Panama City Beach...Week ONE!

Spencer is installing a pilot plant in Panama City Beach, FL.  So...we all came along for a nice (and free) vacation!!!  I had so many pictures...and couldn't decide which ones to leave out...so I finally learned how to do the slide-show thing!!!  If you scroll over the picture you can read a little caption (I think.)  We are having a great time!  Can't wait to see what next week holds in store!

Makenzie's Gymnastics Exhibition

Makenzie has been taking gymnastics this year.  Starting in August, she went every Wednesday night at 7pm.  Here teachers were Miss Jamie and Mr. Dylan.  In May, there is an exhibition where the kids can show off everything they've learned.  It was so much fun to watch Makenzie!

Here...everyone is warming up.  Then they broke up into 4 smaller groups and rotated around the events.

Makenzie is way-good at backbends now.  It's been fun to watch her grow stronger and more confident throughout the year.

Makenzie's first even was the bars.  She was easily the best/strongest in her group.  Probably because she practices on the jungle-gym ALL the time!

She was very good on the beam.  She didn't need to use help at all...and LOVES jumping off.  The girl next to her is Miss Jamie.

Here is her floor excrecise.  She is heading up for her handstand.  When she did her mini-floor routine, Miss Jamie told her to do a handstand.  All the other kids would do just one.  Makenzie did one, then two, then three....and just kept going until she ran out of floorspace.  It was super cute!

And her final event was the vault.  She definately has the gymnast run.  She was able to hop on the spring-board and jump all the way to the top of the matt.  Very cool!

And finally, each child was able to stand on the podium and receive their medal.

I have videos of each event, but I have no clue how to post a video.  And...it would be really cool if I could splice each video together and make one video of the entire thing.  But...I don't know how to do that either.  So you'll just have to use your imagination!

Wait Right There...I'll Get the Camera...

Okay...so growing up, my brother, sister and I would occasionally get stuck in funny positions.  My brother, as the oldest, was first.  He gut stuck on his belly over the side of his toy-box and couldn't tip himself forward or backward to escape.  Our wonderfully loving mother found him and said "Wait right there...I'll get the camera."  (Like we are going anywhere...that's kinda the definition of stuck!)  So we have a picture of Tom stuck on a box.

When I was about 5ish, we had this large ceramic pot (still don't know what it's original use was) that Mom and Dad would store their read newspapers in until it was full and they threw them away.  I use to sit in it with my knees up and my feet tucked up next to my bottom.  Well..it had been awhile since I had sat in it and apparently I had grown.  So when I tried to get out I was stuck!  So I called for my mother (I mean...she's supposed to help you out of things like this...rigth?!)  And I got our standard response in times like this:  "Wait right there...I'll get the camera"  Well...waiting wasn't as easy as it seems because I also had my hamster Teddy Bear with me and he was crawling around the bottom and tickling me!  Anyway...we have the pictures to prove I was indeed stuck and I'm not there anymore, so Mom must have helped me out.

Well...now I'm a mother and have finally gotten to use that line on my own children!!!

We went to the Greenville Hands-On Children's Museum.  I think Hailey opened the gate into the toddler area and went in.  Isaiah followed, but the gate closed before he could make it all the way throught.  His head and his cute little bottom where too big to go forward or backward...so he was just stuck!  And of course I got the camera and took a picture before I saved him.  I LOVE the look on his face..."Mom...how could you be taking a picture.  I'm stuck!"

Baby Quilts Galore!

I have 3 good friends from my church that are pregant with girls and due this summer.  So...I've been busy making baby quilts.  The coolest thing (for me...and other fellow quilters) is that I made 3 baby quilts and only had to buy one roll of batting!  That's right...all 3 quilts were assembled from scraps that I had in my stash!!!  There is something way more exciting and gratifying when you are able to create a quilt from scraps...and it looks good!

Here is the first one...for baby Eliana Brown.  (I know the name starts with an E...but I could be TOTALLY wrong...help someone???!!!)

I free-motioned traced a butterfly in each square and used the machine's butterfly stitch on the teal squares.  The yellow squares have embroidered bumps with strings dangling and the teal squares have ruffles accross.  I think the baby will have fun with all the different textures.

Here is a small peak of the back.  You can see the butterfly better.

This quilt is for baby Samata Isabella Tilley.  (Again...not positive of the name...but I think I remembered it correctly).  The quilt is not as fancy, but I threw the Mother a suprise baby shower...so I figure that will make up for it!

Here's the front.

Here's the back.

The third quilt is for baby Katherine Elizabeth.  (I KNOW I have this name right!!!)  I hoping that by the time we get back from vacation she will have made her grand entrance!!!  I have not pictures of the quilt...since I finished them at 2pm on the day of the 6pm suprise baby shower!  Once I meet baby Katie, I'll get pictures of the quilt and add them to the post!

Thanks for looking.  (I totally stole that line from my Aunt Martha...another fabolous quilter!)

Our Raised Beds

Some wonderful gardeners from our church gave a class on how to make raised beds.  Once Spencer and I had finished our re-landscaping, we started our own beds.  First we built 4 boxes.  We chose to use landscape timbers for estetic reasons.  Then we laid cardboard (thank you diaper boxes) and newpaper down to kill the grass.  Then we mixed equip parts vermiculite (it's much lighter than it looks), peat moss, and mushroom compost.  We just used a 5 gallon bucket of each and mixed it on the tarp...Hailey helped.  Then dumped the tarp into the box.  We repeated until the boxes were full.

Later, I used eye-screws and twine to for the 12-inch grids.  We also used 2x2 posts with eye-screws and twine to for lattice for our climbing plants.  The next step was to plant the seeds.  Almost everything we started from seeds.  Hailey and Makenzie only made it through about 1 1/2 beds before they ran off and played.  But they helped!

Isaiah was confined to the bouncer for this process.  This dirt was too expensive to become his lunch!  And there are the finished beds...full of seeds!

Here is the result of our labor!!!  Almost all of our seeds have come up!  The "hold-outs" are some of the herbs I planted in the farthest bed, but the seeds were from last year and may have gone bad.  We bought 12 tomatoe plants, 8 pepper plants, and 2 zucchini plants at the local flea market for a whopping total of $20!!!!  You can't beat that price!

Mmmm...I can already taste the fresh fruit and veggies!!!

Now I just have to figure out when to pick the stuff!  Real food doesn't look like super-market stuff!

More Landscaping Pictures

Spencer and I have been working like crazy to re-landscape the front of our house.  But we can finally say:  IT'S DONE!!!  Woo-hoot!!!

Here are some geraniums that I started from seeds.  They aren't too big yet, but there is something special about growing plants from seeds!

We transplanted all our bulb plants.  And our lilies still bloomed for us!

The hydrangea Mom and Dad gave us bloomed this year.  Very exciting.  And it was PINK!!!  Most hydrangeas in our area our blue, so it was cool to get a pink one without any effort!

And finally...TADA:

Our little hill is now completely covered in beautiful grass.  It's still young, so we are watering like crazy and hoping it makes it through the summer!