House Guests!!

I was beyond excited to have Brittany, Michael and Braeden come visit us this week!! We had so much fun!! It was so fun having a baby in our house! Brittany and Braeden arrived on Wednesday.  We went to youth group and had fun with that.  On Thursday, Michael drove down from Birmingham.  We grilled out hamburgers and watched the draft.  On Friday, my school had field day.  They came and visited me there, and then we went to an art show here called Panoply.  On Saturday, Brittany and I got to shop!! We had a blast! Then Mexican that night! Fun Fun!!

Braeden in the house!!

Field Day

Panoply Art Show

Gigi's Cupcakes!

I didn't want them to leave. :(

We miss you guys!! Come back soon!!

Gardening [4].

Some updates to the garden....I got my tomatoes/peppers/cucumbers planted! I really am hoping they do well!

My onions are really growing!

The herbs are doing well too!

Two of the containers are filled with potatoes.  This is my second try on these.  The first time I tried them, they rotted out.  My mistakes were burying them too deep, and I did not have a water drain hole in the planter. Hoping this time it is successful!

I planted one pepper plant in a container.  The rest are in the garden bed.

Gardening [3].

We have had a fun Saturday full of working outside and gardening.  We went to a local plant sale and bought flowers to fill three containers.

I loved this old oak barrel we bought at Home Depot!

This container on our front porch has partial shade flowers.

This was quite a project today getting this container around the mailbox.  We first thought we would take the mailbox out of the ground. After that didn't work, John tried unscrewing the top. That didn't work, and we ended up taking apart the whole container and putting it back together again around the mailbox. :) Good times. 

All of the flowers in each of the containers should grow to fill out the space in the containers. I can't wait to see what they look like.  Today we also decided to double the size of our garden.  We are going to plant 3 tomato plants, one bush cucumber plant, and two or three pepper plants.  We purchased those plants at the plant sale today, as well.  Over the next two weeks, I am going to "harden" them, and when it warms up a little more, transplant them into the garden. 

As you can see from the picture, the onions really are getting taller!!

I think I have successfully transplanted my herbs.  They seem to be doing well and staying healthy!

Gardening [2].

I finished planting the merigolds, and I got so excited when I noticed today my onions have started to grow! The stems are much longer!

These are the new herb plants I purchased at Publix- basil, rosemary, and cilantro.  For now, I have put them on our kitchen table to start exposing them to more sunlight.  I read somewhere that putting them outside right away could shock them.  Eventually I will transplant them and move them outside.

Gardening [1].

We have started a garden, and I am going to be posting some about it on here to help me remember what did and did not work, so next year I can compare and improve!  I am VERY much a beginner on this- but I am hoping to be successful and at least learn how to get better at it!

We purchased a raised garden kit at Home Depot.  We decided where we wanted it in our yard- the back yard, because we get a lot of sun back there.  On March 16, we outlined where it would go, and tilled up all of the grass in that area.  We found the soil to be very rich with LOTS of worms.  We dug about 10 inches down into the ground and removed some old bricks and rocks from the soil.  Then we added some organic garden soil, and some leaf mulch.  Occasionally before we planted, we would till and break up the land.  On March 30, I planted 12 onions- white, yellow, red- in two rows in the raised garden bed.  I bought the bulbs at a local seed store, and I planted them just deep enough so the stem would show on the top of the soil.  I also planted one red potato (3 eyes) in a container, using the same soil mixture in our garden.  I filled the container half way up with soil, put the potatoes in, then covered them with soil. I was told potatoes and onions do well in cold weather, so that is why I went ahead and planted them.  It has been raining a lot here, so I have not needed to water yet.  I am planning on planting some tomatoes and peppers, but waiting until around April 15, after the last frost.

Here is the raised garden bed.  The back side is where I planted the two rows of onions.  I am planning on putting two tomato plants in the front. I am in the process of surrounding the garden bed with merigolds.  I have been told that merigold flowers help to keep the bugs away.

This is the container with the potatoes.

The herbs I planted have been a different story.  The same night we purchased the garden bed at Home Depot, I also bought a rosemary plant, a parsley plant, and a cilantro plant.  I also bought a basil plant at Publix.  I used the organic garden soil, and potted the basil, parsley, and cilantro in a container together.  I planted the rosemary in a separate container.  I put the containers outside on our back porch.  The first few days they seemed to be fine.  After that I had to bring them inside because it got cold.  I watered them a lot. Turns out, I watered them too much.  The container with the basil, parsley, and cilantro all of a sudden had TONS of the gnat-looking insects.  After some research online, I learned these were called Fungus Gnats.  Apparently, if you over-water the soil, and never give the soil a chance to dry out, your soil can form these fungus gnats.  The eggs may have already been in there from the store, but I certainly enhanced growth by over-watering.  Unfortunately, the infestation was too much, and I threw all of those herbs away and decided to start over.  The rosemary was in a container by itself, and the fungus gnats had not infested it yet. I decided to try to transplant the rosemary.  Since I saw some of the fungus gnats on it, I took the plant and washed away all of that soil and replanted it in some soil from our garden.  We will see how it does, and if it even survives.  In the meantime, I have purchased more herb plants from Publix, and I am in the process of researching the best way to grow them.

The transplanted rosemary plant.

Lately

We have been busy with baseball! Here are some picture of what we have been up to lately...

Baseball.

I drug out all of my scrapbooking stuff....determined to catch up! 

Quelf with these girls!

Decorating for spring...

We started a garden...

John with precious Anna Cate!

A baby shower for our dear friend Anna. She is moving to Texas- we will miss you!

Headed to the beach for spring break and baseball!

Don't let that picture fool you...it was FREEZING! 

Eating at Lamberts.

We got to meet the Governor of Alabama- Governor Bentley.

Me with Anna Cate on Easter.

Game night on Easter- Quelf. Hilarious.

Last night, Westminster's head baseball coach, Hutch, got inducted into the Huntsville Madison County Hall of Fame. It was such a fun night! We are proud of you Hutch!

My parents got to attend, too. They visited us for Easter. I loved having them here and 

I miss them so much already!! Come back soon!