Landscaping project 2010 pt. 2

After we had our plan in place for the two areas we wanted to landscape, it was time to go to work.

Scott rented a sod cutter and a tiller and we enlisted the help of his parents for the weekend, mostly because they have a big truck we could use.

Scott and his dad cut the sod in the areas we laid out to be landscaped. Not knowing such a thing even existed before this project, I was very impressed with the sod cutter. It did a great job!






After the sod was cut we had to pick up all the pieces and load them in the truck. Sod is heavy! We just composted it, but in hindsight we should have sold it on craigslist!

The machine did in 30 minutes what it would have taken us days to do with a shovel!

Goodbye grass, hello plants! (which I am still working on...stay tuned!)

Up and Up!

Michael's new favorite activity is pulling himself up...on everything and everywhere!





This new found skill has led to a greater discovery of the world around him as well as getting closer to the things he really wants to see and grab...like Scampy!

As you can see, Scampy is clearly thrilled by this latest development.

:o)

Weekend Recap...a few days late!

We had a great weekend! It has really started to feel like summer and it makes me so happy.

On Friday night, we went to a local winery to celebrate a former coworker's retirement. A local band was playing and it was like a little reunion with coworkers that I hadn't seen all year! It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed a bottle of wine and a picnic dinner.

Michael was such a good baby and everyone loved meeting him!

Do you see those poor bags under his eyes? He has not been feeling well lately and has been looking so tired even though he has been sleeping lots! I hope whatever it is clears up soon.

The winery was so beautiful with shady trees and lots of chairs. It was the first time I had been there when they had music outdoors-we will definitely be making more stops there later this summer!

On Sunday we visited friends for a BBQ. Doesn't my friend Kelly have the cutest yard?

She made these cute window boxes out of their old windows! How clever is that? She had all of her pots and plants done already...I need to get going on mine!

Nursery Updates

Remember Michael's nursery?

I've made a few updates and I thought I would share!

I found these wall rub on thingies at a gift shop way back in October or November when Michael was just a teeny baby and finally got them up. Isn't it funny how time flies?

Our friend Brandy also made us this super sweet print as a gift for Michael and I also put it up. How great is that? Don't you think she should go into business selling these?

On a side note, she also celebrated a big birthday this past weekend and it was at the ZOO! We had a great time!


Anywho...
It was quite the process to get it on the wall. First I used those little 3M velcro wall hanging strips, but they didn't hold the photo. So I tried to put more of them on the frame and hang it, but they still didn't hold it. I finally just had to put a tiny nail in the wall and go with it! We had a strict anti-nails in the wall policy at our house so shh... don't tell Scott!

Purple Salvia

This purple salvia is doing so well right now; I swear I have never seen it so bright! I love it how bright and cheery it is and I hope it keeps blooming the rest of the summer. We've also had some big fat fuzzy bumblebees visiting it lately. They must love it just as much as I do!

Michael crawling

We have a crawler on our hands!

Here is a short clip of Michael working hard at taking his first stab at crawling:

Landscaping project 2010

We've started a big landscaping project this spring and I have a feeling it is going to keep us busy for a while!

Here is the plan:

Step one:

Dig up the grass on the south side of the house and plant a bed of perennials. We want it to look something like this:
How great is this print out? We went to Earl May and they whipped this up for us, free of charge. Granted, it is nothing super spectacular or original but I still think it is cool!

They even gave us a list of the plants and then took us out the greenhouse so we knew exactly what they looked like.

Step Two:

Dig up the grass and stuff on the north side of the house. This is on a slight hill and it is hard for Scott to mow, so why not make more work for me? Less work for him=more work for me. Funny how that works out, isn't it? :o)

This is going to be a shade garden with lots of hostas. I love the way it looks in this print-out, but I guarantee you I will be planting teeny tiny baby hostas to save money. I saw some great big hostas in the greenhouse and they were $75 a pop! Wow! Soo....in about 10 years it should look that good. Don't worry, I'll check back in with you then! :o)

Again, they gave us a list of the plants. I'm not sure if I will use a pattern of the same hostas or do a patchwork-quilt type garden of different types of hostas. Decisions, decisions.

And just for fun and because I know you were dying to see it:

Here is an aerial view of our house and yard! It was taken 2 years ago by google maps and it was when we were first trying to get the grass to grow. I can assure you that now it is mostly grass, not mostly dirt like this photo shows. We should petition google maps to come take another photo! :o)

So, that is plan...we'll see what actually comes of it!

About Me

I just joined a new blog group called D-listed blogs and it is a little community of mom and family bloggers. We are doing a meet up and I wanted to put a little introduction of myself out there for you all!

