The Basement Fun!

Still working hard on the basement these days!  This was a while back when we were sanding.  Yuck.

 We've had a few little helpers.  Cute little Makai helping the daddy's sand.

Don came to the rescue with his texture gun!

I caught him on camera "dancing" but I'll save that for family only :)

 Painting has been the most exciting step so far!  Derek and I had to gate the kids out all weekend while we painted.  The children didn't so much like that.  But we got it all DONE!!  I won't show anymore after pictures until it actually looks nice, with furniture and stuff.

We eventually let Sofie in to help.  She painted inside of the closet, a nice safe spot.  Although somehow she managed to get some on her lips...

Can't wait until it's all done and I have a fully functioning laundry room, a bedroom, and another bathroom (it will make potty training so nice when we're downstairs!)  Mostly I can't wait until we can clean up all this construction mess!!!

Some More Green Thumbing

I don't have a good "before" pictures of my trees, because they sucked.  They didn't grow any visible leaves until June.  All summer they would drop leaves and looks sad.  Then in the fall they'd curl up, turn brown and die.  They didn't even drop their leaves.  HIDEOUS!!  And they weren't growing either.  So, I grabbed the hand saw and played lumber jack for a while.  Even got to wield the axe!  (Those would've been great pictures!!  Too bad I was alone.)

 Sofie and Meili with the Japanese Katsura.  This thing is rad.  In the spring it has reddish (fall looking) leaves.  It's green in the summer.  Then turns an apricot color in the fall.  It has heart shaped leaves, flutters like an Aspen, and get this, smells like caramel in the fall!  Can't wait!

Meili's favorite food at this point in life is dirt.  The more gooey the better.  Chunks of gravel in it?  No problem!

My neighbors, who happen to be my aunt and uncle, came to my rescue when I hit the hard pan layer under the last sick trees.  Now that's out of the way and filled with nice soil, these trees should grow much better!

Itty bitty stumps.

Axes are safe for babies, right?

REPLACED!!  This tree is a Ruby Horse Chestnut.  Derek's grandma has one and I'm in love with it.  It grows huge leaves and giant flower clusters that bloom in May after all the other blossoms are gone.  (My leaves and flowers are the baby version of course.)

So excited to see this tree grow!  

Now that I've planted a few dream plants/trees we're not allowed to move :)

The Katsura planted.

(no worries, it'll look a little thicker soon)

The Ruby Horse Chestnut

We've already lost a few branches to the wind here in Lehi :(

(behind the tree you can see the lilac and snowball I'm moving in order to plant my rose of sharon.  Can't wait for those flowers!!)

And a random Easter picture that never got posted.  It was such a beautiful day!

I DID IT!!

Really this should be titled "WE did it" because my sister has spent hours and hours helping me dig, load, haul, unload, carry, weed, watch kids, etc.   But it was my idea :)  When we moved in there was only one plant in the backyard, a fairly large backyard.  It's a lilac bush and it's planted in a really awkward spot, but it's beautiful.  Anyway, I love grass, and I love simple, but this backyard needed a little bit of spice.  It looks so much better, but I'll have to take another picture when my baby plants are full and beautiful!  

All the rocks were free, big ones were my neighbors, little ones were my sisters!  Some of the plants were free, thanks to my aunt Deena and her beautiful backyard!

Before

After

 Before

After

Before

 After

Now I just wish this section of the backyard was visible from the patio...