Before and After

I took some pictures awhile ago to be able to do before and after photos of our backyard. I took the "befores" in the early spring, right after the snow melted. The "afters" I was finally able to take yesterday. I wish I would have been able to take the "afters" when my lilacs were in full bloom....they were beautiful! But, here we go. My husband's and my life just got soooooo much easier. My husband installed a FENCE!!!!!! He actually did this over a period of two weeks, and didn't even let the downpour of rain stop him! Here we go......






Before After




Before After



Before After




We have cleaned out the trees, cut down trees, raked, sprayed weeds, trimmed back trees, taken down an old antenna, had stumps ground and installed a swing set. All for this......












Now our next before picture will be this......our home. Lets see what we can do with this?



You can kind of see my new car in the driveway.....my plates say "Xpresso". Thats right.....I am that cool!!!!

Uncle Vance

I saw something last weekend that made me so happy.

My brother in law, Vance and his wife Kelly came to stay with us. My little guy fell in love with his Uncle Vance. Every minute that Vance was here, my little guy was hanging on him. I have never seen him take to someone so quickly. I think what touched me so much was that there was a new family connection.

When Vance had to leave, Daniel cried.....a lot. Here is a picture of the two buddies.

Busy days and a lot of help!

My son's name is Daniel. He is two and a half years old. Everyday I am amazed at what he knows, does and learns.

He likes to play with cars, he likes the Walmart commercial music and the Pampers Cool Alert commercial music (the one with "Galvin"playing chess), he likes to snuggle (or "nuggle" as we call it in our house). He likes a hundred different things.

One of his favorite things is to be my "helper". He helps me clean the kitchen. His job is to put the new trash can liner into the trash can. (he does it well) He puts the silverware away. (I do straighten it after he is done and his back is turned.) Then he fills measuring cups with water and dumps them out for very long periods of time. I say to him, "Daniel, you are such a good helper". He responds with an echo of "helper".

Today, he helped me fold the laundry. Its fun to watch him. He picks up a sock with his index finger and thumb and gives it a good shake. Then he balls it into the tightest ball that he can and puts it into a pile. He will do this as long as I am folding laundry. :) After we were done folding laundry, I had to write out checks to pay bills, finish the dishes, get into the shower, drop Daniel off at daycare, run to my mother in laws to help her paint, come home and get ready for work. Busy day indeed!

While I sat in the dining room, I kept hearing little footsteps. At first I ignored this. Then I got suspicious that something was up. I was just in time to see the last load of clean shirts go down the steps to the basement. My little helper cleaned out a dresser drawer full of t shirts and threw them down the steps to be washed! That was at 11 am....its now 11:48 pm, I just got home from work. The shirts are still there. I need to nuggle, so I think I will go to bed.