So we're a little behind on the blog

I hope you're comfortable, because we've been busy :-) If you just want to see the pictures, scroll to the end of each section.

The yard (What I've been doing since I haven't been updating the blog)
For mother's day, Neil watched the kids while I built my herb garden. I wanted to do all organic, so I built a raised bed with a little retaining wall. It has rosemary, pineapple sage, mexican spearmint, oregano, sage, parsley, thyme, cilantro, lavender and garlic chives. While doing that, we also decided to change the walkway between the gate and the back yard from mulch to grass. Neil got some more blueberry bushes, so we now have 3, but have not gotten to eat many berries due to 1 rather hungry robin. We are turning the side lower section of the yard into 1 big pumpkin patch, so look for pictures of that come the fall. We also have some tomatoes growing on the deck and strawberries and cucumbers growing in some topsy turvey's which are hung from the deck. I've also been putting together the front yard. It's not quite the english garden style I wanted, but all the plants are extremely drought tolerant, which is more important. After the sunflowers bloom, I'll be putting some evergreen type bushes to back fill and provide color for the winter. For all those pictures click here.

Tyler
He's had quite the active past few months. At his 15 month check up he was labelled with failing to thrive and was put through an extreme amount of tests. All tests came back negative, which leads me to believe that my gut was correct. Every time he cuts a tooth, he refuses to eat. Since his 1st birthday he's gotten 9 more teeth. Add to that several ear infections and stomach bugs and really I wasn't shocked he lost weight. He seems to be eating better since his molars came in, so hopefully at his appointment in a couple weeks we'll have good news. He is talking up a storm these days and has an attitude that is 5 times his size. He loves to help and gets VERY VERY angry when you don't let him or when you try to help him. One perfect example is at the garden store he insists on pushing the wagon himself. If I step towards the wagon without the intent to add a plant, he growls and physically pushes me away (he's very strong). At Macy's preschool if you don't give him a cracker, he makes sure everyone in the building is fully aware of his disappointment. Course you'd be crazy not to give him a cracker, because he starts requesting the cracker as soon as you turn onto the street her school is on. He adores Macy and loves to follow her around. When she's not home, he dresses up in her clothes and wears her shoes. He actually refers to himself as pickle, so that looks like it's the nickname that's going to stick. He thinks every animal barks like a dog and while we thought he just thought every animal was a dog, he did say kitty cat today, so he does know they do have different names, but they still all bark. And we clearly take too many pictures because as soon as he hears the camera beep, he says "CHEESE". He likes to try to use a fork to eat these days. If he's not in the mood to eat then he uses the fork for entertainment. See the video on our video blog for that joy. He is quite the entertainer these days and couldn't be further from shy. He loves to completely ham it up everywhere we go from the nursery to the shoe store, he's not happy if he doesn't make everyone notice him clowning around. He is even training Macy's teachers to say hi to him immediately upon entering the room. He has also gotten his first pair of shoes and his first wagon ride. He loves the wagon! We are teaching him to not throw food on the floor. Instead he asks for your hand and puts all the food he doesn't want in your hand and then pushes your hand away. I'm not sure why exactly, but he does not want the food in front of him when he is done. He loves to share his food and does not understand when you don't share back. Auntie Kellie learned this when he said to her "Tyler drink share" while he was pointing at her coffee cup.

Macy
So sometime afterThanksgiving we missed a few birthdays and Macy is now 16. I'm amazed at how early the sassy attitude can come out. We took the kids to an organic farm that had animals and plants, she just wanted to go sit in the car. We took her to the beach and she just moped on the blanket, then got up and started walking the other direction. We tried to take her to a butterfly festival, but she didn't want to go to that either. Apparently we are really lame parents and she's going to have quite long teenage years ahead of her. She is still quite the ham at home though and is actually starting to show more of her personality at school as well. She has given Tyler some more nick names. The ones that stick around the most are Buddoman, Tyliman and pickle. She's a great helper when it comes Tyler. One day I asked her to get him for me because it was time to go. She came into the kitchen dragging Tyler by the pant leg and he was rolling on the floor laughing. If he's cranky and yelling, she'll say "Temper Temper Buddoman." You'll see from some of the pictures she went through a phase of dressing herself. In layers. She even layers her socks because you need t-shirt socks first then sweater socks, but not a third layer "because that would be hot." Macy still has a love of forts. Although she is really putting my fort making to a test because now she requests specific sizes and rooms. We made one in the family room which had a sunroom spa, a library and a music room. She was not happy when she went to bed and we took it down because it took up the entire family room. So I made her a large one in the playroom, which is pretty much the entire playroom, but she's not too happy with that one because it's just 1 room. Man is her house going to be huge and fancy one day.

February
Our friend Josh took Tyler's first birthday pictures. He totally hammed it up and we got some great shots. He wasn't too interested in the cake though, so we shoved an oreo into the back of the cake and that he was all about digging out. Macy went through her Punky Brewster phase with dressing herself. She also made her own Valentine's day cards. She used coffee filters and cut like hearts and dyed them pink, blue and purple. I was shocked to find out at the class party that she was the only one to do that. Everyone else bought store cards. Good to know for next year because her making the cards took a good 2 weeks of pestering.
For all those pictures click here.

March
Macy and I started planting all our seeds (sunflowers, pumpkins, tomatoes, cantelope, flowers, etc) We got a little carried away and ending up throwing some things out because we simply ran out of room. Macy loves to water them and she loves to water herself, daddy, Tyler and me as well. Occassionally Tyler is allowed to hold the hose. We had the neighborhood easter hunt, which the kids totally loved. They did a good job of breaking it out this year so all the kids were able to get eggs. They had the ponies again and to our amazement Tyler was extremely excited. Macy and Tyler both sat next to the bunny and it was a pretty good day. Macy had a blast coloring eggs and still asks frequently if we can do it again. I have a feeling we may be coloring eggs for the 4th of July.
For all those pictures click here.

April
On Easter we did a couple eggs hunts. The first was inside and Neil put clues in the eggs. Macy had a blast going through finding the clues. The end was their baskets from the bunny. Then after brunch, we did another egg hunt outside. Tyler was much more into that hunt and at one point even stole Macy's basket. Macy was actually more excited about the money this year, but the candy eggs were still her favorite. Yaya and Grampie came down for a visit the following weekend. It really couldn't have been a more beautiful weekend. We started out with a trip to the zoo. The next day Tyler had a double ear infection, so Macy took Yaya and Grampie to Marbles where they built a real butterfly house and got to view a wonderful play staring Macy. We also went to the NC State gardens where they were having a bird house competition. Some were really fancy, some were not. Next year Macy will definitely be putting in an entry because I think the bird house she built a few months ago would have blown her age group away. Then her and Yaya painted binoculars. Tyler got his first haircut while I was in New Orleans. Neil did a really good job, but I am still upset he did it without me. There was an organic farm tour one weekend where you could go onto the farms and see how they operate, get tours, etc. We picked two farms to go to. One had a little bit of everything, cows, pigs, chickens and vegetables galore. Macy wasn't too interested. Then we went to a dairy farm. That one she didn't care about until we went into the milking room. Then she was all about it and was so excited that the lady let the kids hold the milking machine. She made us go through that tour twice.
For all those pictures click here.