Our Yard

This post is ridiculously long, but it is mostly pictures. We finished all the major work on our lawn and garden and I wanted to catalog the work that we have done.


As you may know we have been working on getting a lawn and garden put in our backyard. We've lived in this house for almost 5 years, but now that we have a munchkin who loves being outside, we decided it was time to put in a lawn. We also both love fresh vegetables so we decided to do a garden as well.



Well the work has been done, the sprinklers are spraying. Now we just need to weed and wait. I thought I would post some pictures to show the transformation.



First what our backyard looked like when we moved in.

We've sprayed weed killer in the backyard each spring and summer, so we finally got the weeds under control. Last fall we decided to pull the trigger with hopes of completion this spring. We rototilled the ground as a first step. For me it was like making the commitment to do the job.

Spring arrived and that meant compost. Lots and lots of compost. Luckily I had Ami to supervise, otherwise who knows what I would have ended up doing.

With the ground work done, we had to put in a sprinkler system. I initially told Becky that would do the lawn and garden, but only with a sprinkler system. Luckily Steve and my Dad were able to come and lend a hand. We couldn't have done it without them.

Once the sprinklers were in and the trenches covered, all that was left was to spread some seed and plant some veggies.

And on Friday, we began to see results in the lawn.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Once the grass really comes in and we have some vegetables, we'd like to have a get-together for anyone who can make it. It will probably be this summer sometime, so stay tuned.

Anyone want to be our nannie?

While Scott's dad was here he helped out some with the kids in morning before they headed out to work on the yard. One morning Scott was on the computer, I was doing something with Ami, and Eli was feeling neglected. So, Grampa picked him up and he instantly quite crying. This gave me the idea for the following conversation that I had with Scott.



Me--We need to have a second wife.



Scott--Why?



Me--A third person in this relationship would be helpful with the kids. Yesterday it really helped out when your dad was holding Eli.



Scott--You realize that would mean twice the kids, right?



Me--NO! They wouldn't be allowed to have any kids. But some how we need to always out number the kids.



Scott--You're a little late for that.



Me--I GOT IT!! We need a NANNIE!

Water Water.

Things have slowed down since this weekend. It was pretty much a zoo. Michelle and I were in my small house with five kids for two days. They did really well being cooped up, but I definitely WILL NOT be having FIVE kids!! Ami really likes playing with Chase and Tristen. She ALWAYS gets excited when she sees a picture of them or we talk about them. To her though both Tristen and Chase are Chase.



The men got a lot of work done Friday and Saturday. I'm not even sure I can list it all, but I'm going to try. They rotatilled one last time, trenched where the pipe would go for the sprinklers (I could hear Scott GRUNTING in the house with all the windows closed trying to get the trencher to move.), hooked up the sprinklers and timer, laid down the grass seed and peet moss. I'm sure I have left out some steps.



I'm grateful for Steve and Dean. This would have taken Scott and I a few weekends to complete.



Now we are WATERING, WATERING, WATERING!



Several pictures have been posted. Check them out.

WOOHOO! There will soon be grass.

We are back from our trip to Idaho to watch Lisa and Matt graduate along with blessing both Eli and Thomas. It was almost like Eli grew up over night. Before the trip he would cry continuosly when he was in his car seat. He barely cried at all during the entire trip. As long as he was fed and changed and you occasionally made faces at him he just hung out or slept. I was SOOOOO happy about that. I was afraid Scott would leave him on the side of the road and we would pick him up on the way back.



We left Ami with Grama and Grandpa for a few days. It has been soooo quite around here. Yesterday I started cleaning the grout on the floor with baking soda and a tooth brush. Scott thinks I have too much time on my hands. No, it is easier to do without a 2 year old trying to help. I'm hoping tomorrow I can get some scrapbooking done.



This weekend Steve and Dean are going to help Scott out with the sprinkler system in the back yard while Michelle and I keep the kids under control. I can HARDLY wait when we have GRASS!! I would do a cart wheel, but I would probably land on my head.



Check out the pictures from our trip.

Where Have We Been?

 We have been stressing!  The first sale of our home fell through the end of February.  We had to put our house back on the market after already moving into the house we intended on buying.  But it sold just as quickly the second time on the market and we closed on both houses the end of March.  Whew!

We are now to getting to the point that we feel like our new house is starting to feel like home.  We are lacking decorations, but it has the spirit of our home.  

On top of the house ordeal.  Scott applied to grad school and a program at work to pay for his schooling.  We were anxiously waiting the results of this among the house drama.  Everything has turned out AWESOME!  Scott has been accepted to Carnegie Mellon Silcon Valley and work is going to PAY FOR IT!.  It is unbelievable.  

So, we pretty much stressed about nothing!  It all worked out how we wanted.  We have been very blessed .

New photos are up, enjoy.

Where Have We Been?

We have been stressing! The first sale of our home fell through the end of February. We had to put our house back on the market after already moving into the house we intended on buying. But it sold just as quickly the second time on the market and we closed on both houses the end of March. Whew!

We are now to getting to the point that we feel like our new house is starting to feel like home. We are lacking decorations, but it has the spirit of our home.

On top of the house ordeal. Scott applied to grad school and a program at work to pay for his schooling. We were anxiously waiting the results of this among the house drama. Everything has turned out AWESOME! Scott has been accepted to Carnegie Mellon Silcon Valley and work is going to PAY FOR IT!. It is unbelievable.

So, we pretty much stressed about nothing! It all worked out how we wanted. We have been very blessed .

New photos are up, enjoy.

Wordle, our FHE activity

Becky saw on a friends blog an application called Wordle. It allows you to create pictures using words. You give it some text and it will take the most common words and randomly arrange them into a picture. We fed it all of our blog posts from about 2.5 years of blogging, removed some common words and got the following:

Becky wanted to cheat and insert only the words that she wanted. She wasn't happy that the word "bathroom" appeared enough on our blog to make the most popular word cut. We also felt bad the Eli barely made the cut. So we made another one that is just with words that we entered:

This was our Family Home Evening activity since Ami is playing at Grandpa and Grandma's house for the week. Check it out, it was fun to do!

Rolling Rolling ROLLING!!

Today is a very slow day. I've completed most of my to do list for the week. Now I'm just waiting in anticipation of a very long road trip next week to Idaho with two small kids. Ami will do fine but....Eli is another story. I'm going to buy some ear plugs hoping that will help us have more patience with him. We're going up to see Lisa and Matt graduate and also bless Thomas and Eli. It will be a cousin blessing good time. However, I'm not looking toward being cold...BRRRRR. Can you tell I'm mixed about this whole trip? It will be good. It is always fun to be around Scott's whole family.



The exciting news here is that Eli is rolling over from his tummy to his back. I couldn't believe it when I walked in knowing that I put the little guy on his tummy to find him on his back. He's ONLY 2 1/2 months old!! I haven't caught him in action yet. Ami rolled over at four months the other way, so I wasn't expecting this to happen yet. Let's hope he doesn't keep up with the early trend of things or my days in church will be out in the hall chasing him at 8 or 9 months.



We once had friends tell us that you better learn all you need to about the Gospel before you have children, because it's all down hill from there.