A few weeks ago, Marisa's school brought in some ponies for the kids to be photographed with & to ride.  Marisa's teacher said she was born to have a pony since she was so excited about riding and wouldn't get off.  She probably wouldn't look so serious if they had taken the picture before she actually got to ride the other pony.  She's a SERIOUS cowgirl!!! So CUTE!!  

Thought I'd take some time to update everyone on the landscaping project.   Man, it sure is a HUGE project, too!  We should have purchased some Home Depot stock with as much money as we've shelled out to them. 

Let's see...the last time I talked about work on the landscaping Josh had just finished preparing and tilling the landscape beds.  Here are some before and after pictures.

    

And, then came picking out the plants.  That was definitely a difficult task. Luckily we went to different nurseries to see what they had and had an idea of what we wanted as the major foundation plants.  We decided on 2 large crepe myrtles (no idea what color the blooms will be), 2 medium sized yaupon hollies, a foster holly for the corner, a weeping yaupon holly in the other corner, a japanese maple near the patio and a small rose garden & little vegetable garden by our window.  Here is Marisa picking out a good rose bush.



Easter weekend was spent picking out all of our foundation plants and planting our new plants.  Like I've said before, Josh has done an AMAZING job on the landscape.  I only helped with the placement, while he's done the rest.  I was suffering from the worst sinus infection that weekend and when I wasn't trying to rest, I was chasing around the 2 year old.  Trying to keep her out of trouble and out of Josh's hair is hard work, you know.  But, here's what the landscaping looked like by Easter.

 

And this is what happens to a toddler when left to her own devices for 5 minutes...

 

For some reason she thinks it's easier to get off the chair by going through the arm rest hole.  Hmmm...it doesn't look like she thought that one through very well.

Our tiny vegetable garden includes, bell peppers, a tomato plant, strawberries, and some cantaloupe(these are next to the fence near Bradie's pen).  We'll also be adding some herbs into the little patch of vegetables.  And here's what it looks like today... 


       

Marisa now has her own Marisa-sized watering can to help with the watering. 

 

And, here she is showing off the beauty of our labor. 



Still to come...annuals to add eye catching colors, mulch, and the drip irrigation.  By mid-May I think we'll be ready to host a barbecue and to show off all of our hard work!

Why is it that just when you start to get used to the newest toddler phase, a new one pops up?   It seems like it came out of no where...well, I think it did.  Marisa has entered the infamous "WHY?" phase.  Is it supposed to start this early?  I thought it didn't start until they were like 3 or 4.  Everything you say to her is followed by a Why?? and if you don't answer, she continues to question it.  However, as long as you give her some semblance of an answer, she will accept it and say, "ok". 

Other than that, there hasn't been much going on.  Josh has been working like crazy planting the plants in the backyard.  The landscaping looks absolutely AMAZING!  And, it's all Josh's doing.  I haven't been able to help since I was suffering from some horrible allergies and some major sinus infection this past weekend.  Easter was pretty laid back and relaxing for us.  We did have a mini indoor Easter Egg hunt for Marisa and she was very excited about her Easter basket.  She got a new Dora backpack, a Dora digital watch, some Dora sunglasses, a mini Dora notebook, and a Dora book.  She was so excited about her goodies in her Easter basket that it practically overshadowed her new bicycle.  We did get her to finally try out her new bicycle, but she hasn't quite gotten the pedaling down since she always trying to pedal backwards.  All she needs is a little more practice.  Here are the pictures from Easter.

       

    I managed to capture this shot of Marisa as she was getting ready for bed the other night.  CRACKS ME UP!!!  She looks like she's dancing in my slippers and on her head is a Blue Bell Ice Cream Hat that GeeGee & GeePa Clemens picked up while at the Blue Bell factory in Brenham, TX.  She loves that hat!