Spring?

What I think of as spring might finally be here! It looks like we'll at least be consistently hitting the high 60's or low 70's from here on out and more flowers are starting to bloom. Now I know it's technically the first day of summer, but I just can't believe THIS is summer.

In the flower bed in front of our house, a few huge flower buds finally opened up to reveal peonies (which I'd never knowingly seen in person before). Our landlord told me how you need ants on peonies to eat away a sticky layer on the bud and allow them to open. The skeptic that I am did an online search and turns out that's just a myth, but the ants are still beneficial. The peonies excrete a sugary substance, which attracts the ants and the ants fight off (eat, I guess?) some of the bad bugs.

We also had a bunch of these super cute little blue flowers come up. I looked on the Montana plant life website and I'm pretty sure they're forget-me-nots

And this little guy came up that kinda looks like blue flax, but I'm not sure because it's more purple than blue

Our tomatoes plants are doing well too. In front of the house, there used to be huge cottonwood trees and the stumps are still there. Josh's brother pointed out that the centers of the stumps were pretty rotted out, but still moist--like the tree's system is still pulling water up from the ground. He thought it'd be a good place to plant and we agreed. A week after we arrived, we got some tomato and basil plants along with a few squash seeds and we added a little soil to the stumps and planted everything there. All the plants are happy and the tomatoes are blooming. Here is a picture of me standing on one of the stumps to show how big they are...and I have size 11 feet, just for reference. Oh, and yes, that is the beginning of a baby belly in the way. Just yesterday I made the comment, "I'm starting to pooch out" and Josh immediately answered back, "YEAH you have!" (just because you have a PhD doesn't mean the brain to mouth filter is always in place when talking to your pregnant wife).


And last, but not least, the girl's riding their bikes the other day