How Does Your Garden Grow?

I've always wanted to plant my own vegetable garden.... and so I decided to go for it. I told Josh in the beginning that I would be thrilled even to get just one vegetable to grow, since I have no clue what I am doing.

So, here is how it started.... a BIG pile of dirt - of which
Will played on for a few days before I started...

Then I tilled and planted...with Will's help from
his plastic rake :)!
I planted pumpkin, eggplant, carrots, squash & zucchini.

And here is my trusty sidekick. I always tell him he's my big helper... and so yesterday when we filled up the pitcher to water the garden - Will yelled, "Thanks for the water mommy... you're my good helper!"

Here are the plants getting larger.

Here is the tomato plant my mother-in-law gave me. It is growing roma tomatoes on the right and big boy tomatoes on the left.... kind of nice, although it was a surprise.

And...TA-DA! The first two veggies I picked. They are the summer squash.
I read on the internet that you should pick them between
4-6 inches long - as they taste the best that way. (or so they say!)

So, Mom are you proud!!! :)

No Girls Allowed!

Friday night, Josh and Will experienced "male bonding." They slept in our yard in a tent. This tent was huge. It sleeps 16 people. We don't own a tent so we borrowed Josh's brother's tent. Josh laughed at me for dressing Will in winter pj's - but the next day was happy about it because it was really cold that night. Josh was wishing he had something warmer on than shorts and a t-shirt.

Will was SO excited about this tent. He kept running in and out and jumping on the air mattress. I didn't think he was going to stay in it the whole night, but he slept straight through until daddy woke him up in the morning at 6am to go fishing!!!

I kept taking pictures and Josh wanted me to leave so they could be alone and have their boy time.... thanks a lot! I guess there will be more of this as Will gets older.

Good night mom!

Ok - really we are fine out here... goodnight!

I was nervous that a bear would get them or that Will would wander out or something....(Will has been know to wander out of bed at night). But they did great and the birds woke Josh up early in the morning, so they got in a few good hours fishing. Will was so worn out that on the way home from fishing at 930 am he fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up for a while after Josh pulled in at home. Successful bonding time I would say!

My Little Pony

Abby's first little pony tail! Yes, on the top of her head. She hated me putting this hair band in her hair.... but she kept it in all morning until I took it out for nap times. Its fun dressing up a girl.... even just to go outside and play in the dirt!

Too CUTE

Ok - I'm ready for my nap..... her hair stayed like this after I took out the rubber band.

Oh and now she's climbing!!! I put her in the playroom while I was starting dinner and went to check on her only about 2 minutes later because I wanted to put the gate up on the stairs... and here she was - on top of the lego table and Will was in the other room so I know he didn't put her up there. Oh NO! This girl doesn't miss a thing.

Double Take

WILL

JOSH

So identical! As if I didn't have enough proof that this is Josh's clone!
My two orphan boys! I can't help but laugh at their classic expressions.

No TV

YUMM!!!! I really love chocolate lately and I really like to bake and cook.

So, while Josh and I decided to put our direct tv on hold for a little while- I have been on the internet more since I'm not able to use the tv to watch my cooking shows. I have found a couple neat blogs on cooking. I wanted to share them with you because they make my mouth water... Enjoy!

Here are a few links....

http://pickypalate.blogspot.com/
http://priscillabakes.blogspot.com/
http://mysisterscucina.blogspot.com/
http://therecipegirl.blogspot.com/
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

I really want to try and make some of these desserts - I'll let you know if I do!

Thank God for CHOCOLATE!

A House Full

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Quick Trip

On Sunday after church we headed up to Buffalo, NY for a last minute trip. Josh had to work a couple days up there for his brother and so I decided to take the kids and go up with him. It was the first time I've seen Buffalo in warm weather. It is a beautiful city. The first night we were there we went downtown to show Will the Navy ships. He loved looking at these. We were there too late to be able to go inside, but that didn't matter to him.

Two peas in a pod!

Abby and I near the lake.

