He's so Cute!

Doodle, our six year old little girl, came to me yesterday and said, "Mom, how come our baby is cuter than all the other babies?"

I could not help but smile. Of course I have thought this for a long time, but I tend to be just a little bias.
Here is Baby Cakes having his first rice cereal. He's not quite sure about the stuff. It's not nearly as yummy as his milk. It kinda made him gag after the first few bites. He is 6 months old next week. He always wants to eat our food at the table. I try to pick off the tinyest softest things to give him tastes. He just mouths it around a little and it ends up falling out and he loses it. Maybe someday he'll eat something other than my milk.

Doodle loves to get baby Cakes out of his bed in the morning and snuggle him when he's still all toasty warm.

Baby Cakes only got to see his grandma once before she passed on. She was in the hospital when he was born. She was released when he was less than a week old. That Sunday night we brought him to her house so they could meet. The next day she was back in the hospital again and she ended up not ever coming home. When she met Baby Cakes that Sunday night she kept saying, "He's so cute, what a cute baby."
She was still kinda out of it and I kinda think she had a hard time thinking of anything else to say. When she went back into the hospital for the last time she was in a lot of pain. She was suffering from a very painful infection that ended up taking her life. Before they sedated her she kept telling everyone how cute that baby was. Again she kept saying,
"He's so cute. That boy is so cute."
I could not be at the hospital during her last few days because of the nature of her infection and my brand new baby. I wanted so badly to be there with the rest of her kids and their spouse for her last moments.
Someday when Baby Cakes is not a baby anymore I'll tell him about his angel grandma and how cute she though he was.
You know something, I think she was right.
He is so cute.

Home Grown Goodness

Aren't those tiny seeds so cute in those tiny dirty hands?

Here is a little bit about what I have been dreaming about lately.

Home Grown Produce
And lots of it.

I want a vegetable garden with lots of tomatoes, onions, pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, yellow squash, corn, bell peppers and carrots.

We got our garden spot all tilled and ready to plant. We bought our seeds and then we put those tiny seeds in the ground. We watered. I always buy my tomatoes in plant form and not seed form. I have not had much luck starting them from seeds. One of the ones I got this year already had blossoms on it. by the time we planted it in the ground it had a tiny tomato. Cute, huh?

Now all of our seeds have come up except the carrots. For some reason we can never get carrots to grow. Sad, I know.

I guess we will be eating baby carrots pre-washed and packaged for another year until we try again.

This is our dirt before we planted anything. It's pretty, huh? I just has to take a picture of the pretty dirt.

We also have a strawberry patch. It needs to be much bigger though. They are doing so well this year. We had tons of blossoms and now we have tons of teeny tiny berries. We have 2 grape vines, but I want more. I want to add raspberries but I need to find a good spot for them. That may have to wait until next year. This year my dream is an orchard.
I Want Fruit Trees
And lots of them

We have a large front lawn and it takes entirely too much time mowing and keeping up with it. It has always been my dream to have lots of fruit trees. Then one day I had a vision, if you will, of my little orchard.

I am going to turn my front yard into an orchard! I figure what is the point of that huge front yard that we just have to mow all the time and the kids can't really play there because it is too close to the road. Plus it will hide our house from the cars driving past. So we are going to get rid of the walnut trees that are there since we are allergic and all the nuts always go to waste. We will plant one row of trees each year. Under the row of trees we will put down that black stuff to keep weeds out and wood chips on top, then curbing along the edges. So by the time we are done we will have strips of lawn to mow and we will not have to go around every tree with the mower. I want cherry trees, apricot, peach, apple, and pears...and plums.

The kids will be able to go outside and just have snacks when all the different fruit is ripe.

Hopefully we will have enough left over to can in the fall. I want to be busy in the kitchen with my kids peeling, slicing, canning all that glorious fruit right beside me.

For now it is just a dream, although we are planning to plant the first row on Saturday. Now to decide what to plant first. How will I ever chose? It will be at least a year until they start producing fruit. I figure as our kids grow so will our little orchard. By the time they are teenagers we will have lots of help with all the trimming, spraying, harvesting, and canning. Not to mention the eating! Oh, yum! I can't wait for this dream to come true!

Busy Days

I LOVE busy days. You know, the ones when you kook at the clock and you go, "Wow, it's almost noon already!"

The ones when every one is having fun together and every one is happy and you don't want to stop what you're doing to make lunch. That is us today. We have all been working in the yard all morning and just enjoying being together. Even Baby Cakes.

There is a lot of playing going on too.

So, I'm still trying to get this blog thing figured out. I need to figure out how to post pictures in the top of my page. I know how to post them in a post but not up at the top. Still trying to work out the bugs, but it is fun.

Dubs is doing so much better with pooping in the potty. He wanted a tiny bottle of water that a friends of my Darling husband brought over. I told him he could only have it after he pooped

IN THE TOILET

(I knew it was coming any moment, funny how you just know those things about your kids).

