Hunter's First Steps

Ok so they aren't really his first steps just the first time I caught them on camera. He has been doing this for about 1 or 2 weeks. He still likes crawling better though. I love my little man!! Oh yeah and I got my haircut... :-)

Beau Wakeboarding

My little brother Beau came to visit this week. We took him out on the boat to teach him how to wakeboard. He had a blast!! Hope you enjoy!!

Life is so exciting!!

So our family has been so busy this summer, and it is only the beginning!! Here are the pictures to tell the story.

Philip and I have wanted a counter height dining table for a long time. I have been looking on Craigslist for over 8 months and I finally found one that we liked. It had 8 chairs to go with the table. The chairs upholstery was in bad shape so we bought some microfiber fabric and I reupholstered all 8 of them. Here is the before and after.

All 8 chairs finished.

Here is our new dining set. WE LOVE IT!! It was worth the wait. How much did I get it for you ask........The people we got it from bought the set for well over $1000 dollars just a couple of years ago. We got it for $100. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!! I love finding deals.

Then on to my next project, Food Storage. I have been having a very powerful feeling to get my food storage done. So I went and bought some shelves and started filling them up. It is such a liberating feeling to have extra food in the house in case something happens. Here is the unfinished rack.

Here are both of the racks. I been buying a lot of extra food to try and fill them up. I still have a long way to go but I think this is a good start.

I love this rack. I got it from Costco. Each shelf can hold 600lbs!! I have all of my 5 gallon buckets on the bottom. I bought gamma seal lids for all of the 5 gallon buckets. THEY ARE AWESOME!! You can just screw off the lid use what you need and then re-seal the container and it is airtight!! The next shelf up from the bottom will also hold 5 more 5 gallon buckets so they are all off the floor.

This shelf is from the company shelf reliance. It is a first in first out Harvest system. It is amazing. I hate storing cans any other way. It even comes with labels to mark what goes where. It is not full yet but I will be working on that in the upcoming months. These are awesome systems. www.shelfreliance.com

Yes I have another project that I have started and that is my garden. I have tried square foot gardening and for my vine items such as pumpkin, zucchini, cucumber, and grapes I have done a regular garden. I prefer the square foot garden, it is so much easier. The first time I planted both gardens I had grown my own seedlings, and I was so proud. Then the birds decided they wanted my plants and ate everything. So then as you see in the pictures I built protection and nothing has been able to eat my plants after I replanted. YEAH!! I will continue to post pictures of them growing. Philip and Hunter plowed up my garden, how sweet.

Ok so this is where my pumpkins, zucchini, cucumber, grapes and raspberries are. I know it needs weeded.......I will do that today...... Notice the bird net over the whole garden. Well that has kept the pest away for now....

This is my square foot garden. It is awesome!! If you want to know more about it go to http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ There is a book you can buy that tells you everything you need to know. I can not believe how easy it is to grow a garden. It literally takes me 10-20 min to weed and water every three days. What I love the most is the protections I built no mice, birds, cats, dogs, or whatever you can think of can get into the garden. I am so excited to see what it produces.

All three of the gardens.

This is just a sweet picture of Hunter and his daddy. Look how happy he is....I love my baby.

Then on to girls camp......I am 1st counselor in the Young Women's Presidency so I got to go to camp. I was a little nervous at first to take Hunter. My mom was even going to fly out and come get him for a week but I couldn't let him go because he is still breastfeeding. It turned out to be so much fun!! Hunter loved being outdoors and he got to experience so many things. We went on a hike led by Travis and Heather. They did an excellent job!! The girls loved them!! This was the scenery.

So here is how I took Hunter. I borrowed this from Travis and Heather, THANK YOU!! Hunter loved hiking. The hike was between 4 and 5 miles. I got tired so one of the girls and the stake president helped me haul Hunter. Thank goodness.

Hunter got a little sleepy on the hike.

We went swimming in a hot springs after the hike. Hunter really liked swimming.

Then the next day we went to a place that had water slides, zip-lines, swings and a trampoline. Hunter was pretty emotionless on the water slide but he loved the swings. Here is a picture of him in one of the tubes.

Away we go.....

This is a picture of the water slide.

Hunter would have swung for hours if I let him. He is so adorable.

Hunter was so tired after his day in the sun.

This is Hunter with his sucker after one of our tours. Notice I let one of the young women hold him with the sucker. I love going to girls camp.

Everything is going great and we can't wait for the adventures in July and August. One important adventure will be going to see my family. Hunter can't wait!!

Hunter Is CRAWLING!!

Hunter has been crawling for about two weeks now. It is so cute when he follows me around the house. But with motion comes baby proofing and bumps and bruises. He is also pulling himself up on everything. He can even stand without holding on to anything for about 3 sec. I love being a mom!!

Boating

As promised here is some footage of us on the boat. Fun in the sun!! Hunter doesn't particularly care for his life jacket but he does love watching the water. Philip and I are both wakeboarding on the video too.

Where's Hunter??

Well I am going to plant a garden this year and I decided to try the square foot gardening method. So I needed to get all of the supplies to build the boxes and the mixture for the soil. Kayla, my friend from college, came down for memorial day weekend and she came with Hunter and I to get the materials. It was taking a little while for Home Depot to give me a quote on all the lumber so Kayla took Hunter and my camera around the store which turned into a priceless photo op.

Hmmm.....where should I take my picture??


Maybe in the washer!! (If this isn't the cutest picture! Kayla is so creative!)


Maybe in the fake kitchens.....I couldn't find anything to eat...

So I decided to take a shower.....(by this time people were staring :-)

And finally in the buckets....

Kayla and I had a ton of fun!!

Just Catching Up....

Here are some pictures of the last couple of months. I have more to add but this will have to do for now. I will post a video of us on the boat tomorrow.

After church on Sunday I took Hunter outside because it was so nice outside. FINALLY! I just thought he looked adorable.

This picture below just melts my heart.

Hunter loves his baths and afterwards he gets excited for his massage. As you can see from the picture.

This is me after I had just finished my two online classes. Thank goodness that is over....for now. Lifelong learning you gotta love it.

The following pictures are of Hunter and Philip playing around in a new tractor.

Hunter riding shotgun :-)

The above picture is one of my favorites. We will have to get one on a Case IH too!

This video is of Hunter and Daddy preparing the field to plant. Hunter loves riding in tractors. It runs in his blood. He comes from generations of farmers on both my side and Philip's.