Nem is Walking!

Today she took her first really solid steps . . . this video was taken at the beginning of the day . . . ahhhh, our baby is now a toddler!

Our Garden

I think I've always wanted to live close to the land. The yearning began when I read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as a kid. There is very little quite as satisfying as eating a meal grown in your own backyard that is the result of good hard work, sweat and laughter. Thankfully, Jay feels the same way, and so it may come as no surprise that our backyard has become quite an experiment in suburban homesteading. We are growing so many different kinds of vegetables: corn, broccoli, zucchini, four kinds of squash, celery, green peppers, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, basil, dill, and more! See how nicely our carrots are growing!

Oh, and here are our beets . . . behind them you can see our peas climbing away. Everyday they grow in noticeable ways!

Spinach: my favorite crop by far. Although eggplant is my favorite vegetable . . . spinach grows so much quicker and requires absolutely no prep, other than wiping off the dirt :)

Cilantro, growing like gang busters. (We are obsessed with cilantro!)

We are growing Butternut, Spaghetti, and Acorn squash. The spaghetti squash that you see here was grown from the seeds of a lovely squash that graced our table only last October!The aforementioned eggplant. Growing, ever so slowly. Ahhh . . . patience. Nothing like a garden to teach you the virtues.

Our rows of tomatoes behind the shed . . . hemmed in by our raspberry and blackberry bushes. We have more tomatoes all over the yard!

Our valiant cantaloupe experiment from last year has resurfaced. We didn't get a single cantaloupe last season, but it fought tooth and nail (do they have teeth and nails?) to get through a layer of weed matting and mulch to show its face this year. You have to respect a plant like that. Our Concord grapes. This year we may get to use our own grapes to make jelly!

Our grapes on the arbor. This is only their third year and look at them! Working in the garden. I don't usually wear such nice clothes to work in the dirt, but we had just gotten home from Mass and I couldn't resist. I know God wants us to refrain from work on Sundays, but it really doesn't feel like work to me :)

Our favorite flowers in the garden . . . more beautiful everyday.

The Dominican Republic!

Just a few photos of our trip down to celebrate Jeff and Kate's wedding. Jay and I were in and out of sickness for most of the week, but even in the face of illness, we were able to have a pretty good time!

Jay on a good day :)Nemmers, enjoying the heat au naturale.Swimming!The tub was humongous! So we all jumped in and washed the sand off from the beautiful beach . . . (of which I have no pictures )Hanna and Nem face off!Eden giggles . . . during a storm no less . . . You can't tell in this picture, but there was an amazing storm going on with thunder and lightening and sheets of rain just pouring off the roof of the cabana!

The girls in wedding mode . . . this is the best picture I have of them in their beautiful white dresses. They were just too jumpy!We really did have fun!