My Favorite Little Person

Our sweet Wyatt is the most entertaining little guy. I love him more than I ever imagined.
Wyatt here is geared up ready to see his new home. We were so glad to get out of the hospital.

Such a tiny guy, weighing in at 6 pounds, 7 ounces, 20 inches long. I love how little was and he continues to grow each day. LOVE HIM!

Reno and the Bells

About a year ago, my good friend KC graduated from USU and was offered a job with GE. For the position, he moved to a town a little south of Reno called Gardnerville. He has lived there since then and his wife X(pronounced ki), has been finishing her degree at USU till May. KC has been after Suzanne and I to come out and to visit them and their new home ever since they moved out there. X was finally coming home and Suzanne and I had a long weekend for memorial day so finally accepted their offer and their invitation. KC and X did a lot of work planning some fun activities and making sure that they were prepared to show us a good time. KC even went on a hike in the snow with another friend to find a good hike for us all. We definitely had a great time while we were there. Here are some pictures from the trip!







Here are the four of us together where we ate lunch and enjoyed some time in the trees next to the creek.
Pretty sweet one here of the mountain enshrouded in clouds and humidity.
After our little lunch hike, KC and X took us to Lake Tahoe and we went to some sweet over looks of Emerald Bay and Eagle Falls. This island is where some rich lady who lived forever ago had a small castle built and went out there every day for tea.
It was a pretty windy day out there and cold along the beach but it was beautiful to see the mountains surrounding the lake and the fun town along the banks of the lake.
Suzanne and I had a wonderful time with KC and X for our memorial day weekend. We spent a day driving out and a day driving back so we really only had about two days with them, unfortunately. We were able to cram in quite a bit into those two days though. We played a lot of games like Celebrity, Loaded Questions, and a ton of others which names escape me for some reason. These games were some of the best times we had with them though, getting to know each other again and laughing and being ourselves. We played some serious Mario Brothers on the Wii in a very confusing 4 player campaign in which we very heavily relied on KC and X to keep our team alive. We played some Croquet, with their brand new, very nice set, which we all promptly broke. We went on our little hike near a hot spring in the Sierra Nevada's. Visited Lake Tahoe for the first time. Watch a movie and ate some delicious cookies. And last but best, we ate like Kings!!! KC and X must have been practicing while they were up at USU because they know their cuisine. The first night we were there they made us this Cafe` Rio sweet pork which we could either make into a burrito or a salad. Either option was delectable and they knew how to make it right! They also made some sweet breakfasts and took Suzanne and I out to a very nice dinner at an Italian restaurant for Suzanne's birthday. They also gave us some cute clothes for little man who will be here in just a couple months.
KC and X were probably the most hospitable hosts I have ever seen. I don't think I have ever been treated as well as we were on this little trip. Thanks KC and X!!!!! We had a great time! Definitely worth the drive and the time. Thank you so much!

Alexander Garden 2011

It's May and the garden is well under way! ...or something like that I guess. Anyway, last year Suzanne and I, with an emphasis on the I, got way into the garden. We spent the fall before Garden 2010 removing a truckload of gravel from the area and trying to enhance the soil to help all our plants to grow well in our clay soil. After finally removing most of the gravel and letting the garden sit over the winter, we finally tried our gardening skills in 2010. We had a pretty dang successful crop if I do say so myself. So with greater confidence and more knowledge from some good friends, (shout out to my boys John and Claron) we have begun our Garden 2011. We actually started with some cold weather stuff at the beginning of April so some of our stuff has already been in the ground for almost two months. I am convinced that they would be even farther along if not for this cold wet weather we've been having. But, we've been lucky so far to have so much water and that our plants have done so well with the cold. So without further ado here are some visuals. All of these pictures were taken the morning of Friday the 13th, of May. I will post some more later to make sure everyone can see the growth and all the new stuff we have planted.

Here we have our Peas. They have grown a great deal since i took this picture and for some reason I feel like they are the biggest indicator of success for my Garden this year. I have never been able to grow them successfully and this is the best I have ever done so we'll see how they turn out.

These are my potato plants. They are doing quite well. I planted 8 sq ft of potato's which is a great deal more than last year when I crammed one whole potato in the ground at the last second as an experiment.

This is another shot of the potato's which includes the onions. Suzanne and I read the directions incorrectly when we planted them and we didn't wanna go through and thin them out so we have way too many crammed into one area but we'll see how they turn out later in the season when we pull them to re-plant them.

This is my little lettuce patch. I planted them in an area where they would get plenty of light but also some afternoon shade from a plum tree we have in the backyard. I don't want them to bolt so I am trying to keep them cool so we can keep harvesting as long as possible.

Here we have a Zeus plant. Oh wait, those don't grow in Gardens.... You can see how much help the dogs were in the whole Garden planning and planting. I'm sure they would have loved to help me dig the holes to plant the seeds in but their holes aren't much my style.

One of the major differences in this year from last year was the amount of effort that has gone into just planning Garden 2011. Here is a screen shot from my planting plan. You can see some of the plants are according to sq ft gardening and some are not. I kinda selectively choose which plants to use it with and which ones to not. You can see the layout of my garden in the backyard and the utilization of space. John Jacobs still maintains that I have way too much lawn and not enough garden but I may build up to more garden space in the future. This is the main area of the garden here, it's on the North side of the backyard. I left a little space open for Claron by the corn since he doesn't have any space at his house.

This is the South end of the garden, where we have all our tomatoes planted in containers this year.
This is all in stark contrast to about 10 years ago when gardening was the last thing in the world that I wanted to be involved in. I absolutely loathed gardening when my parents made me do it but now that I have my own space and some appreciation for getting my hands in the soil I love it. Yes, that is a compost if you happened to notice it there... and yes I am religious about making sure all the organic scraps make it out there to properly compost so I can till it all in in the spring.
Now I know some of you are thinking that the Alexander's garden looks so good that you wanna come sneak into my backyard to snatch up some free produce. I am warning you, I do have two German Shepherds that love a good meaty snack once in a while and I might fail to notice that there are a few extra bones floating around the backyard when it comes to defending my garden..... just sayin...
Updates coming soon!

14 Weeks with Baby Alexander

Our baby continues to get bigger and so does its mom. Pants are reaching their last days before I go to the elastic waist pants. The rubberband technique has helped me prolong the days of wearing my own jeans and work pants....however, sweats continue to be my favorite clothing these days. We are very anxious to discover what gender our baby will be......bets are on a boy (vis Mike), and a girl (vis mommy).

A co-worker was trying to pay a compliment and tell me my hips are already getting bigger. Really? This early on....I don't think so, but thanks for that feedback. Not what one wants to hear as the body is already changing drastically he he. We are very excited about this new addition to our family, but we feel nervous at the same time. So inadequate and feeling stupid about being a mom.

I'm told energy will come back, food will taste good again, and I look forward to when that day comes. For now, nausea continues to get the better of me, and poor Mike hasn't had a decent home cooked meal since December. He has been a real help and has saved me with keeping up with the house chores. Each Tuesday when I'm at mutual he does dishes, catches up on laundry, cleans the house....quiet a sweetheart and a real life saver! I couldn't be more grateful for his help and thoughtfulness as I feel crummy at night. More updates soon on our growing family.