Garden Update...

Attack of the killer deer!!!



They are lurking around at night, munching on your peppers-

eating your tomatoes-

pooping in your yard-

and biting the heads off of unsuspecting sunflower seedlings!!



So this is all what I found this morning as I was watering the garden.
First I thought... CATERPILLARS!!

I cannot stand them! They are my nemesis, but I think I have found a way to combat them effectively. But nay, it was deer. The proof was in the poo-ing that I found in the yard... luckily. I hate being wrong about the type of predator. Fortunately, they didn't really eat anything that I am hoping to eat. I picked this huge soon to-be-red tomato this morning.



The solution? Well, I quickly went on amazon.com and snagged this little puppy-

Better than a puppy, and it comes in a set of two. It's supposed to keep more than just deer away, so I'm super excited about it. I'm going to put one on both corners and hopefully it will do the job. For now I'll have Adam and the boys refresh the human smell to repel the deer until it comes in the mail :)

At least Erick's original sunflower bloomed beautifully!!

In the garden...

Tomatoes,

and cucumbers,

and cabbage,

oh my...
Oh my indeed! Check out what happened when I cut off the head of this cabbage.

I was leaving the leaves and stalk as a distraction for whatever critter was already munching on it and look what started growing. There were actually four heads but I pulled of two in order to make room for the remaining two to grow bigger. I didn't know that more heads would grow, but it makes me happy. I love cabbage!!

My tomato plants look like they are doing well, but they really need more nutrients. Most of the flowers are falling off instead of producing tomato buds, so I fertilized yesterday in hopes that it will start producing more.

My cucumbers are getting bigger, some already to pick. My brother-in-law has a great refrigerator pickle recipe and I can't wait to make some. Because I love pickles too!!

My bell peppers have yet to blossom any flowers, and my onion"s" are now down to onion pretty much, but I've really enjoyed my garden this year :)

I always get some kind of weird fungus:


Erick's sunflower is almost ready to blossom as well!

Marley-1 month old

So Marley is one month old today! She weighs 11 pounds and 6 ounces. She has really been a little joy. She is always nursing and is a constant source of entertainment for the other kids- even if she's asleep.
Erick constantly asks me if he can kiss/touch/hug Baby Marley. He is an expert on her feelings, because he is always telling me what she wants and sometimes what she says... hmmmm. He has great reflexes with her pacifier, and says to her that she better not spit that out now, he needs to play his video game. He's a great big brother, and since we taught a FHE lesson on how to be a peacemaker, he is trying to be a good example to the others and not fight and tease. It's really tough, but I tell him that even peacemakers make mistakes and it will get easier over time.
Tripp always want to be close to Marley. His time to hold her is like playing a game of catch. I put Marley in his lap, he kisses her head, and then immediately pushes her back to me. He is such an amazing boy. He has the capacity for huge amounts of compassion and kissy-love, as well as emotional rage that consists of screaming fits up the stairs to his room when he's in trouble. He tries my patience the most out of them all, and so he's going to help me be the super-mom I'm destined to be. I just hope that I make the cut.
Chrissy is a whirlwind of development. She is saying new things all the time! She loves Marley, but has no concept of the meaning of soft. She is very rough, but I'm beginning to think that's just her style. She's right there with the boys and gives them constant "little sister" abuse :) She loves to sing and plink a little tune out on the piano... and I think she crashed my mom's laptop. Luckily Mom fixed it :)

I'm going to post updated pics of Marley in the same, if possible, outfits as her younger pics in order to see how much she has grown. She definitely looks like I've puffed her up a bit, lol.