Twenty-Eight Is Great!!

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday. Most of his presents came early this year (the shed, lawn mower, a new flat screen tv, etc) so I felt bad that I didn't really have anything to give him today, except for a yummy dinner at his request. Then I thought, wait! I can tell him, and everyone else how much I love him and appreciate him. Jordan works so hard in law school, but he also works so hard to make sure he spends enough time with me and Clara and to help me out around the house and give me a break from the world of being a mom. I love his sense of humor. I love that he always tries to make me smile and laugh. I love that he can tell when I am upset or sad and that he can always make it better. I love that he puts up with all my quirkiness (and that he doesn't think it is anything to put up with!) I love that he is such a good father. I love how patient he is with me. I love that he does projects for and with me that I know he doesn't really want to do, but that I want them done (the garden, the fence). I love how he always thinks of thoughtful things to do for me. And really, I just love HIM!! Thank you for being my husband, Jordan. I love you so much! Happy 28th Birthday!

Project, Projects, and more Projects!

It feels like our house is a constant project, but in a good way! I just finished painting our kitchen, and it looks so good! Jordan got a lawn mower for an early birthday present (all of his presents were early this year! His birthday isn't until next week!), so today he mowed the lawn. Jordan's mom, his brother Joseph and his wife Maren and his other brother Michael were here this week and we got and built a shed for our backyard(Thanks Joseph and Michael!). Plus we finally put together the rocking chairs for our front porch that we got for Christmas. Add all that to our garden, fence and the painting we have already done and it seems like our house is constantly changing! Here are some pictures of those changes, along with some of Clara, just because she is cute!
Here is the shed being built. Goodbye bikes in the kitchen!

Here is our new lawn mower and by ours I really mean Jordan's because I am pretty sure he will be the one who uses it the most!Here is how bad our lawn looked before this handy mower. I am pretty sure we could have lost Clara in it!
And After!
And here are our new rocking chairs. If you come visit, we will let you sit in them!
And finally here is the new color for our kitchen. The walls are still all taped. I wanted to give the paint time to dry before I took it off, so that will happen Monday, then hopefully our house will get put back together and I can post a real picture of the kitchen!
And finally, here are a couple of pictures of Clara in her first experience of playing in the mud. She LOVED it! (and loved to eat it!)

Cool Song

So I am not a big Jon Schmidt fan, I could take or leave his music, but I really liked this! Hope you enjoy it!

$20

Jordan, Clara and I went on a walk after church today and I found $20 on the side walk. Normally I would ask whoever lived in the house I found it in front of if it was theirs, but the house was vacant. Score for me, I just made twenty bucks!

Random Clara and Our Garden of Dirt

This post is pretty much random stuff. First, we started our garden! Jordan has been so great in doing nice things for me, like building a fence, and now these wonderful planter boxes! They are 4 feet by 8 feet, so that gives us a lot of room to grow some yummy food this summer! Yesterday, our neighbor let us borrow his truck and we were able to get two loads of top soil to fill the raised beds with. It has been really rainy for the past couple of days, but tomorrow should be nice, so hopefully I can start planting vegetables like peas and cabbage that wont die if there is still another freeze.

I started some seeds today for the vegetables that wont live if it freezes, like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, parsley and a few others. I can't wait for them sprout!


And more importantly, here are some cute pictures of Clara. My mom knit this super cute sweater. Clara looks absolutely adorable in it! Thanks Grandma!
We got Clara one of those walkers that turns into a car she can ride around. She can't really walk with it just yet, but she is getting the hand of taking steps. I think she just needs to get her confidence, then she will be off and running! I don't know why I am encouraging that, but it is very exciting!