Planting A Garden - Step One...

This was pretty much just a regular old week for us here at the Hargrave home. We did manage to accomplish a few things however, some of which I will name below and narrate with pictures, because reading is not all it's cracked up to be for me lately...and I don't feel like writing either.

Some of these feelings of anti-literacy may stem from the fact that I am once again in school...kind of. I started my LAST Communications class online this week (hip, hip, hooray!) and will begin my LAST art class sometime next month. Both of these classes translate into Bachelor's Degree, AKA, diploma, AKA, finally, and it cannot come soon enough!

Oh text book, how I love you.

I also got to go to a doctor's appointment in San Antonio and visit Mary, Wayne, Bekah and Nathan while I was there, go visiting teaching, feed the missionaries dinner, and kill a record number of spiders in our bathroom. My life is riveting!

Matt had a great week, too. We spent a fun Memorial day together in Lowe's, where he got his dream weed eater. It was like Christmas for him, you should have seen his face. On Friday we went out to lunch with some of the people he works with, and he also got a new calling in our ward. Three callings, actually. He is Assistant Scout Master, Deacon's Quorum Adviser, and Young Men's Secretary. All of these callings are really the same thing, but he is SO excited to be Scout Master. He has already pulled out his old shirt and created the most complete handbook I have ever seen. He is going to be great, and the boys have no idea how lucky they are to have him.

Matt with the infamous scout shirt. (He didn't want me to take this picture because it wasn't ironed yet. Haha! Oh, I love this guy!)

Our Bennett-Boy has also accomplished quite a lot this week, including becoming an extremely proficient eater and sleeper! Mom is thrilled about both these developments. Bennett will eat seven minutes (exactly) on both sides now, and consistently sleeps from 10 p.m to 5 a.m! That's a good solid SEVEN HOURS of sleep, for those of you who are math deficient like me, and let me tell you, I am loving it! He is such a good little guy, and pretty dang cute to boot!

And now to the garden. We have been wanting to put this in for awhile now, but we finally did it this weekend! Here is how you too can do it.

STEP ONE...

Create a gate in your fence big enough for a large truck to fit through.

STEP TWO...

Fill the back of the large truck up with dirt and shovel one million scoops of dirt into the outline of your garden. CAUTION: May cause severe blisters and back pain.


STEP THREE...

Look Cute.

STEP FOUR...Shop for plants and vegetables at your local Wal Mart

STEP FIVE...

Take a nap.

STEP SIX...

Plant what you bought.

STEP SEVEN...

Eat some lunch.

STEP EIGHT...

Finish!

(There is supposed to be a stinkin' video here, but after trying to upload it three times I gave up. I will take a picture later and post it. Right now I am tired of looking at this screen. Sorry!)

BONUS...

Play some football in the park with Mom and Dad.

And on a more random note, I have developed some new theories concerning the breeding habits of the ducks at the park that may or may not involve a chicken and/or a vulture...

Oh one more thing! I was inspired by Chantell's blog about the greatness of buying stuff for cheap, so when we passed a little garage sale on our way to Wal Mart we decided to stop and see what we could find.

This is a foldable pack 'n play we got for ten bucks. I love it! I mean, I will be the first to admit, it isn't the cutest or the newest little thing, but it serves its purpose and we will keep it around for awhile.

We also found a couple of these magazine holder things, so we got five for two dollars. Now my office is completely organized! Maybe this is only exciting to me...?

Anyway, it was a really good week, even if not much happened.

VICTORY!!!

At last, a decent video! Since Bennett has started becoming more interactive I have been trying diligently to get a shot of him smiling and cooing...which he seems to have no problem doing as long as it's not on film! My camera is FULL of movies of "Bennett Bloopers", where he freezes up or starts fussing the moment I push record.

This morning though, I broke the cycle! Bennett is at his best in the mornings, and when he is naked. Today was both. Long story to the nakedness, involving a diaper change that went horribly, horribly wrong around 4:00 am, but it was worth it in the long run!

I also have to quickly post this picture that just defines my life lately. I had laid this little boy down on his back, thinking I was safe since I had fed and burped him several hours earlier...boy was I wrong. I don't even know how this is physically possible, but as you can see, he somehow managed to launch his spit up across the room. Our child is truly gifted.

