The Yard - Part 2

And now the part of the project you really wanted to see, Before and After photos.

The side of the house:

The back of the house:

The Front:

The Yard - Part 1

As I mentioned earlier, the yard project is finally complete.  I will split this post into two parts: first, the 3 month herculean effort taken to get it all done.  And then the dramatic before and after photos.

It all began with the yard.  Back before Brooke and I got married, in fact the summer I met Brooke, my dad and I started to put together a new sprinkler system for the house.  At the time, we were holding off on the finishing touches because the city was going to put in a pressurized irrigation line.  That turned out to take them another year, and we didn't get around to putting in the yard.  We'd mow it to keep the weeds down, but it didn't look that tidy.

 

In August we cut down the lilac bushes and tilled up the weeds.  Our awesome neighbor across the street was kind enough to help pull out the lilac stumps.  We also got bids from several tree-cutting companies and hired one to come help us cut down the pine trees in the yard.  Some of the trees were in the power lines, some were leaning over the house. And after picking up 10 5-gallon buckets of pine-cones a week just to mow weeds, I have come to the conclusion that pine trees do not belong in a residential environment - they belong in the mountains.

 

The next step was to finish the remnants of the sprinkler lines in preparation for the grass.  A special thanks to the Maddox and Harper families for giving up part of their Memorial Day weekend to help me dig the last trenches by hand, and to the Christensen and Day families for giving up their Memorial Day to help me put the remnants of the system together.

 

 And then as we were getting ready to put down topsoil and grass seed, our new home teachers visited us and one of them just happened to own a sod-farm (turf-farm for our international readers).  So instead of the long growing process and trying to defend our seed from our neighbors' chickens, we got the instant gratification of grass.  Last weekend I built the pathway at the back of the house.

So once again, a thanks goes out to Brooke's family, my family, our good neighbors the Christensens and the Rasmussens, my friends Jeff, Matt, Royce and Frank, and our awesome home teacher for putting in a ridiculous amount of man hours, discounts on grass, and use of equipment to make this project a success.

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Como dije antes, el proyecto del jardín se ha cumplido.  Dividiré este cuento en dos partes: primeramente, los 3 meses de esfuerzo herculino para terminarlo y segundo, las fotos dramáticas de antes y después.

Todo empezó con el jardín.  Antes que me casé con Brooke, de hecho en el verano antes que conocí a Brooke, mi padre y yo empezamos a instalar una sistema de rociadores por la casa.  Ese verano, no terminamos al sistema porque el municipio iba a instalar una sistema de "aguas grises".  Ellos tardaron otro año en cumplir su sistema y nosotros no cumplimos el jardín.  Corté las malas hierbas de vez en cuando pero no se vio muy bien.

En augusto, cortamos los arbustos lilas y destruimos las plantas.  Nuestro vecino muy lindo fue muy amable y nos ayudo sacar los raíces con su machina.  Empleamos unos hombres a ayudarnos cortar los arboles pinos.  Después de años de recoger piñas, he llegado a la conclusión que pinos no tienen lugar en el jardín residencial - deben estar en las montañas.

El próximo paso fue terminar los últimos partes de la sistema de rociadores.  Tengo que agradecer a las familias Maddox y Harper por sacrificar sus vacaciones del Día de Memoria para excavar trincheras a mano, y a las familias Christensen y Day por ayudarme juntar las ultimas partes.

Y cuando estábamos a punto de poner la tierra fina y semillas de pasto, nuestros nuevos maestros visitantes llegaron y uno de ellos tiene campos de pasto.  Así que en lugar de crecer nuestras semillas (y tener que defenderlas de los pollos de mi vecino), tuvimos la satisfacción de instalar un jardín instante. Y la semana pasada instalé el camino atrás de la casa.

Entonces, otra vez, quiero agradecer a la familia de Brooke, mi familia, nuestros vecinos los Chrsitensens y los Rasmussens, mis amigos Jeff, Matt, Royce y Frank, y nuestros maestros visitantes diligentes por poner una cantidad increíble de horas, descuentas con el pasto y el uso de sus machinas para hacer nuestro proyecto uno exitoso.

