Outside before and after pictures

Some outside before and afters!  Now, in all fairness these pictures were not taken at the same time of year.  So the old pictures are far more 'dumpy' looking because it was rainy and barely spring.  But still.....huge difference!

Front of house - the horrible blue doors!  And the shabby/falling apart apart roof (definitely a needed improvement!)

After we painted them white, TWO of the neighbors came over and thanked us for getting rid of the blue. 

 

Back of the house:

Side of the house:

Deck:

Back with pool:

Burn pit/yard:

Updated Family Pictures

We had some updated pictures taken.  Our most recent family picture was right after Leah was born; which was only 6 months ago, but both kids look so much older now!

It was a rainy day, so we ran outside and snapped a few pictures and ran back in.  They turned out awesome considering the weather!!

Big girl at 6 months old already!!

Before/After - Guest Bedroom

There are two bedrooms downstairs.  Right now Brie and Leah (kind of...) share one (Leah sleeps in our room, but all her stuff is in the bedroom).  The second bedroom we have set up as a guest room; which we use a fair amount between Mike and Allyson and my parents. 

 BEFORE

AFTER

We put in new carpet, took down the jungle wallpaper boarder, new window treatments, and painted top to bottom!  This room as well needs a new window in the near future.

First Before/After - Girls bedroom

It is so fun for me to look back on the blog and see what all has changed in our lives; this really is like my online scrapbook.  I wish I could scrapbook much more than I do....but I'd have to either ship off my kids somewhere or hire a full time nanny!  No thanks, I'll just spend time making memories with my kiddos and throw pictures up on my blog :)

I decided to do a bunch of before and afters with our house!  Often times Alec and I get stuck looking at all the projects we still 'need' to do (they are wants, not needs) and forget to enjoy the projects we have completed!

In general this house was completely and utterly stuck in the '90s from top to bottom!  Nothing wrong with the 90s.....a lot of good things came from the 90s!  My mother-in-law and I were joking that this was a '90s museum, I should have charged a touring fee.....would have helped pay for some of the updates!  Many of the before and afters we still have things that need to be done, but we will get there over time!  And besides, if Alec doesn't have a project he would literally go insane.  I have completely resigned to the fact there will always be projects going on.

BEFORE

AFTER

New carpet, paint, new window treatments, and new decor!  Makes a huge difference!  We still need to replace the two windows in this room at some point, and soon, they are in pretty bad shape.  And as you can tell I didn't do anything in the bathroom....that will be a big project someday.  We don't hardly use that bathroom though, so not a lot of motivation to spend tons of money there!

Weekend in Holland

We did a fun weekend getaway in Holland!  It was SO.MUCH.FUN!  So so so good to get away from home and do something all together.  

We had a picnic lunch on the beach

Walked the pier 

Walked down to the general store and got an icecream cone!  And yes....I took her shirt off for her chocolate ice cream.  We were like the only ones there though, so it was ok :)

Brie of course loved having not one,  but TWO TVs in the hotel

 Spent some time at the pool (what is with Brie's face here?! haha)

 We spend a day in downtown Holland checking out the shops.  It worked out so perfect, both kids napped in the stroller while we went out for a nice lunch!

 It was such a nice little mini vacation!  We certainly are going to try and make it a yearly thing!

Garden

Year 2 of the garden madness is underway! 

Thankfully we kept fairly detailed notes from the previous year so knew exactly what we wanted to do (and not do!).  We made some changes:  some new varieties, eliminated some we did last year, rotated the crops, and planted on mounds this year. 

Alec said to me the other day, "I really like gardening"  I said back to him, "I really like that you like gardening!"  He definitely is the green thumb.  I am willing and able to help, but the brains behind it all is ALL him (no surprise there!).  

We started some seeds inside at the end of April.

 Tilling the garden so we can plant! I should also mention, this is a very old tiller that belonged to Alec's grandpa.  Alec completely rebuilt it and fixed it up.  At one point during the process every single part was disassembled and he cleaned it all up and had to put some new parts on.  It works great!

Mike and Allyson were in town for a weekend!  It worked out perfect that Mike could help us plant the garden, and Allyson helped watch the children!

Mole problems as always....Josie can't handle that they are tunneling on her turf.  We set traps and have caught a few this year already, they are so gross!
 

In go the beans!

The raised mounds are new this year.  We will see how we like it!

Brie didn't want to get her hands in the dirt at all or help with the seeds.  But she was willing to carry tomato cages and wear gardening gloves......  She knows to walk on the paths between the mounds too, and would yell at Josie when she wasn't walking in the right place. 

This picture was taken right after Alec knocked over the tray of transplants....right after he just got done scolding Brie for getting to close to them :)  Thankfully there wasn't many in there and most were ok.  

So if all goes well we should have:

• Corn
• Peas
• Green & yellow beans
• butternut squash
• muskmelon
• cherry tomatoes
• tomatoes
• basil
• cilantro
• parsley
• celery
• bell peppers
• cucumbers
• zucchini
• sunflowers
• rhubarb
• romaine lettuce