Spring flingin'

Hello! Hope you are all as busy as we have been here at the Morris Ranch. We have been flingin' dirt.

The plan for the backyard was expanded upon and we decided to put down pavers for a 10ftX10ft patio. We had to dig way down in the back so that we could add the right amount of gravel and sand to put the pavers on. We even rented a little dumpster to dump the extra dirt in.

Alan did the majority of the work with some assistance from our newest neighbor Paul, digging and more digging. Then he used stakes and ropes and measured, leveled, and measured some more.

Mother's Day was spent working on it. We had to move the gravel (3 bags of it) to the area to spread out. Then we rented a compactor and smashed it down. Doodle played in the sand bag while we shoveled and moved all the gravel. Sand baby, yay!

Dad, don't bother with the manual, this is how it is done!

Then we had to move the sand. So doodle lost his play area but it meant we were closer to being done. After the sand level we were able to start laying down the pavers. It really went fast at this point. We are really glad that we did it and grateful that we had help from our neighbor.

We still have some stuff that we will be digging out, moving around, and planting but nothing compared to the Paver Project of 2013.

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

Wow, where does the time go?! I keep thinking I will get to 'that' tomorrow and well, weeks go by...

I have been up to just about everything. Knitting, baking, cooking, parties, visiting, road trippin', and loads of eating!

I started a sock class on Tuesday. It is an easy sock pattern and I decided on Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in the William Morris colorway. As Morris is my last name it only seemed appropriate! This picture does not do the colorway justice, it is a lovely red-brown with notes of lavender and teal. I realized I have been knitting for 10 years and not once have I made socks. Yep, in 2003 I met a nice lady at my first job out of college and she sort of taught me to knit. Knit badly and she didn't know how to 'stop' or bind off as I later learned. I ended up righting myself with books, other classes, and many scarves later. :)

I also took a class on magic loop and it really is magic! I am working on these socks two at a time!!! When I finish one, I will finish the other!!! Sorry, the magics have overwhelmed me.

So the majority of my time as of late has been taken up by my wittle baby sissy coming to visit. She is not like me. She hunts with bow and arrow (not for sport but for actual food), she fishes, and has gun(s). I asked her what she wanted for her birthday one year and she said "a new pistol." I sent her flowers. She is the mother of my wonderful nephews and married to the coolest guy (EB).

They came to Salt Lake all the way from Ranchester, Wyoming and then we all went in one car to St. George. It was a hoot! Hikes, ribs, ice cream, and sun. Then we came back to SL for some more food and fun. Corned beef and cabbage, the zoo, and yogurt. The food was tasty and tiny guy had all his cousins in one place.

Picture bomb now and more on Mardi Gras in March later...

Go Fish!

We just spent the afternoon at the Living Planet Aquarium and we loved it! For being land locked in Utah it was quite a set of exhibits. Alan and I used to go to the Newport Aquarium and now we have one here to visit. The price of admission isn't too expensive and membership is just about the price of going twice so we signed up as members so we could take smiler any time. He had so much fun! He kept going 'ooohh' and 'aaah' and signing fish. It was hilarious. They even have a petting tank and he got to touch a gray smoothhound shark and round sting ray.

Afterwards we stopped for a frosty at Wendy's. :)

Off the needles

I finished this a while ago but still don't have very good pictures. I took a class at Blazing Needles for this and it was really fun. The sweater turned out really great. I'm sad that little man won't be able to wear it long because he is growing so fast.

This picture was taken at Brighton. We wandered around and even got to see a baby porcupine wander around too. It was super cute. 

The sweater pattern is Baby Sophisticate. The yarn is superb and I'd knit everything with it if I could, Tosh Vintage by madelinetosh in the colorway Cove. This took a skein and another quarter of one and it is the large size.

We are here just trying to get over a rash of colds. And we are also packing. Little man is about to fly for the first time. Alan and I are excited and nervous. We are packing for warmer weather. Scotty watch out, here we come!

365

Can you believe I have a one year old?! I cannot.

I have two sets of pictures here. The first is from the last year. I tried to put together a collection of Frankie showing every month and got pretty close to having every picture from the day he turned the month. And of course there is a picture from when he was first born and a couple days later, when we were still in the hospital.



Then we have pictures from his birthday party. He is so amazing. He laughs and smiles, waves, claps, now he even blows (he watched dad trying to light the fire). He has 5 1/2 teeth. He is wearing 12-18 month clothes. He will wear the soft sole shoes. He likes to put on Grandpa's and Scott's sunglasses. He walks really well now, it is crazy how good his balance is for his age. He will dance to music. He loves the slide in the yard and his little red car. He likes marshmallows and green beans, he likes beans in general. He can finish a whole squeeze pack of baby food now and then some. He had his one year check up and his is still a lightweight, tall, and a normal head size. He is a social little bug. We are just enjoying every minute of this!

Happy birthday Frankie Doodle!