Update on Life

Ok, it's been a while since my last update. The summer has been going good. We have been pretty busy getting our yard fixed up. We really tried to keep up on the weeding, but there was just so much rain this spring/early summer that we got overwhelmed with it. We decided to hire help to weed, and it worked out because we needed to take out a dead bush and sickly tree and replace it with a new one. 16 man hours later, and we realized that there was just no way we would have had time to do that between working and taking care of the kids. It has been nice to have that out of the way so we could have fun with the kids. We got them a small bounce house this summer. Liam does not know that we own it. We tell him if he's really good we will call up Mr. Bounceman to come set it up. Both of them have been having a blast with it. Although since Rowan is only 19 mo. her attention span is pretty short and she only is on it for a short time. But, she has decided that she LOVES to swing now. She asked to swing one day, and she grins ear to ear!! We are glad the swing-set is finally being enjoyed now...even Liam likes to swing sometimes.


Last month Mike had me pick up a new peach tree to replace the 2nd cherry tree that died on us. We gave up on getting any more cherry trees, and decided to get a different variety peach tree, since we LOVE peaches!! Ever since I picked out that cute tree, I have had a new interest in the yard. We had our yard put in almost 3 years ago, and this year is the first year that it is really looking great. The plants have filled in, and the trees are getting really big. I took Liam with me to pick out a new Tulip tree to replace the original Tulip tree that was not growing, and looked like it might be diseased. I was a little nervous to pick out a tree without Mike's input, but when it was delivered he loved it. It really has a great shape to it, and it's been in for a couple weeks now, and I have been really good about watering it, and it's looking great!! I will have to post pictures soon. Last week I had found this beautiful purple flower that I had been wanting. They had these huge ones at Home Depot, and I wish now I had bought more than one because when I went back a couple days later they only had one left. But I grabbed that one, and went to a few other nurseries and got several more. It's called Salvia nemorosa 'East Friesland'.


We have an electrical box in our front side yard. When we moved in there where some bushes that were already covering the area, so we just decided to leave them when we landscaped the yard. Unfortunately the bush died which surprised us because it survived no water when our house sat empty for many months...anyway, we were not sure what to plant over there to cover the unsightly boxes, but I did come across this really cool plant called 'Burning Bush'. It is green right now, but it's supposed to turn bright red in the fall. We had Blue Stakes come out and mark up the area since it's right by all the utility lines. The lines are a complete mess?! We have no clue if/where we can plant now. Anyway, hopefully we can figure it out soon!

Summer Time and Parties

Well here it is, Summer has officially started, and I thought we would have had a break from being sick since Liam is out of school. But, he must have picked up something that last week of school, and then maybe another bug hit him because he ended up with 2 separate fevers. He bounced back pretty quickly, but whatever the second bug was hit me pretty hard because after I started feeling better, I ended getting sick again. I had a nasty cough for about 3 weeks?! I even ended up going to the Dr. to get some meds. Although, I really don't think that helped. It was just a lingering nasty bug, and hopefully we can avoid any more sicknesses for a long while! Anyway, Mike's brother and sister-in-law, with their twin boys, were in town this past week, and his family had a BIG get together at his parents house last night and here are a few of my favorite pictures of the evening. Mike was going to take pictures, but he got handed the grilling duties, so I got handed the picture duty for the first half of the evening. I also was in charge of watching Rowan, and keeping an eye on Liam. So there were lots of pictures of Rowan. She also turned 19 months yesterday, so happy 19 months to our wonderful, adorable little girl. She was quite the handful last night, going down the big slide all by herself, and climbing up and down the concrete stairs!! She also loved the babies and loved giving them hugs and kisses. I definitely had my hands full!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF PICTURES

FINALLY Finished Graduation Pictures!!

These pictures were a bit of a pain to edit because there was so much red eye. And the program I usually use has been having issues, and so Mike set up a trial run with Light Room, and it's pretty complicated, but after a few tries, and some frustration, we finally figured it out.

Anyway, about his graduation...His graduation took place at his school on 5-19-11. We were nervous and curious how well he would do at his graduation. He started out shy like he usually does. He was sucking on his robe, and wasn't really singing much. Then after a few minutes, he was the star of the show! He was right in the front and center and he was singing, and doing the moves with the songs. What a vast difference from his first program at the start of the year, which was for Halloween! He got separated from the group, and then kept running down the hallway, his teacher kept having to chase him?! This time he stayed where he was supposed to, and participated with the entire program. He has matured so much, and we are very proud of him!!

