Our Adorable Daughter

After a week of adorable moments with Alexis, we decided to dedicate this post to her.

Alexis is so very excited to have a new sister. For months we have been focusing on how she is going to be a big sister, and that means more responsibility. I think it is finally internalized, and now it is just cute to see her prepare.

When we moved in, we made it a HUGE deal that Alexis got a new room that she was going to get to share with her new sister...that was all it took, and now she gets excited just at the thought of being able to share her room.

On Sunday, she was playing with her doll (her baby) and her daddy, and she made the comment that she wanted to hold her baby when her baby came. Later that morning when we were brushing our teeth, she asked me "Can I hold my baby when she comes, is that ok?" After I told her yes, she smiled and said, "Isn't that exciting?" Yes, Alexis, it is exciting...

Every day shortly after she wakes up, Alexis asks, "So, how is baby sister?" and then lovingly touches my belly. At night, when we have kisses, more often than not, she wants to give baby sister kisses, and kisses my belly and says, "goodnight baby sister." I love how soft and caring she is, even though she really doesn't know what is about to enter her life.

This week, Alexis got her first ride on a horse, something Aaron and I weren't sure she would follow through with, but when the time came, she was so excited to get to ride the horse that she didn't even want to take time to pet and get to know the horse, she just wanted to ride. After her first walk around the pasture, she said she wanted to go faster, and even started 'jumping' in the saddle to imitate riding a stick horse, "really fast". Even though she didn't get to go faster, she had the time of her life. Unfortunately her attention span went quickly from riding the horse to wanting to see the pictures that mommy was taking, and when it was time to go, she was sad because she wanted to ride the horse again. Hopefully next time isn't too far away...

Garden, Sweet Garden!

After the last few of weeks of pulling sod, and a strike on outside work due to rain, Saturday turned into a wonderful day of being able to work outside and a great opportunity to buckle under and give into mechanical advantage...

After two hours in the garden working on manually pulling sod, a neighbor (Bro. Jons) stopped by with a HUGE tractor that just happened to have a flat blade that allowed him to drive into our yard, lower the blade, and scrape and lift out the remaining sod in three (yes only three) swipes. Less than 10 min. later...goodbye sod! It took a little more time to sift out the grass clumps that were left,and then we were ready to till.

About this time, a brother from the ward (Bro. Gunter) called to ask us if we would be interested in a custom photo for our new home. Bro. Gunter has a tradition of giving away a scenic photo in a custom made frame to all the new families in town who build/buy a house. Both the picture and frame are art works of his. Of course we said yes, and Aaron took a 'union break' and rode his bike to the Gunter residence to pick out a photo. While he was there he just happened to ask if Bro. Gunter knew of anyone in the ward that owned a roto till, and it just happened to be that Bro. Gunter owned a roto till that he was more than happy to let us borrow...so Aaron rode home on his bike and Bro. Gunter followed in his truck with the roto till.

---By the way, the picture Aaron chose is of Pilot peak and Finger Peak and the Clark Fork of the Snake on the Idaho/Montana Border, now we just need to decide where we are going to hang all of our pictures---

With a roto till, Aaron was able to till through the top layer, but because the tractor left a hole, he also needed to transport some of our top soil (that we just happen to have) to level the ground.

--Enter neighbor number 2--

Luckily for us we have VERY nice neighbors who happen to own equipment that we don't. The Jons' who live to the east of us let Aaron borrow their 4-wheeler, equipped with a flat blade. This was probably the highlight of Aaron's day in the garden, getting to 'run' at full speed into a dirt pile on the back of a 4-wheeler.

Eventually, he got around to getting the garden level, and roto tilled one last time, leaving a beautiful piece of land just waiting to be planted.



Another blessing we have had since our move is that our neighbors to the South (the Christensen's) have been nice enough to let us borrow their lawn mower...much to Aaron's enjoyment it is a riding lawn mower. This week, Aaron let Alexis experience the wonders of a riding lawn mower...she LOVED it!



She loved it even more when Aaron let her drive...