"The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden..."

Now that we are in the wonderful state of Missouri, with its rich black soil, we are finally able to put in a garden. We were so excited to get it started. Of course, with Jon being an engineer, he had the entire thing laid out precisely. Jon read the book "Square Foot Gardening" and was really excited to try it out. The idea is that you can plant more in a 4ft x 4 ft square than in traditional rows. So we have 2 squares. It looks kind of small, but when you see the layout, we actually have a lot of variety out there. We planted: parsley, basil, cilantro, corn, tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, lettuce, squash, cantaloupe, cucumber, and carrots. Dallin loved being out there with Jon "helping" plant the garden. I wasn't much help, I took care of Elise and planted some flowers out front. But Jon did a really great job.

Our First Garden Layout!!

Here is the Basic Idea of what a square foot garden should look like.

Here's our Garden, the two piles on the outside are just extra dirt.

2 Year Old Attitude!

I took Elise to her 2 month check up last Thursday and she is 10 pounds 10 ounces! She's in the 45% which is so exciting for us. The doctor said she looked great and that she was doing everything before her milestones. She cooed, laughed, imitated, and has really great head control sooner than expected of a baby her age. So that made me a proud mommy.

Dallin is getting more and more witty everyday. I sometimes think I have a teenager stuck in a 2 year old body. He wipes his kisses from mommy already and he antagonizes me all the time. We have been teaching him the days of the week so we ask him everyday what day it is. And for the last 2 weeks he has been 1 day behind and no matter what you say he will argue with you and he won't back down. Last night we were eating dinner and Dallin said, "Daddy, I'm 2 1/2. When I'm 2 1/2, I drink soda, Okkkkaaaaay!" And of course no matter what Jon said he would just repeat this over and over getting louder with the Okkkaaaayyy each time. It was so funny, we couldn't stop laughing at him.

I love pictures of sleeping babies, especially my sleeping babies!

Dallin loves his new Lightning McQueen Shirt!

This one is for you mom!

Elise is looking so grown up these days...

It is a rare thing to get a picture of me with the kids. I am always the one behind the camera.

Kids are so Cute!

Well Dallin is 2 1/2 today. I can't believe it! He has grown up so much lately. He is singing complete songs. It's so cute! He loves singing primary songs and the ABC's.

And yesterday we asked him who he wanted to say the dinner prayer and he just started saying it. He will usually start but then he gets stuck and waits for help, but this time he did the whole thing by himself. We were so suprised. It was really sweet.

Jon or I lay next to him at night before he goes to sleep and we talk to him. Well one night Jon said "thanks for talking to me Dallin" and he said goodnight. Then the next night Dallin was so chatty and Jon started to get up and Dallin said "I know you have to go, thanks for talking to me Daddy." It was so cute!

I love the look on Elise's face. It makes me laugh...

Dallin and Ava had so much fun together yesterday making crafts and cookies. They both had to wear their "Cars" bibs the whole day. They both love Cars!

Dallin loves taking pictures. He's growing up so fast!

Notice what the bib says...

We got Elise a play mat and she loves it! She will try so hard to grab at the toys and of course she loves to look at herself in the mirror.

Budgetting Woes

We have finally decided to become responsible adults and start a budget. We chose to read Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover", as most of the Seeley family has done also. It is an awesome program, but just like anything that's good for you, it's hard to do. Dave is very straight forward about not getting yourself into debt and not borrowing money for anything. It was a very harsh reality. We did our first budget last month and it was difficult. We always imagined that when we finished school we would finally be able to buy everything we had always wanted... Hah! It definitely doesn't work that way. We both read his book and decided that we wanted to be debt free, so here we are, both having to come to the realization that living on a budget is just no fun. But the ultimate goal is well worth it. We actually sold my car to put money towards debt. I know, it was a hard thing to do, but getting rid of debt feels so good. It was worth it. So now we are shopping for an inexpensive car for Jon to drive back and forth to work and I will inherit his car. It feels really good to know exactly what we spend our money on. No more wondering where all the money went. Dallin doesn't like it at all. No more random trips to Target or Walmart. He loves to shop, but I think he will appreciate it when he is older.