Before and After

We bought our home a year and a half ago as a repo and the yard has been a project.  Apparently nobody really took care of the yard before.  Now that Meimei is old enough to play outside while I work, I have finally made some slow progress.

The last few people who owned the home didn't know how to take care of grass...  This is actually better than it looked last year!  (that patio is another project)

 Derek spent the entire summer last year fixing our sprinklers so this year I could finally plant grass!  This is the mix I used that looks like green snow.  In a month I'll post pictures of my new beautiful lawn! :)

I hated this section of the yard.  But I couldn't put a flower bed here because of the sprinkler positioning.  So I had to be clever.

 It is now my new (soon to be) herb and flower garden, completely moveable if there are problems with sprinklers.

The old shutters were a nasty faded green color that really dated the house, kind of hard to tell in the picture.

I painted them black.  It's a bad comparison picture though because the earlier one was summer, beautiful weather and flowers.  Maybe I should've waited 'til the flowers bloom and the sun shines to take this picture!

(next we need to fix the roof...)

This is an island flower bed in the front yard.  I don't have a before picture but when we moved in it didn't have anything in it but crappy grass and weeds.  We cleaned it out, covered it with black garden fabric, dumped some bark and got to work planting stuff.  Right now I've got tulips and phlox.  In the summer I'll have snap dragons, fox glove, dianthus and a burning bush.  So much better!

I've  been working on a few other projects but don't have "after" pictures yet.  Maybe next week or so.  We have two sickly trees in the front yard that don't get leaves until mid summer, and then just shrivel up and die in the fall instead of changing color.  They're still young though, so I'll be replacing them with (hopefully) a Ruby Horse Chestnut and a Katsura tree.

For Roo

I wanted to post another video of Mei going totally nuts and wandering around like a lunatic, but the video was barely too long to upload. :( But she's so darling.

Little Birdies Told Me

Finally enjoying some Spring Weather! This particular day was cloudy, but we had some great sunshine on other days!

Meimei's new swing. She loves it and the kids love pushing her!

Sofie has finally mastered this swing by herself! My arms are very grateful.

The kitty litter box...

"This is the best day of my life!" -Sofie

My sister learned that you can take off the dormant branches of trees and bushes and "force" them to bloom. Pretty awesome! The forsythia was beautiful, but this plum is the best! I'm experimenting with a lilac but it's not doing much yet.

Daddy went to Vegas for an accounting convention.

Meimei wanted to tag along.

A Few Late B-day Pics

I'm so lucky to have a talented grandma with an expensive camera! These are the shots she took at Mei's party. She is so darling!!

The tricky post-cupcake cleanup.

Sofie loves the camera...

I decorated with other pictures my grandma has taken.

Meili does this while I exercise too, it's hilarious!

The End.

"Packtricks Day!"

I really enjoy St. Patrick's Day and it's even more meaningful now that I actually know who the guy was and the legends behind the symbols we use. However, I always have a hard time finding dinner ideas for kids who probably won't eat corned beef and cabbage. (dessert ideas are super easy to find though...) I finally found a fun idea!

Shamrock pizzas! I used my heart cookie cutter.

The legend goes that St. Patrick taught the Irish about the Trinity using the 3 pedals from shamrocks. Although we as members of the LDS church don't necessarily believe that the Trinity is literally one being, it was a fun lesson to give to Sofie showing that the pedals can represent Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. (hopefully not too sacrilegious that we ate it)

Rainbow/Pot o'Gold cupcakes

Extremely time consuming but cute and fun!

I made these last year too, our new tradition.

I couldn't get a good picture of the inside layers. When I cut it in half it crumbled.

Cupcake massacre.

Meimei's Birthday!!

Meili turned one in February!

She has officially stolen my heart.

She walks all over town.

She tells jokes.

She teases.

She helps clean.

She jibber-jabbers.

She sprouts teeth like it's going out of fashion.

Her fuzz hair is slowly becoming tame.

She idealizes her big sis.

She's a cuddle bug.

She adores Daddy and Mommy.

She's my Mei.

I told Derek that the next time I am struggling to survive with a newborn to remind me how fun they become!

Birthday Breakfast

Awwww

Birthday dinner at Grandma Kathy's

LOVE this face!

I didn't take any pictures of her devouring her cupcake.

The Paparazzi did it for me :)

My stinker who refuses to SIT while she eats.

The cupcake devoured, looking a little sick.

I think the birthday cards were her favorite.

Looks like she's reading it :)

Playing with her new baby Belle dolly

Can't wait to watch her grow up even more

Fantastic February

*(This blog may be heavier on the Meili side simply because she has more changes in a short period of time. I DO love Sofie just as much!!)

This month she officially has 8 teeth and is working on a few molars. Seriously?

Superbowl. I don't care about the football, it's a party with food!

We had an interesting spread of sushi, dips, sides, spaghetti, etc.

Cousin Heilala trying sushi out for the first time! It ended up in the garbage...

Cutting sushi. Stay out of my kitchen!

We began the project! The basement will hopefully be finished sometime this spring! Can't wait!  This will be the room for the Hungarian girl we are hosting next school year!

Valentines Day!!

Coming up with Man ideas is hard, but this was really fun!

We made gummy heart necklaces and bracelets for Family Night.

And heart cookies, of course.

I made lots of these for some important ladies in my life.

Our spread. Pics of the people I love (including my best friend Lindsey who came for dinner)

Meili is working on feeding herself her own drink. It's been a struggle but it's starting to work!

My turn for Joyschool again (minus 3 kids). See the cutie in the front wearing black? Yeah, he didn't look (or sound) too healthy to me either. I think he contributed to the next picture...

Happy Birthday Mei!!

What, you wanted toys for your birthday? I thought you said RSV!

This is her second go round this season. :(

(I'll post her birthday pics later.)

Winter Twilight Zone

Many of you know it's been a strange winter in Utah. The beginning of winter was warm and completely dry. It's at least cold now but it was really nice for a while!!

Picnics with Daddy.

I've never been able to SEE my lawn in winter. It's weird.

Sidewalk Chalk and Bubbles!! Meili is usually sleeping when we're outside, but she has had a few chances to crawl and toddle around a bit. She'll LOVE the Summer!!

(Ha! Yes, that is my sushi roller out there on the step. Sofie was using it as some kind of magic map, Dora style I think.)

We did have one or two days of winter as well.

This is the extent of the snow though. About an inch or two. It melted that day.

Poor Sofie talked about making snowmen, snow angels, and igloos for so long, so when it finally snowed we rushed outside and took advantage for the 2 hours it lasted on the grass!

This angel was in Heaven.

The poor snowman is south facing...didn't last more than a few hours before he fell over from lop-sided meltage :(

I'm not complaining. I love the idea of a dry, warmish winter. However, I am a little nervous about what it means for the rest of the year. Droughts are no fun.