Thursday, June 16, 2011

Spring Sports

Spring has been busy for us again with Spring Sports. Last year we had soccer 5 nights a week, but thankfully Jayme picked a different sport. She wasn't so keen on playing no matter the weather, rain or shine, warm or cold as she played last year. So she and her friend picked an indoor sport: basketball. And since she doesn't get her height from her mother, she did really well! It was fun to learn a new sport, and to watch it. And how cute is she in her uniform???


Brady stayed with soccer this year and did well again. His Daddy needed to remind him to stay focused, but when he did, he excelled.
And Coco? Well we'll call this "princess scootering" We didn't put her in anything yet this year. She would rather dress up in her princess clothes, or play with her dollies. She was quite happy watching her brother and sister. I plan on putting her in ballet this fall, that should just up her alley :)

Friday, June 10, 2011

Dining Room

We've also been busy inside the house. We've been keeping our eyes open for a few things to finish off the dining room (and living room and sunroom... postings to come) If you remember, I have already posted some pictures of the "after" dining room. I had a list of a few things that I had still wanted to do and it's all come together now!
Here is this room on the day we moved in...

Here we are around Christmas...
And here we are today...
I found some art, I've been looking for a piece for over the couch and I bought this but it was too small for the large wall over the couch, but fits perfectly in the alcove.
I refinished an old buffet that was going to be left in my friend's mom's house after they moved her into an apartment. In my excitement to refinish this piece I forgot the before picture... my friend has one on her camera and I'll post it once she gets it to me.
And we bought this table and chairs last weekend... it was worth the wait, we got exactly what we wanted at a great deal!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Front Yard

Well we've been super busy now that the snow is gone and our world has once again expanded to fully include the outdoors. Often in spring I am blown away about how different winter life is and spring/summer/fall life. We are blessed to have different seasons (more blessed in some than others, in my opinion) But the difference is SO drastic that it almost is like we move to another place for a few months of the year, with our different wardrobe, then move back to the place where we can enjoy being outside again, where we can walk out of the house in seconds rather than minutes, where we can jump in a drive our cars with out the necessary "warm up".

And this year, it is our first spring and summer in the house so we are experiencing a totally new spring! So exciting!

Now, I've never really been a "yard" person. I've had so much to do inside the house that I always left the outside to Mark. He mows the grass and shovels the snow and that's been the extent of our yard work. But when we moved into our new place, our yard was like a garden... beautiful grass, beautiful flower beds, a perennial garden and a vegetable garden. OVERWHELMING!! To say the least. We put a new shed up on the vegetable patch, but I decided to still plant some peppers and tomatoes, and those seem to be doing ok. I've decided to leave the backyard as is for this year as I wanted to see what was coming up, when and where. Next year that bed will get it's own attention as I make it "ours" instead of Granny's.
So this year it was the front bed's turn. This is what we did... We (and I mean Mark) took down a tall overgrown cedar tree (including the stump) that was on the right side. And we donated some little globe cedars that we plunked throughout the middle, to Papa and Nana's house, and this left us with a blank canvas. We were blessed to already have the edging in place so it was just a matter of working with what I had. I had a knowledgeable friend come over and help me make a plan, she helped me shop and she even helped me plant all the new "friends" in our front bed. It looks Ah-mazing! I don't have a before picture, but here is the after...
And a close up of some of the happy new friends....


So it's simple, clean and organized. I've realized that that's the way I like it :)