We have more yard!

I am here to argue that it is possible for a place to be too green, that things can grow too well (mostly weeds) and that you can feel overwhelmed and closed in with too many trees and greenery. I didn't think that a place like that existed until I lived in Maryland and owned my own house. Now I realize how incredibly well things grow here, too well I might even say.


Can you see it all there in the background? Would you believe me when I say there is a fence in there somewhere? There is also a part that didn't have a fence that we didn't discover until we had cleared a huge portion of that back corner, which took Chris 5 hours to clear out, probably more if our back-up hadn't offered his help.


Our house was unoccupied for at least 3 years, probably closer to 5 years and unmaintained for the lats 8 years before we bought it. It lay neglected and the plants took over the yard. We have been fighting a losing battle with the greenery in our yard. But happy to say it, we enlisted (he offered) our neighbor, Don, to do some work in our yard. Chris was out there one day, feeling motivated, and decided to weed whack his way towards the fence. He feels like a bad neighbor when our weeds start to encroach on Don's lawn. So he was out there and Don happened to be out there. And Don said stop doing that! Let me come over. And he proceeded to work for 2 hours, clearing out with his little loader the entire portion of our yard that is next to his. It would have taken Chris 12 hours a day, for probably about a month straight to clear out and do what Don did in one day. Then a few days later Don came over with his skid loader and proceeded to level it all out so that it would be pretty and pack down the dirt so that we can put seed down.


This is a picture of the back corner where there was a shed, many years ago, and wood and rocks and trash was left there. And gravel. And the plants grew over everything and it took us hours to get the wood out from under it when we first moved in. Now it is a lovely flat place that we are thinking about having a bonfire soon.


This is another picture of the corner with the boys walking in the nice clean area. They like to walk back and forth in it. Dallin looks for trash and picks it up and puts it in the bag we leave down there for such a purpose. They are about 15-20 yards from the fence, a long ways away!


Dallin likes to mosey along and other times he loves to run as fast as he can or he will push Tristan on a little fire truck at full tilt. They both love having a huge flat place with nothing on it. And we gained about 15-20 extra feet in our yard since we did this! Flat space in our yard! We don't have much of that...

Anyway, Don, is amazing and I wish I knew what we could do for him to say thank you because it was just so much help for us. But he is too nice and won't even let us pay him for the gas he used up to clear out our yard. I do know though that he enjoys our boys and we walk over once or twice a week and talk to him and Don really seems to get a kick out of Dallin and how attached Dallin is to him. Maybe we can just lend him some grandkids? Anyway, it is awesome that that huge project is now done, and it only took 2 days to complete!

Week 11 and a half

So, I finally went and had my first midwife appointment! It was wonderful. I loved Kay when I had Tristan and I totally lucked out that she was the one to deliver me and now I am excited to be able to have her on board with me this pregnancy again! I was waiting until close to 12 weeks before I went in because sometimes you get a talking-to if you don't go in until after that and I would just rather avoid any talkings-to. It has been almost a whole year since I last went to the office, I went in for my six-week check-up after I had Tristan and haven't been back but I knew we would be there sometime this year!

Anyway, I am looking forward to finally moving out of the first trimester soon and have an increase in energy again. I have been DYING! It is so hard to have the energy to stay conscious enough to be aware of what the boys are doing. It isn't just sitting down and not moving, it is that I am always mentally exhausted! Thankfully though in a few weeks I shouldn't be dealing with that as much... hopefully... Then there is the whole issue with diabetes that since it runs in my family and I had a big baby (Tristan was 9lb 3oz) that I have to do the glucose test right away, rather than at week 32 or whenever they have you do it.

Also, I got to hear the baby's heart beat. It took Kay a good 8 minutes or so to find the heart beat since the baby is only the size of a lime right now, but she did it. It was so neat. I don't know why but I felt like it was a bigger event to hear this baby's heart beat than it was to hear Dallin or Tristan's. I don't know why that is. Kay said that the heart beat is fast and maybe that means it is a girl, not that that is an actual scientifically proven observation or anything, but she thinks I need a girl. I think I do too. I would love to have two little girls after having two little boys. We will see what the Lord blesses us with though!

What to eat...

So with the first trimester of this pregnancy I don't really like food, but that isn't much of a surprise though. But it does make it hard to find things that ever sound appealing. I have decided smoothies are the way to go but I am avoiding dairy because when I am pregnant it does horrible things to me. I had a brilliant idea the other day though. I don't know how many of you have been to Jamba Juice, but they make my favorite smoothie of all time. It is no longer on the menu but you can still ask for it. You ready for it?

Berry Lime Sublime

It is full of raspberry goodness and sweetness and tartness and wonderfulness. Unfortunately I live in Maryland where the only Jamba Juice I know if is at the airport... behind security. So, I could buy a $59 dollar plane ticket to where ever Southwest flies so that I can get behind security to buy myself a real Jamba, but since it isn't a "real" one, they won't make it. I asked last time I was at the airport. Because of that I had my brilliant idea. I decided to look up the recipe online! Supposedly someone who worked at Jamba Juice posted the recipe. I haven't made it but I am really excited to try it! But because I think it is the most amazing drink ever, I decided I would share it with you!

16 oz (sixteen)
8 oz Raspberry juice
2 small scoops of lime sherbet
2 small scoops of strawberries
1 small scoop of raspberries
1 scoop of ice

24 oz (original)
12 oz Raspberry juice
2 big scoops of lime sherbet
2 big scoop of strawberry
1 big scoop of raspberry
1 scoop ice

32 oz. (power)
14 oz. Raspberry juice
3 big scoops of lime sherbet
3 big scoops of strawberries
1 big scoop of raspberries
1 scoop of ice

The biggest problem is that I am not sure where to get raspberry juice at. It doesn't seem like something that would be in the juice aisle. I did some reading from another website and they say use frozen juice concentrate and use half the recommended water and that way you will get the right consistency for your smoothie. So, I am hoping I can find some frozen raspberry concentrate this week so I can make myself a much needed Berry Lime Sublime.

One year old!

Want to know what my favorite thing about when our boys turn one year old. They get to be forward facing little munchkins! We went to Massenutten Water Park which was like a 4 hour drive and it was Tristan's first time being in the car forward facing and it made such a difference in our very long car ride! Ahh if only we had a van now...

"ice"Phone

Dallin is a very technologically advanced two year old. He loves to play on the icePhone or as we would say the iPhone. And another thing that he loves to do is run around in his undies and then another thing he loves to do is to play on my bed. This picture just shows him doing all three things at the same time. I love his smile too!

Potty training

So we have been potty training Dallin and we have done a great job if I do say so myself. He has been so good about it lately and he has been wanting to help others with their lack of training. He tried to help Tristan for a while but I nixed that in the bud, if for no other reason than Tristan likes to play in the potty and I don't like that so I have taught Dallin that we always need to have the bathroom door shut. So he stared looking for a pupil elsewhere. And he found one! He loves Baby and likes to feed and burp change Baby's diapers and now even try to get baby to go potty in the potty! So funny!

New posts

I was talking to my sister in law Bethany yesterday and she motivated me to do some blog posts. I haven't updated in quite some time and I have been having a very hard time with motivation lately. Just in general, not just with my blog. So, Bethany told me that I should try to just do small ones rather than huge comprehensive ones. So here is my goal, at least one post a week! Just something fast from the week that we did. So now I will go ahead and do one or two posts of things that have happened in the last few weeks.