May 2014

Just a few pictures from so far in May. Had to prove that we are having some fun in between all of the yard work! Don't mind the pictures that won't flip. Beats me what is going on. :)

Pretty rainbow on the way to BWI

Eating some BBQ before the concert

Waiting for the concert to start

The Nadas

Nadas

Nadas

Amazing kabobs Logan grilled

Us 

Yummy Dinner

Enjoying Dinner

Nadas

Spring 2014

Just a few pictures of the flowers around our house and my garden!

Yard Transformation Part 3-Work in progress

So this is the continuation of the side of the house project. At the bottom of the steps under all that ivy we discovered that it was really a junk pile of leaves, bricks, tile, concrete, etc. We trimmed up the ivy, and are in the process of cleaning up the junk so we can let the ivy grow back over and it'll be all nice and neat. More pictures as we get more done.

Before

Some of the bricks and junk we cleaned up

Bags of brick and stuff that we found
out we have to sort through because
the trash people won't take. :(

More bricks we cleaned up and moved

Yard Transformation Part 2

 Project #3 is a work in progress, but I'll post what we have so far. When you go out the side door down to the backyard/deck there are flower beds along each side of the "steps." Needless to say they are usually messy. We are working on cleaning them up and making them as low maintenance as possible. AKA landscaping fabric and mulch. :)

Before

Before

After- boring but clean. Still working
on spicing it up

The other side. Well part of it.
More pictures when we get the rest done.

Yard Transformation Part 1

So besides rain we have been having a beautiful spring of sunshine and nice temps. We've been taking advantage and working outside on some of the bigger projects that we have been wanting to work on. Here are some pictures. I've tried to do before and after just so you can truly appreciate how much better it looks. Well if I don't say so myself. :)

Project #1: The brick area along the back fence and by the shed. We have a great shed and an awesome shade tree along the back fence. We've never done anything back there because up til last year there was no privacy, but now the neighbors put up a privacy fence and well it was just a mess. After a little raking over the last couple years with mom and dad at Easter we found out that there was lots of brick back there. We finally decided it was time to clean it up. LOTS of hours and lawn bags later it looks great.

Sorry we don't really have a before,
but you can kinda see the mess

What we left the garbage man! :)

All done!

Before

Flowers around the tree

Another view

Along side the brick area was full of leaves
and just generally unkept. We raked it out
and hey not too bad. Sorry no befores.

Project #2: The shed-- It looked so good back there we kept going. We decided to completely empty the shed, blow/sweep it out, rearrange shelves, put up hooks, etc. So much more room. We are even starting to move somethings out of the basement. It's so nice to have everything organized. Now we just have to try and keep it that way.

Before

After

After

More April Fun

The beginning of April brought us Logan's dad for the weekend. He came out so he and Logan could enjoy the end of the season Oyster Roast in Southern Maryland. While Oysters aren't really my thing, I enjoyed watching the two of them have so much fun together and we always enjoy spending time with our families. He even got a head start on the "daddy do list" before my dad came at Easter. We are so lucky to have parents that come visit and help us with projects.  

   

                 Enjoying oysters

Enjoying the company and beautiful day.

Only a small portion of what they ate.
I think they each ate almost 3 dozen ???

Before they started eating

Oh just an add on of me helping at my school's 5K

Easter-April 2014

We were lucky enough to spend Easter with Mom and Dad. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed a relaxing but constructive long weekend. We worked on fixing our swing, Dad and Logan fixed our snow damaged patio table, planted flowers, got new brakes on my car, and celebrated mom's birthday a little early. Lots of fun as always.

Fixing the swing

The redneck fixing of the table!

Grilled out birthday dinner of ribs

Birthday cake- sorry won't rotate

Getting new brakes

Power washing the swing and other furniture

Easter Sunday- once again won't rotate

Easter Baskets

Catching Up January-March

 OOPS! Once again I am super behind in posting. So in an effort to get caught up I figure I'll do some quick overviews and get back on  track. So here's January-March.

JANUARY:
January found us shoveling snow and heading to Barnes and Noble to meet again a favorite author. We didn't get his autograph this time, but still fun to hear him speak.

Seeing a favorite author
Brad Meltzer

January Snow

FEBRUARY:
The month of snow. That's the best way to describe it. Lots of shoveling, a nice Valentines dinner at home, and an acoustic country concert.

February Snow 

And more snow

Country Concert

Too much snow

Snow damage :(

Happy Valentines Day!

Concert fun

MARCH:

  A great trip to Indy to spend a weekend with the Mandel Family at Sarah and Kurt's new house. A great time of hanging out and playing with the girls. Logan also had a brothers's weekend in Arizona for Cubs spring training while I enjoyed a chill weekend at home of Hallmark movies and sewing.