Backyard!

So, when we bought this house it came with lots of projects, some are done, some have been halfway done since we moved in, some are still being worked on. Needless to say, there is always something to do. But, one thing Ryan really was anxious to get working on was the yard. This is what it looked like when we moved in. We killed whatever was left growing, cleaned everything up and took out a lot of ugly rock.

Here we rented a roto tiller one weekend to help break up all the ground and caliche so we-and I mean Ryan-could dig for sprinklers.

Some of the ground was so hard, Ryan's arms would sting for days after picking at it. He did the sprinklers pretty much all by himself. He was grateful for help and advice from family members along the way. But, I have to give credit, that he and the kids moved A LOT of dirt in that backyard. We got some more concrete poured and put a pathway all the way to the front of the house.


We added a bunch of dirt and smoothed it nice, added a little retaining wall in the back corner and got ready for the sod.

So, this is the final project so far. We got the sod in, and I helped Ryan and we laid all 500 sq. ft. by ourselves in about an hour. I want you to know I loaded and unloaded almost every piece. I was tough that day. We still have to add plants-probably in the Spring. We need curbing, and lots of rock and some sort of play structure, but we feel as if we have a good start and can now at least enjoy the yard without getting all muddy.

Halloween!

Then we celebrated on Halloween with some friends with our yummy chili and soups and trick or treating their neighborhood and ended with handing out candy at our house. We had fun at everything as a family and with friends. It is always a fun time of year and a time to kick off fall, cooler weather, remember past costumes and activities.




Of course we carved our own pumpkins-Ryan's least favorite activity-can you tell by his face. But ours turned out cute. Ash and Ry did a two sided normal jack o lantern face and Annika and I did a cat on a fence with a moon. Sticky, messy, but fun!


We had a Stake Trunk or Treat where the kids could safely walk around the parking lot and collect candy from decorated cars. It was a great turn out and we had fun with the Farnsworths and Kundananis.



We hosted a Halloween Party at our house for some friends of Annika's. We played pin the nose on the pumpkin, pitch the pumpkins, find the candy and dressed up as mummies-here is Annika in her mummy get up and this is what Ashton and Dax did with the leftover toilet paper. YEAH!


There was a Fall Festival at Annika's school with a petting zoo. We went to Gilcrease Orchard with Michelle and kids and picked out a pumpkin and apples. We had a school Halloween Parade and Classroom Party.




I forgot the photos go backwards on Blogger, so this is the backwards entry, we visited the pumpkin patch with the Kundanani's and played lots of games.

Hey there, I kind of feel like this holiday was a week full of events and the start of the holiday season. I chose to make the kids' costumes this year. Annika really wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story and at first Ashton just wanted to be a pirate from last year-bonus since he still fits. But, as I was buying stuff for Annika's costume, he changed his mind and chose to be Woody from Toy Story-which I love because I really enjoy it when their costumes go together. So here is a bit from our week of fun.