Happy Birthday Brandon!

Happy Birthday to the best husband and daddy we could ask for! We're bummed that we aren't with you - but in the words of Brody (said himself this afternoon...): "Daddy's off working and making money so we can have a practice birthday party" We may be celebrating all week until you get back on Friday! Lots of love!

Dirt Update

I wasn't crazy...it was ALOT of dirt! I called the guy up and verified that it was in fact only one yard of dirt. Turns out he brought 5 yards of dirt. He wanted me to text him what I wanted and so I did (.5 yds of soil and .5 yds of compost - mixed into 1 yd) The convenience of modern technology made him lazy and he didn't READ what I wrote. He just saw the 5 and scooped it up. I told him his mistake and he felt really bad. At the same time I was feeling bad because I couldn't pay for 5 yards of dirt. He said I could have all the dirt for FREE! All I had to do was get rid of it myself and let people know that they can buy their mulch from him. Sweet! Brandon built me one more raised bed to be planted in March, we filled in all our flower beds and a sandbox with extra dirt for the garden (thanks for the tips everyone!) and gave the rest to some friends to use in their gardens. AND...to fulfill my end of the bargain with our dirt guy --- shameless plug for Rodman Natural Resources on FM 2931. They have much lower prices on their materials as long as you have a pick up truck to get it home.

I couldn't believe our good fortune though! I felt like Heavenly Father was rewarding me for trying to follow the counsel to have a garden. Hopefully He won't mind if nothing makes it...at least I tried, right?

Got dirt?

Okay. My dirt delivery was postponed to today by my choice and I went out this morning to borrow a wheel barrow and came home to this...

Supposedly it is one cubic yard of dirt (just shy of what a computer calcultaed I would need for my two 4 by 8 planters) Brody and I got busy and huffed and puffed and hauled the dirt from the driveway to the back yard to fill the planters...a couple of hours later (we stopped for lunch) the planters were full and this is what was left on my driveway...

Hello??? Do you think we grossly overestimated the dirt?? I need to check with the dirt people and make sure there wasn't a mistake...but if there was no mistake anyone out there needing dirt should give me a call. Oh - its good dirt too (half soil half compost) There are a couple of funny things about this...first, when I calculated by myself how much dirt I thought we'd need I guessed 10 cubic yards - can you imagine, we'd be buried! and second, if this truly was only one cubic yard then it is the cheapest dirt ever. It was $30 for 1 cubic yard. The people delivered it for free because they could just drive the tractor across the street. At Lowes we guessed it would be over $150 for the same amount of dirt.

Needless to say, the car will be parked on the street tonight...Brandon will be building more planters...and I still think we'll have too much dirt. BUT, on the bright side...

In about 2 months we will have plenty of vegetables! The little plants look so happy to me. We planted strawberries, carrots, onions, broccoli, spinach, potatoes, red potatoes and cabbage. The first bed is full and the second is half full. So a third bed isn't a bad idea since there are a ton more things to plant when the weather warms up a little more.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Not much to blog about here lately...we've been playing in the yard when its been warm enough and starting to get outside a little more. Our "big" project right now has been our yard. Getting it ready for spring, but also getting the beginnings of our garden going and getting some fruit trees and some shade trees for the backyard. I am so excited! We had a RS gardening class out at a goat farm and now I am really motivated to grow our own produce. Brandon made me some raised beds on Friday and we are having the dirt delivered on Monday. I have some of my seeds and plants ready to go so I should be planting some time this week. More pictures of that to follow next week...but for now our Valentines Day celebration:

Dressed in red for the occasion...Raechal C. gave Ella this onesie at my shower last year and I was so glad it still fit! She has grown quite the little pot-belly!

Heart shaped pizza's for dinner & ice cream for dessert

Preview of our trees...we got a Live Oak, a gala apple tree and a bartlett pear tree.

Happy 6th Anniversary to Us!

It doesn't feel like it has been that long - but its already been six years! We went out yesterday to celebrate and enjoyed having the afternoon alone. Looking back we've decided that we really feel like we've come a long way in six years: moved three times, Brandon graduated college!, we bought two cars, had two kids, bought our first house, I worked full time in the carrer I chose for three years and another 2 years part time, we've been to Mexico, Hawaii, Utah, Seattle, Texas (first as visitors now as residents), and other fun weekend getaways, Brandon has been working in a job he enjoys for more than two years, we are getting closer to being out of "start up" debt (i.e. school and cars). It makes us happy to recognize how far we came from when we got married and had less than $1000 between us and neither of us had full time work. I know...what were we thinking! But, within weeks of getting married we had it all worked out and we wouldn't have changed a thing. Needless to say, we love married life and look forward to many more years to come.

Today also marks one year since we arrived in Texas! That went by fast! We were so excited to be done driving. We would stop every three hours or so to feed Ella (2 1/2 weeks old then) and it seemed to take FOREVER! We got to my parents house at 2 am on February 1st and fell into bed. We are definitly glad to be here now and settled in our house - we are still amazed at how quickly a year passed by.

Random Pictures...

Ella giving cousin Aiden kisses during their visitOther people might not appreciate how cute this is, but I took it close to midnight one night and you can see Brody asleep in one corner and he has tucked in Woody and Buzz with his favorite blankets in the other corner. He is the sweetest little boy! I am always finding Ella's dolls tucked in my bed.Ella's serious face...sporting pig tails for the first timeWe took this to match with one we have of Brody when he was one...see below...Ella is a lot more sturdy on her feet!
We LOVE the new hair bow Uncle David sent to us - the bigger the better! Thank you Uncle David!This is what we expected when we went to bed last night and woke up to this morning...ICE!...we had another ice storm much worse than the first one (I think) I love the little icicles on the swing setThe swing looks like it is blurry in the photo but it is covered in ice - the ropes were all iced up too. Having never experienced anything like this before it was interesting to see what everything looked like. We haven't been able to use the swing set since Brandon finished it because it has been too cold. Not the greatest timing huh?One of our A/C units outside covered in iceThis is a close up of the siding on our house - thousands of little icicles covered the side of the house facing north. My bathroom window had a sheet of ice over it...I wanted to touch it but was afraid it would break the whole window.The street completely iced over. I was able to leave the house today - yeah! first time since going to church on Sunday. The kids and I are in much better spirits after a little outing!

Saturdays Project

We are still a ways a way from the swing set of our dreams...but with an hour at Lowes, a few 4x4's, a couple of 1x6's, 5 really long big bolts, and some swing set hardware Daddy was able to turn two birthday presents into HOURS of fun! Once the kids out-grow the swings we are thinking we'll hang a porch swing from it for the yard. It turned out so nice! Thanks to Daddy for spending his weekend at home working on a project & to Grandpa & Grandma Mullin for the swings!