This means it's offically SUMMER! Right?

Few things say SUMMER like watermelon dripping all over your face and arms. Levi's sure got that covered. Man this kid loves to eat. Good thing watermelon is one of his favorites.
Although our relaxing weekend at Black Butte Ranch made it seem like summer is here, I have 14 more days left at work that say otherwise.
We got back today with enough time, and sunshine, to get veggies planted in our garden. Gabe's outside mowing the lawn now. I'm embarrassed to say it hasn't been mowed once since we put that new sod down weeks ago (or has it been over a month?) So, I'll promise to be back on here in the next few days to share pictures of our holiday weekend and the West family garden 2010 edition...right now the hot tub calls.

Happy Memorial Day and the "unofficial" start to summer!

Garden Project...step 1 complete!

One of the biggest drawbacks of our new house is the size and shape of the yard. From the moment we walked into the house, I was in love with the layout and size of the house, but the yard almost made us walk away. The lot has some great old fir trees and the creek in the back, but the previous owners took out the front yard and put down river rock. Definitely not our style. Low maintenance, but not what we would want. Not to mention that the house faces south, so the front yard really is the sunniest most ideal place for a garden. So, a front yard garden it has to be!
Gabe decided he didn't want to go with wood to make the raised beds this time around, so he designed his own steel beds.
Here's the "somewhat" before picture. I didn't get the camera out quite fast enough. Gabe and his dad where already getting the steel unloaded when I got out there. So this is the the view from the street.When Gabe's dad and Joanne decided they wanted to come up this weekend and see Levi, I don't think Gabe told them we had this project on our agenda. It sure was wonderful to have Tom around to help Gabe put the beds together and shovel up some dirt yesterday. In between the rain/hail downpours of course. Then Gabe and I finished loading up the beds with dirt this morning, while Grandpa entertained the little guy. Now we're all set to move on to step 2...
I know we'll be planting our garden really late this year. And I've been pretty frustrated listening to all my friends talk about how they've planted their gardens already. I'm hoping it might work out ok for us in the long run since all the hail we've had this spring has done a number on plants. Not to mention the frost we've had a few mornings in the last few weeks.
So here's a picture of our beds filled with dirt and waiting for some sun to dry out the soil a bit...and some veggies of course! This view is from the front door looking out toward the street.It feels pretty great to have one huge item off our massive to-do list. Planting is the fun part!
The rest of the rock removal from the front yard will just have to wait until next year.

9 Month Update

Our little guy is 9 months old!
Gabe took him in yesterday for his well baby check up, so I have some stats to report. At this point Levi is weighing in at 22 1/2 lbs. That's 80% on the growth chart. He's 30in long, 94% on the growth chart, and that also means he's out grown his infant car seat. The restrictions on it are 30lbs or 30in. I was pretty sure he was getting close but was hoping we'd have a little more time. I guess we are on the hunt this weekend for his new seat.
It's hard to believe that 9 months have past already!
I don't really want to think about it, but pretty soon our baby won't be a baby anymore.

Happy Mother's Day

Levi must have missed the memo about letting his mom sleep in today. He was up before 7 again this morning. Why is it that during the week I wake him up each morning at 7, but on the weekends he's up well before that? Yesterday he was up at 6:15! Anyway, after I fed Levi, Gabe let me crawl back into bed and sleep for another 1/2 hour or so before both my boys woke me up with a nice warm cinnamon roll and coffee. That's the way I wish every morning could start!
Levi (with his dad's help of course) got me this set of pots and pans. I've been wanting them for years. The little guy seems to like how much noise you can make when you clap the lids together. I'm sure there will be more playing with them in the weeks to come but I've already put them to use making Levi's food for the week.
I've been thinking a lot today about how last year at this time I was getting excited about meeting my little guy. It's hard to believe that he'll be 9 months this week! Time sure is flying and he's growing way too fast. I wish there was a way to slow things down some.

Oh, I forgot to mention...please excuse the bed head in that second picture...someone forgot to let me know I should brush my hair before photos.

Walkin' in the woods

Oh, man the weather has been beautiful the last few days! And I'm so thankful we've had a chance to enjoy it this weekend. I'm looking forward to the forcasted sun we have for later this week too. Just not looking forward to spending it in my classroom with 155 8th graders...who all have a serious case of spring fever!
Yesterday afternoon we took a quick trip to Woods Memorial Park to hike a bit. It's not far from our house and we haven't been up there to check it out yet. Since it's heavy forest we ran into quite a bit of mud but it was great for a quick hike between nap times. And we didn't have to drive 30+ minutes.
In the evening, we drove out to my Uncle Rupe and Aunt Nancy's house to celebrate my grandpa's birthday and Mother's day. Levi had not met several of my uncles, aunts, and cousins so it was fun to show him off. He definitely didn't think it was fun at first. He gets a little scared of new people and there were lots of those to see. Plus loud noises bother him and there's always plenty of that in my family too. Everyone got to see a few tears and Levi's big fat lip come out. He warmed up pretty quickly. By the time he was in his pjs and ready to head home, I think everyone saw his smile come out and his grandpa and grandma were showing him off something fierce. It's so fun to see how much one little kid is loved!

We no longer having a dining room.

Levi, and his toys, have taken possession and it's now his rumpus room. Since the dining room is the only room with carpet on our main floor (I know...who puts carpet in a dinning room?!), it was going to happen eventually. We were thinking about replacing the carpet with hardwood when we start our kitchen remodel in June, but seeing how much Levi loves rolling from one end to the other without the gentle care he takes on the hard wood, we'll probably just replace it next summer. Plus, he's been getting up on his knees a lot the last few days. It's probably easier now that he isn't sliding around on the hard wood floors. Anyway, here's a picture of Levi enjoying his new "play room", previously known as our dining room.