I'm finished!!!

I have finally finished the landscaping that I started earlier this spring. I love how it came out. I am all about low maintenance and this is. This is what I started with.
The plants had not quite started to bloom when I started and they are full now so that changes the look as well. I had to pull up a lot of old mulch, weeds and old landscaping paper. What a mess. I am glad I did this.
The girls have been a great help. The first day is when they learned about worms. Kylie helped me roll out the new landscaping paper and put the steaks in as well. She is a good helper. Alyssia loves dirt so that was her area.
Here is how it turned out. I used Red Lava Pebbles instead of mulch. I don't have to add more every year so I like that. The rock really is about the same price as mulch as well.
This picture I have rotated and for some reason it keeps going back to this direction so, sorry. I really am happy about how this turned out. I like the simple look this has. LOVE IT!

I was up EARLY this morning. My girls are still sick but I needed to get some work done at camp so I got up at 4:30 am and went over to work before my family woke up. I got home at 7:30 am so Dan could then go to work like normal. I am doing well at the moment but I may need to take a nap later today. I think my girls just keep passing this whatever sick thing back and forth. I hope it will end soon so we can get back to a normal routine.

Some of the other blogs I read told us about Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter that passed away this last week. More info at http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/. The top song on the playlist is one of his songs called "Remembering You". Also, a young girl from my home area has passed way from an accident on her way to school and then a friend from the college we attended is missing her nephew. He vanished while flying. Please pray that he and his father are found.
Pray, pray, pray for all these families.

We have been crazy busy here. Dan will finally gain some of his summer staff this week. That will help him a lot. Yesterday, Alyssia threw up once in the morning and then was fine the rest of the day. We stayed home just in case it was bad but turned out OK. It was nice to stay home all day though. I took a nap and the girls relaxed. We all needed a day like that. Hopefully today Dan works a shorter day. He has training for everything starting Wednesday and then a group in over the weekend so today is his day to go slower.

Kylie has become very independent lately. She gets her own drinks (a little scary), makes her own toast, gets her own bananas and peels them, and the other day while I was showering she got her sister and herself a snack from her Dad's vending products, A Twix. She wants to do it all herself. I like that she can do some of these things and so far no big messes but I am sure one will happen soon.

OUCH!!!!

We have been crazy busy around here. The girls and I have been helping get things ready at camp. I have done a lot of cleaning, weed trimming, and just whatever else needed to be done.

While I cleaning one area of the camp, the girls were playing outside where I could still see them playing as I cleaned. I heard Alyssia start to cry and when I turned to her I saw this on her stomach. She had run into the side of a picnic table. Fortunately not deep enough to go get stiches or anything but looks bad enough. She handled it really well.

Today the weather is suppose to get nice. We are to see 70's today. It has not really been that warm of a spring yet so I am excited to see the temp get warmer. I will be back at camp helping with something. We have about 160 people here for Family Camp this weekend so it is busy.

Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend!

My New Deck!

Dan along with help of our friend Jeremy build a deck off of our dining room yesterday. I am so excited to have it. We had the sliding doors there for who knows how long and nothing there. We are putting a sand box and other play stuff for the girls out this direction. Now they can not be out by the front drive. Maybe they will leave my landscaping alone now as well. I am almost done with the front landscaping so I will show pictures when I get that done. I need to move our table and chairs back here and the grill.

Kylie had her four year old doctor appointment yesterday as well. She is 38 1/2 pounds and 41 inches tall. That puts her at the 75% area on the charts. I am curious now where Alyssia is now. We have her appointment in about a month when she turns two. I hope you all had a great Mother's day.

Today was a gorgeous day outside. I had an appointment this morning for the girls so we went and got Kylie registered for preschool today. We are now starting to make payments for school. Crazy. I really like the school but this fall will change our schedule quite a bit. I may actually have to set an alarm three days a week. Then the baby will be born and it gets even busier. I will enjoy the schedule I have for now and not set my alarm. My girls are my alarm at the moment. We stopped in at a friends house and visited for awhile since they live right next to the school while we were out. Now I need to feed my family supper soon so I better figure out what I am going to cook. Enjoy the sun, if you have it.

To be a Princess

Tonight we have a prom at camp. One of the local High Schools decided to use the camp this year for their prom. It is kinda fun. When we don't have one of our camps going on, we rent the facilities to various groups throughout the year. Usually it is women's retreats, youth retreats, or church family camps so the prom is different. Dan won't be home till probably some time in the morning. If something is going on at camp, Dan is there no matter how late each night gets just in case a problem arises. The summer is long for him.

Anyways, I took the girls over to the camp office so we could watch all the girls and guys arrive and see all the pretty dresses. Kylie really liked watching them and we went over to eat supper and peek for a minute at them dancing. Perk for us is we get to eat at camp whenever something is there as well so I don't have to cook. Kylie wanted to see the princess' and princes dancing. This High School had a dinner here as well. Kinda nice. They don't have to make reservations anywhere or drive all over the place. I should have grabbed my camera but I forgot, but Kylie had to where a dress over to see them. She was so cute. Alyssia even thought it was fun.

Working Hard...

We have a few men that come usually once a week to help around the camp and I feed them lunch at our house when camp is not in motion. One of them brought the lawn mower over to the house so Alyssia loved it. She did not want to get off. She was cute. If you notice she is also wearing her winter boots. She has worn them for two days inside and outside. I only could get them off of her for bed so I hid them away today in the closet.

Kylie got her golf clubs out to show the men her skills. Makes her Dad and I proud anyway.
We have spent a good amount of time outside the past few days. I have cleaned my car (it needed it bad), worked some more on my landscaping, and picked up lots of sticks in our yard. Dan mowed so it is looking much nicer now. I need to get more rock to finish the landscaping so I will show you all that soon, hopefully.

Everything is going well with pregnancy and feeling well so my house is in better shape and so is my family. I am terrible at keeping up with all that I usually do when I don't feel well. Even though my husband is a GREAT help, I am kinda stubborn and like to do things myself (a weakness of mine) so it bothers me when I am not able to do things myself. It made me feel better to clean in the yard, clean my car and get caught up in my house.