Our yard

Our front yard.  Well...our yard in general, as been a work in progress since August. It wasn't too bad a yard. Yes there were some weeds and wasnt the prettiest yard on the block, but hey, it was GREEN! Apparently it wasn't good enough for our HOA though. We got hit with letter after letter about our yard, even when we would contact them (via email and phone) to tell them we are working on it. (Keep in mind that our neighbor diagonal from us, whose yard is WORSE than ours, has yet to get ONE letter regarding their yard from the HOA.)

So finally we had enough.

Here is our yard before. I had started to kill the grass with Round up at this point.

We rented a tiller from Homedepot and with our neighbor Jim's help, ripped up the entire yard (minus the fenced in backyard that the HOA cant see)

Mike cleaning the tiller of dead grass as he goes.

I actually kinda like the brown yard!

After weeks of hard work pulling the BIZILLION rocks that were in the front yard (I kid you not! We have a very LARGE moving box FULL, with the flaps taped up so we can put even more in it, full). The rocks that I (me, Richelle, did 98% of the rock work in the front) pulled out are getting reused along the side of the house between ours and the neighbors for drainage...in case anyone was wondering ;)

My beautiful, rock free, dirt front yard.

And finally!! We were ready for some sod!! We ended up getting Empire Zoysia because its a softer grass that requires less mowing and water. Cant beat that!!  Here's the yard with the first 2 pallets (though some of the second pallet is behind me, I didn't get a pic of that yet.)

Loving it!! I just need to get my plants for along the driveway!

Beautiful new red mulch to match the lava rock around the bushes.

The yard is still a work in progress, but its finally starting to look like an awesome yard! The next step is to clear the strip between the sidewalk and street along the side of the house. Thats our "Mike's Christmas break" project.  :)  More pictures to come as more gets done! So stay tuned!!!

November recap

November flew by so fast this year! December is flying too, but I'll recap our November.  It wasn't all that eventful but none the less fun!

The girls got matching dresses from Gma & Gpa M.

Evey decided it would be fun to "poop paint" on her wall....

After dinner on my birthday, Evey looked at Mike and me and said "happy day cake??" How smart is she! She knew it was my birthday and that there should be a cake! (which we didn't have). So Mike hoped out to Walmart and picked up a small "happy day" cake.

Momma turned the big 3.0.  This was my "happy day" cake

Ellie finally decided that walking IS faster than crawling! Yay! She is a walking machine now!

walking to momma

Evey wanted to put the flower hat on Ellie. She was thrilled.... :)

Thanksgiving was just us this year. We couldn't make it work to get up north to my family or out west to Mike's. Sad. But it was still a great day!

Our yummy food! (notice the hand in the greenbeans??)

Ellie ate almost all her food. The meat was gone first, of course. (she's my carnivore!)

Evey didn't eat as much, but still did good! At least she ate all her green beans!

Daddy with his food

Momma and hers

I put on Christmas music on Thanksgiving. I love Christmas music!! The very next day we got down all our Christmas stuff and started decorating the house.

Evey loved helping with the tree

"I love Christmas stuff!!" Evey said when all the boxes where brought downstairs.

Ellie helped with the lights

and then the ornaments

we even got lights up outside this year!!  We hope to have more next year!

Our tree all done!

Both girls like the Little People Nativity Gma & Gpa H. got them last year

Ellie being cute eating her puffs

Evey soon joined her. She's blowing kisses here.

It was a fun, fast November! Now on to December!

Halloween 2011

Late I know, but here is our Halloween. We went to our wards halloween party/trunk-or-treat on the 28th of Oct. Evey had a blast and totally loved being a ladybug again this year. (we decided to save $$ and just reuse costumes. There won't be such luck next year though!)

Since its a truck-or-treat, you decorate your truck. Last year we did nothing, so I wanted to have some sort of decoration up this year. I chose Monster's Inc. (had to go Disney!)

Here's my little ladybug standing in front of Boo's door that I made. :)

Ellie was Tinkerbell.

I was a Half Marathoner! Go me! I love how good I'm looking! Thank you running!!

Evey wanted to dance with Ellie. It was cute.

Ellie was all over the floor at the party

Evey loved the games they had set up around the church.

She even took off with a bucket! (which we returned so others could play the game)

Here's mike (in his "daddy" costume) with Ellie and our decorated truck.

