Spring has sprung!

We planted tomatoes and strawberries earlier this spring and we are starting to see results!! Who knew a bunch of city slickers like us had green thumbs!!

First harvest! Yep only three, but the sweetest strawberries ever.


Don't they look yummy?? Went out to pick the next batch that I had seen ripening, but by they time I got there someone, or something had beat me to it!! So we had to put up some "protection". Since Kevin and I couldn't figure a schedule for sitting on the roof with a bb gun we had to improvise....

Nope! That's not the protection. Think of it as a commercial break. Just the lillies in our front yard! Pretty!! And there's a ton of them!

Can't really see it that well in this picture of Kevin musing over all the things he's going to put tomatoes in, but we put up a "cage" of bird netting around our garden. As well as the tomatotes and strawberries, I planted some basil, cilantro and oregano!! If only I knew what to do with it!!

The fruits of Kevin's labors!!

I've gone all newfangled and I'm using the Topsy-Turvy!! AS SEEN ON TV!! But purchased at Fred Meyer at a fraction of the cost! So far, so good! Got a bunch of Juliet tomatoes growing at the moment. Also put a plant for Big Boys, but I dropped the whole thing while I was putting soil in it, so I thing Big Boy was really a wuss, 'cause it's not doing as well.

3 years

Hard to believe that it has been three years since my Mom passed away. I still miss her so much. I had a few cries today and posted a bunch of pictures of her on Facebook. I wish I was close enough to put flowers on her grave. We are planning a trip down to CA in August, so I will deliver some then.

It's A Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Natalie and I found out recently that our baby will be a girl. Not sure how much of a girl it will be, but it will certainly be female. I'm very very excited to know this news. As soon as we found out we hit the Lowe's and bought the paint for her room. The strangest thing is that a few days before finding out we finally decided what we would name a girl. We shall call her Kara Diane Hopkins. Kara is a bit of a tribute to how Natalie and I met, Kara Goucher being one of our favorite runners. Diane is a tribute to mom. Not sure if mom liked the name Diane or not, but we're using it.

The Reece Family Visits Texas!

Watch out Rich, our soon-to-be reality could be yours one day, too! Here are Brooke, Jazzy, and Z traipsing across the fields at Rice.

A "Forrest Gump" moment at Rice University.

Kissing cousins! Zachary giving Jazzy one of his trademark open mouth kisses!

Brooke, Zachary, Brandon, and Jasmine on May 30, 2009 in Houston. Zachary decided he wanted the camera.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is a special day; it's Mom's 57th birthday!

Here is a excerpt of some conversation between the kiddos earlier today.
Trevor: "Happy Birthday to mom. She would be 57 today."
Kyle: "I was just about to send that same email out!
It’s crazy because I was thinking about it on the race in Corpus…how much of a “soccer mom” that she was…somehow I know that she would have found a way to be at every segment of the race course so that she could cheer everyone on…probably with the cooler of cold towels at the end no less! Haha. It was a good thought to have in my head while running at least."
Brandon: "I wish that was in my head. That would have made the run less hot."
Brooke: "Kyle, I cannot tell you how much it means to me that I have this ring on my finger. I look at it every day and it has allowed me to remember a few things about her every now and then that are brought back at times I have needed them most."
One memory is when she was working out so much with Keith and she weighed herself and lost 5 pounds and she couldn't believe it so to celebrate, we ate milk shakes and popcorn for dinner!!"
Kyle: "I also still love pancakes for dinner…mom had a knack for really weird dinners."

Popcorn, milkshakes, and movies; now those were good times. No matter what we were doing, she was always available to keep us going or lift us up when we fell down.

Baby Number 2

Well, it's official. We are having a boy!



We are of course very excited. Everything is checking out just fine, momma and baby are progressing as expected. Zachary still does not realize what is going to rock his world come late October, but we're working on that.

Beach to Bay

All the boys are heading to the coast with their families to run in the Beach to Bay team marathon this weekend. Six legs, each about 4.5 miles. Should be fun if we can actually make it to our starting points. I'll provide an update later this weekend.