Drum Roll Please...

I know, you've been sitting on pins and needles waiting for the pictures of our new grass.  No?  Oh, well - you're going to have to look at them anyway!

First, here are some pictures that I took while the work was being done:

Putting in the drainage pipes.

More drainage pipes. They went ahead and connected both our downspouts and our foundation drains from our basement while they already had everything dug up.

This is what it looked like when they were done with all the grading.

The 15 tons of compost they brought in. 15 tons doesn't look nearly as much as I thought it would be - it's pretty much just one dump truck load.

After they spread out all the compost, they put down a ton of lime and fertilizer and tilled it all together using a tractor.  Then they went through with rakes and did the "fine grading".  There was a man that we called "bucket boy" because it appeared that his only job while he was here was walking around and picking up all the rocks, roots, and debris out of the dirt before they put the seed down.  Well, when it came time to put down the seed, "bucket boy" went around with his bucket full of seed and flung it around they yard.  By hand.  I thought, "This is crazy - it's going to take forever."  Let me tell you, if you ever need your yard seeded, I'll get you "bucket boy's" number.  That man had some mad skills when it came to throwing down seed.  It was quite impressive.

And after a lot of watering....

Ta-Da!

Look!  No more rocks!

And no more rivers!  Yay!

This picture cracks me up!  I don't think I've ever seen Dylan so happy to cut the grass.  I think he was just happy because now we actually have grass.

We still have to wait another week or two before we put our swing set and trampoline back up, but I can't wait!  The boys will finally be able to play outside on a regular basis and I won't have to keep buying an insane amount of stain stick and laundry detergent.  The way our backyard was a few months ago, if it rained, we had to wait a good 2-3 days before it would be dry enough for us to go outside.  Now, they should be able to go out almost as soon as the sun comes out.  Hooray!

Don't worry - I promise to post something more exciting (or at least cuter) next time!

So, obviously I haven't been doing a great job of updating the blog.  So, once again, let's see if we can play catch-up!

We'll start with this picture...

This is Daniel.  He makes me laugh.  A lot.  :)

Jacob had lost his two front bottom teeth last Fall. One of his top teeth started to come loose in December and it took until March for it to finally fall out! I have never seen a tooth take so long to fall out. And it didn't even come out on it's own - Dylan had to give it a little yank. It was just hanging on by a tiny root and was spinning around, so he convinced Jacob to let him pull it. It must have been more than ready to come out because Jacob said it didn't even hurt when Dylan pulled it.  Here it is the beginning of June, and the new tooth hasn't come in yet.  His other front tooth has been loose since March with no signs of falling out any time soon.  I think he must be trying to set a record for the longest time to lose teeth.

Now the biggest project that has been going on around here is our backyard makeover.  I wish I could say that it is some fancy project, but no.  We just needed to grow some grass.  It is a much bigger project than it sounds, though.  Allow me to show you the before pictures:

Look at the beautiful... red clay!

I mean, who doesn't want so much erosion to occur that you start to have a yard full of rocks?  Wait... what do you mean rocks don't make a good playground for children?

Everyone likes a nice river running through their backyard, right?

OK, enough with the boring pictures of our formerly lame backyard.  Tomorrow, I will post the during and after pics.  I know, I know - you're on the edge of your seat.

Good grief!  Really?  Has it really been three months since I last posted something?  I have no good excuses, sorry!  It's been a little busy around here, but nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that should have kept me from posting for this long.  Daniel is still enjoying preschool and only has three days left.  This year is just flying by!  We have applied to the pre-K program through the county and are on a waiting list for a five day a week preschool.  We should hopefully know something by the beginning of July, but either way, he's got at least one more year of preschool left before he heads off to Kindergarten.  Jacob has only seventeen days left of school and is enjoying his third season of playing baseball.  Dylan is helping out by coaching and I think the two of them are really having fun doing it together.  As much as I sometimes need my time alone during the day, I am truly looking forward to the summer break with both of the boys home.  No schedules, no lunches to pack, no homework - woo-hoo!  And of course, we always have our week at the beach to look forward to!

I am done with school for the semester and couldn't be happier.  It was a long semester filled with lots of studying.  I actually really enjoyed the class and it's a good thing, because I have to take part two of it in the fall!  ;)  Only four more years to go - I know that sounds like a lot, but since I'm only taking one class at a time until Daniel is in Kindergarten, this year and next year really don't count.  And if the next four years fly by as fast as the last ones have, it will be here in no time.  Just think, after I graduate, Jacob will turn 11 and Daniel will turn 8.  Wow.  I think I just sprouted a few more gray hairs.

I Have Potential Snowfall Envy

They are calling for our third big snowfall in the past six weeks and all I can think is how I wish we would get more.  We are supposed to get 6-10 inches here, but my sister up in Northern VA is supposed to get anywhere from 16 to 24 inches!  It's time like these that I wish we had a 4WD.  I would definitely be on my way up there to get snowed in with them.  Oh, well.  I can't really complain about the snow here because I am grateful that we have seen this much snow in the past year.  This will be our 4th big snowfall in less than a year.  The boys have defnitely made good use of the sleds we bought last year.

The only downside I have about all the snow right now is how long the boys have been out of school.  Jacob has been out all week and since the snow is coming tomorrow, I would bet $100 that they will go ahead and cancel it, too.  By the time this next snowfall is all cleared out, it may be almost two full weeks that he's been home.  Now, I love having snow days as a grown-up just as much as I enjoyed them as a kid, but it would have been nice for the two weeks off to be spread out a little further apart. 

