Almost "Done"

Last week we decided to try to finish our yard a little more. Luckily we found some trees and a bunch of plants on sale at Home Depot so then the project was getting it all planted. Our garden is also a little out of control in parts, but we've been able to get tons of zucchini and I'm hoping to bottle some salsa soon. Our winter squash are still growing and it is kind of fun to see how much they grow from day to day. So here are some pictures of our yard as it is today. First just a view of the yard from the street corner (we're planning on the bushes helping camouflage the big green box). Then just one of the roses in the corner planter. More flowers in the yard (I really like flowers if you can't tell). Then the crazy squash plants coming onto the lawn. It's kind of cool because they have little tendrils that wrap around things to secure the plant and that includes blades of grass so when we mow the lawn you have to pull the plant off the grass. Then one of the banana squash growing, with Ryan's shoe next to it for a comparison. And somewhere in the pictures (because of how the pictures are uploading I'm not sure where they'll come in) there's the strawberry patch, a plant I love with lots of colorful flowers, and a watermelon plant. And my favorite little garden helper just enjoying a caramel apple we made earlier this week. * After seeing how the post published, all the pictures are in backwards order.

FYI this morning when I was cleaning some weeds out of the walk out basement area there was a cup from a plant earlier this summer, and I looked inside it before picking it up and I found a BLACK WIDOW spider. So Ryan came a took care of it for me :) A little earlier I was pulling a few weeds in another spot and saw a large garden spider, but when Ryan hit it with the garden tool a ton of baby spiders went scurrying off the back. I'm hoping that with the weeds gone from around the house that we will not be seeing anymore spiders for a while. We'll see though. :) We have also had a TON of praying mantis in the yard. We are constantly seeing them in the flowers, in the lawn, on the side of the house ... kind of out of control. Sometimes we are even lucky enough to see "double" praying mantis ;) Anyway so here are some pictures of our almost done yard-only one spot left to finish, and we need to get a few plants planted to fill in some spots. I'm excited to see how everything grows. It'll be nice next summer when things are a little more the size we want them.

And a little update on my favorite little garden helper so that I don't forget is that she loves to tell us things including uh-oh, bye-bye (many times over and over with different intonations-that's my favorite), hello, baby, happy, help/help me (which sounds very close to happy), no, stop, yay, whoa, wow, go go go (cheer), sorry, eyes, nose, mine (where did she learn that???)yes, shoe, more, peas-please, tank dee-thank you, yum yum, umnem-Amen, ball, dog, goat, cat, bed, pot-potty, an occasionally wuv you, and she sticks her tongue out with a super wide open mouth when she wants a drink. When we eat breakfast she will feed herself and feed whoever is sitting by her. She will also push us away when she wants to do something or when she wants to sit by herself-sometimes I've been kicked off the front step and then the whole front porch while she sits like a big girl on her stoop. She also loves to carry this tube of lip gloss stuff around and put whatever is left on the outside (it's the squeezy kind) on her lips as well as whomever may be lucky enough (usually me, but sometimes Ryan gets the offer as well) to be around to get beautified. She also makes many funny faces and likes to pucker her mouth and find different things she can do with her tongue/lips including various clucking smacking sounds. I think the days of open mouthes kisses may be coming to an end, which is a little bittersweet. It is so fun to see how much and how quickly kids change. it seems like every day she has a new word she tells me, and hearing her little voice talking makes me so happy!