Aubrey turns three!

For about six months now, all Aubrey has talked about is how she is going to get a Cinderella cake for her birthday. Luckily, Bobby's Mom is very talented, and created this wonderful Cinderella cake for Aubrey. She was absolutley thrilled! She took princess cupcakes to daycare/school in the morning, and when I went to pick her up, her teacher said, "Aubrey has been really excited it's her birthday today, and I REALLY hope you have a Cinderella cake, because that is all she has talked about." We just had her best friend Katelyn come over for some cake and ice cream...nothing fancy. Maybe next year I will actually do a party for her, they are just a lot of work.

I have been really excited to have my garden this year. Dad has been helping me get the right seeds and roto-tiller for the garden, and we went shopping around for some good top-soil. We found a great garden blend soil for an amazing price, so I went ahead and ordered 15 cubic yards of it. Zac, being the frugal guy that he is, found out the delivery price to Eagle Mountain, and decided he wanted to pick it up himself. The problem with this is that our truck only will hold 1 1/2 cubic yards per load, and Zac is going to have to shovel it out by himself. He took off the entire day to do this, I called him in the morning asking him what load he was on, and he said, "Um...they are going to deliver at 2:00" Thank goodness! They delivered the load right where I wanted the garden, and Zac was able to smooth it out for me before I got home. Dad came over and we rototilled in 10 bags of compost and some fertilizer. I am just waiting a week or two to let the soil settle a little before I plant. The garden ended up being ~20 ft x 15 ft. This picture does not do it justice for how big it looks. Dad came back and measured his garden, and mine is bigger...I hope it won't be too big. :) Dad has started my tomatoes and onions in his greenhouse shed, so hopefully my crop will be great this year. I'm not sure what kind of border I want around it yet, but I have some very "helpful" neighbors who let me know their opinion of what would look best.

The building permit finally came in for our basement yesterday, so Zac is busy again in the basement. He has finished the framing and electrical, and today he is working on the plumbing for the bathroom. We have to have the 4-way inspection, then we can put the installation in, have another inspection, and finally get the drywall up. Zac has already installed the pocket door from the bedroom to the bathroom and it looks great! He was able to get a great deal for a steel door for our cold storage. And good ole Zac, he "found" a roll of carpet pad on the freeway. So what does he do? He pulls over and shoves it in my car. It is enough for the bedroom. Does this really surprise anyone? I swear, just when I think Zac couldn't get any more frugal, he finds things on the side of the freeway. The only thing we've had to buy for this basement so far is the doors and the plumbing. He had all the wood, electrical, and can lights for the basement already from his "finds". He found a great deal on dry wall also. They are normally $7-8 a sheet, and he has been going around Lowes and Home Depot for weeks now, and they sell the sheets that have a corner damaged, etc for $2 a sheet, so he had picked up enough now for our entire basement. Our neighbors tease him saying that we could build something today, but if we wait a week or two, Zac will figure out a way to get it for free.