In the garden

I firmly believe it is 900% times easier to parent in the warm months. That is an accurate percentage by the way. When it's cold we are grumpy inside. When it's warm we are happy in the backyard. Easy easy.

And in late May my backyard transforms itself into a bit of a fairy land.

We spend hours back there every day, and it's almost warm enough to start eating dinner out there on a regular basis! Yea!

Looking at these images brings me such peace.

*More on the hardships today brought after these lovely flower photos.

For Mother's Day this year E decided to replace my old iron rain chain with a real copper beauty! It adds so much to our front yard and I just adore it. It will patina over time, so I've got to soak up all of its copper loveliness now.

 With a full weekend of rain and more early this week, it's left the yard looking green and dreamy.

 Flower pots, flower boxes.

White bleeding hearts. My Japanese garden is primarily green with some white blossoms. The hot pink peony near Buddha will bloom soon, but other than that, I've tried to keep the colors to mostly white and green tones.

The flower boxes I fill with color.

This sweet bunny was my birthday present from E. Can you tell I love garden items the most for presents?

Last week my dad brought a wading pool and some fresh soft sand. The digging zone has an entirely new level of awesomeness.

 Buddha meditating under a tree.

After walking around my yard taking the above photos I decided to walk across the street and take some photos of this amazing snowball bush.

I need one of these in my yard. So so stunning.

*Today wasn't horrible, actually it was pretty great, but right before E came home for the day Juliet took a tumble and broke her lip. There was a lot of blood but only a minute of tears. I wiped her down and gave her a popsicle. The blood didn't stop.

During dinner and bath the blood didn't stop. For three hours in bled and bled. The bathwater was pink when we finally pulled her out.

I decided that I needed to investigate a little further and discovered that she and broken the little "fin" of skin above your front teeth, the little piece of skin that connects your lip to your gums, it was obliterated.

A quick Google search reveled that this can't be stitched or fixed, but pressure will stop the bleeding. So I pressed on her little gum for a long time until finally the blood eased up. I didn't want to re-open her wound trying to nurse her (now she only nurses before bed) so I gave her to E to rock to sleep.

The most upsetting thing for me was that she was totally fine. Not phased in the slightest and not wanting or needing to nurse at all. Baby girl is growing up.

Other developments with Juliet? She now walks 95% of the time, hardly crawling at all any more. Morning nap is a thing of the past and girlfriend can trow an epic tantrum.

Cutest dang babies you've ever seen

My neighborhood is in the suburbs. Nothing really special, except for everything is really special.

When we first moved in and I started walking, I hardly knew about all the hidden gems right in the middle of suburbia.

One of these hidden gems in the goat farm not far from my house. About six months after living in our home E said something along the lines of "have you ever seen the goats down the road?" I was skeptical and might have even made fun of him. Goats? Here? Nah.

Of course the very next day he wanted to prove me wrong, and for the first time I met them, the most perfect little heard of African Pygmy goats.

Since having children the "goat walk" has become a favorite. These little goats are so gentle, never biting or butting and both my children adore them.

Every spring the Mama goats have babies. It is one of my favorite things ever, to see these tiny babies and love them. One year we even saw a baby born.

This year we've visited the goats a handful of times and have enjoyed seeing the babies again and again.

Today when James suggested the goat walk to his favorite friend, a neighborhood boy, I knew I needed to grab my camera.

So so glad I did. :)

"Goats!"

The neighbor that owns the little herd is amazing. He lets us inside to see the babies and visit the new mommies. Such a treat.

I die of cute.

These babies are so tame, so gentle that they can easily be picked up and hugged.

My sweet gentle boy is a bit aggressive as of late when he gets frustrated or doesn't get his way, but seeing him with these babies, it melts me.

Hopping baby goats?!! NOTHING cuter.

And the sweet boy who joined us is James's "favorite friend." These two are tight as thieves, and are so cute together. After visiting the goats James said "let's hold hands and run up the big hill!" It was too sweet not to capture.

Mother's Day dinner with my Mother!

On Mother's Day we didn't have lots to do, thanks to our Friday night BBQ with E's family.

The night before E let me sleep in the basement and sleep in on Mother's Day morning as long as I wanted. I slept until 8:45 which is a new record (last time I slept that late was a long long long time ago). It felt crazy awesome. 

E made a fantastic brunch, he gave me a gift I'd been pining after: a copper rain chain to replace our old one. In Japan, all the rain chains are real copper. We napped, relaxed, played in the backyard and joined my family at my Mom's house for dinner. 

The weather was so lovely we sat outside and enjoyed ourselves so so much. 

Juliet looked so dang darling from head to toe in this dress. She competed the look with little pigtails.

Seriously, this girl is too much! 

I've mentioned again and again how much my Grandma has changed since her stroke. But she's still here, she's still able to see her grandchildren and great grandchildren grow. James sang her "You are my Sunshine" and she broke into tears.

 Juliet only wants Daddy.

We all looked so nice I decided to ask my Grandma and mom for a photo with Juliet and I. Four generations of women celebrating Mother's Day. And all the oldest daughters too. (Don't look so thrilled Juliet!)

Soon the other ladies felt left out, so we invited them to a ladies photo in the honor of Mother's Day. Notice the far right. He sneaked in, and look how cute he is?! Smiling and everything.

Left to right: Kendra, Laura, Debbie, Barbra, me, Juliet, Melissa and James.

Then all of a sudden the guys felt left out and wanted a guy picture.

Left to right: Mike, Brandon, E, James, Chuck, Chandler, Witt.

 These two? Best buds. Somehow Brandon has stollen James's heart. They adore each other.

Phew. Long fantastic amazing Mother's Day weekend. What a treat. 

Mother's Day Picnic

On the Saturday before Mother's Day E spoils me. SPOILS me. Sunday is often full of family visits or hosting parties. But Saturday is my day. A day where I do virtually nothing and E takes care of every detail.

Over the last couple of years we've taken our picnic basket up to Red Butte Garden for dinner near our favorite waterfall. This tradition became one of our all time favorites, and although E likes to keep an element of surprise in the day's activities, I've long since thrown that out the window and just requested our annual picnic at Red Butte.

Everything has leaved out and turned green and stunning.

I've learned that kids and sticks are like peanut butter and jelly. They just go together. 

Juliet has turned into a MAJOR Daddy's girl over the last month. She does not want me if Daddy's around. If I take her from him she fusses and cries and reaches for him. Does this upset me? Not a bit. I'm happy they adore each other.

Japanese maples always are among my favorite trees.

And Red Butte's lilac collection is stunning. Pink lilacs? New to me!

E pulled the wagon the majority of the time, and kept a handle on the crazy kids, leaving me to enjoy the garden in peace. Here he spotted a big fat squirrel and was pointing it out to our boy.

Soon we arrived at our favorite spot for a picnic. We laid a blanket on the lawn and opened the picnic basket!

Wow!

Chocolate covered strawberries, sushi, cheese and crackers, special drinks for us all, the list went on and on.

One reason I love this spot is the way the light filters through the trees this time of day.

 Sun kissed babies that now walk more than crawl, well nothing's better.

 Pigtails on top, curls in the back!

 We usually end our loop with the three terraced gardens.

Each one is simply stunning this time of year.

 This time of night the gardens are almost deserted. Seems like our own little slice of heaven.

Our final stop was the Children's Garden. This was well planned you see, since the water feature is now turned on. We let the kids have at it, and Juliet was beyond thrilled.

 This girl loves to splash.

 James was soaked within minutes.

 My favorite night of the year ended with smiles, drenched children and so so so much love.