Yard work again

Well, it is amazing what 15 - 20 boys can do in an hour and a half. Our neighbor is a sheriff and a really good guy. He is the leader of the boy scouts group in our neighborhood. He called today and asked me if I would like some help with yard work. He had some boys needing to earn community service hours. I said "sure, come on over". At 7:30 they showed up and brought lights (it was dark by that time - which is why the pictures are so bad), tools, and off they went. I think they did more work in 1 1/2 hours than I have done in two solid weeks (and one week I was off and did a lot in the yard - or so I thought it was a lot)

Well, here is the end result. - No weeds along the fence. If you look at last nights pictures of yard work there are weeds all long the fence. Lights up on the house. Front and back mowed and weeded, hedges trimmed up and all the trash piled out to the road because bulk trash pickup is this next week.

Those are some great guys!

Cousins at school

Austin, Bill's son also goes to our school. I got a picture of him in his costume also even though Bill didn't get him on Halloween though (Austin's mom's birthday is on Halloween so she always has him).

Christmas tree

Well, we have not quite done Christmas traditions the same this year. I have always gotten the tree down the weekend of Thanksgiving. The last 8 years with Darrel though it has not always happened. (One year it went up the week before Christmas!) Well, anyway, then the kids decorate it and everyone gets to help while we listen to Christmas music. This year we tried three different nights to do the tree but Mackenzie was gone each night. Twice to grannys and once to a neighbors. Each time Michael kept asking and I would say "We will do it latter when Mackenzie gets back". Good thing he knows how likely it is that she will be back. I came in the first morning and Mike had a few ornaments up. The next morning he had finished all the ornaments. The next morning he had put the garland on. I know it is not done but it still looks pretty good for just one 6 year old doing the tree. Hopefully this next weekend we will be able to finish it up and add a few other touches. I will try to get a picture of him standing by it later this week.

Yard work

Well, I have been busy this last couple of months. I don't see it slowing down any until after January either! The weather has been so nice that I have been working on the yard to try and get it presentable. It has always been about half done and then we had given up on it so it looked really bad. It is actually starting to look a little presentable now. Here I have cut out about half of the oleanders and I still have to get the rest of them out. I am only leaving two. Then I have to get the rock layed by the fence and repant the fence along with the playhouse. They both need a fresh coat of paint. (I did get the sprinkler fixed though and so it won't be hitting the playhouse any longer! yea! yea!) Next, the patio where the trampoline is, you would not believe how bad it was. I wish I had a before picture. I may be able to dig one up later. Anyway, I got most of the grass out between the bricks and cleaned up all the loose weeds and dirt. There is a lot left to be done. All the items have to come off there and then I have to fill in the back place with dirt and some flowers. It used to have a pond back there. It worked for just a little bit and then we spent a lot of time just trying to get it to! Finally, the other two pictures are of the porch. It is still cluttered and I am going to work at getting a lot of the items off it but at least it is cleaned up. Before today you couldn't walk out the door without stepping on something. Dad has been helping me finish getting the baseboards back on so it has also had a lot of dust and scraps all over it. It looks a hundred times better!

Halloween with Benjamin

Here is the beginning when Benjamin was all excited to go. However it did not take long and he was burned out. Melissa said, "Benjamin, you are the slowest puppy dog I have ever seen!" She was right. He was very slow. He sure did get a lot of candy though.

Halloween

Well, we ended up driving out to Melissa's for Halloween because mom decided to go out there.

Here is a picture of the little ones.

Here are three of the four. Amanda (decided she wanted to be Jake's bear last minute) Mackenzie (I am not sure what she was, deaths bride or something like that) and Mike was a ninja. Jake was a Diamondback (Arizona's baseball team) last minute since Amanda changed her mind.