a little bit of halloween

Can you believe that Halloween is just a little over a week away?

This year I am looking forward to a low key time with my boys and friends. 

Plus, this year it is going to be a little hard with it being my dad's birthday and my dads favorite holiday so I am just wanting to relax with the people that I love. I am hoping that they will help take my mind off the fact that he is not here with us this year. 

But one thing I did do this year that I have never done is decorate my front walkway! 

I know, it is pretty exciting right? I thought so too!

pool time!

A few weeks ago I decided to get a pool.

Not like in years past where we have gotten those little rinky-dink plastic or blow up pools. You know the ones, they don't last very long with two boys and a lab. So this summer I thought the bigger the better!

After some searching and a really good sale at Academy I found this beast...

Okay, it's not a beast per say, but it is big enough to lounge in and let the kids get all wild and crazy. And it saves us from spending a ton of money at the city pool!

I even spruced it up a bit with paving stones and rubber mulch! 

Next will be adding some signs on the fence and lights to my porch :)

So this summer I am planning on BBQ'ing a lot with friends and teaching the boys how to swim (finally!) 

What are your summer plans?

an extra day

Happy Leap Day everyone!

This year we all get an extra day to do what we need to do or maybe what we have been putting off doing.

Luckily, for me, my extra day is filled with sunshine and spring-like temps so I am going to take full advantage of it and fill the holes my precious dog has dug in my backyard and plant some grass seed. I am hoping for a green yard this year despite the lack of rain and water restrictions.

I dream of having a yard that looks like this again. I just doubt it is going to happen with a dog and two kids that dig holes bigger than they are. *sigh*

And to top off my beautiful day I am going to get caught up on laundry!

Hope everyone has a blessed Leap Day!

Bring the Rain

As some of you know here in Texas we are currently experiencing a severe drought. And that is kinda an understatement. Here where I live we are under stage 3 water restrictions it is so bad, which means we can only water 8 hours a week or so.

Well… last night God decided to bless us with some rain!!!

And it was GLORIOUS!

Oh how I love the way rain smells… and feels… and sounds… I love everything about rain.

It rained at my house for over an hour and sprinkled on and off all night. At one point the thunder was so loud it set off a car alarm and the lightning spawned a few small power outages. But who cares!

WE GOT RAIN!

Tyler slept through the whole thing.

While Jacob and Baylee played on the floor and every time they would hear thunder would run over to the window to look outside. It was too cute!
{Goofy me forgot to take pictures of it. Sigh.}

Afternoon Sunshine

I have these pesky trumpet vines that grow all over my fences.

I don’t like the actual vines themselves, but I DO like that bees are attracted to them.

And I only like bees for one reason…

they help pollinate my vegetables :)

Happy Sunday!

Fruit of My Labor

Firstly, I would like to show you my very first tomato from one of my tomato plants.

I wish I could tell you what kind of tomato it was, but when I bought the plant it was a surprise pot because none of them were labeled.

The tomatoes don’t seem to get any bigger than the one below. They kinda look like large grape tomatoes.

My other tomato plants include celebrity and yellow tomato!

One thing is for sure, next year I am going to start this gardening thing a whole lot earlier.

I noticed the other day that I had all these little bugs on my plants and in my garden and racked my brain trying to figure out how to get rid of them.

I knew that I did not want to stray pesticides on my plants. I am doing the organic thing :)

I remembered that the last time I was at the garden center they had small containers of ladybugs. I did some research and they are a wonderful organic pest control. Did you know that one single adult ladybug can eat up to 50 pests a day! And that their wings are made out of the same stuff as our fingernails!

Jacob wanted to be out there with me while I released them.

And Michael took the pics for me and considering it was pitch black outside, I think he did a WONDERFUL job!

Thank ya Darlin’!

Vegetable Tales

It’s done!

It is finally done!

I couldn’t be more excited that my garden in now a working vegetable factory. Hopefully soon I will be enjoying red and yellow tomatoes and picking fresh herbs {okay I still need to buy those}.

