Anna and the backyard

Well, I got sick last week and it was no fun. I was congested, so it made my head hurt. I feel much better now, but I still have to blow my nose all the time. I'm just waiting for it to all go away.

So onto little miss Anna. Anna loves her sunglasses. She's so funny with them. She'll put them on and then push them up on her head, like an adult and just wears them. The other morning however, she put them on and kept them on while she at her breakfast. She's just too cool...

She also LOVES hats. She has about five or so that I keep in a drawer that she can access and loves to get them out and just put them on. I love this purple one. She put in on backwards herself! She was dancing around, so the picture is a little blurry.

Here, she has on one of Dan's hats.

Anna also likes to wear our clothes. She'll see something on the floor, pick it up and say on! on!

Here she has on Dan's work sweatshirt.

Garden/Backyard Update:

Almost two week ago, on Saturday, we made an all day work outside day. We got a lot done. Dan dug out two more tree stumps. Well, one of them wasn't actually a tree stump. We always thought it was kind of weird and wondered why it was in the backyard, like someone put it there on purpose. So Dan started digging and digging and digging and still hadn't reached the bottom. Finally, after 3 feet he did! Turns out it was an old phone pole. Why someone put it there, is a mystery to us.

Dan started digging...and digging...

Dan, hard at work digging.

He finally reached the bottom, THREE feet later!

Good 'ol phone pole.

We still need to get rid of it. We filled in the hole, but it's still there.

When it was in the ground, every once in a while I would sit Anna on it and she liked to sit on it. She saw it out of the ground and I told her it fell down. So now when she sees it, she says, down...down...

We expanded our garden. Dan decided to try planting straight in the ground, without doing a raised garden bed. We only have a few plants in there so far, but they seem to be doing well. Behind this makeshift garden (we're going to get some bricks and outline it with them, so it's not all ugly with old boards and stuff), there are about 8 corn plants growing in the ground. Corn is extremely hardy and is doing great! I'll have to get a closeup of them.

We also bought some lilac bushes and planted them against the back wall. I really, really wish we had done more work on the backyard last year, so we could be enjoying it more this year. But last year during the summer, we were painting and working on the inside of our house. One thing at a time, I guess. :)

We just need to get rid of those big, ugly tree stumps! They're not helping our yard look any better. :)

I lucked out!

So I get a call this morning from the nurse at my OB/GYN and apparently I have a urinary tract infection. Since I'm pregnant though, I don't feel the symptoms. How awesome is that??? Finally, a great perk while being pregnant! :) I've never had one of these before, but I know they can be painful. She wrote me a prescription for some antibiotics and I got it filled today. I take it for a week and then it should be gone. I'm just feeling so thankful and happy that I really lucked out in this department, because this is definitely something I would not enjoy.

*I think this is the shortest post I've ever done!

It's Garden Time!

The past weekend we put in a lot of time in our garden and backyard. Our adventure started Friday when we went to Home Depot to get dirt for the garden. We needed vermiculite and for some odd reason, they had it on an extremely high shelf and needed a ladder to get it down. Well, it took about 15-20 minutes for the employee to return with the ladder. Poor Anna was getting so restless in the cart. But we got what we needed, only to find it cheaper at a nearby nursery and will end up taking it back, along with some extra compost and peat moss. Ahh, such is life.

We had our first garden last year and made a 4'x4' raised bed. Dan wanted to extend and deepen our garden, so we added 3' and made it 1' deep, rather than 6 inches. Our soil consisted of three different components that had to be mixed-vermiculite, compost and peat moss. We had to mix equal parts on a tarp and then transfer it to the garden. It was kind of hard work, but nothing we couldn't handle. :)

So far we have lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, corn and beans. The funny thing about this lettuce, is it's from last year. We didn't even do anything this year, it just started growing! And it's doing great!

We also decided to plant some fruit trees!

Here is our peach tree...

Here is our cherry tree...

Here is a view of both of them. We had to plant them in places that would get a lot of sun, so the placement may look kind of funny. Hopefully in 10 years it will be okay.

As you can see our backyard is dirt and weeds. Last year we had a few weeds, this year we have a gazillion!!! We even got rid of a lot of them and they just keep growing. I would love to just have dirt, rather than weeds and dirt. Sad, huh. Anyone want to donate to the Phelan's backyard fund? :)

And here are some really random things we dug up while trying to dig deep holes for the trees. Our house is almost 40 years old. Who knows what is buried in our yard! We found this plastic tubing. At first we thought it might have been part of a sprinkler system, but no it was just a random piece of tubing. Then we found two large concrete rock things. They aren't rocks, but concrete. Plus a brick. Huh...I have no explanation for this. But it's a good thing we found it, so when the cherry tree's roots grow, these won't be blocking them.

Here is a stump that my man Dan dug up, by himself.

Okay, I helped him lift it out of the hole, but he did everything else himself. We were going to plant a tree here, but then changed our minds. But the stump needed to go anyways. You can see in the right corner, there is another one that needs to go to.

It was a busy Saturday, but we got a lot done. We're seriously considering buying some sod and putting in grass in a small area by the patio. We have a lot of work to do in the backyard to make it look decent. So many things to do, so little money... :)

Wall Vinyl!

It's been too long since I last blogged!!! I'm feeling much better now, the morning sickness is all gone, and so I'm starting to feel more productive and have more of a desire to get things done. Something I've been wanting to do for months is put a vinyl quote above our bed. However, I didn't know what to put and whatever it was, Dan had to be okay with it. He hates cheesy sayings or rather the cliche' ones that are popular right now. So, I finally got on the ball and found one that both of us were okay with.

This is what I got. The original saying, said Love begins in a moment, grows over time, and lasts an eternity. Well, since I had to put on all the letters individually, I got lazy and decided to omit the grows over time. I also had a cartridge that would cut out the word love and forever, so it would be one piece instead of separate letters. So I decided to do forever, instead of eternity.

It looks kind of plain the the picture, but looks better in person. I was hoping to put some decorative swirls or something with it, but haven't found a style that looks good.

I still need to adjust the "love." It was really hard to put on straight and how I wanted it. Dan says the whole thing is slightly slanted upward. But since, it was such a pain to get it centered and where I wanted it, I think I'll just leave it for now. :)

I finally put up some frames I covered in cloth, but haven't taken pictures yet of them because I need to put something in the middle of them. So hopefully, soon those will be finished. I just want our room to be complete, but I've been slacking in that area. Well, and I need help hanging stuff up and deciding where stuff should go. But when Dan gets home, I forget and he has his own stuff going on. So one day, before we move out of this house, it will be done. :)