Michael crawling

We have a crawler on our hands!

Here is a short clip of Michael working hard at taking his first stab at crawling:

Landscaping project 2010

We've started a big landscaping project this spring and I have a feeling it is going to keep us busy for a while!

Here is the plan:

Step one:

Dig up the grass on the south side of the house and plant a bed of perennials. We want it to look something like this:
How great is this print out? We went to Earl May and they whipped this up for us, free of charge. Granted, it is nothing super spectacular or original but I still think it is cool!

They even gave us a list of the plants and then took us out the greenhouse so we knew exactly what they looked like.

Step Two:

Dig up the grass and stuff on the north side of the house. This is on a slight hill and it is hard for Scott to mow, so why not make more work for me? Less work for him=more work for me. Funny how that works out, isn't it? :o)

This is going to be a shade garden with lots of hostas. I love the way it looks in this print-out, but I guarantee you I will be planting teeny tiny baby hostas to save money. I saw some great big hostas in the greenhouse and they were $75 a pop! Wow! Soo....in about 10 years it should look that good. Don't worry, I'll check back in with you then! :o)

Again, they gave us a list of the plants. I'm not sure if I will use a pattern of the same hostas or do a patchwork-quilt type garden of different types of hostas. Decisions, decisions.

And just for fun and because I know you were dying to see it:

Here is an aerial view of our house and yard! It was taken 2 years ago by google maps and it was when we were first trying to get the grass to grow. I can assure you that now it is mostly grass, not mostly dirt like this photo shows. We should petition google maps to come take another photo! :o)

So, that is plan...we'll see what actually comes of it!

About Me

I just joined a new blog group called D-listed blogs and it is a little community of mom and family bloggers. We are doing a meet up and I wanted to put a little introduction of myself out there for you all!

I'm Rose: a 27 year old wife, mother, teacher and homemaker. I've been married to my lovely husband Scott for almost four years-our anniversary is in July and yes we did get married on the hottest day of the year; it was over 100 degrees on our wedding day!

Last October we welcomed our little boy Michael into our family and he is a great joy for us. I've been teaching beginning band full time for the past four years but this year I am working two days a week and it gives me lots of time to hang out with the baby and keep the house in good shape.


I originally started this blog as a record of my home and the things I do to fill my time but it has morphed into sort of a family scrapbook of sorts. My grand plan is to have the entries made into books to chronicle our day to day lives. Even just looking back at entries from a year ago, I am amazed at how those old posts take me back in time!

I love to blog about my son, family, gardening, crafts, and just my life in general!


Thanks for stopping by!

Puppy dogs and firetrucks

Michael has been so active lately! He is so much fun to watch as he scoots around and plays. I love how his little smile lights up his whole face and it makes me smile too. Why is it that babies can only smile with their whole face? How do we lose that ability as adults?

Anyway, enough with the philosophical thinking! Isn't Michael's little tshirt so cute? Scott's mom made it for him with the same material she used for his spring coat lining. It took me a while to noticed why she picked it: because of the little dalmatian puppies! (also, can you see the dalmatian in this post- Michael is wearing another t shirt Scott's mom got him!) Scott's family had dalmatians for a long time and I think they always have had a special place in her heart. Their family dalmatian even saved them from a house fire when Scott was in middle school and their smoke detectors didn't go off! Imagine that!

Some blog remodeling around here

I've added a couple of things to my blog lately which I thought I would point out to my lovely readers. First of all: Michael's lovely 6 month portraits that I promised to share with you are in the side bar. Isn't he so adorable? I think he is looking more and more grown up every day. I hope to share more as I have more time to scan them in.



Also on the side bar you will notice this purple coneflower:

If you click on the photo you can go directly to my gardening album on smugmug.com where I upload all my gardening photos. I might not have time to share them all on my blog but for you serious garden nerds you are welcome to browse anytime your little heart desires!

Speaking of gardening, we are working on a doozy of a project which I hope to share with you soon! It is pretty darn fabulous!

p.s., I also added those extra boxes at the end of the post to direct you to other similar posts. So cool!

Smokey Row's Sing a long

Smokey Row is a cool coffee shop in downtown Des Moines. Every once in a while they have these sing a longs for kids at 10 in the morning but usually they are on the days I work. It just so happens that their latest one was on a day I had off (Cinco de Mayo actually as mentioned in this previous post) so we made a trip downtown to do some singing and drink some coffee (not Michael of course, he doesn't drink coffee yet!).

We got there early, but we were still too late to get a seat in the little room they were in. However, we found a table just outside and had a good time anyway. They played lots of songs from the Jack Johnson and friends Curious George album which is my favorite along with some other kid standards. Of course, I also got to enjoy a nice big coffee and a treat while we were out! Yum!

How big does Michael look sitting up like a big boy?

We had a great time and will hopefully be back again! Coffee+ music+ kids always equals a good time in my book!

Baby Sunscreen

Here is some information I wanted to share about baby sunscreen. I had no idea what to look for in a sunscreen and this article from babycenter.com helped me out quite a bit! I hope it helps you too!

I recommend choosing a "physical" or "chemical-free" sunscreen made with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide — look for one of those ingredients on the label. Unlike chemical sunscreens, which may cause irritation or allergic reactions because the skin absorbs the active ingredients, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide sit on top of the skin, forming a barrier against the sun's rays.

There's no evidence chemical sunscreens are dangerous or toxic, but we just don't know enough yet about how young children react to the ingredients. Also, sunblocks with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide start protecting as soon as you put them on, whereas chemical products need to be slathered on 30 minutes in advance so the skin has time to absorb them.

I found this Neutrogena sensitive skin sunblock at Target and it fit all the criteria. It is hard to find the right sunblock because even ones marketed to babies are not necessarily the one you need.



Here is a link to the original babycenter.com article which has more tips for you!