Our New Flower Garden-3

Our flower garden grew again and is no longer circular. It is definitely still a work in progress but is coming along quite nicely. I went plant shopping the other day and got a yellow knockout rose, a pink knockout rose, and a stargazer lilly. The blooms on the lilly are so georgous. I took a picture of some blooms on the knockout roses too because the little buds that are getting ready to bloom are so tiny and cute. My neighbor gave me two elephant ear bulbs that I planted yesterday. We should see them starting to grow in a week or so. The remainder of our backyard still needs some work. We plan on just mulching the whole thing to give it a uniform look and hide the bare ground, we have about a half dozen stumps to remove, grass seed to plant at the bottom of the hill between the garden and the deck. We also need to figure out something to do at the very top of the hill in the back. It is hard to plant anything back there because it is almost all stone. I am thinking of getting wildflower seeds and spreading them up there just so it won't be bare. We also rearranged our deck and patio and have lots more deck space now and are putting the patio to good use with the table, grill, and sidewalk chalk :-). It is already feeling a little cozier out our back door, which is a great thing since we are spending way more time out there than inside lately. Thank God for His wonderful creation including the ground we live on. We are trying to make the most out of our little piece of it.

Our New Flower Garden - 2

Our new flower garden grew again today. It is still circular, which I might change soon since I am kind of rethinking it, but it grew a little wider. We also have another Hosta, though a different kind, planted in it. My sweet, sweet neighbor just keeps giving so freely from her garden so we can get ours started. She also gave us some Walking Grass, which is so pretty and attracts butterflies. Wow, might we actually have butterflies in our yard one day? Andrew said, "It is the best flower garden ever" [the desired response when I put a lot of work into something...what a great husband]. I responded with, "Yeah, thanks to Geneva and you". Andrew quickly reminded me not to forget how much Bill, Geneva's husband, helped us out. Oh, I definitely had not forgotten Bill with his flip flops and chainsaw. The entire time Bill was cutting down trees for us, I was praying that nothing tragic would happen. Yet, outwardly I had to laugh at him being such a die hard holding the chainsaw with one hand and wearing flip flops. We are so blessed to have such great, fun, and helpful people for neighbors.

Our New Flower Garden

I am so excited that we have the beginnings of our own flower garden. We have lived in this house for five years and the backyard has always been a sore eye because we haven't had the time to do much to it. The other day we were sitting out on our back deck when our neighbor came over and said she was going to dig up some flowers from our other neighbor's garden and did I want her to plant them on our hill somewhere. I responded that I didn't want to plant anything on the hill because it was too ugly and that we needed to clean it up first. She said she would be more than willing to help us clean it up and help us start a flower garden. Commence...four people, three hours, lots of sweat, cutting down four trees and removing eight large trash bags of yard debris. Then there was a clean slate to start a flower garden on. My sweetheart neighbor gave me a "Knock Out Rose" as my first plant. Then, she handed me the shovel and told me that if I wanted to learn to garden I had to do it myself. I am not afraid of hardwork and have no problem planting my own garden. There was only one small problem, oh wait, it is actually a pretty big problem. I tried putting the shovel about a 1/2 inch in the ground and hit stone...EVERYWHERE. How silly was I to think I could actually just dig a hole and plant something? If that was all I had to do it would be a cakewalk. The entire ground needed dug up to rid of all the stones in preparation for planting anything. However, we did come across some boulders that can't even be dug up. So, it is a work in progress but we do have about a 10 ft circular area that has been all dug up and mulched. Planted within it is a Hosta that was already on the hill buried in weeds and Ivy. The Knock Out Rose is a few feet over. In the middle are the flowers that we transplanted from our other neighbor's yard. I don't know what they are called because they haven't bloomed yet. As soon as they bloom I think it will be easier to research what they are. I am SOO excited about having a flower garden. Praise God for my great neighbors who just love gardening enough that they were willing to help me out even with the not so fun parts like digging up stones. Oh and in the process of trying to break up a very large boulder, we discovered that we were digging right next to a red pipe. I don't know what kind of pipe it was but I am certain we wouldn't want it busted. Thank God that we didn't.

Mother's Day Lamb Dinner

Andrew cooked me a fabulous lamb dinner for Mother's Day complete with sparkling white grape juice so as not to tempt me with alcohol. I could not have planned for our dinner to be more special. I was kind of wondering how it was going to work out with the kids but they just added preciousness to the experience. Braedon started asking for, collecting, and chewing on our lamb chop bones. All the while, Kaley is on the floor delightfully screaming and rolling around. It was so cool that it was Mother's Day and our kids were being kids but at the same time we were totally enjoying our nice romantic dinner right alongside them. Andrew actually made the comment that "Now, all we need is a candle in the middle of the table", because the whole experience was sort of quasi-romantic and perfect at the same time. This is what it is all about! I deeply appreciate everything my honey did for me for Mother's Day but in my heart of hearts just seeing the smiling faces of my children is enough for me any day.

Mother's Day Roses

There were a dozen roses with a card on our dining room table when I came downstairs this morning. My hubby is so sweet. Thanks Honey! You have made my Mother's Day very special.

As we were eating breakfast, Andrew took the picture of Braedon and the roses, which is kind of cute but it is even more special when I remembered that Braedon was conceived on Mother's Day in 2006! :-)

Mother's Day Peony

Just recently I have realized that certain life events are worthy of a celebratory spirit when I used to think that things were just not really worth the trouble of doing much to celebrate. I still am very practical, but realize now more than ever that I want to make special memories, live this life to the fullest, and celebrate every gift from God. Celebrate doesn't mean go out and spend a bunch of money and get all stressed out to make sure everything is perfect, etc... Celebrate to me just means to make a special memory no matter what we are doing. As Mother's Day approached this year I heard of a friend from Sunday School who has a sweet tradition with her two daughters to go to the pottery studio and paint plates. That made me think, "yeah, we need a tradition". As I was thinking of what we could do that would be tradition-worthy, I realized how much I love Spring and how it brings about new life in plants, trees, and flowers. What a beautiful symbol of motherhood in bringing about new life. So, there came the idea for a plant. We went to the store where I picked out a Garden Peony. Then, Braedon helped me plant it while Kaley watched close-by and Daddy took pictures. It was on Saturday that we planted the Peony. Sunday morning Andrew made me breakfast, we went to church, my friend Michelle came over for lunch and tea, and Andrew is making me a lamb dinner tonight. Andrew has done a wonderful job of blessing me on Mother's Day but really I am already blessed beyond belief with the little ones that God has placed in our family. Thank You God!

Braedon & Kaley-2

Braedon is playing with the microphone of his karaoke machine, which is his favorite thing to do when we are in the basement/play room/exercise room/spare bedroom. I think it is cute the way he is trying to get Kaley to grab a hold of it. Although, apparently, he quickly decided he wanted it back.

Braedon & Kaley

Braedon and Kaley were playing together today and Kaley would scream and then Braedon would laugh at her and so on and so on. They just marvel at each other. It is so neat and cute to see.