Whatever You Do... Don't Look Down.

We had a down right fun weekend.

Saturday, we went out to dinner and rode around town on Jared's new scooter.









My first Mother's Day, Jared made my favorite breakfast. Sausage Waffles. Yum Yum. You all should ask me for the recipe. I dream about them.









Hannah has found a new adventure.
Where's Hannah?












There she is!












We hope you had a great weekend.

It's Fun To Eat My Backyard.

We've been grilling quite a bit lately.













Most of my marinades have called for lemon juice.

I can't quite put into words how much fun it is for me to walk into our backyard and pull a lemon off our tree to use for cooking. This got me fired up to plant a garden.

So I did.

I planted some regular stuff like strawberries, squash, and tomatoes.

I also planted some fun things like chocolate mint, lemon thyme, and jalapeños. I don't know what I'm going make with chocolate mint, but if it tastes anything like it smells... yum.










This is kind of a science project for me. If it goes well, then next year I want to try growing everything from seeds.

It's been 2 days and they're still alive. Wahoo!

Look At Me Now.

This is Hannah 1 year ago.










This is Hannah now!

As you can see, she is quite the busy girl. We do our best to keep up.
She turns 1 on May 19th.

Should Barney Live or Die? You Decide.

Everyone, meet Barney.



He's a little mouse that is living in our backyard. He comes to the sliding glass door from time to time to say hello. As far as we can tell, he doesn't have any friends or family. (We don't know if Barney is a he or a she, but whatever.)

We're trying to decide how to proceed. Should we befriend Barney or take his life? Hmmm...

Here is our argument for letting Barney live:

• He's a great guy and fun to be around
• He's an orphan
• He'd be a low maintenance pet

... and our argument for killing him:

• He's technically a pest
• He might settle down with a female mouse and start a family in our backyard (then we would have to kill him, his wife, and his babies)
• It's the right thing to do

We can't seem to decide so we need your help.

Should Barney live or die?



UPDATE: Shortly after this post we heard a ruckus in our backyard that ended in a high-pitched squeal. We have reason to believe Barney was eaten by a cat. R.I.P. Barney

Do Ta Doo... RAH!

Hannah is a fireball of fun! Here is the daily game that she plays with Jared.

It's called, "Do Ta Doo."



Basically Jared pretends to be occupied with something while humming, "Do Ta Doo." Then he suddenly jumps around and yells, "RAH!" She loves it and always looks for more.

Trinkets Galore

Do you remember back when you were 12 and bought some random thing that was cool at the time, but eventually went into storage for the next 15+ years?













You keep this junk saying to yourself,

"I might use this someday."

Or, "I'll give it to my kids."

Be honest, How many boxes of stuff do you have in storage right now full of those "Maybe someday" items?

Well I'm getting rid of it all! My vision is to have a home only filled with items I actually use.

We moved recently and I took the opportunity of looking at every single object we own, asking myself, "Will I ever use this?"

*








There have been some tough calls. I've had to say good bye to objects that hold memories. But they are useless and will never be anything more than a storage item. Why keep it?

My goal is to have a clutter-free house by the end of April.

Wish me luck.

* I used to collect small boxes. What am I going to do with 30 small boxes?

We Couldn't Have Done It Without You.

The Allen's have arrived. TA DA!

The move went great.

We moved in record time thanks to:

Greg "The Giver" Allen
Teresa "Odds and Ends" Allen
Grayson "Oh My Back!" Allen (Jared wrote this)
Alan "The Mule" Guthrie
Chris "Muscles" Coleman
Cathy "Babysitter" Coleman

We love and appreciate you!













Hannah loves her new house with all the mirrors. The mirrors have little Hannah hand prints from 2 feet on down.













It's crazy and hectic when you move. Special thanks to Hannah for supervising this operation from top...













...to bottom.