Life Update

Well, I've been meaning to blog about Liam's graduation, but I'm still working on editing the pictures...lots of red eye to fix! He ended up with a last parting gift from school, a lovely cold. So this past week we've all been fighting it off. At least it wasn't RSV, or a stomach bug!! Hopefully with the time away from school, we can all stay healthy over the summer.

We ended up getting a second batch of butterfly larvae. This particular batch were quite silky. Around the day they were getting ready to chrysalize one of them had a little liquid too, and I think that combination made their food like glue, and one of the caterpillars ended up getting stuck. He kept trying to get to the top. I called the company, and they said to go ahead and open it up and help him. We were really unsure because we didn't want the others that already started to chrysalize to fall off...but we just didn't want to see the poor guy die of exhaustion, so Mike was the brave one and took a pair of chopsticks and tried to separate him as gently as he could. He was really stuck!! It was pretty nerve racking, and it took several attempts, but he was finally able to get him lose. Mike got him to the top, and he thankfully didn't go back down, he knew exactly what to do. Although he did keep harassing the others...this batch was quite the crazy bunch. We were glad it was our second time though because we were more familiar with the process. We also ordered our ladybug larvae. They have been really interesting to watch too. When we got them, we couldn't believe just how tiny they were. They have grown a bunch over the last week, and they are getting ready to change to pupa's now.

Over the weekend Liam's cousin Emma had her 2nd birthday party. Since we had all been sick, we weren't sure if we should go. But Mike talked to his brother, and he said it would be OK, since they had been sick too. Liam was pretty much over his cold anyway, and it was outside, so I just made sure he didn't cough on anyone ;) Rowan was still running a fever, so Mike stayed home with her. We were glad we were able to go since Liam had a great time, and I was able to be the photographer for the family, and got over 300 pics for them. I love doing it! Below are a few pics, and for the family I left the link to see the rest. The password is the initials of the guest of honor.


















CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES OF EMMA'S PARTY

Thomas The Train was in Town!

This past weekend, we finally were able to take Liam to ride on Thomas the Train. The weather wasn't looking good, but we took a warm coat, and an umbrella just in case. After about 30 min. of being there the sun came out, and the weather was perfect. We decided to leave Rowan with Grandma B since it was during her nap time. Plus we thought it would be fun for Liam to have an outing with Mom and Dad by himself. He was very excited and had a great time. After we took a ride, we got a picture in front of Thomas, then we did some of the activities...he did mini golfing for the first time, and we realized that we suck because he's never been before. He definitely needs some practice with that, but he had fun anyway. Then we got him a tattoo sticker on his hand. Then went to the store where he picked out 3 new trains, got both the kids a new T-shirt, and Rowan a hat, and a little Thomas bag to carry everything...They are so spoiled!! Then we were all ready to head home! As you can see in the last picture, he was pretty tuckered out!

Bye Butterflies

So this past Monday, the butterflies hatched, and they recommend letting them go after a few days if the weather permits...well, just so happens it was rainy and COLD all week?! So, finally by Saturday, the weather warmed up enough, we could release them. We had thought about letting them go in our yard, but there were a few concerns about lawnmowers, and pesticides around the neighborhood, so we thought...if we were butterflies, where would we love to live. And we decided that Thanksgiving Point Gardens would be the place. And even though it was more work to pack up the kids and go there, it was well worth it in the end. The place is beautiful, and has thousands, if not millions of flowers. I did call ahead to make sure they were OK with it, and to make sure no pesticides were used, and they said it would be just fine.

We could tell on the drive over that the butterflies were getting ready to fly. They were opening their wings and flapping more than usual. We found a great spot in the gardens, and we opened their habitat. One flew out right away, and then the second. It was really cool! I think the 3rd came out on his own, but I helped one of them, and Liam helped the last one out. Liam tracked about 3 of them down after they were released. And we were able to capture some pictures and video of one or two around the flowers. It was such a fun experience for ALL of us, that when we got home, we ordered our next batch....plus our ladybugs too.
















Click Below for the Video

Graduation Pictures

We were a little nervous about graduation pictures this time because Liam has been making his silly Thomas train faces when we ask him to smile for a picture. But, we were pleasantly surprised and relieved that he gave a really beautiful smile. And his teacher even wrote a note saying so!!

Next week is his graduation ceremony...I can't believe this school year is nearly over?!