go byu!

not-so-enthusiastic gardening buddy

When I go work out in the garden Graham likes to come keep me company. But sometimes I think he's less than amused.

st. patty's day treasure

A very secret leprechaun left this gold treasure at the end of a rainbow. I think Graham knew it wasn't real gold after about 3 seconds. : )

Graham's very first library books

This week Graham and I went to the library and checked out some books. Previously, I was a little disappointed with our library-it didn't seem like it really had that many books. But I had never been to the children's section. They had tons of books! It was a lot of fun. The best thing about books is when you read them to Graham, he looks at the pictures and quietly listens! Super cute.

I also checked out a few books...

This books is a lot of fun! Each recipe has pureed vegetables in it, which is a genius way to get more nutrients into everyday food. The other day I made chicken salad that had cauliflower puree in it. Sneaky.

This book has tons of bread recipes in it...hence the name. I made focaccia bread this week which was pretty amusing. The dough has a lot of water in it, so it starts out as a pancake-batter consistency. Then you beat it in the Kitchenaid for half an hour! At first it sounds like shlopy batter and then all of a sudden it starts to get stringy, and then magically turns into a smooth, shiny ball in a matter of seconds. It's about the texture of melted cheese, but when you bake it it makes really yummy bread. Pretty amazing.

I also checked out this one. Sleep training? Yikes. Graham sleeps really well at night, but sometimes refuses to take a nap or nap longer than 20 minutes. Let's just say I'm not a fan of nap training right now. I'll let you know how it turns out. Any suggestions?

never fear, cheese fondue is here

Have you heard? April 11th is National Cheese Fondue Day! Doesn't that sound fabulous? Well, here's the deal: Have you ever eaten at The Melting Pot? If you have, yay! If you haven't, you should! It's delish and way fun to eat a full meal fondue-style. Matt and I went on our 3rd anniversary, and it was a lot of fun.

Anyway...on to the point of this post: On April 11th through the 14th, you can get FREE CHEESE FONDUE at the Melting Pot! Woo hoo!

Click HERE to go to the Melting Pot's cheese fondue page and to make a reservation! I made my reservation today and I'm pretty excited to go. I highly recommend the spinach artichoke cheese fondue. It's heavenly.

spring break

Doesn't this boy look ready for spring break? Sunglasses, baseball outfit... Could it get any better?

Graham and I were pretty excited to have Matt home for a whole week. We tried to take advantage of our time and do some fun things as well as taking some much needed days off (for Matt, anyway).

We started by going to a spring training game. It was the Padres and Mariners. Matt even caught a home run ball.

Good thing we brought our hats.

Graham had fun just hanging out in the shade.

On our way to church we drive past the Peoria museum. I've wanted to see what it was all about, so we went there one afternoon. It is a small museum with some facts about old Peoria. Did you know that a man from Peoria, IL, was given a grant to farm in Peoria, AZ, so the people he sent to farm here named the city Peoria, after Peoria, IL? Bet you didn't. : )

We also ventured out to another baseball complex in Glendale. This is where the Dodgers and White Sox practice. While we were there we watched some practices and open tryouts.

Graham and I sat in the shade and enjoyed the warm weather.

And Matt got Laser Vision! I joked with him all week that he was going to get laser vision. I thought it was hilarious, but maybe it wasn't so funny to anyone else...

Matt spent a lot of his years wearing glasses or contacts. Here's his last moment of wearing glasses.

The operating room (if it's even called that) was a fishbowl type room. We could watch through the glass windows. Sorry about the glare...the glass was pretty shiny.

Now I've never had to wear glasses or contacts, and can't imagine what it would feel like to have your eyes lasered off. The Dr. doing the surgery and his staff said it would feel like having sand stuck in your eyes. I don't know if that's what it felt like, but I don't envy Matt for having to eye pain. But here he is taking a nap afterward.

And I planted my garden! (This picture was supposed to be sideways...I'm still not sure how to make blogger not turn my pictures.) This year we're trying a few of the same things, and a few different things as well. This year we planted some beans, cantaloupe, asparagus, corn, squash, and zucchini. (Don't worry, this year I planted fewer zucchini plants and I plan to thin them when they come up like I was supposed to do last year.) Hopefully everything grows well and doesn't burn up in the heat.

look what i can do

Sideways, I know, but Graham likes to sit on his daddy's lap.

Graham has some pretty good core strength. We don't know if he's doing sit-ups at night, but he can hold himself horizontally.

If Graham lived in a cocoon...

This is Graham's cute friend, Wes. Wes and his mom, Emilee, came over to play the other day. They are two months apart, but Graham looks like a giant. It's hard to believe that Graham was the size of Wes not too long ago. : ( They are some pretty cute boys and I think they had a good time.

We're still trying to figure out the Bumbo. Graham likes to sit and see what we're doing, but he's not so sure about holding his head up while he sits. He can do it, I think he just gets tired and can't figure out where his head rest is. : )

We were driving in the car and he was looking extra cute.

Graham says, "look what happens when Dad gets me dressed!" He looks pretty amused here, but all I know is that he had a lot of different blues going on at the same time.

Sometimes he folds his arms for the prayer.

We think he has the cutest little face ever.

And this day he was helping me fold laundry. Now if we could only find the mate to that sock.

i heart coupons

Here is the loot from one of my recent coupon adventures. The deodorant (we won't ever be smelly) and dryer sheets are nice and all, but do you see the jeans? They were FREE. I was super excited about this deal. Target had jeans on clearance for $4.98 and there was a coupon on their website for $5 off denim which equals free jeans. There are three pair here, and I've since gone back and found one more. Awesome. But the grand total for all this loot was about .44 cents. Score.