Our "other" garden

Our friends A and H brought us a free pallet to plant some things in.  We're forever grateful!  We have limited space, as evidenced by our other container plants.  This pallet made it possible to garden in our driveway!  Woot!  

You've seen the updated, planted pallet.  Here is what it looked like after we moved a few boards around and put landscaping fabric across the back.

Another huge project around this time was to weed and re-plant in the little area between our neighbors' and our house.

The area was overgrown with creeping buttercup and bindweed (morning glory).  It was awful.  AWFUL.  We have always had good intentions about remedying the weed situation, but we also knew it would take A LOT of work.  Last summer we started on the project but were quickly defeated.

Not this time!

Kraig and I weeded the entire bed and put down a weed barrier, then our neighbors topped it off with bark mulch and put in some plants, rocks, and other decorations.  It was my idea to do a sort of succulent garden towards the front (by the curb).  It looks great!

Bark mulch was added to this area after I took the photos....

We love it so much, and it is already filling out so well.  In a few years the plants will look so lush and beautiful!

Memorial Day

Kraig took Owen down to see the Fleet Week ships (and to get some VooDoo Donuts....) 

They stumbled upon the Rose Parade floats while they were exploring.  Here's what they saw:

They may have also stopped off at a food cart...

6 months

Dylan is just full of surprises.  

Writing those words reminded me that my pregnancy with Dyl was full of surprises as well.  His labor?  Surprising.  I wonder how he will continue to surprise us as he gets older.

For his half-birthday he decided to surprise us by pulling up to standing.  

Mercy.  

Dylan is a mover, that's for sure.  It's getting in the way of sleeping.  But what isn't interrupting our sleep these days?...

Dylan doesn't love eating food.  I've tried introducing just a few things here and there, and he's not having it.  Meh.  Whatever.  No rush!

We are doing baby-led weaning (i.e. no purees, no cereals, just soft chunks of food that baby feeds himself).  He likes playing with the food... just not having it in his mouth.

He nurses on demand- approximately every 3 hours.

He takes 3 naps a day.  He's an awesome napper!

Just not an awesome nighttime sleeper.  I'm not surprised, really.  I did this same song and dance with Owen.

The only thing complicating matters is that his crib is in Owen's room... so Dylan is still co-sleeping (not bedsharing, though.  He is too squirmy to be in bed with me!)

In a "Hot-air balloon"

Dylan is a hearty laugher.  We still call him our Gus Gus (a la Cinderella).  He is absolutely in love with Owen and Sophie.  He cannot get enough of either of them!  He also loves to crawl over to shoes, the vacuum, and the bathroom.  Ornery.

Those eyes are most definitely a dark shade of green.  They are beautiful.

Dylan is spunky, energetic, and a sweet snuggly little (big?) guy.

We love Peanut.  Happy half birthday, bugaloo!

Mother's Day

Brunch at Portobello

Owen's waffle

My deep dish cornmeal crust pizza.  Yes, vegan.  Oh, so delicious.

Kraig's "vegan benedict" with tofu eggies, seitan ham, and cashew hollandaise.  To die for!

Ready for our hike!

After a 2.5 mile urban hike to an elevation of 800 feet, we made it.

Pittock mansion

Our beautiful city!

The view on the hike back down

See Mt. St. Helens?

My heart swells when I see these boys!

I had such a lovely Mother's day thanks to these sweet guys.

THE BLACK KEYS

Sorry for the poor photo quality- they are all phone camera photos....

It's a pretty well known fact that Kraig and I go on about two dates a year:  Valentine's Day, and our anniversary.  

This year we skipped Valentine's.....   

But in January we bought presale tickets to the event of the century:  The Black Keys live in Portland!

We love The Black Keys.  LOVE them.  We listened to absolutely nothing else in the car for an entire year.  I am not joking.  We could listen to them forever and never get sick of it.  Their gritty blues-rock is just so right.  They are our absolute favorite band, and in our humble opinions, the best band of all time.  Ever.  Period.

I could wax poetic all day, but the point is, we have been so excited for this concert for the past four months.  

And we had really great seats.  

View of the stage as they set up.

We decided to skip the opener, the Arctic Monkeys, not because we don't like their music (we do), but because we wanted to get our sitters situated with the boys.  

I was literally bouncing with excitement as the time passed and it was closer and closer to the Black Keys taking the stage.  

And when they did?  Oh my word.

Howling for You

Pat Carney on the drums

Dan Auerbach

Dan, again

The set was so simple and yet so awesome.  The show was amazing.  They kill it on stage, for sure.  It was the best live show I have ever been to.

Meanwhile, Donna and Gordon had a fun time with the boys, and got them both to sleep without incident.  Wonderful news!  I had been really anxious about Dylan, since we never had luck with anyone else putting Owen to bed until, well, now.

So sweet!  

Yes, she has Dylan in the Boba Carrier!  Babywearing for the win!

It was reassuring to have Gordon texting me frequently to let me know that things were going swimmingly.

The encore was amazing.  You know it's going to be good when there is a disco ball involved!  "Everlasting Light" was the first song of the encore- Owen calls that one his song.  He loves it! 

Truth be told, he loves all their songs.  But that's another story for another time.

But it was pretty funny that both Kraig and I kept saying "Owen would LOVE THIS" throughout the concert....

Bravo.  We were very impressed, and can't wait for them to come back to Portland!