Grants Farm

Lucy went on a field trip Tuesday with her school.  She was so excited about going and looked forward to it for weeks.  They were heading to Grants Farm and spending the day there.  Lucy was most excited about feeding the goats and getting a snow cone.  Some of the Moms that went sent me these pictures of Lucy on the field trip.  It was kind of weird to know she would be riding a bus almost an hour away and spending the day so far away without me.  I knew her group mom who lives just down the street so that was nice.  They put them in small groups of only 4 to go walk around with.  They had lunch there and then headed back to school for their specials that afternoon.  Lucy had a blast and I am glad she was able to go do something fun with her class.

Landscaping: Day 2

Monday my Dad and brother Jordan came back to mulch the yard.  Everything looks so much better with mulch.  My Dad edged and dug up dirt around all the trees in the back.  He said they were planted all wrong and was probably keeping them from growing.  Hopefully they will grow now they can breathe.  They had way to much dirt piled up on top of the root ball.  We had one dead tree in the back of one side out by the fence.  He took that one out and it looks so much nicer. 

Here is the back bed with mulch and my new flowers I planted.

 The bed will continue on but I love it so much more then how it was before.  The bushes are doing so much better back there and one is already starting to blossom.

While I was taking pictures I decided to take one of the flowers on the deck.  They are doing great and I love how bright and colorful they are.  

 Everything in the front got mulch and I got all my flowers planted up front as well.  My Dad also dug up all the dirt from around the tree in the front and put down new mulch.

We love the way things have turned out so far and it has been a huge improvement on the outside of the house.  Our neighbors also love it and several of them have come over to tell us how much the love it.  Last night we were out in the backyard and the neighbor behind us came over to the fence and told us how much she loves that back and was glad to see we were working in our yard.  I told JJ if she could only see the front! We are so grateful to know a good landscaper who came to help us work in our yard.  They did a great job!

Happy Mothers Day!

Saturday evening we started our Mothers Day celebrations.  We had family pictures taken and then JJ took us out to eat pizza at Dewey's.  He wanted to make sure I had my own celebration and that we did something special for me.  I was glad he thought to make sure I had something just for me.  I always love to go out to eat.  We love Dewey's pizza and it was close to where we had our pictures taken so it worked out great.  We got there when they were really busy and had a pretty long wait, and we were starving.  The kids were able to enjoy lots of time watching them make the pizzas.  They throw the dough up in the air and the kids really enjoy that. 

 We enjoyed a nice dinner with yummy pizza and salad.  We then stopped at a few stores in the area and then picked up donuts at a bakery for the next morning. 

 I haven't had a donut in a really long time so it was so nice to wake up to these Sunday morning!

Me and the kids before church, I am so lucky to have 2 wonderful kids.  I feel so blessed to be able to be a Mom.  I know it is what I am suppose to do with my life and it has brought so many blessing into my life. 

The whole family before church. 

After church we had a nice relaxing afternoon. We sat out on the deck reading and relaxing together, it was wonderful!  We skyped with JJ's parents, which was nice.  We then opened up cards and gifts from the kids and JJ.  Lucy was so sweet and worked really hard on several things at school.  I just love all the thought and time she put into everything.  She planted a plant at school and made a picture frame with her picture in it.  She also gave me a ticket for a free bowling game at the bowling alley.  She said she got 2 of them and she is keeping one and gave one to me so we can go out together.  I thought that was so sweet that she planned a fun Mommy-daughter date for us and got us bowling tickets. Garrett made a nice card for me as well at the library and one in primary.

JJ got me some new kitchen towels, which I needed and asked for.  We picked them out together Saturday evening.  I love how bright and fun they are!

I also asked for some flowers to plant in the front of the house.  We picked those out together as well.  It was fun to work together picking them out rather then me just having him do it on his own.

That evening we went over to my parents house for dinner and to celebrate my Mom.  We had a nice dinner together and then we opened gifts and cards from everyone.  She got lots of nice things from everyone. 

She made some yummy coconut cream pie all from scratch and it was delicious.  It was her first time making that pie and it turned out great!

Me and My Mom, I am so lucky to have her as my Mom and so glad we live close to them so I can see her often. 

I had a really nice Mothers day and loved how special JJ and the kids made me feel all day long.  I loved the extra hugs and kisses and the ammount of times they would come tell me Happy Mothers Day.

Landscaping: Day 1

 From the minute we looked at the house we knew it needed some serious landscaping.  I love nicely landscaped homes and maybe my Dad being a landscaper has something to do with it.  We have been talking with my Dad since we looked at the home about things we could do to make it have more curb appeal. We couldn't wait to get started!  He has been really busy this spring and we were so excited when he told us he would be coming up to work at our house last Friday.  Early in the morning after Lucy got on the bus the crew arrived and we got right to work!

The front was boring and didn't have much done to it at all.  I was talking to my neighbor and she said the real estate agent of the sellers came one day and planted those 4 bushed just randomly one day to help it sell.  I was weeding the other week and discovered some buried daffodils under the fabric lining the agent also put down.  I ripped the fabric and let the flowers out.   We also found out the bushes that were planted were not the right bushes for that spot. That spot gets full sun and they require part sun and needed to be moved to the backyard.