Evey was a pro at getting candy and often would take more than one!

Sharing with Ellie (per momma's request)

Ellie was a happy camper with her pretzels.

The next few pictures are from Halloween night (the 31st). Since we live in the back of the neighborhood, at a cultisac, all the surrounding neighbors gather in the cultisac to pass out candy. Its lots of fun to get to socialize with our neighbors. They are great! I don't remember all their names, but I can tell you who I do know!

Jim, in orange, lives in the house with the lights behind them. The three people next to him live in the house next door to Jim.

Beth is Jim's wife (she's in green) and the guy next to her lives in the house across the street from us.

Jim #2 (pretty sure that's his name) and Kathy and her sister MaryAnn live across the street from us too.

Evey would walk up and down the line of people being super cute so they would give her candy (which they did) and she would put it in her stroller. She had quite the stash of suckers....joy.

Evey checking out her stash.

It was lots of fun this year! I can't wait for the back-of-the-neighborhood neighbors new years pot luck and fire pit! We can go this year!! (Ellie was just too little last year for me to be ok with going)

Happy 1st Birthday Ellie!

On October 15th, my little Ellie turned one! Wow how time seems to fly even faster when you have two! Ellie is such a relaxed girl. She loves to copy what Evey does and is trying to say words. We didn't have a party for her, but we did have a day full of fun for her!  Here is Ellie's big day!

It started off early (notice the clock in the pic below).

birthday girl eating breakfast

at least someone is happy this early in the morning!

clapping

We participated in a Family fun run 5k with people from church. It was lots of fun. I made banana muffins (that Evey just loved!) for afterwards.

waiting to get going

Family Fun Run participants

This race was a relaxed one. You could run whatever distance you wanted up to a 5k (3.1 miles). Lots of us did the 5k which was fun. I PR'd (personal record) with a time of 34:40. The last fun run we did, I completed the 3.1mi in 40:56. So this was a great improvement for me!

Family picture after the run

After the 5k, we went home to clean up and get ready for Ellie's b-day. Aunt Annie came over to join the festivities (Uncle Rob had to work :(  ). Evey was thrilled! She didn't let her go, not even to close her car door. It was really cute. Ellie was happy to see her too. We opened presents first.

She only looks sweet and innocent...

Roar!!

First present.

She got the hang of opening quick (like the wrapping paper??)

Gift #1 - wobbles

on to the second

analyzing the wrapping

swinging it around seems to work!

pointy balls! (Evey liked them too, telling us the colors of each)

we gave her the 3rd present but she wanted the pink ball

now she wants to open it

what is it???

Its Chatters Elmo! (thank you great grandma grandma!)

she laughs and laughs at Elmo

presents from Aunt Annie and Uncle Rob

She loved the paper. (Notice the Ninja stance Mike is doing the the back? Pretty cool huh?! Go Mike!!)

Oooo! Books!!

checking the back

She loves books as much as Evey does!

Now its time for cake!!

Singing "Happy Birthday!"

She liked the candle

Aunt Annie showing her how to blow it out

licking the candle...yummy!

She wasnt sure what to do next.

humm, I can stick my finger in the candle hole.

Evey waited very patiently for her cupcake

Examining the bottom

She was a very careful eater.

finally digging in!

testing it. She wasn't so sure about the chocolate. I think it was a bit strong for her.

she is squishing the cake bits with her bottle of milk. (no more formula!)

After yummy cake, it was time to go see the "castle" and some "big boom". Annie came too, Evey rode with her down to Disney. She had a blast even though she fell asleep half way there. ;)

Riding the ferry to Magic Kingdom

Princess Minnie

we got her a button with her name and age on it. She was fascinated by it!

First up was the carrousel. Its a classic that must be done.

Annie and Evey

Ellie rode with daddy this time. Can you tell she had fun??

We did lots more while waiting on fireworks....none of which I got pictures of. But we did the Tiki room (both girls loved watching the birds. We will do that one again!) and Magic Carpet. Ellie loved that one. It goes down fast enough that it kinda "tickles" your tummy. It had her laughing every time we went down! And of course Pirates. But this is what Ellie did most of the time:

Button...

So we had to take it off her. Silly girl! It was a fun day for all of us! My girls are so special and the absolute cutest!