September

We've finished the yard, and I hope to get a good sunny day to take 'after' photos.  Now there's just some small items to finish up for the winter.

September was a good month:
- My grandma (Lizzie's great-grandma) came out to visit from Ireland.
- Lizzie's cousin had his second birthday complete with more sugar than we should probably have given her and more toys than he could hope to play with at once (and she was more than happy to help out).
- Lizzie got really sick last week, we felt really bad for her.  The photos show how she really wanted to be part of the yard-finishing excitement, but she wouldn't put down the blankets.
- And finally some cuddle time with mom.

Cumplimos el proyecto del jardín y estoy esperando un día de sol para sacar las fotos de 'después.'  Solo me faltan algunas cosas poquitas para terminar por el invierno.

Septiembre fue un buen mes:
- Mi abuela (vis-abuela de Lizzie) vino a visitar desde Irlanda.
- El primo de Lizzie cumplió dos anos y su fiesta tuvo demasiado azúcar.  También su primo recibió mas juguetes que podría usar a la vez y a Lizzie le gusto ayudar.
- Lizzie se inferno en la semana pasada y sentimos muy mal por ella.  Las fotos demuestran como quiso ayudar en el jardín pero no quiso salir de sus cobijas.
- Y por fin, tiempo con su mama.

Lizzie Video

We have been working this month on improving our yard and I will have photos of it in a few weeks when we've got all the stages of the construction complete.  In the meantime, I think you'll enjoy this collection of videos of Lizzie, who is growing up really fast.

Hemos estado reparando el pasto afuera de nuestra casa este mes y tendré fotos en algunos semanas cuando terminamos el proyecto.  Por lo mientras, creo que disfrutarán este colección de  videos de Lizzie, ¡quien está creciendo bien rápido!

Catching Up

I'm sorry to all those of you who have followed our blog with far more devotion than we have. With each passing week, and then month, and then season, I've been meaning to do some posts to catch everyone up. Now that's rather impossible to write all that's happened, so I will instead take my sister's advice and just give you explanation-less photos to catch you up. Then we'll keep you up to date as time goes on from here.

Perdónenme todos los que hayan seguido nuestro blog con mas devoción que nosotros.  Con cada semana que pasa, y después cada mes, y cada temporada, he tenido la intención de hacer algunos mensajes cara cubrir todo lo que pasó.  Ahora sería imposible escribir todo lo que ha pasado, entonces tomaré el consejo de mi hermana y darles muchos fotos sin explanación.  Trataré hacer mejor desde aquí y adelante.

Not your typical corn beef and cabbage

So for St. Patrick's day I wanted to do something special. I'm not really into dying food green. I like my food to be its natural color (for the most part). But having married into an Irish family I didn't want to just ignore the day either. I think I'd be lynched if I tried. Corn beef and cabbage was out because it isn't actually an Irish meal. Immigrant who came to the US ate it because it's all they could afford. So after having thought about it a little bit I decided to make a meal that I know Zac would LOVE. I pulled out our fryer and made this.
Zac loves wings and loves IBC. So I decided to put the two together. It was a great night. We had a lot of fun.

Road trip to Idaho

We went to Idaho for my cousin Meegan's mission farewell. She is going to South Korea. We had a lot of fun and Lizzie got to meet her Great Grandma and Grandpa Miller for the very first time. Not to mention all of the aunts and uncles too! We had fun and Lizzie had a blast. But she was so tired after the weekend. It's hard to be entertain so many people.

This is right when we got on the freeway heading home.

An this is not even 5 miles later.

It really is so hard to be adorable.

Pictures by Tat

Tatiana is taking a photography class and is amazing at it. She asked if she could take pictures of Lizzie. She didn't have to ask twice. She did an amazing job. Here are some of the ones she took.