Update

Wow!  So I went to upload pictures to my blog and got a big shock....what happened to Blogger?!  What a difference!  After years of the "old" look I'm not sure how much I like this "new" post page!  But it seemed to work pretty well, so I'll wait to make a final call, although the pictures still took forever to upload!

I know I haven't been posting much over the last 4 months since this whole move from Kansas began.  The truth is, I feel guilty when I sit down to even look at other blogs or Facebook....I just have so much to do after school with the boys each day!  And now that I'm finally getting closer to being done with all of the moving in "stuff," it's time to get ready to return to Kansas for Emily's graduation.  I just got her announcements completed and in the mail, but I still have a party to plan (long distance, I might add), arrangements to make for our new bunny while we're gone, clothes to plan for all the gang while we're gone, etc, etc! 

Anyway, I hope to get back to a more "normal" as soon as we return from KS.  The boys will be done with school the last week of May, and we are looking forward to enjoying the fruits of all our labors.....especially our new backyard :D

And speaking of our backyard, I thought I would post a few pictures tonight of more of our progress on that front.  As I was going out the door to get some shots, Emily came over to me with a new friend.....

 She was so excited to find a tree frog in our backyard as she was working in the garden!

We've been finding so many wonderful little "creatures" in our yard, and the boys have thoroughly enjoyed them all :D

And if you missed it, we also have a new bunny (Ruby)!  Since the weather is warming up now, we have been bringing her hutch outside in the afternoons for some fresh air.

In addition to all the landscaping we've been doing around the pool, we also have a ton of work to do all the way around the outside of the house.  Georgians like to use pine straw for landscaping....I'm not a fan!

We've always used wood mulch, and I think next year we will get rid of all this straw and return to the mulch.  The straw is much less expensive, but I just don't like it!  It's much more messy and starts looking bad almost immediately after you put it down!  Unfortunately, we had to spread over 80 bales of this stuff around our yard!

Ok, so now I'm noticing that these pictures seem a little small....gee, I wonder if they'll be small in the actual post?!  That's annoying :/  I usually upload in the "large" size.  I hate change.

But back to my post ;D  So, we've also been planting peach trees (this IS Georgia after all!)....

Two different kinds :D

And in addition to Emily's vegetable garden, we now have a wonderful little flower garden :D

Emily gets the credit for it as well!  She just loves being outside working on the yard, and I'm happy to have her do it!

We spent the past weekend spreading rock around the pool, planting all the plants in the space above the pool, and spreading mulch.....

It was NOT fun, and my muscles will never be the same!  Somehow, I always seem to get the job of spreading out the rock!  And I had to move it all the way around the entire pool too!

Sophie spread all the mulch by herself in the pool area.  She followed along behind Zack as he planted our new flowers, tall grasses, and 4 palm trees :D

I think it turned out pretty well, and as tough as it has been, I am happy to say that we have done ALL the landscaping in our yard!!!  We laid all the sod, spread all the rock, planted all the plants, dug all the holes, built the retaining wall, made a fire pit, planted gardens, created our play area, etc!!!  HARD work, but very rewarding :D

That rock you see above.....ALL me baby ;D

We really don't have much left to do now.  We still have one corner of the pool deck where we are hoping to use decking material (instead of rock) so that we can put a table on it, but that may have to wait for more funds ;D  This has cost a small fortune for sure!!!  And we need to put the swing set together (still).......

But that's about it!

We even hung a clock so we can check the time when we're out enjoying the pool....

It's coming together......slowly but surely....just not quickly enough for me....but then I tend to want things done yesterday and can't stand things left undone......so I guess it's getting done fairly quickly....just not quickly enough for me...... ;D

Oh yeah, and I have to mention that Allie may have scored a full-time nanny job for the summer!  And she had her first official photo shoot since we moved to Georgia....I'll put the link to her website when she gets the new pictures up.....they are AWESOME!!!

Now how the heck do I post this????????????