The Backyard

I think by now, EVERYONE in the whole world knows how much I've wanted a backyard. I guess I wanted a 'finished' backyard to be exact. For Las Vegas standards, our yard is pretty good sized for our house and neighborhood, and I hated that we couldn't take advantage of that whole big area. It just seemed like wasted space. The house was built 7 years ago, and nothing has been done back there since besides little river beds cutting all over from from the rain, tumbleweeds growing, and twisted metal trash from the builders. It was NOT livable  I begged Ryan forever to do something with it, and it wasn't until I went to Ellen, and got the "12 Days of Giveaways" gifts (that we sold most of for the cash), that we finally had money to put away for the yard. That combined with Christmas gift money, and redoing our budget, we finally were able to get started on it.
I had a bunch of landscapers come in to do estimates, and in the end we decided to have the landscapers put in the paver patio, and Ryan and a couple ex-landscaper friends (thank you Brandon and Jake for all your work, and teaching Ryan so much!) put in the sprinklers, grass, and plants.
I am SOOO happy with how it all turned out. The grass went in a week ago, so we are still waiting for it to take root before we can really play out there. Also, I'm on the look out for a great patio set, then it will be complete! I plan on eating dinner out there year round, and letting Easton finally be able to run around free and I'm so excited for him to go running through the sprinklers all summer!
The before and after is pretty impressive, especially in person! It makes the whole house feel much more complete, and has made the kitchen seem so much nicer since the windows have a pretty view now.

Sprinklers In. Top Soil down.

Ryan and Jake. Working on the plants and sod.

Brandon and the massive pile of beautiful sod.

April showers (and snow storms) bring May flowers (and veggies)

I finally got my garden planted! It's just a small one, but I know it will produce more food than Ryan I will be able to eat, so it should be plenty for us! I can't wait for the veggies to start growing! I planted green beans, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, green peppers, and roma tomatoes! I wish that instead of little seeds and tiny sprouts that it was already producing! mmm, I love summer dinners full of fresh vegetables! Let's hope I can keep them all alive!


I also planted some pretty flowers by the front door. I made sure to get the kind of flowers that are good for cutting to put in a vase, but will still keep growing back. I'm pretty excited for these little beauties to start growing too, I'm most excited for the gerber daisies! They are the epitome of a happy summer I think! Hopefully I'll be able to keep all my plants alive this year, last year they were so pretty for about a month, and then the sun fried them, I think I have enough shade this year for them though, keep your fingers crossed for me!


Maybe these new neighbors of our will help keep my plants alive and well...unless the nice treat we got them doesn't kill them first (wasp spray) we've found these two beehives in our window above the grill, one in the grill, and one was in the long pot. The one in the pot and grill we knocked out because they were still small enough, but these two keep growing! I'm really hoping the spray works quickly, because there are more and more bees outside our back door every day!

april showers bring may flowers

today ryan and i went down to Anderson's Seed and Garden and picked up some flowers for our patio. I was so excited, i came home and planted them right away! little did i know, i'd gotten a little carried away at the nursery, and i had to find two more pots! luckily there was a big pile in the shed that i could take my pick from. so here's the final product! enjoy! and happy planting to the rest of you!