldn't want my whole yard filled with them!