The other thing the Smith fam has been spending time doing, is re-doing the backyard. Unfortunately, we are terrible at taking before and after pictures. So here's the best that I've got.

See, we have this rock all the way around our backyard. I guess its good so that you don't have to weed-eat right up against the fence or something... but we're not fans of all of this rock. It makes our already tiny backyard have even less useable space. And, the neverending battle of trying to keep grass and weeds out of the rock... argh! So, we decided to move it all. All of the parts that do have rock, were running low on rock. The plan is to move all of the rock from around the backyard to the side of the house- then grow grass where the rock used to be. We'll see. Here is all of the ugly rock and grass in the rocks. Here is our first new addition! This corner is right outside the kitchen sink window and was all jacked up from the roots of the trees from the house behind us. So we decided to just go with what was already happening, and turn it into a cute little flower bed. The dirt part on the right is totally done and ready for grass! The left, not so much.






This is where we are putting all of the rock. This area was sooooo overgrown with weeds, grass, and weird plants. We wanted to simplify this area and make it almost completely no maintenence. We took out all of the plants- moved some of them and just got rid of some of them. Took out planters, re-weed barriered it, and have been putting all of the rock there. Ahhh, much better. There may be a skinny little shed over here at some point- which would make winter garage parking soooo much easier! Only one more strip to go!!







And here's a video of Oliver... just because. He's got such a good giggle! Avery's at gymnastics camp this week- just for fun and to get her ready for all day school! Camp goes from 9-5! She's never done anything that long before! Wonder how grumpy she'll be tonight??!!



"HA, HA!!!" funny boy.

Oh Oliver. The other day I told Jeff that if we could just make a tv channel of Oliver playing, there would be a lot less depression in the world. He's just sooo stinkin' funny! This post is going to be overly gushing about the 2-year-old... I've given you fair warning.

So these pics are pretty terrible- they're all blurry and dark. But, again... the cuteness- it shines through the bluriness!!

So, Oliver really wanted to help make dinner. He was the best little asparagus cutter ever! He kept saying with every fiber of his little body, "I'm sooo good. I'm really good at cutting. Then they go in the line. I'm sooooooooo goood!!!" The passion with which he praises himself is impressive!Then, there's the game Memory. Soooooo joyful!!! He just loves it, never gets tired of it, and is sooo happy when he gets a match!!!!! These are just some bonus shots for those of you not on facebook. I had recently posted about hitting the 50 lb mark of weight loss!!! Everyone wanted to see pics, so here is Jeff (at 40 lbs lost) and I on our 10th anniversary!!!