In Memory of our Tomato Plant

This year we Summer and I decided we would try planting some veggies in our little tiny 8 x 2 area on the patio. Summer is at an age where she can help take care of them and hopefully see the fruits of her labor.

Here she is holding her first little cherry tomatoes.

These are the only ones we got because the plant got spider mites and I had to pull it up before they spread to our other plants. I was really sad because it seems like every plant I have ever tried growing has died. I am determined to prove that I can keep one alive.

So, I am doing all I can to keep the nasty bugs away from the others. I really hope that they survive and that we can finally be true gardeners and not just pretend to know what we are doing.
We are happy that we got at least four little tomatoes, and that so far our other plants seem to be healthy.
This is our cherry tomato plant just before we dug it up. See how it is super yellow and dead on the bottom half. They spider mites just eat it up I guess, then they move on to the other plants.

We went to a gardening place and they helped us identify what they were, and what to do to get rid of them. At this garden center we learned we would loose our plant, however, Summer gained some tadpoles from the trip.

I will blog about that later. She is trying to take care of them and keep them alive. Lets hope they don't end up like the tomato plant.
This is our yellow squash plant about a week ago when we dug up the tomato plant. It is starting to bloom male flowers, and in about a week I think the female ones will start to bloom, and then I can hand pollinate them in order to get them to grow. I have learned these things from some great friends who have had more luck with growing things. We will see if I can get them to grow.
Our red pepper plant and basil are having no problems. I finally used some basil the other day since my plant was looking a little large. I needed to harvest some. It smells so good, and I think it is great to eat right out of our own mini garden. Hopefully we will get to eat more than just basil.

It has been fun so far, and it makes me really look forward to having my own house with a back yard for growing a large garden. This is great for learning though. It is not as much work as a huge garden will be.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, and in a couple weeks you may see pictures of some yummy squash.

Happy Birthday Summer!

Happy Birthday Summer

Five years ago today Summer was born on her aunt Leanne's birthday. We are so lucky to have Summer in our family as healthy as can be. Of course we are super grateful for her aunt too. Happy Birthday Leanne.

Really, where has the time gone. I can hardly believe that she is five already. She is so excited to start kindergarten. While I am excited for her, at the same time I am still a little sad that she is not the tiny little toddler or baby I remember. She is a little girl who is growing fast, and I want to enjoy every moment with her along the way.

I was going to post a picture of every year, however, I didn't prepare for this post in advance, and I need to search for them all. So here are a few of her first year, the only ones I actually did scrapbook.
This is when her dad was still in School at BYU-Idaho. We use to walk to the Hart building and meet up for lunch. Sometimes Phil and Summer would play while I went downstairs to work out.
Summer was so entertained by the ribbon on her 1st birthday present. She played with that thing for a few weeks before I finally threw it away.

This was in the summer when we were here in Houston doing Phil's internship with Merrill Lynch.

I could not keep Summer out of the drawers. She would climb in any drawer she could find including the oven drawer (when the oven was off of course).

Summer has had all of her birthday's here in Houston. What a lucky little lady.

And, now we skip all the way to the present, or at least more recent photos.

Summer is four here. We had just been playing in the splash fountains at Discovery Green. She sure does love playing in the water. She is getting pretty good at swimming and is learning every day.
Summer blowing out all five of her candles for her 5th birthday. Notice the leaning tour of cake. I forgot to put the egg in and so it just wanted to crumble. I am obviously not meant to be a pastry chef.

I will add however, that the cupcakes you see do have the egg and turned out nicely. Head over to my craft blog to see more about the rainbow cupcakes and party favors.

Summer loves going to playgroup now that school is out. Again, she also really loves water, so what better fun than running through the water.

So, there you have it. A little bit of Summer's life and the fun we have had. We really do love her so much and are so proud of her. One very rewarding thing about being a parent is to see them learn, grow, and achieve different milestones.