Yard

We've spent the past few weeks doing a ton of work in our yard.  We really like the Japanese Garden style, especially since there are a lot of climate and plant similarities between Japan and the PNW.  We feel like we have finally gotten the skeleton of the yard in place so that we can add things on here and there to complete it over the next couple of years.  My mother wanted to see some pictures so here is part of her Mother's Day present...

Starting with the worst first...here is the side of the house behind the playset that we need to build a retaining wall, level and eventually build a shed.  You can see the french drain that we just did in the corner which was the low spot and a lot of water sat there.

Moving around counter clock wise from there is the next weakest part of our yard.  We made the edge of the grass stick our more with its curves than it did before.  

On the other side of the fence we would always get a ton of weeds growing through.  We dug a 10 inch trench and put a weed barrier in it that also went up 6 inches onto the fence and was stapled down.  Hopefully that will keep the weeds back.

We also put in a trim around the grass to keep it from growing into the flower beds.  We moved a couple of the large rocks around, stood some up and laid others down.  We put in cobblestone in various locations. 

I'm currently working on a drip line to get all the pots on the deck and the hanging baskets.

This is the dry stream bed that is coming out of a future water feature.

 The little circle flower bed here is the herb garden.  One benefit to PNW weather is that some herbs become perennials as they don't completely die out during the mild winter.

Plans for the future:

• get some 1 and 2 man rocks to compliment the 3-4 man rocks
• put bark over topsoil
• get more plants
• build arbor next to concrete patio
• build firepit, arbor and bench in corner of yard that has view of mount rainier
• paint the concrete bench and bird bath
• get a circular table and chairs for concrete patio
• get sand for low spots in grass
• finish the water feature
• build bridge for the cut out (but not removed) section of the pathway
• wrap the bottoms of the deck columns and future fire pit with rock veneer
• build the retaining wall
• level the area by the retaining wall with the concrete walkway
• build other french drains in more swampy areas
• Learn how to be patient when it comes to yards so that we can have some zen before we finish our Japanese garden

Aspen's birthday

So, this was really 6 months ago but I never posted it, so just after Aspen turns 1 1/2, here's her first birthday party:

I was super excited to plan a girly party after Spiderman, pirate, sports, Pokemon and Lego parties (just to name a few)! I tried the tissue paper poms for the first time and hung them in our entryway and hung paper lanterns between the kitchen and family room:
and I made a banner with vinyl letters from my Silhouette:
We invited all of our friends who had babies within a couple of months of Aspen's birth (there were 6 of us due around the same time!) and here are 4 of the babies: Finn, Aspen, Eli and Carter

Every time we try to get a picture of the babies, at least one starts to cry (okay, usually Eli):
Here's her lighted cupcake, out of her reach:
She started into it delicately but that didn't last long...
Soon it was upside down
Then the headband had to come off
And of course we end with cupcake all over the table and floor, smashing it in her own face
I had the boys wrap up our old little people toys that had been unused for a while so they could give them to her (in the background) and my mom refinished her baby doll cradle for Aspen and gave her a doll with a handmade blanket
It was the day before Valentine's day so it was super easy to find pink and red candies

I made some cake pops and suckers and found fun little candy scoops at Walmart for all the different types of candy
And I made chocolate cupcakes with scalloped pink cream cheese frosting and little flag picks with pearls on top... okay, maybe a little overboard but it's MY FIRST GIRL and maybe my only girl!!

So this isn't a very cute picture of Aspen but it's the best I had of her wearing the shirt I made her with my Silhouette - I bought a pink tee and cut vinyl to say "birthday girl" and then did a rhinestone crown that you can kind of see at the top.

I liked how it turned out so I made a similar shirt for my niece for her 4th birthday:

I picked papers and embellishments from the "Tickled Pink"collection from My Mind's Eye and added a few of my own things for the banner, decor, scrapbook and thank you cards:

Here is the front view of the scrapbook when it's all folded up, I love the layers!

I did one picture for each month, starting with newborn and one month:

two months:

three months:

four months:

five months (not sure why I picked that picture?):

six months:

seven months (and still bald!):

eight months:

nine months:

So there you have it, Aspen's first birthday, February 13th 2011. Maybe I will post picture of this summer before she turns 2?

Universal Studios

We heard from a few people that our boys would be too small to enjoy this place so we considered doing a second day at Legoland and skipping it but decided not to in the end and we're very glad we didn't.  The boys loved it.  Explosions, worlds largest 3D video with a huge gorilla ripping apart a T-rex, monsters, etc.  How could they not love it!  My two favorite rides were here, Mummy and King Kong. 

Its getting too late on my seminary schedule for me to remember much of what happened.  I'm going to have Marisa do a post later with all the pix and stories she wanted that I didn't get.