Mom seems to have mastered cake baking and decorating so she has been working on homemade ice cream lately. It definitely is tough when you cannot use milk or cream. I am confident that she will find a good recipe and we are certainly willing to eat whatever she makes. She is trying to make ice cream for Kaitlyn's birthday but I think time is running out. Kaitlyn's birthday and party are just around the corner and we are very excited. Hopefully the weather will work with us for next Saturday.

Well our garden is further expanding. Mom and dad have removed a few of the sunflowers and now we are moving in some new things. Our garden is full of all types of goodies like a dwarf lemon tree, 2 tomato bushes, green peppers, banana peppers, onions, green beans, potatoes and a bunch of others that we cannot remember right now.

Well we cannot think of much else to say. Have a great weekend everyone.

Rylan and I spent a bit of time the other day making a very unique pizza. In Naples, Italy it is not uncommon to see a pizza with hot dogs and fries but not with the sauce we used. It was a layers of ketchup, mustard and a bit of relish. Topped with hot dog slices and french fries, it was ready to bake up and eat. Rylan did exceptionally well throught the entire process of making the dough, constructing the pizza and eating it. Kaitlyn couldn't pass it up. It was definitely an odd pizza but loved nonetheless.

Hello tomato hornworms. You have met your end. You have come into the wrong garden. You will be taken care of promptly.

Rylan: Daddy, I want to kiss you.
Dad: OK.
Rylan: Daddy, you have allergies on your lips. I can't kiss you.
Dad: You're right Rylan. You are very smart. *wipes mouth off with wipe*
Dad: OK, you can kiss me now.

These are conversations that make me proud to be a father. Father's Day 2009 was great. I got to sleep in a bit and came down stairs to smiling faces and a gift of rice krispy treats and beef jerky. What more could I ask for?

Well the big excitement for our mom and dad this week was their anticipated HOA meeting. Our neighbors are working on taking over the current HOA and there has been a lot of work to do. We have been passing around fliers and talking to people. It's definitely a heated issue that is interesting to watch.

Our mom and dad have also been busy lately working on some cooking and baking with some new recipes. Our mom made sunbutter cookies which we are told taste very much like a real peanut butter cookie. They were very pleased and we were too. Kaitlyn and I will taste our very first enchilada tonight if all goes as planned. Sure it won't have any cheese on it but that will be OK.

I guess that's gonna wrap it up. Father's day is just a few days away so Kaitlyn and I have some planning to do. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

We made a trip to Borders bookstore the other day and noticed that they were offering their used coffee grounds for your garden. We picked up 2 very large bags for free. We looked up online the benefits and there are many in your garden. They can both fertilize and deter pests. Definitely a win-win situation for everyone.

We headed over to our local Cabella store recently and met up with our Grandpa Fred. We had a lot of fun showing him all of the fish and animals. He got to explain things to us and it was really nice. We stopped and shared a bag of Fritos which was a new allergy safe food that Kaitlyn can have.

Mom made some really neat new blankets for us this week as well. Mom surprised us by putting them out on the couches for us to see when we came down in the morning. Kaitlyn laid on her blanket all morning and you could tell that she really loved it. I told mom that it was the best blanket ever. It really was. It had cookie fabric on it!

It has been gift buying time. Mom and Dad pretty much finished up Kaitlyn's birthday gifts and just last night we picked up our Father's Day gift. Mom and I picked it out but Mom wouldn't tell me the name of it because I have a big mouth and she knows I would tell. As soon as I found out Kaitlyn was getting a wallet from Disneyland I immediately told her. We even went out with our Grandma Michele this week to get some gifts bought for Kaitlyn.

That's gonna wrap this week in review up. We can't wait for our Dad to get home because he said we are making robot costumes. At first I wasn't too interested but it sounds like it going to be a lot of fun. We will definitely be getting some pictures. Have a great weekend.

Our sunflowers have grown tall over the past 2 months and they are now beginning to show us their flowers.

Our garden is doing so well now. Our sunflowers are about to start showing some big flowers. We have a few marigolds that have already started showing. We picked up a few tomato plants and are looking forward to eating them when they come in. Our lemon tree is growing too which is nice. Of course with the nice plants is coming the bugs. Mom and dad quickly found out that we are being attacked by milkweed bugs. They had to do a bit of spraying last night to help keep them and other buggies away. It was becoming a wild jungle out there.

We never really thought about it until yesterday but mom thought Kaitlyn had never had a hamburger before. Dad went ahead and made them for dinner. She didn't really go for it though but I think it was because our dad made them too thick and dry. He says that he is rusty because he hasn't grilled in so long. He did make a great meal the other night though. He made Coca Cola chicken which turned out pretty tasty. I think I can go for it again soon. Dad and I did make a bit of food together the other day too. We made a banana blueberry bread which was fun to make but I wasn't up for eating it like everyone else. I am very touchy when it comes to seeds so it wasn't my thing at all but it was certainly fun to help make.

The weather man says that it should be a bit cooler this weekend so hopefully that happens. It would be nice if it rained or at least was bearable outside. Have a good weekend everyone.

Everyone though has noticed that Kaitlyn has been saying more words lately. In fact she will pretty much try to say any word that you ask her to. Dad has been teaching her the names of our neighbors and we have all been going over colors lately too. Kaitlyn is doing really well.

Speaking of our neighbor, she had to be taken to the hospital the other day. Mom and dad kept us from seeing exactly what was happening but she was definitely not feeling well. We were concerned and we made get well soon cards for her. It must have worked really well because when we went over to her house to give them to her husband, she was home to take them. She definitely appreciated them.

Our garden is doing really well. It is going so well that we have started to give a few of our big sunflowers away to our neighbors and some of the people at our dad's work. The flowers are almost tall enough that Kaitlyn could sit under them and feel like she was in the jungle. Our lemon tree looked pretty bad but it's coming back now. Mom wants to plant us a tomato plant and few other vegetables too. Oh ya she wants a raspberry and blueberry bush as well because we tested them on Kaitlyn this week and she had no bad reactions to them like our mom normally does.

I think that's about it for the week. Our Grandma Michele is celebrating her birthday in a few days so we probably will be having a meal with her this weekend. Have a good weekend everyone. Hopefully your weekend will not be as hot as ours.

We went over to our cousin Hayden's house last weekend. We celebrated his birthday and mom made the cake (shown below). It turned out great and his little party was fun. We got to go swimming too which is always a treat. Grandma and Grandpa showed up as well because they are back in town for the moment because our dads grandfather passed away last week.

We went to our great Grandpa's ceremony yesterday and while we were loud, we know that he would have appreciated us being there. Mom and dad talked to us about being good and everything started out great. Then it was just too quiet and I couldn't hold it in any longer. Mom gave us a small pack of Nerds candy and that didn't make it any better. It kept us quiet but the sound of the crunching Nerds seemed amplified. We ended up in the quiet room so everyone else could enjoy the ceremony and that was OK. We had a chance to see some of our family that we do not often see so that was nice.

Well jeez, thinking about it doesn't look like we have done much else this week. Hopefully this weekend is a bit more filled. Have a good weekend everyone.