 The back had several issues as well.  It needed help with draining the water away from the house.  The sump pump as well as the only down spout to the back of the house all drained right in the same area.  Causing a muddy and wet mess in that area of the yard.  That part of the yard also got the least amount of shade so it was so hard to ever give it a chance to dry up after a big storm.   

 

 

 They at one point maybe had a garden bed here.  We aren't sure.  All we know is that it was a mess. We had to pull up all the metal edging they put in the front and the back.  

 Here is the sump pump coming out of the house.  You can see the water hole it was making in the yard.  This was the main issue we were so excited to have fixed, since we have had such a rainy spring! 

 The boys got right to work stripping the sod off the pipe line route. We were glad that we have descent weather that day.  It had rained all day Thursday and was drizzling/sprinkling on us all day as we worked.  It made things pretty muddy and messy and the sod stripping was a little more difficult.

 Garrett never left the side of any of the workers, he wanted in on all the action and was there to talk to us and ask us several questions about everything we were doing.

 After the sod was all stripped they dug the trench to lay the pipe in.  The ground was so wet!

 The dirt was horrible and all very thick and like clay.  It was completely full of water and was just horrible.  We bucketed out all of the bad soil and dumped it.  It was no good to work with and we didn't want to even put it back into the area.  

 After they got the pipe put in they laid the sod back over it.  You can see the drain end at the bottom of the picture.  It lays flat in the yard and they call it a pop up immersion drain.  When it gets full of water the top pops up and drains the water.  There is also a hole on the bottom so it can drain any water into the ground that way.  I love it, I was worried there would be a raised pipe in the yard and I didn't want the kids to trip on it.

We then moved to the front yard and stripped all the sod out of the new bed. It was fun to decide on the shape of the bed.  We laid the garden hose out so we could picture how it would look.  After this step we headed to the nursery my Dad likes to use.  Luckily for us the wholesale nursery he loves is just 5 minutes from our house.  It was fun to walk around and pick out the plants we liked.  We also picked up 2 scoops of topsoil and picked out some big rocks to act as our wall on the end of the bed. 

 When we got home we started to set the rocks and plants where they would go, so fun to start to see it come together.  We were so happy with our plant choices.

 Lucy came home and was anxious to help be a landscaper with Grandpa and Uncle Jordan. 

 The ground in the front wasn't much better then the back and we were glad we got lots of new topsoil to put around our new plants.  It was fun to have it all come together. 

 

After we finished planting in the front we moved to the back to strip the sod out of the new bed we were going to put back there.  We had to replant those bushes from the front.  The ground was horrible.  My Dad said it was like mud from a swamp! It was really hard to get the sod up from that spot and the boys were just covered in mud!

Once we got everything dug up back there we planted the bushed from the front with a few daffodils and put down lots of new topsoil.   My Dad brought those stones for us and we aren't sure exactly where they will go.  For now so they are out of the grass they are set there. When we finish the rest of the backyard we will find a more permanent place.  Already looking ton better then it was before!

Here is the front of the house after day 1, looks great! 

 I love the big stones we picked out, they look really nice and I love the color in them. 

I love how things are looking outside and we are so excited to have it done.  I am so glad my Dad and brother were able to come work along side us and help us do this landscaping.  It sure makes the house look so much better!

 The kids love to take a bath in our bathroom in the big bathtub.  They love all the extra space and especially love the bubbles we put in.  I think it is fun to let them enjoy a special treat like a big bubble bath every once and while. It is fun to have a big bath tub again.

Garrett is such a talker and will talk to me all day long. I don't think people believe me until they really spend time with him.  He seriously talks all day.  It is so funny to watch him use his hands while he talks and he gets so animated when he tells me stories.  He will tell me some funny things and a lot of them don't make any sense to me.  He is such a sweet boy and I am glad he is home with me all day so I can hear all the fun things he has to say. 

 Tuesday after story time we wanted to get out and enjoy the beautiful day.  We meet up with JJ at the store and picked up a few things and then took a picnic lunch to a park close to where he works.  We had a nice time visiting with JJ and Garrett loved playing on the playground.  We stayed for a while longer after JJ headed back to work.  Garrett no longer naps so it was nice to be able to just enjoy the day and not have to worry about the time.

 Lucy has had a horrible ball season.  They have only played 1 game and had 3 rained out.  So the coach called a practice this week so the kids to play a little.  It was beautiful all day and then right when practice started it started to rain.  The kids didn't mind and they enjoyed doing some drills and practiced hitting the ball.  It drizzled on and off and Garrett and I enjoyed sitting outside together, he brought cars to play with in the dirt by the bench.  Lucy had a blast.

 I finally ordered our blog books! I started back last fall working on 2008.  I did photo albums for that year but wanted to go back and have the words to go with the pictures.  I also did 2012 and a book for each of the kids.  I worked slowly on them and didn't really give myself a timeline this year.  I didn't want to stress out about getting them done.  I liked that a lot better.  Then when I got another coupon code I used it and ordered all 4.  They turned out great and I am glad to have them sitting on our shelf with the other ones.