Easter 2011

The boys dyed Easter eggs on Saturday.  Caleb picked a neon coloring kit and Carter picked a sand coloring kit. 

Brenner begged to get his turn.  I just let him watch.  I'm not really a fan of dye getting on everything. (hence, the boys going without a shirt) 

The finished product- some beautiful eggs! 

The boys were so excited to see their baskets on Easter morning- books, movies, Toy Story army men, Legos, Bakugans, gum, candy, and a chocolate bunny. 

My 3 Sons! 

Mommy and the boys 

The James men

The hunt!  Caleb and Carter were so sweet to teach Brenner how to hunt eggs.  It took just a minute and he caught on.  Each egg was filled with a $1 bill.  The boys don't eat candy.  They were thrilled to get cash. 

A successful Easter hunt!

And here's my cherry pie from Easter.  To go along with the Easter them I cut out a crown (as in the crown of thorns).  Of course looking at this photo maybe red cherry with a crown of thorns actually comes across gory.  The pie was yummy nonetheless.

Happy Easter!  So thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ!

Carter and Jake

Carter LOVES his friends.  This kid comes home everyday with a request to invite someone over.  It usually ranges from Jake to Hunter to Ethan to Adam to Payton to Eli to who knows.  And each time I tell him no it's as if I crushed his entire spirit.  Here's Jake at one of the playdates.  See, I do say YES on occasion.

Brenner and Elfy

Not sure what's funnier.  Brenner standing on his head or Elfy giving me the side-eye wondering what the heck this baby is doing.  Just another day as a SAHM.

March Madness



New Grass

Our Bermuda grass was awful in our side yard.  It was spotty and thin and barely grew in the part sun / part shade yard.

We had the sprinklers reworked for that side of the house and it left the yard looking worse than ever.

We had the Bermuda pulled up and lots of healthy soil brought in.  I am so excited to "even out the ground."

The start to a healthy yard!

And our new Zoysia grass!!!  Ahhhhh, so pretty!  (oh, and we trimmed the oak too)

The guys mulched around the trees and put cypress in the play system.  Everything just looks so beautiful.  I almost don't want the kids to play over there and mess things up!!

Looking forward to walking barefoot in the new grass.

Spring Blooms

I love spring!  For the past month I have been working in the yard.  There's still more to do: mulch and new grass on the side yard- but the planting is finally done!  Above is a look at all the annuals I planted.

Some of our azaleas were doing poorly due to the amount of shade they now get.  I bought Japanese aralias and mahonias to replace them.  You can see my salvia just starting to come up.  I love perennials!  Above is the "before" photo.

And above is the "after" photo.  I'm looking forward to seeing this plant grow.

Last year I planted English ivy everywhere underneath the tree.  Half of it didn't make it.  So I opted to fill in with more ivy where it did take and then use blue liriope for the rest.

I think the groundcover turned out great.  Looking forward to it all growing in and completely covering the area.

When we had the pool put in we had to transplant these two yaupon hollies.  The one on the left was very close to where the electrical guys had to dig for 2 weeks in July.  When I took this photo I thought it was dead.  I went to Calloways to talk to some experts.  They told me to cut back 1/3 of the plant and see if the new root system would support growth once trimmed.  Also, notice all the crazy weeds that had grown up as well. 

Looks like the trimming worked!  We are getting green leaves all over it now!  I bought (and moved to the backyard) all the ivy, liriope, and snapdragons.  We had a guy move our loropetalum and then plant a new rose of sharon.  This corner of the yard is our view from the house, so I'm so happy how it turned out.  I think I'll be sore for several more weeks, but it was worth it!  In my next life I'd like to come back as a landscaper!