A bit of a facelift

This past weekend we tackled our first big 'home improvement' project by putting in our own landscaping. You could call this "Phase I" of possibly III of IV, but it was a good start for us. And we didn't do it on our own--thank goodness!! My parents, aka the 'green thumbs' came up to help us out. They actually enjoy 'digging in the dirt', as they call it, so we readily accepted their offer to help both with manpower and also help in the design and selecting of shrubs/trees/etc.

Before...

The project begins.....

....the kids LOVED helping

(maybe they'll take after my parents and really love this stuff!!)

The plan was to pull up all the sod around the house where we were going to landscape either this fall or next spring, put the edging in all around the house, and plant shrubs/trees in the front and sides of the house and lay mulch all around the perimeter.

And what home improvement project would be complete without this? yes, we took the advice of my brother-in-law and rented a bed-edger to make laying the edging easier and thought we had everything marked out, but ended up breaking the main water pipe to our sprinkler system. The edger was immediately put away, my dad ran to Home Depot and spent the next hour or so splicing the pipe and making the repairs, and we ended up hand-digging the rest!

...starting to look good...

Wyatt loved actually helping with each task, while Sadie just loved playing in the dirt!

...the mulch pile was quite fun as well, until it started to get smaller and smaller...

I'm sure it sounds odd, but I love this picture. Getting to see my husband work on our OWN yard and our kids just enjoying playing in their own yard and helping out--something we've never experienced before and we are all still in a bit of awe that this is all ours. We are truly blessed beyond what we ever dreamed of.

And the after picture.......

...soon to come! We were so thankful for such great weather from the moment we started the project on saturday morning right up until a few hours after we finished on sunday. And it hasn't stopped raining since then--which is great for our plants! But ever since my parents left, it has been about 55 degrees, rainy, and windy! We are so thankful we got it all done when we did! And I will post an after picture just as soon as I can get outside and take one!

Thanks again Mom and Dad--we NEVER would have gotten all that done without them. They are such work horses--they never stop to rest and at times they can tire us out!! I certainly hope I'm like that at 55 years old!