Perfect Timing!

One thing I really missed about our old house, was having a swingset in the backyard.  It was always  so nice to take the boys outside to swing or send Boston out alone for awhile.  The boys, and neighbor kids, spent hours playing on it! Derek is quite anal about his yard, so he wasn't particularly anxious to get another one.. but I whined long enough so he gave in. 

I had been looking online for several weeks to try and find a nice used swingset for a reasonable price.  We were very lucky having my dad build ours at the old house as they are crazy expensive to buy new!  Last week I found two decent looking Rainbow playsets on a garage sale site.  I was actually at a gals house looking, when I got a text message from my friend Renae.  She had sent a picture of a very nice looking swingset, with a message saying her sisters neighbor wanted to sell it!  It was 10 times nicer than the one I had gone to see, so I loaded up the boys in the car and drove right over to check it out. It was perfect, and we had it set up in our backyard the next day!  The timing couldn't have worked out any more perfect!

The swingset before we bought it!

It came over in two pick up's!

 Derek had a few friends help him so it went up much quicker than I was expecting.

 Derek wasn't sure it should go in the corner of the yard, but it was 4 against 1 :)

 Brigham was in bed when the swingset was being set up, so he woke up to a fun surprise in the morning!

A few coats of stain & it looks brand new again! 

We love it, and so do the daycare and neighbor kids!

Landscaping Projects!

We have been extremely busy with outdoor projects around our house, so I wanted to take a few minutes to journal about it all.  It's so fun to take before and after pictures of making a house, your home. 

On June 3rd, we added 22 plants to our landscaping!  We did all of our own planting at our last house too, so felt like pro's this time around.

Our realtor, Aaron Rietsema with Town and Country, had these beautiful hydrangea plants sent to us the day of our closing! We got them all planted on the east side of the house. 

I have been giving them a lot of TLC so hoping they continue to look like this!   

The Acadia was full of plants!  

This is a before picture of the front of our home.  The rock and edging were done all around the house, but they only put plants in the very front.

After picture:  We added 2 boulder walls to the front landscape!

 Before picture:  We aren't huge fans of the ornamental tree..

After picture!  The boulder walls really add to it!

Before pictures. 

After!

Now just waiting on our blinds for the windows!

Derek hard at work! He did the hole digging & I put the plants in & refilled the holes with dirt and rock.  Team work!

The after pictures of the west side of the house.

 Near the deck.

 I'm loving the ornamental grass!

 East side of the house, where the hydrangea's went!

One plant is blooming it's first new flower!

And now that the front yard is complete..it's time to move on to the backyard.  Staining the deck & new swing set are on the 'honey-do' list :)