Happy Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, I thought I'd post pictures of our latest project:

A few weeks ago we bought some fruit trees (apple, pear, and peach) and were excited to plant them, but knew we needed to prep the ground first. We have awful clay soil and knew our trees wouldn't do well if we didn't give them better soil... So the trees sat on our patio until this week.

We started by renting a sod cutter, followed by an excavator. Zamzows had suggested digging a foot deep and 12 feet in diameter for each tree. I think we ended up doing about a foot deep and 9 feet in diameter for each tree.

Once the excavation was done, Matt hauled 10,000 pounds of clay dirt to the dump (3 trailer loads). What a trooper. That means he shoveled 20,000 pounds of dirt total (10,000 into the trailer, 10,000 out of the trailer).

Next we bought over 75 cubic feet of new dirt - peat moss and garden mix - to fill the newly dug holes. Just take a look at the difference in the hard clay dirt and the beautiful rich new dirt. I know our trees will be happy!

So after 3 days of work, we finally got the trees planted, the sod re-laid, and the sprinklers turned on. We still need to do a little work (add some Zamzows thrive to the trees to help their growth, cut the sod directly around the trees, etc), but we are so excited to have these trees planted and can't wait to watch them grow (hopefully quickly!). And with any luck, we'll even have a little bit of fruit this year... we can already see several pieces of fruit starting to grow :-)

Easter

Easter this year was especially beautiful as we got to enjoy General Conference as part of the special day. We also got to spend lunch with my family and dinner with Matt's family. I love the family aspect of holidays and am so glad we live so close to our families.

The kiddos did enjoy several Easter egg hunts - one at each of the grandparents' houses, one at their great-grandparents' house, one at church (Tyler only), and one at home on Easter morning. Kylee scored every time and came away with a ton of candy. Tyler wasn't so sure about getting a lot of eggs. He would rather pick one up, shake it, try to open it, and then put it back on the ground. I'm surprised he managed to get the few that he got! Next year will be even more fun I'm sure.

Tyler - 17 Months

Well this month was better than last month in a lot of ways... but my poor baby got sick a couple times and I felt so sad.

He started off the month with roseola (which maybe explains his fever and not wanting to eat toward the end of last month). I was worried at first when I saw small red dots all over his body, but my mom diagnosed him over the phone, and when I looked it up online, I was certain that is what he had. Phew. Nothing to worry about there...

His roseola went away in a couple of days, but now, a month later, he has something that seemed much worse. I took him to urgent care, and got some advice from TJ, and it looks like Tyler has another virus (where does he get these???). This one has given him "hives" all over his body, but mostly on his legs and arms. They move and spread. It got much worse than these pictures, and I have been told it can take weeks for it to clear up. He's starting to look better already after just a few days, so fingers crossed it's all cleared up soon (he seems to feel okay after a couple days of fever and being whiny).

Besides that, here's what Tyler has been up to:

• Understands most of what I say and is getting so much better at following directions, although he is a little devious and will ignore me if he pleases (like when he wants to make a mess).

• Doesn't talk much yet (although he's quite the babbler). I am not worried right now, but I am hoping he starts saying words really soon. I'll definitely be talking to his pediatrician at his 18 month check-up. He says "dada", "yes", "this", and "juice", although the last three words all sound pretty much the same.
• Still loves watching home videos I have uploaded to YouTube. Sometimes this is the only way to calm him down when he's upset. He also likes watching certain kids YouTube channels and will occasionally watch another kids show I turn on for him (although he won't sit through the whole thing).

• Can open every door in our house. Ugh. I always leave the front door locked, but now I can never forget. The other day it was unlocked because Matt had been going in and out. I watched as Tyler opened the front door, walked out front, and started toddling down toward the street (there's a park across the street from our house he likes).
• Has 10 teeth, is 21.5 pounds, and got another haircut this month. His favorite foods are breakfast foods... he is loving oatmeal, waffles, yogurt, fruit loops (especially the kind with the marshmallows), and cinnamon toast crunch. He also thinks chicken nuggets (with ketchup!!) are pretty tasty.

• Went to his first BSU football game... kind of. It was the Spring Game, and Matt and I underestimated the number of people that would be there. We got there too late for covered seats and it was starting to rain, so we only stayed for one play! We just weren't prepared for the rain, and good thing we left when we did - it started POURING!