Happy Birthday Elder Toshmyster

Even though our little Toshi's 21st birthday has come and gone, I thought we should still do something to celebrate his awesomeness. Most kids spend their 21st out partying, but our little bro is out doing the most important work there is and serving the Lord. I could not be more proud. So here we go guys...top 21 reasons why Elder Toshi is the bomb:
1. Do you know anyone more loving and kind? Tosh is such a great guy!
2. He's a blast! I loved going to chicago with him, what a fun dude.
3. He's an easy-going, go with the flow kind of guy that you love to be around.
4. He's a laugher. It seems like he was always one of the first to laugh during family prayers or the belly laugh game.
5. He's a great missionary. I love hearing about his success and hard work.
6. He's a great dancer. Nobody has moves like T-bone :)
7. He's hilarious. Tosh can ALWAYS make me laugh. I miss that.
8. He's the only guy I know that could wear sweats, exercise shorts, and tear away pants - basically anything BUT jeans until the age of 17 and still be cool!
9. He's THE man. Just look at his face in this picture. Love it.

Alright, now it's your turn to share what you love about Tosh, just post your comments and keep the numbering going!

I'm a Gardener!

So, Taki's mom was visiting a few weeks ago and she got some veggies for me to grow on the balcony. I have been wanting some for a while but never get around to purchasing them, nor do I know what's easiest to grow. Lucky for me, she's an expert and got me the perfect set up.

The basil took off with quite a few leaves super fast. It has been nice to have basil to pick because the lettuce and tomatoes take a while to reap the benefits of my labor intensive once-a-day watering. It has been such a chore! I am of course kidding. I have loved looking out the window each morning to see they have gotten bigger. The red tomato in the picture is the first one and I can't wait to taste it. The lettuce is growing to Taki's surprise. He was sure they were weeds when they first popped up. He has very little faith in my skills considering I could only get one pansy to grow out of a whole pack of seeds a few years back. Perhaps his mind will forever change once he takes that bite of delicious tomato!

Backyard fun

This robin and many other birds think our sagging hot tub cover is a bird bath. There is also a very trusting bunny who lets you approach him and watch him eat. You have to know I love this bunny because I caught him eating my impatiens flowers last week and didn't even stop him. I even put a stalk of lettuce outside the fence of my garden for him.

Ruby finds her thumb

Much to Preston's dismay but adding to her already great cuteness... Ruby Anne has found her thumb as you can see in the following very cute photos.

Kindleberger Festival!

Last weekend was the annual kindleberger festival here in the small town of Parchment! There are tons of activities and everything is free! They had musical productions, an art fair, farmers market, a car show, parade, live band, etc... We decided to run there, which always seems like a good idea until you realize that you have to run BACK as well! Anyhow, we had a good time and didn't pay a dime!
The parade was a little noisy...
...but Ruby was totally into it.
The "cruisin" car show (not so much cruisin as just sittin there, so I decided to do some cruisin myself). Ruby again was obviously impressed...
Preston and I don't know ANYTHING about cars, but they were still cool to look at.

Before we left we decided to stop in and see the live band. It was interesting because they were a rock band and the lead singer was really screamin into the mic...but they still had the scenery up for the "Sound of Music" production, so the band's backdrop was a beautiful mountain scene- complete with flowers and puffy white clouds :) We didn't get a good pic of the band, but I think Ruby's face says it all...
Clearly this was the highlight of her week :)

Ruby's Blessing

This post has been waiting for pictures! Ruby was actually blessed on Mother's day when she was less than 2 weeks old. We hadn't planned on it being that early, so mom was still finishing the dress that morning and drove it down so we could change her in the car.

It was so wonderful to have mom, dad, and Tim there along with Preston's parents and some good friends. It was a very special day and we were happy to share it with so many people we love.

Unfortunately Ruby had a blow out during sacrament meeting, so we didn't get any good pictures of her in the dress. And sadly it took me a long time to get around to taking pictures of her, but it actually fits better now, even though mom made the smallest size.


At any rate, it's a beautiful dress, I love how it turned out - simple, vintage, and not wierdly long ( I just don't get why blessing dresses are normally 4 ft long when babies are like 20 inches...).

Halfway through the photo shoot she grabbed her dress and started showin' some leg...oh boy...we've got trouble on our hands!