One plant, three flowers, two trees and one Daddy

This post is directly related to the last.   As you have read, Jim has been hard at work landscaping our front yard and has done a little work on the side and back yard as well.  I am so thankful for his hard work.  Apparently, it hasn’t been waisted on Jackson either…

Daddy is away at a meeting tonight, so Jackson and I are hanging out together.  I was folding laundry and Jackson called out “Mom I have something to show you!”  He came over and brought me a beautiful lego creation.  Mind you, it wasn’t as large or as grand as some he has built, but to me it was by far the most special. 

Before I could even tell him I loved it, he said “I made this because Daddy has done so much for us and made the flowers and plants look so nice in the yard!  Look, there is one plant, three flowers, two trees and one Daddy!”

A Welcome Transformation

Two weekends ago Jackson and I drove down to San Diego for 2 days to visit my parents and my Grammie.  When we returned, we came home to a transformed front yard!  Thanks honey, you did a great job!  Such a difference from the depressing front yard with nothing but weeds.  Not only that, but he did an amazing job on a shoestring budget!  We even had neighbors bring us a pie for all the hard work he had done.

Before...

After!

Another angle

and another angle.

All Things Autumn

I have been absent from the blogging world lately, mostly because I was putting a lot of time into preparing to speak to my women’s Bible study.  But now that it is over I am trying to catch up with my postings.  In an effort to do that, this post will contain “all things autumn” that our family has been up to recently.

We paid a visit to Oak Glen...

...to pick apples...

...and pumpkins!

We brought our bounty home...

...and displayed it proudly!

For our fellowship class party at church, the theme this year was “Get Your Game On!” (and the theme could be interpreted any way you wanted).  So we decided to dress as our favorite board game “Settlers of Catan“.  If you are familiar with it you will get a kick out of this photo.  And if you are not, then just laugh at how silly we look (and to interpret it for you: Jim is brick, I am wheat and Jackson is the robber). 

Our little robber...

...and his threat.

Pumpkin carving time!

The finished product. (Yeah, we thought the mold made it look more scary too.)

My little policeman (taking his role very seriously)!

Jackson's preschool class

Jackson's proudest Halloween moment: while stopping for gas, we saw some police and they were nice enough to have their picture taken with Jackson (and give him some cool badges to hand out)!

Jackson loved that his Grammie got to go trick-or-treating with us!

Even though the weather has felt like Autumn is a long way off, the trees always seem to know what season it really is.

Our tomato is bigger than yours…

At the end of spring we went to the annual Monster Tomato Sale at the Fullerton Arboretum with some friends.  We both purchased multiple tomatoes to take home and plant in our gardens.  Ever since then, friendly competitive banter often breaks out between us as we tease about whose tomatoes have grown more or who will have the most superb specimens.  I will not mention their names as I would not want to risk their utter embarrassment, but they know who they are.  And we will continue to keep this competition friendly, and above all, mature.  All this to say….

OUR TOMATO IS BIGGER THAN YOURS!  (Yah, baby!)

(My hand was included in the picture to show you the scale of sheer enormity )

This XXL tomato of the yellow variety was picked last night along with a pretty large bounty of Cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, a pepper and bunch of grapes.

We have been enjoying the results for the last two nights:

When life gives you tomatoes- make salsa!

New House Guests

Typically, we do not make our house guests sleep outside.  But these are not typical house guests (or maybe the proper term would be porch guests)…

We enjoyed the days of watching this mother dove make her nest in our Staghorn fern and sit on the eggs.  

 

Then the babies finally hatched!  Now we see the mom swooping in several times a day to feed the babies. 

 

These guys are allowed to stay as long as they want!

Spring has sprung!

Well, almost.  I know the official first day of Spring is not until March 20, but it looks like Spring in our yard!  Apparently, my husband (with Jackson’s fervent help I’m sure), planted some bulbs in our front yard a while ago, and now they are popping up all over.  What a sweet surprise!  Take a look for yourself…

Daffodil extraordinaire (pay no attention to the weed in the foreground..) 

 

  This Orange one is gorgeous, but we don’t know what it’s called.

Our Spanish Lavender in full bloom

“For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”

Isaiah 61:11

Getting out of the house (for free!)

Well, I was home sick this weekend with a nasty cold or flu (whatever gives you a drippy nose, coughs, aches and asthma).  That, coupled with our January spending fast, equaled feeling very cooped up!  So we planned a Saturday excursion to get out of the house and have a picnic at the Fullerton Arboretum.  I packed a lunch for the 3 of us (and tons of kleenex) and we headed out.  It was actually quite nice to be in the sunshine.   

My boys enjoying the picnic (especially the blueberries)!  

Impromtu hug…

 Jackson enjoying the house of leaves in the Childrens Garden

I loved the contrast of the fall pumpkins with the spring flowers pushing up out of the ground.

On Sunday I was still way under the weather, so we stayed home from church and I tried to rest and sleep for some of the day.  By Sunday evening I was feeling a little better, so we were able to drop Jackson off at our good friends’ house and go see the (free) Phil Wickham concert at Kingsfield Church in Irvine.  Mighty good soul food, mighty good!