A Long Weekend, A Long Post

I love long weekends. This past weekend the weather was beautiful, Sean was home, the kids were able to swim, we did some serious landscaping, we ate good food...it was a great. I'm ready for summer!

The first splashes of the year... brrrrr








SOoooooooo... we did a little landscaping. Tree-huggers, I suggest you stop here. :)


The picture above kind of gives you a glimpse of the before - bushes, trees... I didn't think about getting a before picture until it was too late. Trees were falling left and right before I had a chance.


Here's a sequence of events. My dad would take the big bucket on the loader and push on the tree until you would hear a cracking sound and then, TIMBER, the tree would fall.



This kept Sean pretty busy. He was running all over. Once the tree fell, he'd have to saw off the roots, which were then carried away by the loader.




Then he would limb the tree so the log could be pushed in a pile. I have to say, Sean's looking pretty good. He's a man of many trades. Let's just gaze at this picture for a minute....OK, moving on...


The audience of 3. Ava wasn't really fond of the noise. She'd say, in her own way, "whoa!" Then she'd come hug my legs and want up. She took a 3 + hour nap though. I guess the sound wasn't so bad. It lulled her right to sleep.


This tree scared me a little. It was so close to the house and it wasn't budging and it was on a slight slope which made the loader almost tip. Yeah, it was scary and I went inside until it came down. I let Jonah man the fort.


I love him. Stella does too. :)


Once we got all the trees we wanted down, Stella and Jonah were able to check out the big monster of a machine and get a ride with their grandpa.


Shoving dirt to try and level things out.


The "finished" product.






The house from the road. The rope is to show where the driveway will be.




The wood that will keep us warm for winters to come.


Poor dandelion land. It has now turned into stump land. Stella cried. I told her not to worry because that's the funny thing about dandelions - they grow back whether you want them to or not ;)


And this is me, the happy wife, daughter and mom because now I can wear flip flops outside and not get bitten by a million red-head ants (there were tons of nests in the brush and among the trees). When winter comes I'll say, "bring on the wind." OK, maybe I won't say that, but I will be thankful when those windy nights do come and I don't have to stress about trees falling on top of us. Lastly, but not least-ly ;), the sun shines on our house now. I love it. Thanks dad and Sean for all your hard work. I'm a happy lady. Now...if we could just get rid of all the rocks....