It's wildflower season here in central TX! A family we know here in the neighborhood planted their whole front yard with bluebonnets, poppies, and other flowers. Isn't it gorgeous? I'm seriously contemplating doing the same thing to our yard next year!

It was bound to happen sooner or later! I have two childhood scars, one on my upper lip and one on my right thumb, and Tim has one above his right eyebrow. Now Joseph, too, will join the ranks of the scarred ones, as he had his first four stitches put in yesterday.

I didn't actually see the accident happen, but from what I gather, Rosalie was swinging a closet door during a game of hide-and-seek and Joseph's forehead got gashed pretty good on the corner. Playing with doors is expressly forbidden in our house, but I've always been more worried about smashed fingers than serious head wounds!

I had warned them to stop only moments earlier and was getting ready to intervene when Joseph walked out with blood literally gushing, not running, from his forehead. Even knowing that head wounds bleed a lot, I was quite overwhelmed by the sight of it. Then once I finally got him lying down with a cloth to stanch the blood, he announced he needed to go potty!

Tim got home just in time to help him get his pants back on and give him a priesthood blessing before EMS arrived. Since nothing I tried had been effective, it was amazing to see how the blessing helped Joseph to finally calm down! Thankfully, the bleeding was under control by then, and after the EMTs checked him out, Tim was able to take him down to urgent care.

Not surprisingly, he wasn't too keen on the actual stitching, but after a couple of peanut butter sandwiches, two bananas, three cups of milk, and bowl of chocolate ice cream, he's doing much better now. Just look at that happy face! We'll take him back to check the stitches in about a week.

If there's a silver lining in the whole thing, it's that Joseph has gained a much better understand of things like blood, priesthood blessings, stitches, and why all those fire trucks and ambulances are always driving around in such a noisy hurry. Here's hoping he'll be more wary of playing with doors, too!

I can't say this looks comfortable to me, but then again, I'm not a whippet!

Aren't these just the cutest little trainer undies ever?

Here's a closeup of the snap version...



and Rosalie's favorite pair featuring kitties, birds, butterflies, and flowers. She can pull the trainers on and off herself and they are just absorbent enough to catch an accident without a puddle. I'm really pleased with how they turned out!

The whitebud and redbud trees in our front yard are almost done blooming...

a little lizard is setting up shop in the block wall...

and the pink evening primrose down the street is going to town. Spring has definitely made her entrance!

Guess who's ready for potty training?

She doesn't seem to mind the Star Wars undies, but I think I'm going to get those trainers ready ASAP anyway!

Earlier this week, my mom helped me get a big start on some trainers I've been wanting to make for Rosalie. Apparently, Joseph was quite impressed by the whole thing, because he announced this morning that he wanted to make some cloth diapers, too, and here he is hard at work tracing and cutting them out!

Over in the kitchen, here's Rosalie picking up the last handful of a very large amount of black beans that got spilled on the floor. Initially, I wasn't feeling too chipper about it, but then I wondered what else I really expected to happen when I deliberately handed over a large can of dry beans, some measuring cups, and some bowls to two small children without further instructions! Next time, I'll be more careful to explain where the beans should and should not be dumped.

Isn't she adorable, though?

Joseph thought up a clever verse about the incident to the tune of "You Can't Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd" and here he is singing it. I just love hearing my kids make music!

You can't scoop beans out when you make a mess
But you can be happy if you want to!

Here are just a couple shots of Rosalie and Grandma Susan playing together tonight. I just love those happy faces! My parents will still be with us another couple of days, but I'm already wishing we could be this close to our families all the time!

What a perfect scene! No electronics in sight, just the fresh spring air and the smell and feel of growing plants and rich, dark soil. We're finally just about done planting our first ever spring garden, and since Tim's parents helped us get started, it's nice to have my parents here now to help us finish things up.

Once we get everything in the ground, we'll have: bell peppers, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cilantro, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, garden peas, green onions, honeydew melon, hot peppers, leaf lettuce, leeks, kale, kohlrabi, mesclun, parsnips, snow peas, summer squash, sweet onions, sweet peppers, Swiss chard, tomatoes, watermelon, and zucchini. Several of the things we planted last months are already sprouting up and looking good!

I have fond childhood memories of stuffing my pockets and the tops of my socks with garden peas, and meandering through the tall rows of tomatoes redolent with their earthy smell. One of my hopes for this garden is that it will provide the same sort of experience for our kids. I think we're off to a good start!

Although we live less than 10 minutes away from my cousin Casey and his adorable family, it sometimes seems like it takes a special occasion for us to get together. What better excuse than having Casey's Aunt Susan and Uncle Lloyd in town? Charly teased me that I was taking pictures to post online, and what can I say? She was right! The weather is perfect for a picnic dinner in the park, and apparently we aren't the only ones to have realized that. It's packed out here tonight, and we're pretty lucky the Allreds were able to snag a table before we arrived with the pizza. The kids are having fun eating and playing, and it's great to have a chance to catch up with each other again. Here's wishing the Allreds, and Charly in particular, good luck as they get ready to bring a their new baby girl home in just a little over a week!

