A Vegetable Garden

We have a nice garden bed area in our backyard. We have decided to revamp it this year because of rotting wood & not the optimal use of space and sunlight where the beds are situated (the far right bed is mostly in shade and does not grow vegetables)...

It was a lot of work removing bricks and pulling apart wood beams...

I'm glad our girls could enjoy themselves in the process; I kind of wish our garden beds were huge sandboxes for them!

Here is the finished product with fence/gate and all! I'm glad Brian is so handy with these things. We have two large beds, each divided in half.  We had to do some tricky things to get the beds level and such. We spent a good chunk of change on this project, but I am looking forward to developing my gardening skills. I love to make home improvements!

Easter & Friends

Saturday before Easter, we went to a ward pot luck & easter hunt at the park! Then Russ, Adri & baby Sophia arrived for dinner from Provo, UT!

Sunday, Easter, we had church and grilled cheese for lunch.

We all hunted for eggs! It's fun to compare the video we have of Avery last Easter too. You can see it on our blog then.

We heard a bird rattling around in our chimney then discovered this nest in our fireplace!!
After we came in from egg hunting, we discovered the culprit in our kitchen!
Babies loving babies. It's beautiful!

Monday we went to Bandolier National Monument:

Best picture of Avery, ever! Thank you, Russ/Adri!

Tuesday we spent in Los Alamos discovering the history here. We spent a windy Wednesday in Santa Fe Old Town and then to Gabriel's for authentic New Mexican food:

The sun parts the clouds over our humble hill of Los Alamos on our way home. This picture expresses how I feel about Los Alamos. :)
At the top of the hill, here's a view of our area:

So happy to have the Lees come visit us!

Aspen Walking :)

Aspen is continually excelling in her new walking skills. She can walk up to 13 or 14 steps now on her own. She only does this when coaxed because she still feels more comfortable crawling or holding onto things (rightfully so). She's well on her way to becoming a toddler though!

And here's some absolutely funny faces!

Play Pretend

Avery loves to play pretend. She managed to coax us all into swim suits and pretend to swim on the bed. We had a fun time. ;-)

Don't Peek.

Of course now you have to. :) Well, the curtain is up! The shower curtain, of course. That means we have officially finished remodeling our downstairs/guest bathroom. OH MY! Can't wait for you to see!! (And it's the best in person, I guarantee.)

The "don't peek" is for Adri - you will be our first guest in this fabulous new bathroom and I hate to ruin the surprise by posting these pictures, but I'm just so darn excited.... (So for you, you must not scroll down!) And if you do, you must at least act completely dazzled when you see this fine workmanship in real life.

Now, for the rest of you... The "before" pictures must come first.

BEFORE:

(do you like our living room cabinet in there?)

DURING:

Pictured above: My intentions were to get a dark, earthy, rusty, woodsy orange and proceed with that theme. This is me grinning, thinking, "oh boy. I sure hope this color isn't for real because I might need my sunglasses.

After the color was set, I promptly gained a new vision: modern retro. Sweet. We went with white vanity and sink top, chrome fixtures, and white/black/gray accents. Check it out!!

DONE:

oh YES. that is a square sink - so awesome.

AND that is a curved shower curtain rod. It matches the curvature of the tub and let's be honest - it's just way cooler. It's also 4x the price, but the coolness was so worth it.

Walking? Potty Trained?

This might be a big month for us...

On Saturday, March 31, Aspen took her first few steps at bedtime when we were hanging out in Avery's room all together. She was standing at the bedside and began to walk towards - I don't know what - but we both caught a glimpse of it. A good three steps at least. Since then, with encouragement, she will keep trying and can do the same amount. I'm sure by the end of April, she will be walking much greater lengths! We're trying to get a video, hopefully one soon.

On Monday, April 2, Avery decided to wear underwear and kept them dry all day. The big thing is that she would go without me asking when she needed to. HUGE. Next day we went to Santa Fe and still wore underwear (I know, I must be crazy), but she made it all day again!! (Of course going potty twice at each store.) Today she decided to put on pull-ups without me knowing, went back to some old habits, then when we changed back to underwear she had an accident. We still put undies on again and she did alright the rest of the day. I wish I knew what exactly is going on in her little toddler mind concerning potty training. I'm not going to hold my breath, but I think she might be potty trained by the end of this month. That would be fantastic!

Hello 6 inches

So we've been having some really nice warm weather lately - might have even guessed it was spring - but we were greatly mistaken!

Day before yesterday, out of nowhere, we woke up to this beauty:

Our neighbors trees drooping over the fence. I love snow covered trees against white skies.

Feels like a wonderland dream... and that's our shed!

Nala being a spaz... haha!

By now the snow is mostly melted, and it's a good thing I postponed cleaning my floors, if you know what I mean. What a bizarre yet beautiful occasion! I guess they say to expect this kind of strange weather patterns, especially in spring. We're just so grateful we've been blessed with goo-gobs of moisture this winter!