A Productive Weekend!

What a way to start the week...3 SMILING BABIES! I think they are all thinking...AHHH...Daddy is gone! Thank Goodness! LOL! Just kidding!After living here since Oct 06', we've finally gotten around to working on the front yard. We actually finished up one side of the yard right when we moved in...but the other side had looked really bad. I guess we could have had it done a while back...and just hired someone to do it as we did at our first house...but with 3 kids and a budget...it's WAY cheaper to do it ourselves. At our old house we actually hired a landscape architect to draw out the front yard...pick what plants would grow good where...and she did the whole drawing and pics of the flowers etc. I think it cost us 200 or 300 to do just that....then she wanted to do the whole front yard for around 1500.00! HOLY smokes. And even though we didn't have kids at the time...and felt like we were rich and i was still working...we took the ladies work and hired some guys that needed work and got it all done with the help of a few guys. But we also put in a lot of our own time and work into the old house...because when we got started we found out that there was a cement curb like boarder around the whole house! HOLY SMOKES! Thank goodness Paul had a dumpster at work so we hauled it off slowly(worried the dumpster guys wouldn't pick it up because it'd be too heavy and full of cement). Anyway, the reason for the whole story is because now that we have 3 kids and we're cheap...we're doing the whole front yard by ourselves...and doing a great job of it thanks to the lady that taught us a lot about planting and keeping it simple and green with a litte color in front. SO, that is what we are doing.
This is actually the front that we already did back in 06'. Very simple and nice...the lady that lived here before had bushes that literally covered the entire beautiful windows in front...that large window you see...was completely covered...it was very over grown.
We did the same thing over to the right side...and since there is not any monkey grass, we decided to add color there. You can't see it...but it looks nice as long as we can keep it and the girls don't yank out the pretty flowers as i've already re-planted for the second time because the first palet of color Paul bought was ugly and there wasn't actually any color to it...so we bought another palet with pretty color.




This is the side we are working on now...oh how exhausting it was to tear up this side of the front. There were tons of big bushes again...we cut all those down back in 06' but kinda left it after that. So, when we started on Sat morning there were weeds and vines all over this part. Lots and lots of roots too because to the right of the pic is a GIGANTIC tree that is probably 60 yrs old and HUGE! We rented a tiller to tear it all up...it was fun and i felt like a pro until quitting time...my arms hurt SOO bad i couldn't pick them up or they'd start shaking. I think i worked muscles i never knew i had. :( I still feel like i can hardly pick up the girls...my arms still hurt! I guess that's what i get for wanting to tear up the front and help paul...i think it may have been a mans job to use the tiller. AND boy, did we tear it up. Every littler sharp edge was bent on the tilling thing! YIKES!
Here's a closer look. We're keeping the moneky grass around the outside and then making a complete circle...the rest of the circle will be bricks of some sort. Then we'll always have color on this side.
The middle is lowered and we're going to put those big bricks down and make a "make shift" patio with a bench and a "kiddie" bench and tie them down with something so no one steals them...yeah seriously that is what happens when you live in the city. At our old house down the street...we left the bench in the front after we moved while the house was for sale...someone totally pulled it up and stole it. It had to weight 100lbs...it was soo heavy...so we're going to tie this one down somehow. Nice, living in the city...where crazy people drive around and steal stuff out of your FRONT YARD!
On this side...this is where the big gigantic tree is...you can see the bottom. It is raised b/c of all the roots...so we'll make another circle and just mulch around the tree and make a retaining wall out of bricks to keep the mulch inside.
On another note, here are some pics from the weekend...the girls wearing their shirts b/c it was actually chilly outside Sat. morning...They say "Yes, we're twins, Yes, we're identical" I LOVE these shirts...everytime they wear them...no one asks...they just stare! Carrie, you need two of these in BLUE...they have them on just4twins.com!
Just another shot of the shirts! They are soo cute!
This was a pic from this morning! The girls ALWAYS get up at 5:30a...i run and get the living room ready..get their pre-made bottles out of the fridge and burp towels(that they HAVE to hold while their drinking their milk) and carry one baby out while paul gets the other one. Then i put the one i'm holding on his lap and go shower. It takes me about 15 minutes to get totally ready...i come out and we switch. When i walked out this morning...this is what i found. You'd think they'd just sleep a little more if they are THAT tired!
Close up of Sarah! Sound asleep!
I mean seriously...they are always exhausted...why don't they just sleep in...instead of getting up in the morning for their bottles???

