Beautification continues.......

This weekend we got some nice weather. We went to the nursery and bought a few of the plants that we wanted to add. We got 2 Hydrangea's and 2 Lavendar's. Ouch! Didn't realize how much that stuff costs! Sunday we got it all planted and watered. Love how it is looking already!

This is the front area we worked on today. We took the rest of the rock and grow-over all out here. We still have the small area to the right of this (but theres a LOT of rock there to do). This
was really a hard job to finish! There were alot of little tree stumps and one bigger. Theres a picture below of all the 'stuff' we've pulled out of here. (minus the round stones)





I just had to share this one! Today I got a little more then just my hands into the job!! We were trying to pull up a tree stump and well it was rooted pretty good!! I ended up sitting on the ground using my feet/legs to push on it to work it loose. Just a little dirty!!!

This is the HUGE pile of the grass and weeds and some rocks that we pulled up with the black clothe stuff (that is laid to prevent weeds and such growing through the rocks). On the top is the tree stump we pulled, well rather dug out.





This is my Butterfly bush. During the winter we had some really bad wind storms that ended up blowing this over and uprooting part of it. Then we went through our winter freezing. We lost at least half of it. This is what is left of it that is still alive. We are hoping staking it and holding it up like this will help it reroot in the upright position.








This is where we planted some new lavendar. We put a plant in each corner. It smells soooo good!!

This is our side of the driveway (where we had the round stones). Here we planted two Hydrangea's. The yellow one is called a Lemon Daddy, because the leaves are yellow. The flowers will be either pink or blue. The other one is called Glowing Embers and it will have reddish pink flowers. After we put these in we still have space to fill so we are going to get another one that will have blue flowers and planted to the right of the yellow one.

I can't wait for them all to bloom!!

Now I gotta go out and water everything real good!!

Beautification continues.......

Well today we got up and were going to do some more work on the

front yard. Got outside and it was raining! But of course!

It was just a small light rain that ended quickly. We went outside

again decided to work on a different area instead.

So we started on the 'rock wall'. Well thats what it was supposed

to be. It was sooooo over grown the rocks, as huge and as many as there were, were completely covered over. It was even overgrown onto the driveway. We had to dig out most of the rocks. It took about 2 1/2 hours to dig it all out and place them all back in neatly. It was actually fun. Not to mention a KILLER workout!!!

Then while we were cleaning up the mess and the excess rocks, we noticed the 'grow over' on this side of the driveway. So we cut it all back and in the space between the driveway and the ground we placed these bricks.

If you look to the right some where those round stones are, we are going to plant some type of tree/shrub. Right now we are thinking Hydrangea's & maybe something else.

This is the full shot of the whole driveway. Unfortunately I didn't

take a before picture, but believe me when I say it looks 100%

better then two days ago!!

Now to keep the growover from happening again!

Our Beautification Process!

So we have finally had some awesome weather to go out and do some yardwork with, and we both weren't working. I started with the flower beds while Donnie mowed and weed-eated.

This top photo I planted irises beside the rose bush. I think I put 12 bulbs in there.

This is along the walkway. I planted irises in the back (thats what you can see here). Theres maybe 30 here. In front of the irises we planted two rows consisting of tulips and daffodils.

I found the daffodils and tulips in the garden dirt. While weeding I dug up clusters of bulbs that were to bunched and not growing anymore. So I seperated them all and replanted them!

In the far left corner of the space there is a plant. It's hard to see. It is lavendar and I am really hoping it stays alive!!

This is the right side of the house. We dug all the rocks out and the cement steps. We are going to try and put a small vegie garden here.

And here is the biggest part of our beautification process! The front yard. We are removing alllllll the rocks and the weeds and the black ground sheets from the whole area its in. We want to put back the green grassy front yard it once was.

We knew it was going to be alot of work, but we kinda missed the word 'hard' from that thought! It's going to be alot of 'hard' work!! That black stuff is not easy to come up now that the grass and weeds are growing through it and the weight of the rocks on it!

Oh ya, another thing we've realized. This is going to make for some really great weight loss workouts!! I burned some major calories today!! WOO-HOO!!

I'll share more as we see improvements!

Spring Break!!

Well we got lucky this week and the weather was very Spring like!!
As well as doing some work around the house, we took the girls to the Pt. Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. It was a perfect day to go! Elizabeth had a blast and couldn't see everything fast enough!! The big girls went off and look at everything on their own. They didn't care much for the snakes and things like that. They all had fun feeding the goats though. One tried to eat Kurestin's (Jacquie's friend) jacket.

Then yesterday I took the girls out to Mom & Dads. Carrie's boys were there and Elizabeth played the whole time with them. They spent most of the time looking through the creek for froggies!! Yes, they did find them too. Elizabeth ended up with 4 in her can and the boys stopped with about 4 in theirs. But they kept finding them and just putting them back. They had so much fun! Elizabeth kept hollering about the 'Muck', getting stuck in it or getting it on her somewhere. It was soo funny!!

Then afterwards, after they ate their smoothies, Jacquie played sprinkler and sprayed the 3 kids. They were running all over the yard screaming and hollering.

Then when they were done, the laid out on the porch on towels and read while they dried off!