And it worked! YIPPEE!

I also gave him a Hot Wheel and he got so excited. He did it 2 more times that day and has been doing it every since. Cross your fingers that it continues to work. We also rejoiced in the fact that his poop got to go live with all it's other poopy friends way down in the toilet. He likes his poop to be happy and not all sad squished in his unders.

I like it much better too.

Potty Train CHOO CHOO!!!

I officially declare potty training the worst and hardest and most frustrating part of motherhood!!

I HATE IT

We are in the middle of potty training Dubs and it is not going well.

He turned three in March. We decided before Baby Cakes was born in December to give him time after everything settled down to start potty training. He showed interest in the potty, was waking up dry, would tell me when he was pottying in his diaper. So we thought now is the time. We made a huge deal about it. We called it his Potty Party. We put his diapers that were left (like 4 of them) in a mailing envelope for the mail man to take to kids who are not big enough to use the potty yet. This was great because sometimes we get free diaper samples in the mail. Then we went to Wally World and he picked out his very own brand new unders,

Lightening McQueen ones.

He picked out snacks and juice and root beer for after he had success. The first few days were awesome. He loved it. He did not poop though. He usually is a 2 to 3 times a day-er.

So I was getting a little concerned.

Then finally poop success.

He was even going on his own without us asking if he needed to go.

Then one day we were out and about and he pooped in his unders. We dealt with it and moved on. He still would poop but now only every other day.

Then suddenly he stopped pooping in the potty.

It has been over a week since he has pooped in the potty.

What do I do???

And don't even tell me stickers.

They have never worked long term with any of my kids. We always put the poop in the potty and talk about where poop belongs after his accidents. He tells me he will poop in the potty

next time.

BUT HE NEVER DOES.

Beano (age4 now) had a similar problem so we bought a pack of 20 Hot wheels and put them on the fridge so he could see them. Every time he pooped in the potty he got a car. By the end of the pack of cars he was a pro and never looked back.

I have not found anything that works like that for Dubs. We have tried Hot wheels again and chips and candy.

Candy didn't even work.

So what now?!?!?!

My dream for today is having all four of my childern potty trained. A little far fetched, I know, considering Baby Cakes is only 5 1/2 months old. Maybe someday...

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial day 2008, and it's RAINING!

The whole Weaver clan usually meets at the graves in Ogden at 11am. Then we all head over to North Park in Roy for a family BBQ. There are more uncles, aunts, moms, dads, neices, nephews, cousins, second cousins than grapes on a vine.

We have done this every year since Jay and I were married.

We would meet at Nanny's grave (jay's grandma) and have a mini family reunion with all of Jay's cousins whom we only see once or twice a year.

We would talk and laugh and share stories and drink the free sodas from the little soda cart that the cemetery provides. All the little cousins would run at our feet and dance and play in the sunshine.

Then we would take a huge family picture.

This year was different.

Since jay's mom passed away last December all of her kids planned to meet at her grave at 10am instead, to give us all time to talk and remember before all the uncles and cousins showed up.

I wondered who would show up in the pouring rain.

Jay insisted we bundle up our 4 kidlettes and tough it out.

I had my doubts about anyone showing up at all .

When we got there the rain poured.

It was not a bright sunny day as in years past. It was cold and wet and miserable.

There were not lines of cars in the road waiting to pull into the cemetery. There was no one waiting in line for a free drink.

There were tons of flowers on all the graves.

Our kids thought it was so cool to see all the beautiful flowers.

As we pulled up to our Mom and

Grandma's grave

there was Grandpa standing all alone in the pouring rain.

Heart breaking to say the least.

We tried our best to put on a brave face and join him.

As soon as we walked over it became an

out and out down pour.

We ran for the safety of our suburban.

Slowly, one by one more of our family members showed up.

We piled out of the suburban into the rain again.

Most of her kids came anyway, even in the rain. We had the biggest group of umbrellas in the whole cemetery.

Only one of the uncles and 2 of the cousins showed up. And honestly, if Mom had not passed away I don't know if I would have shown up either.

Instead of our BBQ at the park in the rain we opted for a local Chinese restaurant.The food was good and the entertainment was excellent. This was a Chinese restaurant we go to quite frequently as a whole big family. Jay's parents had 6 kids plus all the spouses and 20 something grandkids.

We make quite the group.

They put us down stairs in the restaurant in a room all our own so as not to bother all the other patrons, I'm sure.

The owner knows our faces and is a cute little Chinese man named Jonathan.

He came to talk to us and ended up playing the leaf for us.

Yes, an actual leaf.

He played Oh Suzanna.

He also played a Chinese instrument that has stings across it and two little hand held knockers. His hands got going so fast across those strings.

All the kids were silent.

So I guess today was a little like life.

Totally unpredictable.

Sometimes it rains when you expect sunshine. But in the end it's good to know we can count on our family.

We love you all.