As most of you know Jack is officially walking. Walking is his main way of getting around now and rarely crawls anymore. As the weeks go by he just gets quicker and quicker now.
He is really growing like a weed! He is in 12-18 month clothes now, and practically skipped size 3 in shoes. I just bought them for him but they now barely fit.
We all enjoyed a beautiful mothers day yesterday! They weather could not have been any nicer. We spent the afternoon barbecuing with my family and the evening with Ryan's family. I brought over a strawberry pretzel salad, potato salad, bacon broccoli salad and a strawberry spinach salad along with some marinated chicken breasts. My brother Ryan brought the steaks and brats and Sean brought some drinks and buns. Everything was delicious!
My brother's and I went in together and bought mom a new patio swing. All the boys pitched in together and put it up for her, I thinks he really likes it. :) Her are some fun pictures of our afternoon in the sun.. I could not believe how hot it got! I at the last minute grabbed the sunscreen for the kids before I left the house and I am glad I did, Ryan got a nice burn on both his arms!
Ryan has gotten a few more walls up in the basement, and we are now getting the ball rolling for the landscaping. Ryan worked on it some this weekend and put in a divider for the rock/bush area we will have next to the drive way. We should be getting the cement pad and driveway laid for Ryan's new garage in the next 2 weeks, and Ryan is ordering the fence. Then Ryan will put in the sprinkler system, and we will get the sod put in. Ryan's Dad told us about a rancher he knows from work that has literally tons of really old manure that we could use for our top soil/fertilizer. Ryan's Dad got a trailer load from him for his garden. I was very happy to hear about that! I did not want to have to use chemical fertilizers for our yard and that should work perfectly.
My mother in law called me this morning and spoke with me about starting our own natural/organic food co-op. I have been looking into joining one so I really liked the idea. I think we will probably end up going through UNFI since they have the largest variety of food available. The only criteria is a minimum order of $500 each month, which would be very easy to do between the 3-5 of us that will be in on it. I have been buying bulk from the health store here but am looking forward to saving some more money and also having more options for organic foods. I want to have my own organic garden, but I think that will need to wait until next year. I will take this year to learn everything I can about it and make a plan. I'd like to do a green house. I love the thought of growing our own produce and having the children help and learn to garden as well. I think it will be an excellent learning experience for them and it would be so rewarding.
I will be sure to post pictures as we get our landscaping done. We are all very excited to get it done and have a fun, beautiful and safe place to hang out, garden and play.
