Yard work

I know we are weird but Mike & I LOVE working in our yard!  This is good since this year we had a lot to do.  Almost every weekend, and weekday evening we had free we spent working on the yard.  I have to give a HUGE shout out to my AWESOME hubby for helping my yard dreams come true!  Thanks for putting up with me sweetie!

I have been planning my yard for years, maybe even since I was 14 and first started working in my great grandma's back yard.  I have taken note of things I liked and did not like about all the different yards we have been in. 

When we moved here one of the first things I did was get some graph paper, trace my house on the plans and our yard limits. I then drew and redrew all the flower gardens, play areas and other such things. There was a huge list of things I wanted in the yard so I had to pack it all in. I planned in where trees and bushes would be, where the different berry patches would be and etc. I have a cupboard full of potential plans! 

These are some of the things we learned we would and would not do if possible:

1)  PLAN, PLAN, PLAN!

2) If possible have the house face west or south (shade in the backyard in the evening)

3) have a drinking fountain outside  (we LOVE this & it was only 50$ for parts!!)

3)All trees must be inside of flower gardens (Mike hates mowing around trees, and it is healthier)

4)All flower gardens must be watered by their own driplines in the sprinkler system.  This helps control weeds.

5) Have a place for a garden and have its own valve in the sprinkler system

6) Make sure there is a door wide enough in the fence to drive back to the garden

7) know the full size of trees and don't plant them close enough so they will touch the house or drop leaves directly on it.

8)Put the flower gardens in one at a time if you have a lot

9)Make sure you know your final yard plans/dreams before you have the sprinkler system designed.

10) by the biggest trees you can afford if you have a new house.  We LOVE Zollingers Tree farm for this!  They usually have a sale over memorial day weekend too.

11)Put play areas in their own area and not on the lawn.  The lawn will be destroyed and they are hard to mow around.

12)  If you don't know a lot about trees, gardens, or what you want in a yard DEFINATELY go to a landscape archetect.  I wish we had done that but I balked at the $500 price tag.  I think we could have saved that in parts for the sprinkler system alone. They also know best what kind of plants can grow under which conditions.  They also make your yard plans look great!

13) Do as much work as possible yourselves. (unless of course #12 applies)

14) look at other yards, photos of yards, etc for ideas.  There is a lot of great stuff out there!

15) try not to have too many sharp or square corners in your yard.  This makes it very hard to mow and takes a lot of extra time.

16)  Don't plant trees in the middle of your open space.  I promise one day you will want to throw a ball around or something and trees get in the way.

17)Talk to the local garden centers, they know more about your specific area and can help you with almost any gardening needs.

18) some garden centers have people that will come to your house and help you plan out the plants in your gardens for very cheep!

19) it is worth it to save money to put in curbing.  It is also VERY worth it to call around for the best pricing!

20) Haul in topsoil for your garden if you live in an area with poor soil.  It was only about 100$ but very worth it since we have a great garden right off the bat rather then ammending it for years.

These are a few of the things we have learned and we will probably learn a lot more!

These are some of the things we wanted/want in our yard:  Playground, sandbox, drinking fountain, fire pit, place for a hammock, veggie garden, hummingbird/butterfly garden, Secret garden (I want one like they have at Disney Land with lots of wierd plants.), water feature of some kind, sitting areas within the gardens, a sweat pea teepee, a plant tunnel the kids can run through, lots of places for birds, a strawberry patch and a raspberry patch.

This year we started off with the kids playset.  We have been saving for a while and we finally found a great deal on the one we wanted!  It is a Lifetime swingset and we LOVE it! 

 

Mike and I assembled it ourselves.  18 hours later and with tired hands we finally had our families first playset!  

 This is our new way to keep Kyle occupied.  We give him a hose and he waters the lawn & himself.

Once we got the playset in we hauled in bark and sand.  It only took about 30 wheel barrels full to get the bark in and 40 for the sand pile.  My shoulders were sore that day!

 The kids absolutely LOVE the sandbox!

 Off to the left you can see our drinking fountain.  This may be one of our favorite parts of the yard.  I know it has saved a lot of cups from the house and a lot of dirt from being tracked on my floors.

We also planted a lot of the shrubs in the front of the house and I am very happy with how they turned out.  In this picture I have Spirea, Rose bushes, Arborvitea, Weigela, and burning bush.

 Suprisingly the rose bush is doing great!  Turns out they are easier then I though.

We also planted our garden and it is doing great this year!  We are using irrigation drip tape to water it and it is working great.

Man I love being outside!

Father's Day Craft

For Father's day my kids decided they wanted to do a craft for my dad (their grandpa) to mail to him on his mission.  They love doing hand painting so that is what they did.  Nick and Andrea were very creative.  Andrea flicked paint all over her hand prints for a spotted look.  Nick turned his into "A pig being slaughtered."  I have no idea what that had to do with father's day or why he would know about slaughtering but that is what he painted.

 Kyle caught on VERY quickly and absolutely loved the messiness.

This video shows how Nick & Kyle painted thier hands.  As you will hear it was tough work for Kyle.

This is Kyle showing his skills at cleaning up.

Its a good thing the paint was non-toxic!

