I've been wishing...

Or window shopping online. It's so much fun to look and plan for things to build, make or plant at Mecham Manor. Also shoes. 

We went to a tulip festival in Oregon a couple years ago, and I looked at bulbs we can buy online from them. They're amazing! 

I'm obsessed with these multi-colored ones, especially the pink & peach combinations. 

Then there are the trumpet, or fluted tulips. I like the unique shape. 

Here are some with feathered petals. 

I want to plant some perrienials, these are some drought resistantant flowers, they'd be fun to put out in the front yard. 

On to trees, we'd like a flowering tree in the front, and a fruit tree out in the back yard. We've decided a semi-dwarf peach tree for the back yard, as well as lilacs along the back fence. 

Someday, our home will be surrounded by beautiful flowers, it will be amazing. 

Pinterest, a frenemy. So many things I want to build for our home, it's so hard to chose! 

For the living room. 

A storage/ platform bed. 

A sweet desk, or 

Build this into the family room including a desk. 

I'd love to do a cool Murphy bed for the office. 

This one is amazing it could double as a table! 

This is a cool pull down table for the garage. And the hanging tool storage next to it makes me happy. 

This would be great in our laundry room, and it's cute!! 

Now shoes, I could shop for shoes all day. Much easier than clothes shopping. 

Slip on shoes, a must for preschool. 

Cute boots, and no small obsession of mine. 

Dress shoes, now that I don't have access to my Mom's cute heals, I need to find some of my own. And I wear flats for church and work. 

Mecham Manor

I decided to try out watercolor pencils, I may even venture into traditional watercolors. After seeing some house paintings on Pinterest I had to make one of our home. 

Watching the grass grow...

Well it only took about 21 days to have a green grassy backyard, and it's gorgeous! 

Rylee enjoying the cool grass for the first time. So exciting. 

Currently it feels like we are losing the battle against goatheads, weed killer (not lawn) has been ordered, and is on its way.  In the meantime we're just hoping the endless days of temperatures over 100 won't fry the grass we've managed to grow. 

Our yard... in the works

Saturday May 23rd

Nathan, (in our elders quoram presidency & friend) came out with a rototiller and tore up the yard. 

Cort, (another friend from the ward) came with him and raked behind him. I would have been out there too, but I was the photographer at an anniversary party and then had a recital rehearsal with vocalists at work. 

This is after Nathan and Cort left Saturday. Previously out yard was completely taken over with weeds. 

And on Monday the 25th we had about 7 guys from the ward come out and help us with the yard.

They raked up the clumps of weeds,

and raked and raked

raked some more, and leveled our the yard

We had some ladies helping us too, they weeded out the flower beds

The men "fixed" the sprinklers... this was hilarious. He only "tapped" it with the shovel. All the sprinklers were fixed or replaced, aimed and set. They also showed me how to clean out the little filters and adjust the different types of sprinklers.

Raking and rolling the yard. 

Seeding the yard...

Seeding some more, I think we have about triple the recommended amount of seed out there. Or at least what it says on the bag to use. 

This is what the yard looked like after they left. 

Rylee definitely approves, no weeds, and now it's flat and safe for Joseph to join him out there.

The true "After" picture that includes the newly weeded flower beds. 

That evening we had a big downpour of rain... which made it the perfect day to seed the yard.

The sky after the storm... and without the trees we can see so much more. I can't wait to watch some thunderstorms! Although we do plan on replacing the trees with something, eventually. 

May 28th

The garbage guys,didn't like the giant pile of trees. They left us a note! 

Bro Griffith came by, unannounced (Cousin Landon joined him) and started to load up the pile. I caught them, snapped this picture, then joined them... I don't think they intended on being caught, or joined. They have Rylee to thank for that... he let us know someone was up to something.

Grass on Day 5 after we planted

The grass yesterday, May 30th

And the grass today.

Thanks so much to all our helpers out there, you have made the yard accessible for Joseph and we can't wait until it's lush and green back there. THANK YOU!

Bye bye trees...

The scouts in our ward come out to our house and removed the dead and mostly dead trees out back, as well as weeding the flower gardens in the front. I didn't get a head count but my guess was that we had a party of 15 young men, and not-as-young men working in our yards.  We are so thankful for their service, and amazed at how quickly those awful trees disappeared.

They felled a tree before I could even get a real "before" shot of the backyard.

The trees were really dead and really light. They had 2 chain saws going at one point. We had them take out the green ones too, they were dying,  it was kind of an all or nothing deal. 

The one with the chainsaw is my Uncle Ron.

The young men carried the trees out front.

And they all fell down.

Down to stumps now.

They were able to get up 3 or 4 stumps... but the stumps killed 3 shovels first.

They were finishing up to a gorgeous sunset.

Some of the young men attacked the front garden.. at least 3 inches thick with grass and strawberry plants.

Weeding out next to the house.

I had sweet neighbor girls help me plant some bulbs from Mom & Dad's. (Gladiolas I think, we'll know for sure once they bloom)

The damage... that pile of trees and other assorted things they found hidden in the trees, plus 10 or so bags.

The next day I grabbed a picture of the yard, sans trees. 

This is the picture I put on instagram and Facebook.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all that came out and helped us, I wish I could thank you all by name...I'll learn them all, eventually.