Mother's Day Eve

First Mother's Day ever as a Mama E wanted it to be really really special. Do to the fact that we had quite a few family commitments on Mother's Day, we decided to celebrate Mother's Weekend, where Saturday E and James spoiled me rotten.

E woke up early and got started on the most AMAZING breakfast. He'd been planning a special brunch for me for a few days, and decided on two new recipes: sweet corn and potato frittata and croissant french toast. Both of them are my new favorite breakfast foods. Seriously, so so good. The croissants was dunked in heavy cream and whiskey before grilling, and then drown in real maple syrup. They melted in your mouth. The frittata was crunch, spicy, sweet and just glorious. I could go on and on.

Plus, E and I were able to have a nice long relaxing brunch do to the fact that a certian somebody went down for a nap right before the food was served. Yep, he's turned into a pretty great napper.



Above: flowers E got me, yummy as hell breakfast, and the iPad. Who needs a cookbook when you have gadgets?

Once James woke up from a 2.5 hour nap (heaven!) we packed up the car with cameras, water bottles, blankets and the babe and headed down to Thanksgiving Point Gardens for their annual Tulip Festival (remember I went last year?).

The weather was amazing. The baby was so so so damn smiley. Every time we plopped him down in front of an amazing bed of tulips he's just grin and giggle charming the pants off of anyone in the vicinity. Seriously, each time we'd sit him down an entire crowd would stop and say things like "look at that cute baby!" and "can you get over that grin?"


The gardens are unreal at Thanksgiving Point. To all the Utahans who have yet to experience this, it is worth the $10, so worth it.

E and I walked all around with the stroller, stopping often for photos, and once for an emergency diaper change. We chatted about our own garden, photos and how much we love this little boy.



And we got hundreds of smiles from James and everyone who saw him. Awesome way to spend Mother's Day Eve.

I wanted to post all of these because I couldn't pick a favorite. Get ready for photo overload...







He is so proud of his strong legs. He loves to practice standing.
And then, right at the end of our walk, as if our day couldn't get any more perfect, we heard "owls" and "have you seen them?" On the rocks near the falls we saw her... a perfectly wonderful and beautiful Great Horned owl, nesting with her two fledglings. Fluffy little bits of gloriousness. For those who don't know, I LOVE owls. They rate right up near the top of my favorite animals. Before James was born, I "decided" that owls would be his favorite. I was beyond thrilled to see a Mama owl with babies on Mother's Day Eve. Life is perfect.

Mama and baby watch the Mama and babies.
Um, hello. Perfect, right?
Mama keeps one eye open and baby #1 has wide eyes. Kinda like James's eyes at 3:00 am. ;)

Tulip Festival preview

Today E and I started to celebrate Mother's Day weekend (who wants just a day when we can celebrate for two entire days?). He made me an AMAZING brunch and then we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. Unreal.

And James was so so happy. Every single photo we snapped of him he was grinning. It was adorable.

I'll write a more extensive post (with tons of photos!) later, but for now, a couple of preview pictures.


PS - We saw a mommy and baby owls nesting. We got photos, but those will have to wait for the full post.

Gardening

I love to garden. Travel and photography will always be my top two favorite hobbies, but gardening might come in third (what will the dolls think!?).

Since moving into this house 18 months ago the garden has been one area where we've spent a lot of time and money. This year we have big plans to finally fix the side of our garage (it was so so so hideous in the past, remember?), fix the hill we built, plant more perennials, expand the Asian Garden, plant a new tree, and grow lots and lots of our own veggies.

I have been working like crazy in the garden each day while James naps (he's finally napping!!!). I've planted two white bleeding hearts, transplanted a ton of things, weeded weeded weeded, and planted all the early veggies. So far the veggie garden is loaded with sweet Walla Walla onions, garlic and lettuce. E and I have never grown either garlic or onions before, so we are super thrilled to see how they mature this summer.

And, just yesterday I bought my favorite veggie of all: sweet 100s tomatoes. Each plant gives you literally 300 tomatoes, all about the size of grapes. Amazingly, E and I eat almost all of them when they are fresh. And the rest we give away or freeze for the winter.

The thing I'm most excited about this year? Finally installing our Japanese style fountain and fixing that dreaded garage. Photos to come soon!

And, if we ever have luck growing a Japanese Maple (so far no luck) maybe one day our garden can look like the one above. :)

Related posts:
Asian Garden and Garden Plans

Under the tree

This afternoon was beautiful. So I gathered little sitter, my camera, and a blanket and made a spot for us under the tree.

He showed off his new skills. Looked all around. Smiled. Then toppled over.



But lying on your back under the tree on a warm spring day isn't bad either.

We've got a sitter!

James has learned a new skill! Just today I was sitting on the floor with him and we were practicing on his sitting. All of a sudden he went from toppling over a lot to sitting like a pro! I asked E to grab my camera and record (because we need a homemade video when your kid starts sitting!). Then tonight we went over to E's family's house for dinner and I wanted to show off his new skill and he wowed us all with sitting there like a little champ, and not toppling at all! He's awesome!

Here is the most awesome sitting video.

And here are a few other shots from the weekend:

As I've mentioned before, we have been spending a lot of time on the bed as of late. E got me a new TV for the bedroom, and waking up late, turning on HGTV and relaxing with the babe, well there is nothing better.

On Saturday morning E was playing with James on his lap. Rumpus really really wanted lovies, so he squeezed between James on Daddy's knees and E's face. James was content to pet Rumpy and Rumpy was content to get head kisses from E and butt pets from James.
This shot is really blown out, but I still love it. Plus James's eyes are to die for.
And of course he loves spending time with Mama on the bed.

Can you tell we were both enjoying relaxing on the rainy cold weekend?
And, I've been meaning to post this all week. Last week was Infertility Awareness Week. I've had a handful of friends that have dealt with not being able to get pregnant, miscarriages (totally heartbreaking), among other things. Two of my favorite bloggers wrote about Infertility Awareness Week, and I wanted to share the links here. If you've experienced this, or know someone who has, please know that you are not alone. (Link one and two).

His highchair

Last week I made the trek out to Ikea with Connie, Chelsea, Joe and Baby Man. James DOES NOT like Ikea as much as his Mama, due to the fact that he sobbed the entire ride there and back. It seriously broke my heart.

Luckily, inside the store he was fine, and he gave me a chance too ohh and ahh over all the adorable baby and kid things they have there (like this cute as heck rug and this mini kitchen).

One thing I came home with? This highchair! I set it up that night and over the last one and a half weeks James has enjoyed eating his meals at the table. The last few days he's been enjoying rice cereal mixed with prune juice (a baby fave!) and pureed sweet potatoes. Yum yum.

And he looks so damn cute in his highchair.
Blurry but adorable.


Suckn' on that bottom lip. Cracks me up.