This weekend

This was not the most exciting weekend ever, but it was a very productive one. Dave and I did some back breaking work pulling up some leftover monkey grass that was still lurking in the backyard. We also began preparing my square foot garden so that we can begin planting next weekend. I can already envision fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, etc. (well, that is if I don't kill it first). We'll see. This is our trial year. If we are successful this year, we will create a second garden for next year.

On Sunday, Dave went with Kevin and Chris about two hours south to go fly fishing. Taylor and I had Mimi and Papa over for a late breakfast. We tried our hand at making some delicious beignets. They were scrumptious. However, how does the saying go? "A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!" After naps, Taylor and I noticed that Kelly and AnnaKate were outside playing. Taylor got so excited to see AnnaKate! We arranged to meet them at the church playground up the street. Taylor just adores AnnaKate. In the car, he started squealing and shouting, "DannaKay!" when he saw her already on the playground. It is so funny to watch him play at this age. He is pretty much an independent little guy. He will be so excited to see someone, but then the excitement is gone and off he goes to play by himself. I don't think that he has realized at this age that he can play with the same toy with another child. That will come soon I guess. Enjoy the pictures below. Notice the new obsession- his "P" hat. Hats, hats, hats. He just loves all hats!

Backyard Renovation

It has taken us four years to do it, but we finally had all of the overgrown debris and mess cleared out of our backyard. Half of our backyard was unusable because there were huge old tree stumps, briars, copious amounts of ivy, bamboo, and random overgrown bushes and trees filling the space. It took a crew of 5 men two days and 5 dump truck loads to clear everything out, cut down a few trees, and get us as close as they can to being able to plant grass and spread mulch. They did let me know that they found two pretty dangerous areas that they were able to fix- one was a collapsed downspout drain that left a sizable hole that Taylor or Baxter could have fallen into. Another really scary risk was an old metal barrel that was buried in the ground filled 3 feet with water. The top was half way off. It gives me chills to think what would have happened if Taylor or Baxter would have accidentally fallen in. No worries now though. Everything was fixed and filled in!! My hat is off to Monte Gant's tree service!! We are very excited that we now have a safe place for Baxter and Taylor to play!! Now we just have to find out how green our thumbs are. We have never started grass or a vegetable garden from "scratch" before.

Before:



ahhhhh....After:

Gatti Town

Taylor had his first Gatti Town experience on Saturday night. We ventured over to Gatti Town to meet up with Sarah, her mom, her aunt, and the incredibly adorable Emily. We were there for two hours and Taylor had the time of his life! He actually cried when we had to leave. Of course he cried- we rode the carousel, the monster truck, the trolley, the dragon, and ate pizza (while watching a movie). What little boy would not be upset leaving all of that? I took the camera with me, but Murphy's law kicked in and both sets of batteries were dead. I managed to squeeze just enough juice out of one set to capture three or four pictures- nothing spectacular, but enough to capture the moment. Needless to say, Taylor slept until 8:00 the next morning! Thanks for a great evening, girls!

A few fun pictures

Here are a few fun pictures from yesterday's adventures outside. I wish the weather would always be this perfect on weekends!

Tooties, peas

In case you didn't understand the title, "Tooties, peas" I can translate for you. This is Taylor talk for "cookies please." Tonight at dinner, we told Taylor that he could have two cookies if he ate two more bites of his banana and most of his dinner. Well, surprisingly enough, he pulled through and did it! I just had to take a video of him asking for two cookies. So cute. I am also including a few "construction" pictures from this afternoon. Taylor has this fascination with hats these days. He will occassionally wear his safari or army hat, but most of the time he prefers his construction hat. Too cute!