And you would think with us being stuck at home all week that I would be caught up on my cleaning?  Um, no.  And I don't really have a good reason for that, either.  Maybe I will get my tail in gear for week number two at home.  Or maybe I'll just keep myself busy pouring many cups of hot chocolate.  :)

New Year, New Post

Yes, it's true.  I'm finally updating our blog.  I know, it's been too long!

Where to start???  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Georgia with all of our family.  My sister and I were awake for a straight 36 hours for Thanksgiving day and Black Friday.  Here's a picture of us at Wal-Mart at 3:07 am.  We had just been given our lucky ticket ensuring us of the item we were waiting in line for.  Oh, the things we do for our families!

And of course, my favorite part of Thanksgiving (other than the Black Friday shopping with my sister & Mom!) was getting to see my Grandfather.  As I tell Jacob, Grandpa is one of my most favorite people in the world.

Then, there was Christmas!  My most favorite time of the year!  Even with Dylan not feeling well, he still got the house all decked out.  It looked beautiful!

We actually spent Christmas back home this year.  It was wonderful!  We stayed at my parents' house and I think they really enjoyed having the boys there for Christmas morning.  Both the boys were really excited to open all of their presents and I think they truly enjoyed each and every thing they opened.  It was funny to watch Daniel open his presents.  He would start off slow and then when he would get a peek at what was inside, he would start tearing it open and get really excited.  We got to go over to see Dylan's Nana, Mom & Donald on Christmas Day, too.  Then, my sister and her family came into town the day after Christmas.  Here's a picture of all the grandkids together:

On to New Years!  We had another exciting New Years Eve right here at home!  The boys woke up just in time to see the ball drop and make some noise.  When we first brought Daniel down and sat him on the couch, he stayed asleep while he was sitting up.  It took him a little while to wake up and get into it.  Within five minutes after midnight, he was heading back upstairs to bed.  Jacob wanted to stay up the rest of the night, but finally settled back in to bed once I went to asleep and showed him that yes, the party is really over.  :)

Here are the boys with their noisemakers:

And that brings us up to 2010.  The only thing new that has happened so far is that Daniel is now in preschool.  He only goes 3 days a week and he just started last week.  He has really been enjoying it.  We're hoping to get him into a pre-K program for next year, but we'll see.  Here are a few pics of him on his first day of preschool.  He looks so grown up, I can hardly stand it!

Such a big boy!

Giving me his "big smile".

And, finally, showing off his new Batman backpack.

Well, I think that gets us all caught up.  Right now, we are enjoying a snow day here at home.  And I better enjoy it while it lasts - looks like everything is melting out there and the kids will be headed back tomorrow!

Trick or Treat!

Jacob had a hard time trying to decide what to be for Halloween this year.  We have a couple of hand-me-down costumes and some other dress up items on hand, so he had a few to choose from.  He finally settled on Darth Vader, which was perfect because we were then able to dress up Daniel as Yoda.  And it was really cute because Daniel actually knows who Yoda is!  He's seen the movies enough times and watches Jacob play the games on his XBox, so he even knew how to use his stick to walk like Yoda does.  Dylan surprised the boys and dressed up as an old man.

I was amazed by the amount of trick-or-treaters we had.  We live on a street with about 25 houses and I thought that I had bought more than enough candy.  Well, what I was not expecting was the amount of people that drove to our neighborhood to go trick-or-treating.  We were out of candy by 7:15.  Now I know that I will definitely have to buy more candy for next year.

Now I will leave you with these pictures while I go raid my kids' huge hauls of candy.  :)

Think I am cute, you do.

Mommy, I am your son.  Now give me all your candy.

Had to get one to show who was under that scary mask!

Dylan signed up for his AARP membership shortly after this picture was taken.

The crew before heading out.

He wanted a picture taken with his pumpkin.

Getting ready to head out in the rain.

Seriously.  How did everyone manage to not give this cutie all of their candy?

So, we finally bought a new laptop for me (my old one died back in June) and I kind of love it.  But, really for just one reason.  Apparently, it has some sort of recovery feature on it and it was able to pull the defective pictures off of our memory card from last Christmas!  Yay!!!  And seeing as we have less than two months until my favorite holiday, I figured that I may as well go ahead and post these.

Jacob puts the finishing touches on our sugar cookies we made for Santa.

Watching Santa Tracker on the computer.  Jacob was really into the "magic" of Christmas this year.

The boys open their new ornaments for the tree that Daddy found for them last-minute.  Daniel got a Little Einsteins one and Jacob got Buzz Lightyear.

In their matching PJs that they got to open on Christmas Eve.  Getting ready to head off to bed!

And this picture wasn't one of the lost ones, but when I came across it, I just couldn't resist.

That's Jacob hamming it up in Dylan's glasses.  He's always trying to come up with new ways to be silly and this one just makes me smile every time I look at it.

It's been a few weeks, but I thought I would share some pictures of Daniel on his 3rd birthday. Wow. 3?!? I can't believe that he is really 3! Time has just flown by with him. He still seems like a baby to me at times and I have to remind myself that he can't possibly still be a baby since he is no longer in a crib or diapers. :)

Daniel with his Elmo cake.  He was so excited to be having a birthday!  And I was so excited because this was the first year that he actually was aware of the fact that he was even going to be having a birthday!  :)

His gift from Dylan and I - his very own big boy bike.  The tricycle just wasn't cutting it anymore and is going to be sold in my yard sale this weekend.

Make a wish!

Oh, and apparently when you turn 3, you instantly become a man because I came around the corner one evening to find this:

He is just too much for words!