All in a days work

I've wanted to have grass in our backyard ever since we moved in, but of course there's a lot to it including $, so we've been here almost 10 months now and haven't done a thing to the backyard. Rocks, dirt and cactus definitely are the more popular look around here, but I just haven't grown to love that look and not sure I ever will, all I wanted was grass!!! The only place in Sierra Vista to buy grass is Home Depot, but only during April and May. We started seriously thinking about it the end of March and to make a long story short we decided to bag an irrigation system since our backyard isn't very big. When we started ordering soil and calling around for various things we found out Home Depot received their last shipment of sod that day cause it wasn't selling. This threw everything into high gear and 2 days later we were slaving away to get all the top soil delivered, spread, buy sod, lay it all, and put up a retaining wall all in a days work. We started around 6 a.m. and finished everything around 8 p.m. I was sure that day would send me into labor even though Aaron did all the heavy lifting. Both of us were sore the rest of the week. We still had to get the rest of the soil and plant the garden, flowers and trees, but finally there is color to our backyard! I LOVE IT! I no longer have to give the girls a bath every time they play in the backyard. Now we are just hoping everything will grow since we really didn't have a clue as to what we were doing, but I honestly get giddy thinking of going in our very own backyard and picking fresh peaches, cherries, plums, strawberries, tomatoes and other delicious garden gems while watching the girls run through the sprinklers on hot summer days.


6:00 a.m.


7:30 p.m.

I felt so bad I couldn't help more with the lifting. so Aaron was pretty beat and dirty after our long day of work.

2 days later......done finally!

Our Birthday!

As most of you know I'm not thrilled about sharing my birthday with Emmy, so she had her birthday party with her friends the day after. Our birthday was reallly fun, it was gorgeous here so we went swimming in the morning, then some of my friends took me to lunch, out to eat with the family for dinner, then we opened presents, had cake, and a movie night on the projector. It was a lot of fun.

A perfect birthday wouldn't be compelete without some time in the pool


All of us girls love doing date nights when Aaron takes us out to eat, since this was a special occasion Maile and Emmy got to dress up for the night. Whenever anybody commented on their dresses they would spin and twirl and make the most of the attention they got.

Happy Birthday to US!!!!

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!

easter egg hunt




A happy Birthday Girl after a ton of candy and presents


I think she has been singing the happy birthday song to herself for the past 2 months, so it was fun to finally have the real moment.

MORE EASTER EGG HUNTS

Beginning of an easter egg hunt full of empty plastic eggs. Yes, that is right, all those eggs behind us were completely EMPTY! At first I thought it was some mean joke, who just doesn't fill the easter eggs right? I kept looking around for other people's reactions, but everybody just carried on like it was normal. We soon found out we were to go wait in a line to turn our eggs in for a little rubber ducky. hhhmmmm. I'm not sure I'm a fan of those kind of easter egg hunts. The girls actually still had a great time and didn't complain, it was mostly Aaron and I who couldn't believe what just happened.






One by one Maile opened her eggs and said "there's nothing in this one either".






Before they even finished all the eggs they were ready to crack them open and chow down, which is exactly what they did polishing off all 8 of the eggs.

Easter

It seems with blogging there is either a ton of stuff to blog about, which makes me not even want to blog cause it will take too long or there isn't much to blog about. Right now is one of those moments when a ton of stuff has been going on, so it takes forever to get up to date. I can't upload a lot of the pictures from Emmy's bday party, our fun joint birthday, and easter egg hunts for some reason, but I do have some fabulous pictures my neighbor Sara Neyhart took. She's a photographer and just happened to be passing by as we were attempting some pictures on our own after church on Sunday. Getting great pictures of the girls is near impossible for me, but Maile was all about posing and doing whatever Sara asked. Emmy on the other hand, well I'm really surprised she even kept her hat on long enough for these pictures, we didn't even attempt individuals of her. There were too many cute ones of Maile, so I know its overload of her, but I just have too many favorites.

The New Ride

So Aaron's been looking at Honda Odyssey's ever since his Dad came out for Christmas with theirs. Our neighbors got a great deal at a dealership out here and after that he became obsessed with finding a great deal and looking all around. Monday morning I was unaware he went to the dealership until he showed up with a brand new 2008 odyssey he was test driving. Obviously I loved it, but thought it was way too fancy and nice and still planned on getting a used one. About 1/2 hr later he calls saying he bought the van. It took a while for me to realize he was completely serious. He really bought the van without us talking about it or anything. Wow! I seriously couldn't believe he actually went though with it without even talking about it. He told me the whole story how he got an unbelievable deal that he just couldn't pass up. So, that was that and the next day we were headed to Phoenix in our brand new van. I don't remember the last time Aaron was so giddy, he honestly was so proud of his deal and so excited it was hilarious. I still don't feel like it's really ours. I've never in my entire life owned a nice car, so to have this thing is almost scarey. I thought I was a high roller in high school when my parents got their 2001 Astro van if that tells you anything about the cars I've driven. I'm still a little scared driving it, but I must admit I totally love it and actually didn't hate every minute of the drive to Phoenix. The girls were busy with their DVD and weren't complaining of the sun on them and being too hot, etc...... I was also much more comfy. What can I say as shocking as the news was I'm in love with the Odyssey.



We planned this little trip up to Phoenix to watch the Easter Pageant at the Mesa temple. Spencer is moving to DC come June so we figure we won't have many more opportunities to visit. Aaron's sister Rachel drove down from Flagstaff. We had a great time with everyone and are sad to think it could be our last get together at Spencers.