(sidenote: These windmills or wind turbines are HUGE! Each propeller or whatever they are sticking off are 3 football fields in length.... yeah HUGE! Josh's brother, Matt, almost had Josh and a few guys from the shop here work on repairing those last year - they didn't end up getting the job though. I loved these. I just thought they looked really neat near the water here)

During the day on Monday and Tuesday while Josh worked, I took the kids to this beach on Lake Erie right near our hotel. The weather couldn't have been nicer. Blue skies and plenty of sun. The sand was so soft and there was also a playground on the beach.

Will played in the sand with his buckets, shovels, and tractor. What more could a boy want? Oh I guess a few slides.... yes he played on the playground as well.

Abby just practiced her speedy crawling. She loved scooting all over in the sand and actually never tried to eat any. What a good girl! There weren't many people here so it was nice she had room to crawl around.

When Josh and I got home and looked at these pictures of Will we couldn't believe how old he looked! :( He is growing up so quickly. His favorite phrase right now is "Why Not?"

Spitting image of Josh!

4th of July - Gehman Style

Gehman family tradition - every fourth of July everyone tries to meet at Josh's grandfather's cabin. Usually everyone makes it and its a crazy, but fun, madhouse. This year it was going to be the 10 adults and 13 kids - but God had other plans this year. My sister - in -law , Mandy had her 6th baby a couple weeks late and were not able to make it. My mother-in-law, MaryLou was down in TN with them helping out - so this year the cabin was different. It was pretty quiet, but we still had a good time. We missed the rest of the fam though.

Here are the kids at the huge table in the kitchen. They are all in this picture except for Catherine and Abby. It goes... (left to right) Grace, Aiden, Andrew, Will, and Annie. They had a blast together.

Will and Annie hanging out in the kitchen. These two usually are anywhere that there is food! They also were inside whenever the adults were inside because they aren't old enough to be near the pond without supervision - that was hard for Will to understand.

Oh - and I guess there is some fishing that went on....
The boys fish ALL day usually while we are at the cabin - no wonder they love it there so much!

Catherine found this tiny lizard while the kids went out on a nature walk with Aunt Melissa. It was the smalles thing ever! She carried it everywhere with her....until you know what happened... woops. She was really cute with it.

All of the grand kids with Papa
(except Abby) - on a four wheeler ride.

They are on the 4 wheeler going up the mountain - see the white spot?

Here is one of the big fish Josh caught.... Will doesn't seem too impressed though.

Will enjoyed fishing with Josh this time more than he has any other time. He stayed out there with him for a while.

Josh loves this picture because he is proud that Will is concentrating on fishing while the other kids in the background are doing something else.... oh my.

Oh wait - some more fishing.....
Lets just say the boys enjoyed their time! :)
That little dog is Fritz.... he is a cutie and the kids love him. Matt and Melissa brought their new dog along.

We had a few fireworks this year that the kids enjoyed and we spent a couple nights playing some games (of course Josh just loved that part of it all)! We had a great time with the fam.
Happy 4th!

Playing Catch Up

So its been a couple weeks since I've posted - sorry. I'll play some catch up now. My computer has been super slow lately and now that its fixed I can fill you all in. Abby is a little over 8 months old already. I can't believe it - I wanted her to stay baby for a while longer!! She is small in size, but gets around like a big girl! She went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and had shots and got weighed.... so here it is :
she weighs a whopping 15 pounds 5 ounces - 10th percentile for weight.

she is 27 inches long - 50th percentile for height.
and she has a tiny head :)

I looked up in Will's baby book and he weighed 15 pounds at 9 1/2 weeks old. WOW!
I love how she is such a little thing - but she is all over the place. Will was big and just sat around.
She started crawling about a month ago and now pulls herself to standing and just learned the stairs. I'm in for trouble!

Here she comes. She is fast too.

She loves to stand under the computer.

Also loves the train table. Although Will doesn't like her messing up "his tracks."

She is extremely curious....
playing with the vacuum.

And this is what she just learned.

Proud little girl!