Seer's First Backyard Adventure

We have been working on our backyard since November of 2009. We decided to tear out all of our grass and put a huge concrete slab in along with only hardscape materials mainly because of the dog, but also because of the natural and beautiful look of rocks, logs, etc. We've both always loved dryer climates like Bend, Oregon, Arizona, and Utah landscapes so Josh designed the project and chose the materials we used.

We both did the work (although of course I'm 10 times stronger than Josh so I did 75% of it) which still has a lot more to go. We shoveled somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 truckloads of dirt, gravel, river rock, boulders, etc. If you know Josh you know that his trucks are lifted 8-10 inches and are huge. So we're talking about 37,500 pounds of material that we have shoveled, dumped, and spread out in our backyard.

We wanted to eliminate the swamp land in our yard so we had to elevate it quite a bit.

I plan to have Josh take some professional pictures of the final project. We still have a patio cover to build, a new gate to build and install, concrete staining, run a gas line to our fire pit, and some more planting to do. But is where we can enjoy it now and Seer along with her siblings and cousins got to crawl around outside for the first time today.

She loves the outdoors and truly loved it. She didn't seem to be bothered by the rocky terrain and munched on a few (with supervision of course) with success.

We're looking forward to getting the kids a trampoline and hosting a hot dog party with the fire pit soon.

Seer's 1st Birthday

Seer's new drum is a "hit." She loves to make music on anything. She also got some great new clothes, shoes, barrettes, necklaces, money, and a teddy bear. Thank you everyone!

She had a lot of fun in the ball pit.

We're so glad that cousins could celebrate with us. Hey McKenna what happened to your tooth?

This is before she began crying like we tortured her with birthday cake.

This scrapbook design customized with Smilebox

Book Label Craft

This is a fun idea I actually got from Martha Stewart when I was looking for a personalized gift I could make for baby showers. They are book labels to adhere to the inside of your child's books. I am a very amateur crafter so these were easy enough for me to try. I thought I would share the idea and if you would like me to make you some I would be happy to in my spare time (ah what spare time).

Baby Memories

Almost every night the kids and Josh gather on the couch to share grapes. This is my chance to get a moment to myself. The other night Seer joined the party and was quite good at picking at her own grapes and shoveling them in before the other kids could get them.

Daddy finally has a true love that doesn't talk back:)

We finally got our hot tub hooked up and this was the girls chance to show off their new swim suits. My beauties.

Easter Memories

Seer experienced her first Easter yesterday complete with egg decorating, ice cream on pancakes, and eating eggs of course.

Its hard to get Kaiden to take a picture these days without something closed, hanging out, open, or crooked. But at least its Kaiden and beautiful McKenna.

Seer had fun playing with the egg before she decided to eat it shell and all.

Her best bud Pilot is always there to catch her when she falls and finish her left overs too.