Spring has Sprung......

and so have my allergies! However, we are enjoying the recent beautiful weather here in Columbus. Everything here is in full bloom and I am amazed every day I walk outside and see a new plant sprouting out of the ground or a new flower about to bloom. Today was so beautiful and was the first day I sat on our deck with the dogs and started a new book. A lot has happened since my last post, a few being Tyson's birthday party, Easter, and various others. So I am just including a cluster of pictures to recap our events in the last couple of weeks.

                                                                          My beautiful flowers!

                                                     Everything is looking so green and vibrant!

                      Our cats won't go outside, ever. I think they just feel very safe and comfortable.

                                                     Taylor and Kenna at Tyson's Birthday Party!

                                   We were so happy that Craig made the trip to help us celebrate!

The raging party!

I thought I had taken more pictures than I did, I guess you just get caught up in having a good time!

Surprises!

Tyson's 30th birthday was yesterday and to celebrate we traveled to Lincoln to eat at Misty's steakhouse and brewery. It was so much fun with just the two of us, and what is better than eating great food. Tyson enjoyed some of their homemade brew with an 11 oz. ribeye, au gratin potatoes, and a house salad. Which got two thumbs up. I enjoyed one to many glasses of chardonney, lobster stuffed salmon, mashed potatoes, and a ceaser salad which got three thumbs up. We were so full from dinner, but I had to ask the waitress if they had any special desserts for birthday guests. So we ended up with a cheesecake sampler. It was a very memorable night together which I will never forget.

When I was walking in the yard yesterday looking for my misplaced car keys that I thought Jesse had, I noticed a surprise. We moved into our house in November so we knew we had plenty of trees but nothing was very fresh and bloomed. The surprise was a giant tree that has bloomed pink flowers. I am absolutely in love with it. I guess we were meant to buy this house!

Slowly but Surely

With the beautiful weather this weekend, Tyson and I have never been more motivated to tackle the landscaping around our house. When we bought our house the previous owners had used vast amounts of wood chips to landscape around the house, trees, bushes, buildings, and anything else you can imagine. Well.....after searching from place to place for just the right brick and  river rock, I am proud to post pictures of all of our hard work.

On Saturday we spent all day sweating and grunting getting the landscaping done in the front of the house. Today (Sunday) we have completed the landscaping by the tulips and by the driveway. We are still debating on all of the duties in the backyard yet, but at least the front of our house is looking absolutely amazing!

       The landscaping before, pretty rough!

 My hardworking husband breaking a sweat cleaning out all of those wood chips!

 We got most of the brick put in and some of the river rock.

                                             The best picture of the finished project I could get!

  Our neighbors were shooting blue rock next door, we didn't realize how scared Jesse was of guns! Needless to say she stayed close to Tyson and didn't give him a lot of working room.

               The tulip/flower bed before, we removed the wooden logs that were previously bordering it.

                     The finished project with the same interlock bricks we used in the front of the house.

                        Didn't get a before shot on this, but it does look much better than before.

A new bush we got this morning from Earl May, to replace the bucket we put in the front!

It is so nice to have a place to call our own. We have so many ideas for our backyard we should start sketching them out on paper. A few of my personal ideas....hot tub for starters and then a small waterfall. I think within time we will pick up some more motivation and save some money to make that possible. It is nice knowing that we will not have to touch or new landscaping for a long time, because it was a ton of work!!

We are celebrating Tyson's 30th birthday party next weekend on the 16th, he will be the big 30! And we are looking forward to Caleb, Tisha, and Cadyn's arrival on Wednesday!