Camera collision

So I'm now using my husbands camera to upload the memory card from mine.  My genius brother managed to get my camera to take pictures.  It just can't work with my computer.  This should buy us a few weeks before it completely kicks the bucket.  Here's hoping...

What you've missed (in pictures)

 Texas finished cutting up the tree.

 Our kitchen garden went from this:

 

 to this:

 Banjo got really muddy.

And Ruby ate this:

More about this in my next post.

My problem

My problem is I can never have enough cook books.  Today I ordered three cookbooks off Amazon.  This wouldn't be such a bad thing if I didn't already own over a hundred, but alas I do, and I can't stop buying them.  The tricky part lately is how to acquire cook books with out having any money.  Solution... Gift cards!  I found a gift card from our wedding for Amazon.com while cleaning out my desk.  I should have done this weeks ago, but I'm glad I didn't.  I always keep a wish list of cook books that I would buy if I could afford them, and had just recently rearranged the wish list order. If these books are worth anything I will be sure and tell you all about them.  For now I'm going to keep my silence.  Till next time...

(sorry for lack of posting, but posting without pictures is just sad.)

Yard

It's making me really sad that I don't have a camera.  I love getting to post the progress we have made.  It doubles the sense of accomplishment I feel when I can look back and see where we started.  Mostly because at this stage of things when you look around and not one thing is 100% finished it can get REALLY discouraging.   Plus,  I love getting pictures of Annie working in the yard and planting seeds.  We worked in the yard almost all day yesterday, tilling soil, laying down bricks and pavers, and seeding the finished plots.  My back might be killing me, but we now have 5 plots, planted and/or seeded.  I'm hoping the plants take off really well this year.  It always seems to take me a full growing season to mature and balance out the soil.  I don't use any chemical fertilizers and although I do supplement the soil with compost, peat and rock dust, it's a slow science for me.   I've always kept my expectations low for the first year.  I would love to look outside later this summer and see a full vegetable garden, but I'm not holding my breath.  The soil here is great, we have real dirt instead of clay.  Here's hoping...

Dance

 So guess whats coming up?  I am so excited about Annie's first dance recital.  When your kid gets her first recital costumes it makes all the driving and sitting around for an hour every class totally worth it. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to quit.  Every Monday Annie would say she didn't want to go, and every Monday I dragged her butt to class. After class she would talk nonstop about how much fun it was, and my hopes of actually quitting would be crushed.  I don't hold out high expectations for the actual recital.  It's a group of 4 year olds in cute costumes, what more do you need? 

As a warning, this might be my last photo update for a long time, my digital camera has finally died.  Just in time for my daughters first dance recital I might add.  Technology really sucks sometimes.

The Blog

So with the addition of Baby Elsie, Annie said we needed to make the blog Annie and Elsie's Garden.  It seemed a little long, so we compromised with Our Garden.  Let me know what you think of the new banner.  Changing the look of the blog is my new hobby when Texas is watching basketball.  Hopefully by the time Basketball season ends I'll have it looking better.

Being little

There is something so magical about getting into your mom's jewelry box.  I remember sneaking into my moms when I was little and being enthralled with every little thing.   Annie found her way into my jewelry box this morning, and spent over an hour trying on hair-combs, clips and necklaces.  She had the best time, pretending she was getting ready for the ball.   I want her to stay just like this forever. 

 And where was little Elsie this whole time?

Enjoying diaper free time on mommy's bad.

Univited guests, Easter dresses and Carrot tops

 This morning was a three ring circus of activity involving me, two little girls and the adorable matching dresses you see here.  Wrestling them in, brushing hair and getting out the door to church was a logistical nightmare.  Texas was off ironing his underwear or something equally as useless, while I was left to create the cuteness you see above. 

After a series's of brunches and get togethers we rush home to prepare for our own event.  Dinner, with both sets of patents, no pressure right?  While in a mad rush to get the cake in the oven, the meat on the grill and the table set, Texas hears something in the floor boards.  He's convinced somethings in there.  I tell him we don't have time to deal with it and to get back to work, but he doesn't.  After trying to figure what it could be, Annie informs us it's a bird.  We look at her like she's nuts, I go back to the kitchen and Texas goes back to trying to figure out the mystery.  Sure enough, it's a bird stuck in our air ducts under the floor.  What you see above is my home made air duct bird trap.  We spent 30 minutes trying to lure/scare the bird into the trap and finally gave up.  Annie however does not.  She's runs outside, yanks a carrot up from the ground and tosses the carrot tops into the duct.  Sure enough, 5 minutes later she has lured the bird out and it's flying around my dining room smashing into everything.  Texas shoes the bird out and all is well.  Sorry, but the bird moved to fast to get a picture. Lesson of the day?  Listen to Annie. She is obviously much smarter than her parents.