Let's go check the blueberries...

Mason has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the day when the blueberries are no longer green and he can pick them.  We went through a week of picking and trying a green berry each day until he finally decided (with a little persuasion from Mommy who told him we couldn't play outside if he was going to continue to pick the green ones) to wait patiently for this magical day to arrive.  Early this week we ventured out first thing in the morning to inspect the plants.
Mason searched high and low and found this...

Tah Dah! BLUEBERRY! 

And not just one, but a 2 and a half year old sized handful of them.

Nap Time!

I don't have a photo of my nap today so you will just have to use your imagination as you read on, but here is a special highlight from the week: 

Josh and Mason at Daddy's Teacher of the Year Hoopla this week...

So I am mere hours from the beginning of week 39 in this pregnancy and am wondering just how long this little girl will decide to rummage around in my belly like a scene from a science fiction movie.  Mason leaned in and said to her before bed tonight, "Hey baby you want to come out and get some hugs!"  She responded by giving me a swift kick in the ribs, which was followed by a big "pat" from Mason as he ran off to the other side of the room in his overtired, mischievous state.  Ah, siblings.

After all the hype of being put on bed rest, medication and an overnight stay in the hospital your brain begins to keep telling you, "Be careful she's not ready yet, don't overdue it or she will just pop out."  After countless appointments and excited nurses and doctors, "You made it to 34 weeks, 36 weeks, etc. no more medicine, she'll be here anytime now..."  I decided it was time to get things in order around the house.  I was in the clear, no need to overly worry about doing something other than lay around.  We unearthed the baby gear from the garage, cleaned it, did endless loads of laundry to wash all the clothes that friends generously gave us, set up her crib, made Mason's baby book, packed a hospital bag, fielded many a question and phone call about current baby status, ventured to the park with Mason by myself, rode slides in the heat with him, spent some days with Mason playing and visiting local hot spots, went on a shopping spree to take advantage of a sale to buy clothes that I can hopefully wear this summer after I am no longer pregnant and the one pair of maternity shorts I own are laid to rest in peace, boycotted purchasing any more maternity clothes even though the temperature has risen and most days are too hot for the maternity clothes I do own, did some gardening, wrangled Mason at the Teacher of the Year Award Celebration as it was finally Josh's turn to be in the spotlight and missed all the fabulous things being said about him because Mason was wild with boredom from sitting through a not so kid friendly event and running across the back of the room to hide in the corner and then squealing as he ran the other way...still this girl decides to hang out.  

She is a mystery.  I am done predicting her arrival or thinking it is right around the corner as they tell me I am already 4-5 cm dialated and they hope I live close to the hospital.  I am done thinking contractions have started when it seems to be that she is just taking advantage of the space she has created for herself and stretching out to full capacity for a bit to just fall asleep and let me realize that she was merely being an uncomfortable space hog and not really preparing to come out and meet us.  

I mean why wouldn't she want to meet us?  This is the question that brings me out of my rant and to the point of my original post idea.  Why wouldn't she want to come and meet her big brother who decided that while he was boycotting nap time and I was trying to take advantage of such a joyous occasion he would bring me his new duck umbrella because it is raining in the house and I wouldn't want to get all wet.  He opened it and set it over me on the bed.  In my exhausted state I didn't even care until he decided that it needed "fixing".  He is obsessed with being quite the "handy man" and proceeded to climb all over me to get to all sides of the umbrella to "fix" it complete with a running commentary of all his "fixing".  When this was complete he found his "flute" (recorder) and "sang" me a song on it with a glorious ear splitting sound.  Needless to say nap time was not in the cards for any of us today.  

Happy Mother's Day

You never know what an evening at home will be like, especially when Grandmas are around. We want to wish you a Happy Mother's Day. Thank you for making our lives magical and filled with laughter. Isn't that what it's all about? (it's not that Hokey Pokey.)

We love you Grandma and Grammy!

Jen, Josh, and Mason

Simple Pleasures

So the photos just don't fullly express the joys of ladybugs.  

I hope this does the trick.

Hello Ladies!

I love my boys. They are so good to me and find great ways to make we smile.  Yesterday after a trip to the music store they came home to surprise me with daffodils.  They are too cute.  

Lately, as you have seen on early posts, they have been bonding by spending quality time out in the garden. When they aren't in the garden they can be found in one of Mason's favorite spots: Green Acres Nursery or Whole Foods. 