The Cajun Experience

Well we all had a great weekend this Memorial Weekend, but first things first...I FINALLY GOT A PICTURE OF BENNETT SMILING!!! I have been trying and trying to get this picture, but every time I pulled the camera out he would get so distracted with the blinking red light he would just go into a trance and sit there. My favorite part of his smile is his eyes, which crunch up just like Matt's. :)

Mary (Matt's mom) was born Cajun in Louisiana, and this weekend we got to hang out with her family, who are the funnest people I have ever met! They are all about relaxing, eating seafood and having a good time. The reason we were all there was because Mary's cousin's daughter, Courtney, was getting married in Palacious, Texas, right on the Gulf of Mexico, so we got to go! It was fantastic!

This sign pretty much sums up what is available in Palacios, Texas.

This is The Luthor Hotel, where we shared a suit with Mary, Wayne, Bekah, Nathan, and Sarah. (It was a pretty big suit, with two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room.) This hotel is SUPER old...and somewhat haunted. In it's heyday though, it was like, the place to stay, and there were pictures and letters from movie stars like Shirley Temple up on the walls. You should look it up on the Internet...it's pretty cool.

This is a shrimp boat, just like on Forest Gump! There were A LOT of these here! One of Mary's family members owns a pretty decent shrimping company, so we got to go on his boat (this picture isn't of his boat, but it looked pretty much just like this.) We had a big lunch out on the dock, and guess what we ate? SHRIMP!!

And me and Bennett got to sit in the Captain's chair!

Bennett and Matt getting their sea legs. "Ahoy, me Mattie!" :)

After the lunch on the dock we took Bennett to the beach to have his first swim in the ocean! The water in the Gulf is pretty warm, so we decided it would be ok to strap him up and let him go!




He didn't really appreciate it at first, but once he got used to it he was a natural. But of course, the binki had to come along for the ride.

Just chillin'.

Drying off

All bundled up. What an easy-going guy we got!

After our swim we played on the beach a little.

And I made a sad little sand castle, but I was still pretty proud.

The actual wedding was beautiful. It was the first wedding I have been to that was of a different faith (it was in the Catholic church) and it was pretty cool. This bride's dress was AMAZING!! It took a year to make, and she worked with the designer to ensure it was perfect. Wow.

The flower girl's dress was an exact replica of the wedding dress, only miniature. It was so cute, and the little girl was pretty cute too.

This was in no way a "low budget wedding." This is the limo that took the couple from the church to the reception hall...four blocks away.

I wish we would have gotten more pictures of the actual reception hall, because it was like out of a movie. There were ice sculptures everywhere, two huge wedding cakes, a live band, and an entire room full of endless food! It was all catered, and I am talking about a full course meal of chicken, beef, green beans, rice, mashed potatoes, pastries...and of course, shrimp!

This is the stage where the band played. Dancing was a ton of fun!

Even with all this fuss though, Bennett was none too impressed. He spent the majority of this weekend sleeping and looking cute. But even with this totally non-social attitude he made more friends than I have ever had, and completely stole the show. :)

Rabbit Fest!!

This last week was very eventful! We OFFICIALLY moved into our home! I organized the last closet, and cleaned everything...literally. It took forever, but it was worth it. We also had some friends over for dinner on Thursday night, and we planted an orange tree in our backyard Friday. The best part of the week though, was the weekend.

The third weekend in May is Copperas Cove's Rabbit Fest, a small fair that hearkens back to the days when the locals would arm themselves with clubs to round up those pesky bunnies in one fantasticly violent showdown. However, thanks to modern inventions (and PETA) Rabbit Fest is now a family-friendly carnival, complete with rides, food, games, and a "Bunny Parade." I really don't know why, but I have been looking forward to this day like no tomorrow, and I was not disappointed! And, to make matters even better, Bekah and Nathan (Matt's sister and brother-in-law) came up for the weekend and got to go with us!

The day actually started out very rainy and stormy, and we were all very sad. We made the best of it by renting "Taken", which, can I just tell you, has convinced me that Bennett will never leave the house by himself until he moves next door at the age of 37. It was terrifying. Then we made some delicious oatmeal cookies and talked till the rain stopped.

