Our Backyard - My Little Haven on Earth!!!

Our back porch - one of my favorite places in the world to be!!!

With two little boys in our family, we get the opportunity to spend a LOT of time outside! (I think it's just in the male DNA to want to be in the outdoors!) Lucky for me, I get to spend a great deal of my "outdoor time" in our backyard - which has become a true haven for us and our kids! I've been in fancier back yards, or those with pools and perfectly manicured landscaping, but our back yard is HOME for our family! And our boys play out there for hours on end!!! . . . and I get the privilege of watching them and playing with them - in the sandbox, in the garden, on the swingset, lunching on the back porch, watching and feeding the birds, or racing through the sprinklers! How lucky am I?!?!?

. . . just another day in the life . . .

As The Garden Grows . . .

Well - 5 weeks in, and my 36 Square Foot Kitchen Garden is coming right along! We cut some tree limbs off that were shading the garden area and the extra sun seems to be really helping things along!

The zuchinni on the back row and my various herbs are really doing well!

Ryan says, "Look Mommy - a baby pepper on our jalepeno plant!"

Jack holding our first "respectable" sized pepper!

The boys LOVE to go out to the garden EVERY day to check the progress!

FINALLY . . . it is starting to actually LOOK like a real garden!!!

One of the boys' favorite tasks is to go out and cut the appropriate herbs for whatever we're cooking for dinner at night! They just LOVE that they get to eat food that we grew ourselves!!!

Overall . . . the Garden was a WONDERFUL idea - and worth all the work!!!

. . . just another day in the life . . .

Let The Swimming Lessons Begin!

For the past two Summers, we have taken Jack to a WONDERFUL Swimming Coach - and this year, little brother, Ryan, gets to join in the Summer Fun!!!! Both boys have had a WONDERFUL time swimming - and after their first week, they are making awesome progress!!

The boys with their cool new swim goggles!

Ryan learning the hand and arm position to "streamline"

Ryan learning to do a "dead bug" float on his back

Ryan loves his teachers!

Ryan learning to kick!

Look at all that splashing!

Ryan learning arm movements

Ryan taking time out of the pool to spend time with the Coach's doggie!

He's really working on his arm positioning!

Now it's Jack's turn, and he is the life of the swimming lesson - always has something to say!

Jack jumping in the water on his own!

Jack doing a great job on his "dead bug" float!

Jack is having SO MUCH FUN this year in his lessons - he's come a LONG way!

Jack doing his "streamline" - - - PERFECTLY!

Hooray!!!! Good job, Jack!!!

Working on arm stroke positioning

Jack pays such close attention to his instructors!

Jack swimming out on his own from the stairs to his coaches!

Jack got a little scared because he swam a long way by himself! Poor little guy!

Getting ready to jump into the deep end of the pool off of the diving board!

Great jump - - right into the hula hoop circle! (It's hard to believe Jack will do this - since last year, he was scared to death to jump off the board!)

Jack swimming on his back after the jump into the deep end!

We are SOOO proud of our boys! It's so fun to watch them grow and thrive!

. . . just another day in the life . . .

Two Long Years, Several Thousand Dollars, Sore Mouth . . . A Perfect Smile: Priceless!!!

Does this girl have the most BEAUTIFUL smile - - - or WHAT?!?!? After two years of braces, our sweet daughter, Ashley, got her braces removed today - -- and she has even further evolved into a gorgeous young woman! I was so proud of how well she did everything the Orthodontist told her to do. She was "relgious" in wearing her rubberbands, etc. and everyone agreed: she got AMAZING results! Good girl!!!

Ash and her good friend, Addie, BOTH got their braces off on the SAME DAY (different doctors and totally not planned together!) This is them BEFORE their "removals"!

Ashley and all her girlfriends together - BEFORE the braces came off. All these girls celebrated tonight after the two last girls with braces finally got them removed!

In the car on the way to the Orthodontist

Outside in front of the Orthodontist's office

In the chair getting ready to "get down to business"

The braces are coming off!

Ashley did NOT enjoy have the impressions made for her retainers!

A PERFECT smile!!!

Great work, Dr. Schroeder and Staff!!!! THANKS!

. . . just another day in the life . . .

Could I Be a FARM GIRL????

Okay . . . my sweet husband just breaks out into deep, bent-over, belly shaking laughter at the mere THOUGHT of me being a FARM GIRL, but you know - as I am going through life, there is something more and more appealing about growing your own food and the whole simplicity of farm life! Now - before you all laugh, I KNOW I am truly a city girl by nature - - - I like to get my nails done,and nothing feels much better than a one-hour massage after a girls' lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, but my latest passion has become creating, building, and growing my own vegetable and herb garden. I've fallen in love with the concept of square foot gardening (google it sometime) - where you can get a great harvest from a surprisingly small space.

This is my garden - now about 3 weeks in - grown from seeds! I plotted it out using a really neat tools on Gardener's Supply Company's website (www.gardeners.com), then prepared my beds and now I have 36 square feet of tomatoes, peppers, onions, okra, green beans, squash, eggplant, carrots, and a variety of herbs!

We'll see how the harvest goes this Summer - - - should be interesting! I thought about adding a couple of chickens to the Blankenship Farm - but that idea was promptly put to rest by my again hysterically laughing husband (who actually DID grow up in the country - and KNOWS what chickens smell like!)

. . . just another day in the life . . .

Preschool Pool Party!!!! Wheee!!!

TODAY was a GREAT day and a little SAD day at the same time!!! We had the privilege of having Jack's End of the Year Preschool Party at a classmate's home - and the kids had an absolute blast! The sad part comes in as I think about the fact that all these precious little ones - many of whom have grown up together for the past 5+ years since they were babies - will all be separated and going to different elementary schools for Kindergarten in the Fall. With the joy of an amazing preschool comes the sadness when those preschool days end. But TODAY was SO MUCH FUN - we all LOVED every minute of it!!!

Jack LOVING hanging out on the noodle!

One of Jack's friends making an enthusiastic jump from the diving board!

This little girl is simply adorable!

Ryan loved drinking from the dolphin fountain by the pool!

Jack and two of his best buds hanging out in the water!

Is this the most adorable cake?!?!?!? Our whole lunch was DELICIOUS!!!

Baby Ryan just taking it all in!

Jack did love that noodle!

Ryan exploring the pool - complete with a life jacket AND float!!!

We will miss all our friends greatly next school year, but are so glad for our friendships!!!

. . . just another day in the life . . .