Backyard pictures

First, I have to say that I have the most AMAZING husband. Starting August 25th, and finishing September 22nd (in other words in 28 days), he built a porch out of flagstone rock, leveled and landscaped the yard with many different kinds of tractors, built a HUGE retaining rock wall, put in a sprinkling system, filled in trenches, leveled, spread topsoil, and laid sod. It was an amazing process to watch, and now, I know that he is the strongest man alive. You should have seen him lift those rocks as if they were nothing, and I couldn't even budge them.

Here's the beginnings of the flagstone porch:

It really was difficult to puzzle piece them together

Porter loved eating the sand


And, I must say, that Joe did an excellent job puzzle piecing the rocks together.



Next, Joe leveled and trenched the yard to get it all ready for sprinklers.




Isaiah was in heaven with all the tractors around.

And Kayla joined in on the fun too.



And next, the huge retaining wall. He lifted each and every one of these rocks by hand. Talk about strong.

For some reason, I didn't get any pictures of Joe trenching and putting in the sprinkling system, but believe me, this was a HUGE project, and of course, Joe passed it with flying colors.

After he finished the sprinkling system, leveled out the dirt again, he spread top soil all over the yard.



Then, the crowning moment. Joe gave me the honors to lay the first piece of sod. It was like carpeting the ground, and was so fun. My dad, Joe's parents, and Tim spent many hours with us laying the sod. Thank you so so much!!


Kayla had a fun time sitting on top of the big stacks of sod and directing us where to put them.


I can't even begin to explain what an awesome job Joe did in the yard. These pictures don't even do it justice. But, here is just a glimpse of what my amazing husband has been up to. Thanks for all your hard work Joe!!!

First Snow

Winter seemed to have come a little too early this year. After living in Michigan, I have found that I am definitely a warm-weather-kinda-girl. But it is always exciting to see the kids eyes light up when the first few snowflakes fall from the sky. When Kayla spotted the first few snow flakes, she found a bucket and went outside to catch the snowflakes. She was disappointed when she couldn't catch them, but I told her to leave her bucket on the back porch and eventually her bucket would fill with snow.

When there was a blanket of snow on the grass, the kids wasted no time and made snow angels, snowmen, and even sled down our hill in the backyard. Winter really is more exciting with kids around.




Welcome winter, but warm weather, please don't stay too far away.

Daddy - daughter date

Once a week we try to go on individual dates with the kids. Last week, Kayla was looking forward to going on a date with Joe ALL day. She even wanted to get special date clothes on and put a little lipstick on. She loves her daddy, and Joe's heart is won over by Kayla.

Hasta la vista Black Widows!!!!

Isaiah has come to me on 3 separate occasions to tell me that he just found a big huge black spider. The first time, he had brought his truck inside that had been outside for a few days, and sure enough, there was about a silver dollar size black widow, just ENORMOUS!!! I screamed and ran to get Joe, who was working on the backyard. Joe smashed it with my flip flop, and I thought I would never recover. In fact, I had dreams about the black widow biting me in my sleep.

A few days later, I was weeding in the front yard, and Isaiah came to me with a bowl in his hands and said calmly, "Look mommy! A big black spider!" He was so excited to show it to me, and when I got scared and told him to put the bowl down, he laughed and thought I was crazy. I screamed for Joe, and yet, ANOTHER black widow.

And just a day later, we were finishing the sprinkling system in our backyard (more on that later, I will have a post full of pictures), and Isaiah said he saw a spider. I ran to him fearing it was another black widow, and yes, he was trying to pick it up with his fingers. AHHHH!!! I couldn't take it any longer. I ran to the garage, found my weapon (a shovel) and looked all along the perimeter of our house and began killing any living creature in sight. I wasn't about to have my son die from an attack of black widows. So how many would you guess I killed in a matter of 5 minutes, looking in all our window wells?? Not 1 or 2 not even 3.............I killed SIX black widows and it felt SO SO SO good. I wasn't scared, even a bit.

So, today, a company named Bugged Out came a sprayed in our house and outside. The kids and I have been watching all the big spiders die in the window wells. Good riddance black widows!!