I get a sucker!

We've started potty training Crue. I had talked to a friend of mine to find out how she had potty trained her boy and am now doing the same thing with Crue. I take him every half hour and so far he has stayed dry as long as I take him (the time will gradually increase). He struggles with going poop though. He's done it before in the toilet but for some reason he won't do it now. He hides and does it in his underwear or diaper (he only wears a diaper for naps and at night). We decided to try offering a sucker if he goes poop in the toilet because he likes those. Still hasn't gone. Last night I was going to the bathroom (sorry if this is too much:)) when Crue came in and asked what I was doing. When I told him he tilted his head and asked, "you det a suter?" (he says the d sound for his c's and g's). I was laughing so hard. I told him, "yep, I get a sucker."

How does your garden grow?

I decided to attempt a garden this year even after last year's garden didn't do too well. We got free biosolids from the city and I was hoping it would help break up our clay soil a little and provide some nutrients for the plant to grow. We measured the garden to try a watering system - it is 18' by 18'. Pretty dang big! I think we have about 12 rows. Our garden is doing tons better this year. These first 3 pictures were taken last Wednesday. This first one is my big Jack 'O Lantern pumpkins. It's growing really cool. The start of the vine is zig zag. Plus there's all these curly q's on them too. You can see the zig zag in this picture.

Here's a picture of part of our garden (the back of our house is to the right). From left to right there are cantaloupe and watermelon on the same row. The big pumpkins are the mass closest to me and the ones directly at the other end of the row are my zucchini (I planted the squash/pumpkins in the four corners so they don't go down an entire row like everything else). In the row on the right (down the middle of the picture) between the pumpkin and zucchini are potatoes. We haven't been able to cover the plants yet to encourage root growth. You can also see some corn in the next two rows. I planted everything and there were quite a few things that didn't grow. For the corn I had planted two rows and then waited a few weeks to plant these so they wouldn't be ready at the same time. The first two rows didn't grow but these did. I ended up replanting some things, including the other two rows of corn. In between the potatoes and cantaloupe/watermelon rows I had planted onion (didn't grow and didn't have any to replant) and bell peppers (didn't grow, replanted, still didn't grow).

This is the other half of the garden (closer to the house). You can see the potatoes and corn on the left, to help you connect the two pictures. The mass closest to me is little pumpkins. They're supposed to be about the size of the palm in your hand or something like that. You're also supposed to be able to cook and freeze them. I'm excited for that. At the far end I have yellow squash - one straightneck and the rest are crookneck. On the row to the right of that are tomatoes. The first plants I had died so we got some more. They are doing good - they already have some blossoms. In rows to the left of the tomatoes are beans (I had to replant and 3-4 have started growing), cucumber - one plant has been very slow and another one has recently started, and carrot that didn't grow. You can kind of see Jared's watering idea. It's made of pvc pipe and it floods each row. SO much better than staying outside for hours (literally) to slowly water each row. And much cheaper than a drip system.
I took the rest of these pictures today. I am pretty excited about our garden. Here are some of the straightneck squash.
These are the first open blooms on a crookneck. They are both male but there are some females about ready to open in there so hopefully we'll get some of those growing too. I have a feeling we'll have lots of squash this year. I have 1 straightneck, 3 crookneck, 2-3 zucchini (one of them is HUGE), about 3-5 of the big pumpkins, and around 7 of the little pumpkins. I didn't know if they would grow so we planted as many as we could, since space isn't a problem in our yard. The one problem we've had is squash bugs. I have to go out every night and inspect the plants. I bought some sevin dust because our neighbor said he used the spray and it worked but it didn't last (it only killed when he sprayed). Jared sprinkled the powder for me and I waited a few days without checking. He went out one night and found about 6 couples mating. I went out that same night and found about 4-5 more bugs. I was hoping it would work because the plants are getting so big that it's hard to find them, and to get them out so I can kill them. Anyone have any suggestions?
This is my watermelon. It's starting to create vines (you can see one on the left above the rock). I hope it grows. I love watermelon! It's the black diamond variety.
Here is my cantaloupe. It's not as big as it looks. That's the big pumpkins behind it. There are 3-4 blossoms on it right now (you can see one in the bottom middle of the picture). I'm excited for that one to grow too. I've got a few of those going. The one to the right of it (you can see a couple of the leaves in the corner) also has one bloom on it.

The other day I researched a little to find out how to tell a male and female flower apart. Pretty dang easy. I was wondering because of my squash plant that had started to show it's flowers. Now I look for the females on all my squash and pumpkin plants. I found a couple on my big pumpkin plant. Here's one below in the center of the picture. The flower hasn't opened yet but you can see the bulge right below it. I've learned that's the squash/pumpkin. You can see what it looks like in a straightneck when it starts growing in a few pictures above.