We finally made it out to Rabbit Fest around 4:00 in the afternoon and it was GREAT!!! Hardly anybody was there at first because of the rain, so we never stood in one line. And these rides were pretty good sized, too! We went on ride after ride until Matt and Nathan got sick and I got such an adrenaline rush I felt like I could run a hundred miles. Bekah spent most of the time with Bennett (Thank you Bekah!) but she did go on the Tilt-A-Whorl after much prodding. All in all it was a really fun day...and we are all glad it didn't involve any clubs. :)


Bennett is an excellent helper in the kitchen. Here, we are snapping green beans for dinner with the Lake family. We had delicious ribs (by Matt) steak (by Kevin Lake) and a plethora of side dishes (by me and Bennett).

Matt has always wanted an orange tree in our backyard, so Friday they went on sale and he finally got his dream. It's pretty little now, but we will water it with love and affection and it should give us oranges almost all year round. Texas whether is great.

Bennett and Bea

Uncle Nathan

It was pretty chilly outside when we went to Rabbit Fest, so Bennett got to wear is little camo jacket for the first time...

...and so did Bekah. :)

Matt and me on one of the carnival rides at Rabbit Fest. It was pretty intense, but we made it.

The dreaded Tilt-A-Whorl! There is a movie of Matt and Nathan making poor Bekah scream on this ride, but it took way too long to download, so you will just have to use your imagination.

Because of all the rain it was SOOO muddy, so some genius decided to spread hay all over the mud, thinking it would help. Instead, it created this thick, brick-like substance that stuck to everything, including the wheels of the stroller. Needless to say, we were practically dragging that thing by the end of the day. It was well worth it though!

Aunt Bekah was fabulous! She took such good care of Bennett AND me! We sure do love her! Thank you Bekah!


Me and Bennett-Boo. This isn't the best picture of him, but I had to redeem myself after posting that horrible picture of me last week. See? I do still do my hair...sometimes.

Bennett has learned to really enjoy taking baths lately. He coos and smiles at me the whole time, and it is one of the best parts of my day. This is him all wrapped up in his yellow duckie towel.

My Fabulous Mother's Day Weekend!!

I LOVE BEING A MOM!! This weekend proved to me that nine months of morning sickness, an intense 16 hour labor with extensive reconstructive surgery following, and 6 weeks of little to no sleep and zero personal time is TOTALLY worth it to be able to eat in bed!! :)

My Mother's Day weekend started Saturday when we decided we had had enough of the inside of our house and it was time to get out into the sunshine. We started out with the intention of going to one of the many lakes surrounding our area, but on the way there we ran into our city park and decided that was good enough for us! It is a beautiful, BIG park, with a public swimming pool, creeks and ponds (with ducks!), and about 10 baseball fields. We spent the morning walking around and watching all the different baseball games going on.

That night we were talking about how we had gotten a brand new tent right after our wedding that was still in the package, and we agreed that it was a shame it hadn't been used yet. We chose to remedy the situation, and set it up in our living room! Then we played Monopoly in it, and I DESTROYED Matt, even though he had Boardwalk and Park Place (So take that, Mr. I-Think-I'm-So-Good-At-Boardgames!! Ha, Ha, Ha!!)

Mother's Day was equally as good, complete with a delicious breakfast in bed, chocolates, and cards from both Matt and Bennett. I also got my Mother's Day Flower from our ward, hand delivered by a happy little deacon. Life is so good, and I LOVE BEING A MOM!!

This is us walking by one of the smaller ponds at the Copperas Cove City Park. Matt is a pushing-the-stroller kind of guy. He loves to take walks with Bennett and tell him all about how much fun they are going to have when he gets big.

Ducks!! I am so excited, because there is nothing quite like feeding a duck!

Bennett is a happy boy whenever we are outside.

He is also very sociable, and waved to everybody we met along the way. :)

Just the three of us! (looking at myself in this picture reminds me why I am always the one behind the camera."Do your hair, Woman!")

Matt and Bennett playing Monopoly in our tent, in our living room...and did I mention I won...like, by a lot? :)

My Wonderful breakfast in bed and my chocolates and cards. I am so happy to be married to a man who can cook!

This is the cute card "Bennett" gave me, signed personally by him with his little hand print. It was a music card that played the song from Jungle Book, "Wanna Be Like You", and as you can tell, he was very excited about giving it to me. Matt gave m a very nice music card too, sweet guy. I am so lucky!