Today Mason helped me clean up the baby's car seat and said he was happy that she would get to ride in the car next to him when she comes home.  On the way to Whole Foods this evening as we approached the nursery he told us, "That's where my baby sister will be sitting. She will learn how to look out her window and see the nursery and Whole Foods." You know the important things in life.  

He then launched into an elaborate story of the following.  He and Josh had gone to the nursery to buy some supplies and Mason picked out some ladybugs for the garden.  He was so proud to show them to me and was dying to put them in the garden. 1,500 little ladybugs.  He had to wait until the sun was going down and then the adventure began.

First he had to document the experience by taking pictures of his ladybugs with his camera.  

Once they were out they were everywhere.  They were on his cheek, his head, his arm it was too cute.  He retold the story with some embellishments as all excellent story tellers will do.

Notice one hanging out by his eye below.

"Hi ladybug, I will be your friend."

Tomatoes, Peppers, and Marigolds...Oh My!

Hi everyone,
It's time to plant some flowers. Take a look at these marigolds. I think they are beautiful. Let's go get planting. Come on, I'll show you the way to the garden.

Grandma and I will help unload these flowers and get ready to help Daddy. We watered the soil, so it is ready to become a great home for these new plants.

First you dig a hole, then take out a flower and tickle its roots so it is ready to find its new home.  Then put it in the hole and fill in the hole with dirt. Be sure to do it gently.

See those big green plants Daddy planted?  Those are tomatoes.  I like to call them May-toes.  I love to pick them and make salsa. They are not ready yet.  We will have to wait. Daddy and I will put in our sign to let people know what we planted.  We painted it last summer and put it in this frame.  We can reuse it.

Push it in all the way.  Whew!  That should do it. Maybe it is time to take a rest. Let's get Mommy and show her all our hard work. She can't help us, yet.  She has to rest with the baby sister.

She was so proud of us.  She thought it all looked great.  She can't wait to see how big our garden gets. Here's what it looks like so far.

  

I think it's time for a cold treat. We've earned it!

Dah-benies

AKA: Strawberries. Mason helped plant these tasty treats in the garden to create our first strawberry patch. He loves to show guests his little berries and lets them know that the tiny green ones aren't ready yet. "Don't pick it yet." We have had a few ripe ones, however, I don't think I will actually get to try any this season. A certain someone watches them closely and gobbles them up at the first sign of ripeness. I hear they are quite tasty though.

Time to admire his hard work.

First came soil...

"Mommy, the nice tractor gave us some dirt in our truck. I was scared, but daddy saved me. Now we are going to dig some dirt out with our shovels."

Then came bark...

Boxes and pathways were underway...what's next you ask?  Bring on the plants guys!

Spring is finally here...

...and so is a well-deserved THANK YOU to all that were able to help out for my birthday. This year when Josh asked me what I wanted for my birthday I couldn't think of anything at first. Our "Little Plastic Castle" is already filled with lots of love and "stuff", which I am constantly trying to condense into less "stuff" (currently less dog hair as shedding season is upon us, but that's a whole other posting in itself).  Being pregnant, the lovely clothes I admire at the newly opened Anthropologie just don't fit, so as I thought about it more - all I really wanted was help. Help with our garden.  Pregnancy also brings about less ability to help create the garden we were hoping to have again this summer, so I decided to get creative.  

We decided to plan a work day birthday party, which became a work weekend.  We recruited all that were willing and able to help out with pulling weeds, building garden boxes, hauling giant steel racks with their bare hands, and other odd jobs around the yard. 

Here is a BEFORE shot of the garden:

YIKES, weed city!

By the time the weekend rolled around, Mason was trying to recover from two days of being puking sick, yuck, and the weather was mild enough to get things rolling.  I felt so incredibly loved to have so many friends and family members over to help transform the winter weeds into a space where we could begin to envision our garden.  I know everyone has a million things going on, so it meant a lot that everyone could make time to help us out.  

As the day moved along, I worked on feeding the troops and trying to find time to visit a bit while Mason napped.  It wasn't until Sunday that he was feeling more like the little gardener/hard worker he likes to be.  Josh found time to bond with his brothers while building many HEAVY duty redwood garden boxes.

A mighty team conquered an unbelievable patch of weeds that had taken up residence in our garden.



 The HUGE metal racks behind our garage were finally on the move as our team pitched-in to haul them up onto the hill.

