Garden Update!

So the garden is growing!  We've been harvesting strawberries and the rest of our plants are growing.  We have had a TON of rain in the past few weeks, so much that I worry about how the tomatoes will turn out.  They like a lot of sun, but are sensitive to the amount of water that they get.  I hope the rain will stop soon!

YUM!!! Strawberries!!!!!!

Look at that lettuce!!!

My beans are sprouting!!!!

I just hope the sunshine comes out soon!  My tomatoes could use some help!!!!!!!!!!!!

More of Spring

Spring is in Full Swing!

Completed Dining Room!

Landon and I been living with a mix-matched set of dining room furniture for the last few years.  We have a table that we really like, but our ugly chairs have been causing some problems with the new hard wood floors.  We knew we needed to at least find a rug, or better yet, replace the chairs!  I have been hunting for a rug for the last month now and I finally decided I just wanted to get something simple.  We ended up at Ikea this weekend with Landon's mother and I found a great simple, inexpensive rug that I thought would be just perfect.  It was so inexpensive that we were able to buy a set of four new dining room chairs to match our table!  I think everything turned out beautifully!

Square Foot Gardens!

So Landon and I decided that we were going to build some square foot gardens to plant our vegetables in this year.  There are a lot of benefits to these types of gardens.  First and foremost the soil at our house sucks, it's mostly sand, so this allows us to use a perfectly mixed blend of soil and nutrients.  Because the soil is mixed from bags (or in some cases fresh compost), there is much less of a chance that it will have weeds, which significantly cuts down on the amount of weeding that needs to be done.  It also takes up a lot less space than a traditional row garden. 

We decided to start small this year.  We've built two 4x4ft squares to use as our frames.  After we decided where we wanted them in the yard we staked the corners into the ground and screwed the frame to the stakes.

We lined our boxes with a weed proof cover and mixed our soil, which ended up being a combination of top soil, compost, peet moss and vermiculite.  We filled our boxes with our soil!

After filling the boxes, we watered them down a bit and started planting.  It may be just a tiny bit early to start planting, but I'm willing to risk it!  I am really looking forward to having my vegetables this year!  I planted tomatoes, green beans, green peppers, red peppers, jalapeno peppers, 3 different kinds of lettuce, strawberries, onions, basil and cilantro!  Here is the final product!

Box 1

Box 2

 We're so excited about the garden!  I am just praying it doesn't frost in the next few days!!!!  (I've been keeping an eye on the weather and it looks like we might be in the clear!)

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

We celebrated Cinco De Mayo last night at Los Amigos, a local Mexican Restaurant.  It was delicious and the environment was exactly what we expected for a Cinco De Mayo Celebration!  We will definitely go back next year!

Thanks to Jenn, Matt and Taylor for hanging out with us!  We had a great time!

2011 U of M Graduation!

My little brother Joe, has officially graduated from U of M with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering!  We celebrated with the family this weekend, after watching the commencement ceremony in the Big House.  We're all so proud of him!!!

Here are some highlights:

Me and Landon at the Big House

Mom and Dad!

Dad and Mackenzie (Joe's Girlfriend)

The crowd

Joe and Mackenzie

Grandpa and Joe

Mom, Joe and Dad

Me and Joe

We got even better news today!  He was officially offered a job!!! 

Easter at the new house!

Landon and my first Easter as a married couple and in the new house went off without a hitch!  We were so busy with the move that we were unable to head home and see our family, so we decided to do a quiet Easter at home.  Fortunately my little brother was staying in town, because Easter fell between his exam weeks, so we invited him over and had a great time together.

We grilled brats and I cooked green beans, cheesy potatoes, angel food cake with strawberries and homemade pineapple sorbet!  It was a great dinner!