I'm Rose: a 27 year old wife, mother, teacher and homemaker. I've been married to my lovely husband Scott for almost four years-our anniversary is in July and yes we did get married on the hottest day of the year; it was over 100 degrees on our wedding day!

Last October we welcomed our little boy Michael into our family and he is a great joy for us. I've been teaching beginning band full time for the past four years but this year I am working two days a week and it gives me lots of time to hang out with the baby and keep the house in good shape.


I originally started this blog as a record of my home and the things I do to fill my time but it has morphed into sort of a family scrapbook of sorts. My grand plan is to have the entries made into books to chronicle our day to day lives. Even just looking back at entries from a year ago, I am amazed at how those old posts take me back in time!

I love to blog about my son, family, gardening, crafts, and just my life in general!


Thanks for stopping by!

Puppy dogs and firetrucks

Michael has been so active lately! He is so much fun to watch as he scoots around and plays. I love how his little smile lights up his whole face and it makes me smile too. Why is it that babies can only smile with their whole face? How do we lose that ability as adults?

Anyway, enough with the philosophical thinking! Isn't Michael's little tshirt so cute? Scott's mom made it for him with the same material she used for his spring coat lining. It took me a while to noticed why she picked it: because of the little dalmatian puppies! (also, can you see the dalmatian in this post- Michael is wearing another t shirt Scott's mom got him!) Scott's family had dalmatians for a long time and I think they always have had a special place in her heart. Their family dalmatian even saved them from a house fire when Scott was in middle school and their smoke detectors didn't go off! Imagine that!

Some blog remodeling around here

I've added a couple of things to my blog lately which I thought I would point out to my lovely readers. First of all: Michael's lovely 6 month portraits that I promised to share with you are in the side bar. Isn't he so adorable? I think he is looking more and more grown up every day. I hope to share more as I have more time to scan them in.



Also on the side bar you will notice this purple coneflower:

If you click on the photo you can go directly to my gardening album on smugmug.com where I upload all my gardening photos. I might not have time to share them all on my blog but for you serious garden nerds you are welcome to browse anytime your little heart desires!

Speaking of gardening, we are working on a doozy of a project which I hope to share with you soon! It is pretty darn fabulous!

p.s., I also added those extra boxes at the end of the post to direct you to other similar posts. So cool!

Smokey Row's Sing a long

Smokey Row is a cool coffee shop in downtown Des Moines. Every once in a while they have these sing a longs for kids at 10 in the morning but usually they are on the days I work. It just so happens that their latest one was on a day I had off (Cinco de Mayo actually as mentioned in this previous post) so we made a trip downtown to do some singing and drink some coffee (not Michael of course, he doesn't drink coffee yet!).

We got there early, but we were still too late to get a seat in the little room they were in. However, we found a table just outside and had a good time anyway. They played lots of songs from the Jack Johnson and friends Curious George album which is my favorite along with some other kid standards. Of course, I also got to enjoy a nice big coffee and a treat while we were out! Yum!

How big does Michael look sitting up like a big boy?

We had a great time and will hopefully be back again! Coffee+ music+ kids always equals a good time in my book!

Baby Sunscreen

Here is some information I wanted to share about baby sunscreen. I had no idea what to look for in a sunscreen and this article from babycenter.com helped me out quite a bit! I hope it helps you too!

I recommend choosing a "physical" or "chemical-free" sunscreen made with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide — look for one of those ingredients on the label. Unlike chemical sunscreens, which may cause irritation or allergic reactions because the skin absorbs the active ingredients, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide sit on top of the skin, forming a barrier against the sun's rays.

There's no evidence chemical sunscreens are dangerous or toxic, but we just don't know enough yet about how young children react to the ingredients. Also, sunblocks with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide start protecting as soon as you put them on, whereas chemical products need to be slathered on 30 minutes in advance so the skin has time to absorb them.

I found this Neutrogena sensitive skin sunblock at Target and it fit all the criteria. It is hard to find the right sunblock because even ones marketed to babies are not necessarily the one you need.



Here is a link to the original babycenter.com article which has more tips for you!

Sick Day

Michael and I are sick. This is the third day we have both been feeling under the weather and I suspect it has something to do with the horrible sleeping we were doing while staying in a hotel over the weekend. I had a headache that lasted the whole trip due to lack of sleep but luckily got better with an obscene amount of coffee. Funny how that makes everything better, isn't it?

I stayed home from school yesterday and Michael stayed home from daycare and we had a good time snuggling and playing together. He has been sleeping a ton which is a big sign he is not feeling well! He even fell asleep when he was nursing while I watched TV...that hasn't happened in a long time! It is so nice holding a sleeping sweet baby and knowing that he still needs his mommy even though he thinks he is a pretty big boy sometimes!