As for the rest of our weekend...we went to home depot and to the grocery store. Saturday after we worked all morning..we had a picnic outside of Jack n the box...YUMMY! I thought i deserved a REAL hamburger(haven't had one in about 4 or 5 months)...it was DELICIOUS! I even had a real coke(kiddie size). OH MY...it was awesome! The girls ate some of their grilled cheese...but fed most to gracye and sugar who sat right beside us begging for food since we were out on a blanket in the backyard. Our neighbors must think we're a little goofy...we have lots of picnics out in the backyard on blankets...and normally it's a big mess..BUT hey, it's outside...so who cares? The girls had a blast...and Paul did to. I'm not all about picnics because i'm all about being organized and how organized can you be with 3 kidos sitting on the ground trying to eat a little food? Milk all over the place...Hannah kept spilling her drink...the dogs begging for food...a bug here and there.....BUT Paul LOVES eating outside and i guess we better enjoy it now while it's still nice outside. We also saw a van catch on fire on the way to the grocery store. The guy obviously let the old van over heat and we caught it at the very beginning...so being the nosey people we are...we pulled into a parking lot and watched from way back. Obviously the fire trucks here aren't very fast b/c we sat there for a good 10 minutes before they got there...the van was torched and gone by then. I hate to be rude...but it was kinda cool watching it go up in flames...i'm not a fire freak but it was like watching a movie of a car burning up close and personal. It burned pretty slowly...and we sat and watched the whole thing....cops came flying up, people were everywhere and the fire got bigger and bigger. We were waiting for a big BOOM from the gas tank...it never happened. He probably didn't have much gas in the gas tank or something...we did hear as the tires POPPED...one at a time...the plastic was just dripping like gas. Thankfully no one got hurt...it looked like as we pulled up the one guy driving the car was trying to put the fire out with a towel...waving and waving at it...but it kept getting bigger and bigger...and he gave up. It was a very old car so i'm guessing he only had liability insurance and when we drove by on the way back from the grocery store he just pretty much abandoned it in the parking lot of the car place...it had scorched the nice bushes and there was burnt stuff all over the place. I wonder what the business does now? Do they get the vin and try to sue the guy if they have to pay to remove the burnt junk off of their property? I'm assuming if the guy was going to have it towed...he would have waited for a tow truck...but there was no one there...so i'm assuming he just left since he probably didn't want to pay for a burnt up piece of junk to get towed.

That was our weekend in a nutshell. Next weekend is going to be BUSY! We have my parents coming over Sat morning so we can go sign our WILLS. One of our MOMS in my group is a Will attorney and gives all MOMS in our group a deal. We've been planning to do this for a while but just haven't gotten around to it. Now that we are going on a trip in a month...we HAVE to have it done. Plus the one before was when Hannah was a month old...so it was done before the girls were born. We changed things up a bit...and added a few extra clauses...like when we die, when the children should get the money etc. I decided that i would never want my 18 year old walking around with any kind of money b/c if they are anything like i WAS...the money would be gone before it hit the bank. :) YIKES! OH, so we also have the MARCH FOR BABIES Walk this upcoming Sunday! I'm really excited about that...except for the fact that i haven't raised much money...so i have less that one week to raise as much money as i can...last year i think i raised 200 or 300 dollars..i've got 20 so far...so i have a lot of work to do this week! :)

Think that's all for now...have a good week!
Brenda