Rowley Reunion

Our annual Rowley Reunion was great this year. We had a few issues, like Ryan throwing up on our sleeping bags Thursday night, but overall we really enjoyed camping this year.

My dad and his brothers have property that's only about 20 miles from our house, so we are spoiled as far as traveling goes but we had family there from Missouri, Kansas, Mississippi, California, Nevada, Arizona and Idaho.

Here are some photos of my big boys being silly.

Including my Grant, there were 5 baby boys born since last Reunion, two of which are my nephews. We also had three new "men" added to our ranks, one who just married my cousin Becky a month ago, another who's engaged to another cousin and a boyfriend of a cousin who has been around for a while but this was his first Reunion with us. I don't think we scared any of them away.

Here are some of my neices and nephews...

And then, of course this was Grant's first camping experience. He started crawling last Sunday but was held the whole Reunion. He got spoiled but when we got home was excited to crawl around the house. He loved EVERYONE and was happy as long as I wasn't in sight. These are photos of Grant with my dad, my mom, my brother RJ, Uncle Glenn and Aunt Jeri.

BEFORE reunion, my cousin Meredith who is a professional photographer in Missouri took photos of my boys. They are AWESOME! Click here to see a few and I will post more soon!

Veggie Babies

A few weeks ago, we planted a garden. It has been so much fun to take care of. The boys have been really good at leaving it alone and Cleod is very interested in how it's growing. We have several tomato plants. One has at least 5 tomatoes on it already and lots more coming. Right now we also have a lot that are just coming out of the flowers.

Isn't it amazing? It's a tomato, growing from that bud. Click on them to make the photos bigger. I'm pretty proud of them.

Here's a shot from a different plant. This tomato is a little bigger than the other one. It's probably the size of a dime. We have a couple that are bigger than golf ball size also.
We also have several pepper plants that are going to be very "fruitful." This is even more amazing to me...a tiny pepper is being born. (Wow, I'm corny, but this is REALLY cool.)

This is again from a different pepper plant. Silas calls it the pepper butt. I think it's so awesome to see this stuff grow. I guess you can call me a city girl.
And here's a photo of Grant, taken only a few minutes ago. He was SUPER tired and had his arms up like that for about 5 minutes just staring.

A new addition to our family...

Actually, we have two new members of our family. Introducing...


OK, so she's not so hot, I know. Her stay at our home is mostly to make this one better. His name is Gordon, by the way...

CUTE, huh? Silas has always wanted an old bug and now we have to. They are both 1971 Super Beetles and Silas is planning on fixing Gordon up. We found them both on Craig's list; one was in Mesquite and the other in Enoch.

Here's Silas, Mr. Super-Happy-Pants. He's pretty proud of that garage full. And yes, my pretty car has to park outside for a while.

SORRY!!

So, I blogged about canning butter in March but now have read more on the subject and it is NOT RECOMMENDED!! I got it out of a book, which I still think is great, but I read on the Everyday Food Storage blog today that it can store botulism. NOT GOOD! So, please don't follow my example. I am waiting for a reply on whether or not I can use the canned butter for cooking and I will update you all...just in case your interested. (I know at least Der will be interested. Everyone else can just roll their eyes and continue to think I'm crazy.)

What a difference a week makes!

Here he is...our newly potty-trained boy!!!! Yea for Ryan!!!I have been pretty reluctant to potty train Ryan because he has a very strong well and I have very little patience. LUCKILY, I have a fabulous friend named DERUCHETTE who let me crash her house last Tuesday for Opening Ceremonies of Potty Time. It was so great because Cleod had someone to play with, Deruchette held Grant whenever he was tired, and I got to focus on Ryan. He sat on the toilet every 10 minutes until 3pm! Seriously, it was stressful. When he finally peed the lightbulb went on and he has had only about 5 accidents in 7 days. Today and yesterday we accident free and he's been dry every morning but one. He is really great at telling me when he needs to go so I don't have to remind him anymore! He's amazing. Oh, the photo is Ryan with his tiny ice cream cone. He and Cleod get one when he poops in the toilet. It's crazy exciting at our house!

Had to add this. He looks like he's singing! Grant's talented. (And 7 months old as of yesterday!)

My baby's got rhythm

Yesterday when Silas got home from work he was hanging with Grant and started making noises...and TA DA...Grant can dance!! Enjoy!

Garden

We are very excited this year to get our yard going...we put in grass a couple of weeks ago and on Friday and Saturday we put a little garden in our backyard. Silas built a box out of 2x10s. It's 3.5 feet by 8 feet. Here it is in the garage with the boys:So then we put it in the back and filled it with topsoil and compost. (The cinder blocks are blocking our neighbors dog from digging under the fence. Seriously.) Next year we are going to make another box where the cinder blocks are and I am going to try to grow raspberries and or grapes.
There's a great place called Ladybug Nursery here in Cedar near the SUU farm. Cleod and I went on a little date to purchase our plants. We got regular tomato plants and 6 grape tomato plants, a green pepper plant, 6 mixed pepper plants, 2 strawberries, 1 pumpkin and some red onions. We'll see how it goes...