Joseph was so proud of this tree he made out of Dulpos, he decided to take a picture of it...

and here is the result. Not bad for his first attempt at one-handed camera operation!

Here are just a few amusing videos from today, including this one starring Rosalie, Rosalie's birthday balloons, and Rosalie's "no" and "yes"...

this one featuring zillions of leaves, two adorable kids, and one very fast dog...

and this one showing just what happens when cheese gets dumped on the floor around here. It's a Rosalie-eat-dog world!

Joseph gave his first talk in Primary today! He was very excited about it, and even helped Tim write it. Here he is at the podium speaking...

and here's a jittery clip of him holding up his picture. He did a fantastic job speaking clearly and slowly, and even paused a few times to look up and smile. He really had everyone's attention! Tim and my parents were able to be there, too, and we are all so proud of him! The text of the talk is below.

Good Morning! My name is Joseph Allison and I am going to talk about prophets. Nephi was called as a prophet. The Lord asked Nephi to build a ship. In First Nephi, chapter 17, verse 8, it says:

“And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.”

Nephi didn’t know how to build a ship, but the Lord showed him how. Nephi was able to take his family on the ship to the promised land so they could be happy. (Show Picture.)

Today, prophets are called by God to tell us how to be happy, too. This year, my family planted a garden like the prophet says. We planted carrots, leeks, peas, and beets. Planting a garden made me happy. When we follow the prophets, we will be happy because prophets are called by God. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Later this afternoon, here we all are doing a little weeding in the front yard together. Although it's not really our intention, it seems like whenever our parents come for a visit we end up putting them to work. It's amazing what a difference having two extra pairs of willing hands around can make!

Joseph was particularly excited about putting his new wheelbarrow to work hauling weeds across the yard. What a blessing it is to have kids that are such good helpers, too!

It's Christmas in March! Since all four of us came down with the stomach flu while staying with Tim's parents during the real Christmastime, we decided to forgo our ensuing visit to Tempe, thus avoiding the guaranteed result of infecting my parents as well. This is the first chance we've had to get together since, so it's finally time to exchange a few gifts! The kids look ready...

and so do Grandma and Grandpa Gedlaman, so let's get started!

Rosalie, as the youngest, gets the honor of opening the first gift. This package has that new sticky paper designed to make wrapping easier, but which of course also has the converse effect of making unwrapping more difficult. Rosalie is really determined to get every last scrap off all by herself!

Joseph got several fun things, like this little wheelbarrow...

a new CD...

and a handful of books. He's really excited about Fancy Nancy!

Rosalie is excited about her gifts, too, like this adorable collection of Baby Stella clothing and accessories



but I think she's just as excited about all the unwrapping and opening. No box is too big for her to handle!

My parents always give very thoughtful gifts, like this elegant portrait of themselves we've been asking about for years now...

and this snazzy new case for my violin. I've had the same one since I got my violin in high school, and it was literally starting to fall apart. I think we all agree, though, that the best gift of all is just having Grandma and Grandpa here with us today. We sure do love their visits!

Tonight Rosalie and Grandpa Lloyd are playing with hats and a box...



a lid and a blanket...

and having a great time just being silly together!

Once again, all this fun is making it hard to convince Rosalie that it really is time to go bed! Daddy offered to give her a ride to her room, and that got her going in the right direction, but we'll see what happens when we actually say goodnight. In any case, it sure has been fun watching her play with Grandpa tonight!

Last, but not least, it's time for Rosalie to open a few gifts!

She got these thoughtful and lovely scrapbook pages from Grandma Cindy...

a few Little People for her castle set...

and oodles of dress-up clothes! Here's a pretty dress...





some ruby slippers...



a "sparkly Cheerio" scarf, according to Joseph, and an even more sequin-spangled cape, carefully and beautifully sewn by Grandma Susan. Rosalie seems to have been born with an intuition for just what to do when wearing a cape!



Incidentally, she also seems to know just what to do when opening presents. Even from the get-go, she paused only momentarily before walking right over, grabbing one, and starting to rip its paper. Then realizing the scissors somehow made things more efficient, she managed to grab them and make a decent attempt at using them before we could stop her! There's no doubt Rosalie is one independently-minded girl!





Here she is enjoying a new stack of airplane books, making the requisite sound effects and sharing her excitement with Grandpa Lloyd...

and here she is browsing through this wonderful sampler of books from Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Steve. She seems particularly attracted to the one about doggies...



and this one called Hooray for Fish! I can already tell it's going to be one of her favorites!

After opening presents, Rosalie and Joseph settled down to play with this new set of Duplos together. They are having so much fun, it's going to be hard to step in and tell them it's already time for bed! In any case, we've all had a great time celebrating with our little love bug tonight. Happy birthday, Rosalie!