I love sunflowers! It was incredible to watch these beauties grow! They reached 10-12 feet tall!! Several times, we cut them to make flower bouquets for our table. 
I really enjoyed going out and cutting them, even though they were so tall that I could barely reach them--believe it or not!
Jason with his grandparents - they are holding two cucumbers we brought from our garden.
He's growing like a little weed--and lots of fun to play with and watch. He's so smart, and so observant. I was really amazed about how much a 1 1/2 year-old knows, understands, and is able to do. Heather has him helping her with chores like unloading the dish washer, laundry, putting away toys, fetching his shoes to go outside, and more--and he loves to "help Mommy". Justin and Brady have father-son time out in the yard a lot --throwing rocks, and picking up sticks, etc. He even has his own "pond" on the back patio--a kiddie pool where he loves to toss rocks. 
A couple evenings were spent hanging out with Jason's friend, Danny and his wife Anna. We had a great time playing video games (guitars, drums, singing, etc. for this one game). And, just catching up on their lives was great--we hadn't see them since their wedding last year --7/7/07.
Crape Myrtle trees are very beautiful when they are blooming! I love the bright, deep pink of the two in our front flower bed. The light pink of the bigger tree is nice too, although Jason doesn't like the color very much. It is a really light pink, so they almost look white. Plus, it's gotten so big that it's difficult to trim. If Crape Myrtle's are not trimmed they get kind of shaggy, and don't produce thick blooms.
As gorgeous as the Crape Myrtles looked in our front yard recently, they really are a bit of a nuisance to have. They are constantly trying to sprout more trees. I found some shoots popping up in the yard the other day, and they were at least 4-5 feet away from the main tree. They also have shoots that will come up right at the base of the tree, and eventually all of these will grow into big trees if they are not trimmed regularly. I have heard Crape Myrtles are nearly impossible to get rid of too. We haven't tried getting rid of our three, but we surely have been careful to keep the constantly growing shoots and sprouts trimmed, so they don't get to be mature and over run the place!
because their root systems (besides being fertile as mentioned above) infiltrate the soil--using almost every spare piece of dirt. So, when I want to plant some ground cover or some cute little flowers in the front flower beds, the roots usually choke out whatever I plant. They also make it difficult to dig in the soil to even plant anything additional. Plus, we have these pretty ferns in the front flower bed that have the weirdest roots. The roots look like they have little balls on them. Anytime I dig in that flower bed, I usually unearth a few of these roots--hasn't harmed the plant either (whew!). So, when I dug one up one time, I poked at the ball on the roots and it had liquid in it. So, this must be the way it keeps itself from getting too dry--conservationist! Cool! --Kind of like a camel conserving extra water in its hump(s). 
We decided to grow a real garden this year in our backyard. Jason built a raised area for soil by drilling holes in landscaping timbers and staking them into the ground with cut-pieces of rebar. The garden area is in the shape of a trapezoid, and has sectioned off the upper right corner of our fenced yard. Next, he ordered dirt, and they came and dumped a pile of it in our driveway. When the dirt was delivered, the neighborhood kids were on Spring Break, so they all came over to play in the dirt. They asked us if they could ride their bikes in the mound, and had lots of fun doing that! They even built jumps, and tried to catch some air off our dirt pile. As Jason worked to haul the dirt to our 
garden plot, the kids grew more and more sad, because their bike jump was quickly deminishing. They kept asking us if we could order some more dirt --they really loved it!
We planted seven tomato bushes, one strawberry plant, and nine cabbage plants. We also planted seeds for three zucchini mounds, three squash mounds, two rows of sugar snap peas, and two mounds of cucumbers. Everything is sprouting now, and we are so excited! The tomato plants and cabbage plants have doubled in size, and the sugar snap peas are starting to vine.
Our house has a gated courtyard at the front entrance, which I have lined with a variety of potted plants! Two pots contain some very prolific aloe plants. I have been so excited about their explosive growth! Near our church there is a home where I noticed some incredibly cool looking aloe plants. They had beautiful structure, and were just bursting out the pots they were in. I only hoped that mine would ever get to be that healthy! 
fully develop, and then they only lasted about two weeks.
