summer

Here are some more of the yard. We pretty much finished up getting the front put back together.

Kaydence and Soren had a playdate with there good friends Analee and Luke Lainhart last thursday. Ana and Kaydence have been in the same grade school class the last two years and are the best of friends. I joke around that Luke will be my future son in law...that is, if only Kaydence and Luke could stand each other :) (I think it's a cover)

Yep thats typical Mya (the dog) waiting under the table for the scraps that will fall.. Her favorite place is under Ivan's chair.

More landscaping improvements

I've been trying to clean up the landscaping beds after we had to tear them all apart to get the old curbing out and lay the new concrete ones. We won't be getting the rock we want to replace the old bark right away and we can't just leave it all torn up the way it is till then...(we have an HOA to worry about) I spent the day tearing out some ground weed barrier, and pulling grass and weeds that have been growing in the old beds, and pruning trees and bushes. I filled up both garbages so I will have to wait till next week to finish or until I can borrow the in laws trailer.

but here is what I accomplished today.

BEFORE:

When we re-seeded the lawn, seeds flew into the bark and took root :( So all that needed to be ripped out.

AFTER: (exact same location as above)

oh look there is another bush under there :)

I also hacked alway at those huge junipers. I didn't exactly know how to trim those suckers and just went at it :) I'm young, this is all a learning experience. Same with the rose bushes, I just cut away, except those are more forgiving since they will be huge again in a month. I have to cut those things back about 5 times every summer.

Home Improvements

We've been trying to get some things done around the house that have been on the to do list for almost 2 years now. We were able to replace the old plastic curbing with nice concrete curbing. We pressure washed the house and got all the outside windows washed. We colored and sealed the concrete around the house as well. We had upgrade stamped/colored concrete work, but it hadn't been kept up over the years. Most all the color had be bleached away by the time we moved in and we always wanted to reseal it, but again it has been on the back burner of things that needed to get done. But we finally got it done!!! Things are coming together but A LOT is still yet to do.

BEFORE Sealing:

AFTER:

BEFORE Curbing:

AFTER:

We still have some landscaping to do before it's a completely finished AFTER. We plan to replace the ground weed barrier and put rock down instead of the existing bark.

Kaydence

Kaydence had her 1st graders singing performance today at school so since she was all cute I brought the camera out :)

tooth fairy

Kaydence lost another tooth today. It's been loose a LONG time and I finally told her I would poll it out. (I wouldn't do it, it freaks me out) In fact we waited so long the other tooth is already showing coming in.

That night I replaced the tooth with 3 dollars (since its her 3rd lost) and the next morning she is banging on our door wanting to know where her tooth is. She says "I know your the tooth fairy.. so where is my tooth???, I want to show my class"

Ivan in the hot tub

We let Ivan in the hot tub for the first time and he loved it. The last few months he has grown to hate bathing. He screams the whole time. He loved the hot tub however... apparently he just doesn't enjoy bathing alone??? The 104 temp didn't even really phase him. We always had to wait till after he was asleep before we all went in but now we can go in whenever :) We certainly go through more swimming diapers this way though :(

Motorcycle

Craig has had a motorcycle since he was 16 years old. A few years ago we sold it to pay for some bills. He always intened to get a new one but bills never seemed to end :) When gas prices started to go back up this spring I decided maybe it was time to allow Craig his motorcycle back. We found this used Honda Shadow on Craigslist for a good deal so we snagged it. Craig has been taken it to work and I am able to run errands in the Stratus and not have to drive the big Suburban gas eater around when I only have 1 kid during the day. As long as Craig doesn't get in an accident we should be able to save enough on gas to pay for it. And maybe I will learn to drive it :)