Square foot garden

A few months ago Kristen mentioned to me that she wanted to make a garden. Time passed and she would drop hints every now and then just to remind me how nice it would be to grow our own food. She would say how nice it would be if the kids could learn to garden. As you can see she was VERY cryptic. One day she grew a little angry and said that if I was not going to build here a garden then she was going to do it herself. This conversation caught me off guard and I asked her "what garden"(apparently not the best question). Somehow the conversation went from a mythical garden to my lack of listening skills and some other things that I don't really remember. Well this last week a great idea came to me. I wanted to build a garden for my family, so that we could grow our own food, and the kids could learn to garden. I grabbed Kristen and threw the kids in the "Man Van" and headed to Home Depot. On the way I told her my plan for our garden. We bought the supplies and headed home. Over the next few days I built the boxes and mixed up my planting mix. Kristen bought a few strawberry plants and we will be buying the rest of the plants over the next few days. I still have to build the trellis for the climbing plants. We are planning to have tomatoes, carrots, onions, broccoli, peppers, snap peas, pumpkin, cucumbers, lettuce, and possibly potatoes.

Strawberries Yum!


The main garden each square will have some sort of plant.
more pics to follow.

Digging in Diapers

Well it has been a long time since my last post, and a lot has happened with our family. For example this last week our wonderful three year old Taylor wanted to find out what a penny tastes like. He popped the grimy penny in his mouth and gagged. The penny shot out of his mouth and dropped to the floor. I guess he thought it tasted ok because he ran over and popped it right back in his mouth. He gagged and then came the screams "I am sooo Sorry". I ran up to him when I heard him gagging and ran him to the bathroom. I thought he was sick. He looked up at me and said I am so sorry dad I swallowed a penny. He just kept on saying that he was sorry. The penny got stuck half way down his throat and was causing a fair amount of pain. The good news was he could still breath. We gave him some water and some bread to try to push it down the rest of the way. Just as we were about to take him into the doctor the penny finally passed into his stomach. We talked to the doctor and he said to watch him and check to see if the penny passes. 24 hours later we got a nice shiny penny in his diaper. Oh the joys of parenthood, checking through a soiled diaper for coins. It was like a treasure hunt. He was so excited to see the penny out of him!

20 Random Things

1) I am finally growing up. I sold my Lotus, and bought a hybrid.

2) My life revolves around my wife and kids.

3) I love my commute 10 min. to and from work no matter when I have to go in.

4) I have the best job in the world and can't think of doing anything else. (work related)

5) I learn something new every day, usually from my kids.

6) I am working toward my black belt in Tae Kwon Do and should have it by the end of the year. I have to get it before my kids.

7) I look forward to traveling the world. There is just so much to see and do I don't know where to start.

8) Besides my family the most joy I have found in life comes from serving others.

9) When I grew up we had a lot of pets. Most of them became food for our family. the problem I have now is my boys want a dog, and I can't eat dog again.

10) My childhood consisted of simple pleasures, now I dream of a simple life.

11) I now play all the sports that I used to do as a kid on the X-box

12) The three toed sloth is the coolest animal in the world.

13) I don't hate anyone. I just like some people more than others.

14) I read to keep my mind young

15) I own a minivan, my family calls it the Man Van to try to make it sound cool, but it doesn't work.

16) We used to have a lot of people stay at our house. We bought a big new house and have not had long term guests for almost 2 years.

17) My parents are the most amazing people. I still look up to my big brother and he is still my best friend. I have never met anyone that shows love like my sister.

18) I had a unique childhood. No power, running water, indoor toilet, or many other things that my children take for granted.

19) I embarrass my wife with my sense of humor.

20) I love to laugh and I like to make others laugh.

Just a Quick Hello

Hi just a quick hello to let everyone know I still exist. I keep meaning to spend some time and write some things, but then something else demands my attention. I am currently trying to get my house in order (like always), accomplish some goals that I have set(like saving money) and being crafty. I want to post some pics of my current craftiness, but that will have to wait because they are some gifts that I need to get sent out. Hopefully that will happen soon.

Well life gets busy...

So we haven't posted in quite a while, but that just means that we have been too busy enjoying life to stop and blog about it all. I would love to catch you up an everything but that will take too long, so I am going to post a ton of pictures and have short descriptions about them. That way we can get caught up.


I went to NYC without my Family on a little trip. This really deserves a post of its own, but for now:

Me and Ashley at my dad's concert (the reason I went to NYC in the first place)
Ashley is the best host, and her family is great.

Jonny was my companion there, we did everything together.
The Subway was the best mode of transportation I loved it!

We did a lot of the touristy sightseeing.



My boys first days of school.

Kolby just started kindergarten,
so Blake has taken him under his wing.

sorry for the sideways picture, maybe I will fix it later.

Some good ol' fun on Kolby's birthday!

Blake opening a birthday present.

This year Blake turned eight and got baptized.
Here are some great Family pictures my dad took on that day.





Blake had a Reflections Contest at school, and wanted to
mess up the play room for a picture. The theme is "WOW"


So there you go. A lot more has happened, but I at least caught you up a bit. I wonder if I will post more frequently now? Wait and see.

Crazy Kids

My boys are the best kids, but man they can get weird.

I really don't know what he was thinking.

Nice hat!!

You should see him when he tries to make a funny face.

Making faces at mom.

Scary oh so very scary!

He thinks he is a real dog.

Tae Kwon Do Picnic

Today we had a Tae Kwon Do picnic. During the picnic we had the chance to show off some of our mad skills. In this first video Kolby is doing his world famous Axe kick.



This video starts off with Kolby and his partner doing defense moves. It then goes on to Blake and his partner.



Our last video for the day is of me breaking 2 two inch concrete blocks!!!!!!! Kristen our wonderful video tech was trying her best to record the break and carry Taylor so the video is a little jumpy.