Mom's vs. Kids

The mom's in my neighborhood are great!  This year we all got together and decided to make the kids' last day of school memorable.  Of course we settled on pummeling the kids with waterballons as they got off the bus.  It was awesome!  The kids basically stood there in shock. No worries, no children were hurt in this pummeling.  Memories were definately made though.

After that we all retreated to the community backyards were we had pools set up, slides, sprinklers, and pizza!  The kids were in heaven, and quite frankly so were the moms.

 Nick loved the slide even though the water was very cold.

 Kyle loved playing in the water as well!

 Nick and his friends enjoying pizza.

 The lost tooth twins.  Abby went down the slide and her tooth fell out.  She went over to tell Andi.  Andi decided to go down the slide too and her tooth fell out.  Yes, we were finally able to recover both!

 Showing of her hole!

A great time was had by all and we still hear the kids mention being attacked by their moms every once in a while.  I have no idea how we will top it next year!

The Air/rain show at Hill Air Force Base

Mike loves airplanes, so this year we decided to go to the Hill Air Force Base air show. The Thunderbirds were flying so we wanted to be there.

In preparation we watched the weather and we knew it would rain.  When we got to the base we saw a huge rain cloud on the way and decided to wait it out in the car watching a movie and eating lunch while staying dry.  Not 2 minutes into waiting two of the kids (they shall remain nameless) said they had to use the bathroom.  The only open bathrooms were inside the gates and that was a half mile away.  Well they needed to go so I took the kids and started running.  We made it to the bathroom but just when we were crossing the open tarmac the rain wall hit.  Winds were blowing at about 30-40mph and the rain was soaking.  Quickly I pulled out the two umbrellas I brought with but the kids could not hang onto them and they kept turning inside out.  Within 30 seconds our clothes were soaked. We eventually made it back to the car but we were all drenched!  This is one of those times having a movie player in the car was a LIFESAVER!  We watched a movie and ate lunch while the storm passed and our clothes dried (a little).  This ended up being a blessing because the crowds left and the storm cleared up just in time for the F16 dogfight and the Thunderbirds!

 Here we are watching the F16 fly around and pretend to shoot a plane in front of it.  They made exposions go off on the ground so it really seemed like it was dropping bombs. It was AWESOME!

 They also have a lot of other planes out on display.  This was Mike's favorite that was on display. Sorry I can't remember what it was.

 This is how we traveled with all our stuff.  Nick sure enjoyed it!

 It was a good thing we brought the headphones.  Kyle jumped evertime the planes went by, they were extremely loud.

Some propeller planes doing some stunts.

 Flying in an air plane is definately one of Nick & Andi's dreams, so the next best thing would be to sit in the cockpit of an operational plane and act like they were flying it!  I could not believe the pilot in the cockpit let them sit in the seats and play with the controls!  A dream come true.

This is the airplane they got to pretend to fly!  They were up in its cockpit.

 This is the inside of the belly of the plane.  It is used to fly tanks and drop air troopers.

Showing off her loose tooth on the top front.  It fell out a couple of days later.

 This was our little group again. 

Kyle did get pretty tired since he did not get a nap.  The plates were a little too loud to allow that.

 The best part of the show was the Thunder birds though.  This is one of them taxiing down the runway.  It is amazing to be that close to them and feel their power.

These were some of my favorite stunts the Tunderbirds did that I was able to catch on film.

Waiting for the crowds to leave, we went over to get a closer look at the Tunderbirds after their flight.  The best part was Nick got to shake the hand of one of the pilots!  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture :(.  This made his day!

Andi was happy to find out one of the pilots was a girl. Who knows maybe she will be one day, she sure loved watching them!

Overall the show was amazing! It is amazing to see what our airforce can do.  Seeing those air planes never fails to make me feel greatful for our country and freedoms.  At the same time it makes me hope I will never be on the receiving end of an air attack. I would recommend it to everyone, just get there early and be ready for crowds.  If you like airplanes this is the place to go!

Developing talents-Kyle

Kyle is working hard at developing his talents.

Here he is practicing drawing.

 We think he wants to be an artist someday.

In this video he is developing his talents as a circus performer.

He did this for about 15 min straight and never once cried until we took the ball away.  Circus here we come!

Andrea's a pianist!

Andrea has been wanting to take piano since she was 4.  This year for her 7th B-day we told her she could take lessons.  She has really liked doing it and she has a great sense of the beat.  Her teacher is the house that boarders our backyard so she would occasionally ask how Andi was doing with Piano.  Andi loved her as a teacher so we were VERY sad when she moved.  She did get to do a recital before left.

This is Andi before the recital.  She was definately nervous as she did not realize until we got there that there would be other people there besides our family watching. She did great though!  Really what else can you expect when she practices the song at least 100 times...(and yes it is permanately stuck in my head)

This is Andrea's teacher.  We are sure going to miss her!

This her her performance. We sure loved watching her! 

The Eclipse

This year I was EXTREMELY excited about the eclipse. I even ordered the special glasses a month in advance in preparation. It totally paid off!  We had a great time hanging out and watching it.

I think Mike really enjoyed himself as well!