At any rate, it would be much easier being sick if Michael didn't startle and start crying every time I blew my nose! It makes me feel a little self conscious about my loud nose-blowing!

A Target Find

For the longest time, I have been collecting the corks from our bottles of wine so I can use them as vase filler. I finally saved enough to fill up a glass tumbler and was feeling pretty proud of myself, so I started collecting them in my vase since I had such a huge collection.

Then, I was at Target this weekend and I saw that you can BUY corks as vase filler....what!? Is that cheating or what? (it may be cheating, but also genius!)

And speaking of wine corks, how cool would it be to do this?

That is a lot of bottles of wine!

7 Months

You are seven months old, Michael!

You are busy as ever, sometimes too busy to even let me hold you! You like to grab everything and twist and turn so you can see the whole world around you. You are working hard to learn how to crawl so that you can finally get around yourself!

You have such a nice smile and we love it when you show it to us.

You are growing fast, little boy!

Busy Baby

Every time Michael is playing he is so busy looking and grabbing at everything. I like to call him my little monkey baby because I can't hardly hold him in my arms without him squirming and reaching for everything with those little hands.

We've got a busy day today: we are headed downtown for a kid's Cinco De Mayo sing a long at a local coffee house and then we are going to get our 6 (well, one day shy of 7) month photos taken! I can't wait to share them with you soon. Hopefully I don't spend too much money, I really just want to buy one pose!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Oy!

I spent part of yesterday splitting and moving some perennials from my retaining wall area. After I got inside I took a look at some photos from last summer to remind myself why I needed to do this!



I really like the Russian Sage, Rudbeckia and purple cone flowers on the other part of this garden, but the end is just kind of a jimble jamble of random things I planted there to fill in the space.

Yesterday I split the cat mint into three and moved it down by the fire pit- wow, that was a chore. That dang thing was so hard to split that I will be surprised if it actually grows after the beating I gave it!

The day lilies and coreopsis are kind of random-I will have to move them down by the fire pit too. The day lilies have really grown since last summer, at least twice as big. Maybe I will split them too? I already have tons of day lilies so I'm not sure. I'm not really a big fan of the coreopsis because it is the kind that looks like a bush, not the pretty moonlight kind. So....not sure what I will do with that one either!

Quart Perennials are on sale this week at both Home Depot and Menards for $2 each. I bought six little dwarf coreopsis and blanket flowers on Saturday for some filler so I will have to stop by and see what they have today. I would love to continue my prairie look in the retaining walls with purple cone flowers and rudbeckia. We'll see what turns out...usually my carefully laid plans go to pot after I get outside and start digging around!

Thoughts? Opinions? Are you doing any gardening this spring?

Michael is working hard!

Michael is working so hard to crawl. It is hard to describe in words, so watch the video!




Every day he amazes me. Where is he learning this stuff from? His perseverance is exceptional; he just wants to practice, practice, and practice trying to crawl! It is so cute when his arms and legs are all wobbly! He has only gotten stuck in the crawling position a couple of times and had to yell for my help but otherwise than that he is doing great! He learned quickly not to fall forward to bonk his head! He was sporting a little bruise on his forehead where he fell a couple of times in one day; luckily no one reported me to family services!

p.s.- I really need to figure out some different punctuation other than exclamation points to end my sentences with.

Garage Sale: Love/Hate Relationship

Last summer I really got hooked on garage sale-ing. I think it was because I was off in the summer and didn't have a little one to look after so I could get up early and get the good deals. I got lots of nice baby things for good prices.

So this summer I've gone to a couple of sale almost every weekend. It really started out badly because I hit up a great sale right by my house on the way to school. I was the only one there right when it opened and I bought almost her whole table of really cute boy clothes in the right size and season for Michael. I was hooked! I mean, how often does that happen? It was a perfect sale. Now every sale I go to, I have to compare it to that one. Ugh! It is so frustrating.

I got a few cute things a couple of sales during a city-wide garage sale. But I only got good things if I got there right when it opened before anyone else. It makes me feel like a complete lunatic.

There was a sale starting in the afternoon a few weekends ago. It started at four, and on a Wednesday. It was weird. I showed up an hour early, and almost all the good stuff was already gone like all the little tykes play things and clothes. It was so bizarre.

So anyway, now my new rules of garage sale-ing are:

1. Only go early if I am actually up early
2. Only sales that are within a reasonable driving distance of my house (no wasting gas cruising all over the place)
3. Only buy what I need.

So there you have it! Anyone else have good garage sale tips? I will let you know if I get some good deals! (or if I go crazy in the process!)