Backyard Makeover Miller Edition

The girls playing in the dirt in their undies

Having too much fun

All of their mud pies

The before picture, for 7 years

The first few rows of sod

Mattie helping

Chesnie helping

The after picture, beautiful and park like

It was a long week with a lot of disasters but I can say our backyard is beautiful. I haven't ever been able to say that. I love, love our pool but other than that our yard had much to be desired. I have been wanting grass for 7 years now as the girls only have concrete to play on. Thanks to both of our parents who gave us the gift of sod for our anniversary the girls have grass! (Thanks Mom and Dad and Ron and Carol!) They have already planned their next picnic, they want to have their birthdays out there and Matthew wants to camp overnight with the girls. I can't stop looking out my windows, I even turn the outside lights on at night so I can just get one more look.

Matthew has been hard at work for the last couple of weeks. I lent a hand here and there but he did most of the work. All of our spare time has been spent getting things ready. We live up on a hill which is great for the views and we have some awesome views, but bad when you have to bring things in the backyard which is below our house. We have about 10 very steep steps that we have to get down. We had to haul dirt and the sod down these steps. Both of us almost went tumbling over numerous times. The dirt was so heavy I could only get three shovels full into the wheelbarrow. I then decided to try using our trash can with wheels and a lid. I could get 10 shovels full and at least it wouldn't spill if it tipped. I have very sore muscles, blisters and callouses. There was lots of shoveling and raking and pounding out dirt clods. It is a long story but we were given the wrong dirt for topsoil. We had done all this work and the sod was coming the next day. It was only Matthew and I and we didn't know what we were going to do. We were able to get some mulch and haul it down the stairs and after packing down the wrong dirt, rototiller it all up again to add the mulch. On Friday night Matthew was out till 9:30 trying to fix the nightmare we had on our hands.

Saturday God showed us favor! Matthew's boss came and helped us. We weren't sure Matthew's truck could handle the weight of the sod. We had carried all the dirt in it and it really weighed it down and we had just spent over $400 on new tires two weeks prior. His boss has a bigger truck so he said that he would go pick it up for us. Matthew and his boss did most of the work while I entertained the girls who were tired of being ignored the whole week. The sod was laid by 1pm and it looks beautiful! Matthew and I patched up the ends, added some mulch around the back and some rocks and we have ourselves a new backyard. It looks amazing!

Crazy Hair

I put two ponytails in Chesnie's hair yesterday. She hasn't wanted me to take them out so this is what they look like after a full day, a nap, bedtime, morning and another nap. When she woke up from her nap today she said, "Mom, I have crazy hair. How did it get so crazy?" She also has a little dirt on her face from playing outside and some stickiness from her fruit roll snack. Matthew said she is starting to look a little "crunchy granola". I called her my little rag-a-muffin which is what my mother used to call me.

Rainy Saturday

It has been a rainy Saturday so we decided to garden inside. We are ready to start the process of a veggie garden. Matthew and the girls brought a bucket of dirt inside and planted seeds in little cups. Eggplant, pear tomato, sweet sugar peas, crookneck, lope and watermelon for starters. A little dirt, a little mess, no problem.

Anniversary

Matthew and I were able to go away for a much needed two night break. My parents came up and stayed with the girls. Of course the girls could care less that we were leaving when they get to be with Gma and Papa. They went to the library, did a craft and came home with a bag full of books. They went to the gym and got to play. They got to go to the store and pick out whatever they wanted. This included applesauce, yogurt and blueberry bagels. They also got mounds of books read to them and an uncountable number of games played. Mom and dad should go away all the time.

Matthew and I headed up north to McCloud. We stayed at the McCloud Mercantile Inn. We got blessed and were able to stay in their very best room. The bathroom was all river rock with a large jacuzzi tub. The bed was a huge log bed. We had breakfast at the diner next store with a very friendly waitress named Aubrey. On Saturday we had a date with a snowmobile. We had such a blast. Matthew loved being able to drive and I loved being able to see the beauty of God's creation. The white snow, the beautiful tall trees with no one else around. It was a lot of fun. Then we headed to Weed to eat at our favorite place, The Pizza Factory. Then we headed back to the inn for some rest and relaxation. For dinner we went to Mt. Shasta and ate at our favorite little place, Lily's. We enjoyed some exceptional wild cherry chocolate cheesecake for dessert. It is just a quaint little house turned resturant. It is cozy and quiet and never busy so you are never rushed. The next morning was just a lazy morning with no rush to leave. We enjoyed another great breakfast at the diner and then read some back in our room. We packed to leave as the snow began to fall.

All in all it was a great time to be able to relax and be together. We don't get many oportunities to be just the two of us and we needed the break. We are so thankful to my parents for coming and watching the girls, it allows us to be able to relax and not have to worry about them.

I recommend this for all married couples, take the time for one another. Matthew and I make it a priority every year to get away. Most of the time we can't really afford it financially but our marriage can't afford not to in an even bigger way so we do it!

Back in Time

Matthew's truck has not been working so a friend of ours took it to get it looked at. He left his car so that Matthew could have wouldn't be without. It is not at all a Matthew car, really all that I can see him in is a truck. I thought it was hilarious that he was going to have to drive it. So we staged some pictures so that all could get a good laugh out of them. I think they are hilarious, how about you?

Sunny weather and imaginations

We had some sunny weather here in Redding last weekend and the girls wanted to get outdoors. I am proud to say that I have two young girls who have some great imaginations. They love to be outdoors and can play outside for hours. They decided to bring their babies out and put them all over the front yard to take naps. They also laid down so that they could watch the shooting starts (didn't matter that it was broad daylight). It was cute and quite funny so I had to take a few pictures.