Luckily, I had gone inside for a minute to miss the daring stunt Josh had as he rolled with one of the racks as it flipped.  Escaping injury, he was a bit stunned that he managed to remain inside the thing and not under it.  Whew, I am glad I didn't see it, although I am sure it would have been a great installment for the next "safety video".  

By Saturday evening the crowd was tired, hungry, and ready for rest and BBQ. 

 

Sunday morning brought cooler temperatures and a sprinkle of rain here and there.  Our new team arrived to help shovel gravel and dig 40+ post holes to sink the garden beds securely in their spots.  (Sorry Val and Bob, somehow I never got your photo, but even without evidence I will remember all your hard work and loved having it).  

Like I said, Mason was more like himself and was ready to play with his cousins and then "dig some dirt out with his shovel."

Hey, is that the same weed patch you saw earlier? Hardly recognizable. 

All your hard work has since inspired our neighbor to take those HEAVY racks, put them to good use, and free us from the eye sore they have been behind our garage. It inspired Josh and Mason to gather truckloads of soil, compost, and bark to fill boxes and create pathways, as well as plant strawberries, peas, chard, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, flowers, and herbs.  They have nurtured our artichoke, fruit trees, and pumpkins that have returned to the garden, and installed a drip system to help conserve water and time spent watering.  All this and it is only April!  We couldn't have done it without you. 

A final HUGE Thank You to all that gave their time and/or donations to help create a memorable weekend.  It will be a birthday I cherish.  I look forward to inviting you all back for a relaxing garden party, and I promise you won't have to pull any weeds this time.  

I love you all!

Spring Break, Woo Hoo!

So, we had an interesting turn of events this year for spring break.  Many of you have heard about it, but I thought I would bring everyone up to date as I get inspired to catch up on blogging.  Off the topic, I think that word is so funny.  It reminds me of clogging, which reminds me of... okay nevermind you don't care.  

So to kick off our Spring Break our plan was to go to our regularly scheduled doctor's appointment Friday afternoon to check on the baby sister and then go get Mason and have dinner.  The little mover and shaker decided to change the plan and have an irregular heartbeat.  Then we found out I would be staying overnight to have the Pediatric Cardiologist check on her little heart.  

By 7pm or so, we were worried, hungry, and in the new hospital, which by the way is really nice. The staff was great and that helped a bunch.  Josh ran to pick up Mason and some dinner and came back to visit me.  Mason was excited to show me his security badge and ask me, "Mommy are you getting the baby sister out today?"  

I told him not yet, and to tell her to stay in to get healthy and strong first.  He leaned over to her and said, "Don't come out yet baby sister, you have to get big and strong like me."  He then proceeded to tell us how when she comes out he is going to teach her how to dig dirt out with his shovel.  Ah, my little garden boy.  

So the night dragged on and I had some contractions and finally morning arrived and Josh came back to visit me.  The Pediatric Cardiologist arrived with his brand new equipment and did an ultrasound to check on her heart.  He was so great.  He talked us through the whole exam and showed us all that he was looking for.  No wondering what he was looking at.  He reassured us that her heart looked healthy and strong and that sometimes the little ones have these irregularities in the womb and work themselves out later on.  We ended up staying until late that evening for a few more tests and such.

The whole thing was kind of like when I had Mason.  Go home from work on Friday and suddenly life changed.  So I was asked to stop working and rest a bunch to keep the baby happy and growing where she is.  So far so good.  Our family has been great and so helpful with everything.  Josh and Mason are maximizing their father-son time in the garden (be on the lookout for new postings. I will try to keep you updated while resting.)  

I am taking full advantage of my new duties as "resting baby grower", napping a bunch and from time to time I even make it out to supervise the gardening in my fancy new chair from Larry and Lynn.  

STRIKE!

Rented shoes, a ball, and good friends.  It sounds like it's time to bowl.

It had been many years since my last time bowling.  After playing in the snow and taking a cozy afternoon nap we were ready for a night out on the town.  We found the local bowling alley and taught Mason about the joys of a good 'ol game of bowling.  Grandma and Grandpa Roetker would be so proud!

Daddy and Mason found the brightest ball they had and set her loose.  

Mommy could barely contain his excitement to get him to wait for his ball to return, let alone pose for a quick photo.

Mighty Green was back and ready for gutter ball number 2!

Before we knew it, Mason had perfected his game, with a little help from the man that brought out "The Ramp". 

What a clever invention!  Look out pins, here comes Mighty Green!  GO! GO! GO!

WOO HOO!

I think I worked up an appetite.  Where's the nearest chips and guacamole?