We got ROCKS!

We got ROCKS!  YEAH!!

Yes, who knew that having an abundance of rocks would make me so happy?

Typically, when you are doing yard work, rocks are your enemy.  They're in the soil, every time you try to dig you hit one, they are just a major nuisance.  So when I found myself daydreaming about 1 1/2 tons of rocks, it felt a little odd.

But the outcome is SO great.

We quickly realized that down in the George, "xero-scaping" (rocks/gravel landscaping) is not only easier to maintain, but quite practical with the desert heat and water being expensive.  So, we got to work on our first yard project.  I decided that with our new sandbox (if you remember mention of that) I wanted to have that section of our yard more usable.  It is the part of the yard that you walk out of the house and are looking directly at, so it was always an eyesore looking out my sliding door at this.   It needed to be fixed.

Let me take you on a trip down memory lane, to see what it used to be:

 So I got to work prepping the soil, digging up the weeds and trying to smooth it out a little.  In this picture you can see the part above the sandbox where I was done, and the part towards the bottom that I still needed to do.

We then went to the garden store/rock yard and chose the gravel to be delivered.  They delivered it in huge bags, and Addison got right to work throwing one rock on the dirt at a time.  She was excited to have her rocks too!

Here we are, getting going for real. 

(You'll notice at the top of the picture the hop scotch court - or whatever you'd call it - that I made out of pavers)

The girls got their buckets and shovels for the sandbox, and took a bucket full at a time to help.

 Do you love Addison's yard work apparel?

 Dave and Emily and their girls came over to help (I bribed them with ice cream cones) and we got it done really quick.  We are LOVING the finished product!

(The random set of six pavers on the right is where we want to plant a tree in the spring.  We just did that to save it's spot.)

The kids already spend much more time out there without all the weeds and prickers getting in their way.  We'll have to move around the yard section by section slowly, it's a big job.  But we're excited to get going on it!

Phone Pictures

Hooray - another random mess of pictures off my phone...your favorite!

I feel like blogging is a dying breed, and if it weren't for the fact that I am actually using this to document my own family for my own purposes, I'd totally ditch it and run like everyone else is doing.  But for those still checking in here every so often, congratulations...you get a gold star! (If you go buy yourself one that is)

Anyway...here are some random pictures of the last couple weeks!

Addison has been wanting her hair done in ways besides just curly lately.  But that's hard, because SHE CHOPPED HER HAIR OFF a while back, so her hair is still short.  But we've come up with a few things.  This is one of those different hair styles.

 Molly zones out if we put Elmo on the TV.

A few weeks ago we bought 4 goldfish.  I'm happy to report they are all STILL ALIVE!

(This was the day we got them, so they were still in their bags acclimating to the water)

I heard Addison giggling and went to find what the girls were up to.  This is what I found...so dang cute.  Molly is the biggest cuddle bug/lovey girl ever.

Addison likes to dress herself...sometimes I don't make her change.  This day she was wearing Molly's clothes though, so the outfit had to be changed after I took pictures.

The face she made when I told her she would have to change.

 Somehow, I always manage to go overboard with our Sunbeam teacher calling.  This week I was cutting out 12 sets of glasses...I lost track of how long it took.

Found this note on the counter from Brielle.  In case you were wondering, "fish food reeks"

Got out some of my Autumn decor...quickly realized I apparently have a thing for "autumn colors" because they blended in with my REGULAR decor.

We built a sandbox!  Here are pictures:

All the sand

Building the box

 Filling it with sand

Each bag was 50 pounds, so we'd plop it on a bike and the girls would roll it over to the sandbox.  Who needs a wheelbarrow?!

 The finished product has proven to be a GREAT addition to the backyard.

 Wendy's kids meals had Shrek stuff - including awesome masks.

 Really caught me off guard when I turned around in the car driving home from a trip up north and saw this:

Molly didn't get a mask, but she was still cute.

We tried some new hair products on Addison one day, I loved how her curls looked.

 Molly found a clown hat we got at the circus (separate post to come) 

Molly likes shoes...especially her sister's boots.

 Molly was scrubbing Addison's hair for her.

And there you have it!  Maybe some day I will go back to my old way of blogging and actually taking pictures with the camera...but for now, this will have to do.