Next year I will definitely be planting my pumpkins and squash with a little more room between them. Last year we had created circles that were dug out and planted them in it. It's a good idea but I think it needs a mound in the middle for the seeds, so they aren't buried in water. And so there's less chance for the leaves to get in the water (that can cause problems too). You can see how my big pumpkin plant is taking over it's little corner. On the left it's right against the cantaloupe and on the right side but above it are the potatoes it's about to squish out. Luckily there isn't anything growing between the potatoes and cantaloupe so I can train the pumpkin to go that way (since there's a few vines already going that general direction) and then keep the others going out of the garden.
It's really been fun to have a garden that's actually growing this year. I'm excited to see how much we get out of it. I was talking to Jared's best friend's wife and we were talking about bottling. She had bottled some tomatoes last year and I asked if she'd help me do it this year. She said sure, but it's with her mother-in-law who does all the bottling and has a HUGE garden (a full lot). Jared asks his friend about things for our garden and it's been very helpful.

"Crappy" morning

Is this a sign of how the day is going to go?

(Yes, that is diarrhea. Yes, it's all over his bed. Yes, it's on his face and in his hair. Yes, it was on his legs and hands. Yes, his diaper was completely covered as well.)

Sweet ride

I realized I haven't told about our sweet new ride yet. There was a suburban sitting on the lot at Jared's work for almost a year. Jared finally got a hold of the owner (the dealership was getting ready to impound it) and asked what he wanted for it. The guy thought the dealership was using it for parts so Jared offered him $100 and he took it. It's a 1998 Chevy Suburban with lots of miles. But it's the LT so it has leather, rear air, semi heated seats (only under your bum) and things like that. The people took pretty good care of it.

It needed a new engine so Jared found one with 4000 miles. It ended up needing a few other things, like a radiator for example (the old one had a huge crack in it which is what caused the engine to have no compression). So now we have a nice suburban to fit us in and to fit more kids in when we have them (no, that's not an announcement). Hopefully it will last us a long time. Crue loves it and calls it a bubon (like bourbon but don't say the r).

The first trip in it we went to St. George. The check engine light came on. We checked it at Auto Zone and it was the knock sensor. The next time we went to St. George, the check engine light started flashing on the way home. We pulled over at a rest area and called for the tow truck from the dealership (luckily we had just gotten new insurance and we had tow so we had him just charge us - otherwise I'm sure he wouldn't have and the tow truck driver wouldn't have gotten paid). You could tell the engine was missing but we couldn't figure out why. When Jared went to work and checked it the next morning, a spark plug wire had just come off. He put it back on and it was fine after that.

Then we headed north one weekend for my cousin's daughter's wedding. Just south of Nephi we blew a tire. The tires were the ones that had been sitting on it while it had sat outside so they were pretty weathered. We had a set at home that was just waiting for Jared to put them on. We had a spare but we didn't have a wrench that would work because they were after market wheels. Jared had bought a tool earlier that week but it didn't fit and it was still sitting in our garage to take back and try to get a new one. Since we were close to Nephi we called Molly's parents and they came and rescued us. After we got home Jared switched the tires so now we're good. We haven't had any more problems since then. It sure is a nice ride and very comfortable.

Happy 4th of July

We got to party for most of the Fourth of July weekend. Jared's brother, Jeremy was home for the weekend (he's been back East for training to be a second lieutenant I think). Friday night we stayed with Jared's parents in St. George. Jared and I went country dancing with Jeremy and Molly after we got the boys to bed. I was worried because I am such a horrible dancer (I like going but I feel like an idiot a lot of the time) but it was really fun. On Saturday we went to Costco, went home and had lunch, and then took naps. After that we went to Jeremy and Molly's for a BBQ. All of Jeremy and Molly's families were there so there was a lot of people but it was really fun. We went and saw the fireworks after. Holy cow there's a lot of people there. We had to park a few blocks away. We got home late Saturday night. Sunday was normal. We had dinner at my parents' house while my dad was in town. He works for a new company now and is only home about every two weeks for a few days. On Monday we went to our parade that morning. It was pretty fun. Some people from our ward came and sat by us. I was mostly in the street with Crue helping him get candy. After that we went to the park to see what was going on. We decided to buy one ticket for Crue to go on an inflatable ride. The one with the shortest line (amazingly enough) was the water slide. They tore his ticket in half so he went twice. He wasn't very good at going down. Luckily a lady I visit teach was there and after a while of trying to get Crue to go down, her grandson got to the top and she had him help Crue. Then he went again and a girl was up there helping a younger girl so she helped him too. We went home to try to get the boys to take naps. Jared's parents' friends always get together every 4th so we joined them. It was at a clubhouse so in addition to lots of good food we got to go swimming. Crue loved it. Cooper did too but it was a little windy and when he buried his face in to me, he usually got some water in his mouth. After a while I gave him to Jared's mom and she held him while we swam with Crue. Cooper was pretty tired so we came home and put him to bed and then Jared, Crue, and I watched the fireworks from our back deck. It was a fun weekend. Here's some pictures from it.

Luckily we had parked right next to the park on Main Street (and next to the inflatables) so we just put Crue on the stroller for the short ride and then took his pants off when we got to the suburban before his pants rubbed too much.

After the parade Cooper was pretty worn out. Once he was in the stroller and we were headed to the park he was out.