Tulip Festival

Zoe and I went on an outing to the Tulip Festival with seven other ladies from church this morning. We drove about an hour to Thanksgiving Point, south of Salt Lake City, to see what had bloomed. They have planted 250,000 bulbs on the grounds. It's beautiful! We've had a COLD winter and cool start to the spring, so many of the bulbs haven't bloomed yet. Still, what has looks beautiful. It was chilly and windy today, which can make for a miserable time outside, but we braved the cold and enjoyed the flowers.

Enjoy the pictures!

Poor, sick baby

Zoe's sick, and has been since Saturday night. She had so much fun playing in the garden during the day, but that night she started to run a fever. Well, the fever lasted until Tuesday afternoon reaching as high as 102.4. Then, on Wednesday morning she woke up with a terrible, blotchy rash all over her chest and neck. So, I took her to the doctor. He said it's viral, so we just have to wait it out. It's not a raised rash at least, and it doesn't seem to be itchy. It just looks awful. Today it's spread to her face and legs. The doctor didn't say it's contagious, but I'm keeping her in just in case. I'd hate to get our friend's kids sick.

And, the doctor said one of her ears is pink and she still has lingering sinus problems. So...he put her on another round of stronger antibiotics. She had just finished Amoxicillin for the sinus problems, but it wasn't strong enough to kick it out completely. I hope by the end of next week she's back to her normal perky self. She's been pretty moody and clingy this week.

My poor sweet baby.

So cute

The other day I was chatting with my mom online so she could watch Zoe on the web cam. Well, Zoe decided she wanted to ride in Daddy's computer chair with some of her toys. This is her with a few of her pals getting dizzy.

Such a hard worker...

I have to say that my husband is one of the hardest working men I know. Not only does he work 9 hour days and travels to California several times a month, he also finds time to take care of his family, stay active at church, and do sweet things for me.

This weekend, after a long week at work, he spent all day Saturday creating two flower beds from scratch. Friday night one of his co-workers came over to help him remove the sod from 4 beds. Then after breakfast on Saturday Matt set out to digging up the two in the front yard. This is no easy task! We have hard clay for soil and lots of rocks. I tried to get out and help dig while Zoe napped, but I'm too weak to make much progress. So, I just hacked apart the clumps with a hoe while Matt did the digging. The results are beautiful.

Right in front of the house we planted a daphne shrub, some day lilies, shasta daisies and some ornamental grasses. We filled in with a few annual plants (I'm not sure what kind they are). On the front side of the house we put in two more rose bushes. The house came with two small rose shrubs that are red. We decided to add a little more vibrant colors to those. The front bed should bloom later this summer. The daphne already has a few white blooms on it.

Now we have to attack the back yard! We're going to put in some more shrubs along the back of the house and fill in a corner with some other interesting plants. Hopefully we don't have a bunch of dead plants by the end of the summer. :)

You can see the pictures of the progression here.

Presents from Daddy

Matt brought Zoe the cutest gift from his trip to Los Angeles today. She figured it out pretty quickly, but still needs some practice...

New Skills

Zoe's learning how to feed herself with utensils. This particular morning we were working on the spoon with one of her favorite foods, yogurt. She's doing so well! Sure, she gets a little messy, but she gets most of it in her mouth. :)

Baby Animal Days

Our daughter isn't afraid of anything. I was really surprised at her reaction to the animals at the farm. Matt and I took Zoe up to Logan on Saturday for the baby animals festival at the American Heritage Center. They have a petting zoo, ax throwing, pony rides, booths of neat stuff, people dressed up like pioneers, and sheriffs riding on horses among the grounds. I'm sure there were other things, but that's what I can remember. :) We participated in the petting area and a couple of the booths.

Like I said, our daughter is fearless. The first pen we visited had sheep in it. The mama kept pacing back and forth and baa-ing because a farm hand kept picking up her babies. Zoe stuck her hand right in to pet the mama. Later she was able to pet the lamb. It was pretty crowded, and she isn't the most patient of children. She wanted to touch everything. The piglets kept running around the pen, so she followed. Eventually the piglet got cornered and she was able to touch it. She also petted a calf, a kid, a duckling, a bunny, and a turtle. The chicks weren't available for petting, just to look at. Oh, and she pet one of the sheriff's horses. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that one.

She was thoroughly exhausted after that outing. She fell asleep in the car, and so did her daddy on the way home. I ended up leaving her and Matt in the driveway to finish their naps while I went in to prepare dinner. We'll definitely plan to do this again next year.

Unfortunately Blogger isn't letting me upload pictures, so click here to see the them.

Happy Easter!

Zoe was much more responsive to her easter basket this year. :) We put a few gardening tools in it, some stuffed animals, and an egg that had a rabbit you wind up. The rabbit was her favorite thing, of course. When will we learn that you don't have to spend a lot of money to entertain a one year old! Actually, we didn't spend much money at all, but the rabbit was less than a dollar. Cheap entertainment.

A couple of ladies at church organized an egg hunt after morning services for the kids. They had the field divided for the under 2 and then the older kids. It was a pretty chilly day, so all the grown-ups wanted to get back inside quickly. Zoe was pretty good at picking up treasures and putting them in her basket. She was especially proud of the Mike & Ike candy she collected for her daddy.

Check out the rest of the pictures.

Chasing ducks

We have this awesome little park a few miles from the house. It has a pond with ducks, geese, and seagulls, pretty walking trails and a cool playground. We decided to venture out one cold, yet sunny, afternoon to explore. As soon as we got out of the car Zoe was mesmerized. You could hear all the squawking and quacking from the top of the hill. At first she wasn't sure what to think, especially when the birds swarmed me when I pulled out the bread. But it wasn't long before she was trying to follow them into the water. :) It was all Matt could do to keep her from going in after them. Muddy knees and runny noses, we headed back home to some warmth.

A couple of weeks later I took her out (it was much warmer). This time I was smart and took the stroller so we could stop and look at the ducks and then continue on at a reasonable pace to the park. She really enjoyed playing outside. I think her favorite was the swing. We didn't spend a lot of time there due to LOTS of kids, but we'll definitely be back. Since Zoe's learned to walk on her own she wants to take off. She tried to take a ball away from one little boy and tried to walk in front of the swings to get a closer look at the other kids having fun. We have lots to teach her about sharing and safety. The park was a hit, and a nice change of scenery after a long winter.

Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures and a couple of short videos!

Party tricks

I know, it's bragging, but check out my talented daughter. :) She can do more animals, I just couldn't remember what they were at the moment.

Look out world!!!

I know I've been delinquent in posting, and I'll catch up soon I promise. That being said, I had to post today's accomplishment. Look out!