I absolutely love gardening! I look forward to going out there everyday to water my plants and see if there are any yummy treats for me. Eeeeek! I could just squeal with excitement right now :)

Here was my garden just last week!

And this was my garden last night after we got the fence up.
The difference is amazing!

This morning I planned out my garden perfectly.
We have tomatoes, jalapenos, green beans and carrots!
{And soon I will have cilantro, parsley, rosemary, basil, dill and chives}

My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

My baby jalapenos plant.

My beautiful tomatoes.

I can’t wait until those tomatoes are big enough to eat!!

My twin tomato plants.
I am hoping that means they will produce twice as much!

Happy Gardening!

Backyard Garden Progress

For the past two months I have been eager to get my garden planted. This is the latest I have ever done a garden. Usually I have my plants in the ground by the middle of March, but not this year. With Easter falling so late it was hard to get it done when I wanted it to. By this time my plants are usually huge and producing lots of veggies.

This was my garden in June 2009

Anyhoo… after Michael got off work he got started on cutting the wire fencing for my garden. And it would have gone by so much quicker if Michael would just listen when I call :) I reminded him to bring home the bolt cutters, but he forgot. So he had to cut it with a hacksaw. It was great to be outside with all my boys and spend time together. Now, I really didn’t do much work, but I did what I do best and took pictures. Here are some pictures from the work we did tonight.

The boys were playing like this… {my boys don’t believe in clothes, so sadly they are only in their underwear}.

And it turned to this...

But Daddy’s kisses make it all better!

Baylee thought she would help out.
She then decided to just lounge around.

And with a face like this there is no way you can be mad!

The 16 feet of wire fencing we began with…

This will definitely keep Baylee out and maybe even the kids!

Then we cut it in half… well Michael did.
I just stood there and took pictures.

He measured and re measured.

Then he bent it to make smooth corners.

Perfect!

Now I can plant my veggies knowing that Baylee will not dig them up.
I also smoothed out the soil to make it look pretty.
{See in that back corner… that is where the chicken coop will go :) }

Backyard Progress

After my post the other day on my backyard I thought I would give an update on how things are going.

I have been trying to water my lawn twice a day since it gets so scorching hot during the day. Sometimes it’s kind of hard because we have this stupid water ban in effect. But I guess it’s for the best. Sigh.

Most of it is just a matter of cleaning up all the stuff that Baylee has destroyed. I swear she is half goat. I mean what dog eats potting soil? Mine, that’s who!

I feel like I still have so much to do. I mean there is cleaning the garden, getting rid of the trash, filling in the dirt square with cement and adding some cute decorations. Hopefully soon I will be able to show you an after picture.

Here is a before picture…

And here is an in progress…

Just Another Monday

Today I got to thinking about my teeny tiny backyard. We laid sod about six weeks ago and my grass is struggling no rain. Hopefully with some {organic} fertilizer and watering like I am will make it grow.

Here is what my yard looks like when there is plenty of rain. And this was in July!
Doesn’t it look absolutely b-e-a-utiful?
Maybe by July 4th it will be this pretty again. I can be hopeful at least.
And I can’t forget about my garden! It was awesome that year. I wonder if it’s too late to plant this year?

This is my patio right now. I know it is a crazy hot mess. It is so tiny that everything just will not fit. Sigh. I plan on cleaning it up tomorrow if it is not to hot. I would like to start spending more time in the backyard. It sure beats the hell out of watching TV though. I really want to add some outdoor curtains, but we will see how things go.

I could not pass up this picture of Baylee. The whole time I was outside she was barking and oh so happy. Look at her pose. Isn’t she a natural?

I thought that maybe, just maybe, we would get a few drops of rain out of these clouds. Nope! Nothing!

The clouds did on the other hand make a stunning sunset. That is one of the perks of living out here is no mans land. Well, few mans land. The sunsets are always stunning.