Gettin' Dirty

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."
~ Margaret Atwood

This excellent quote (shared by the lovely Amanda) pretty much sums it up for me these days! 

We (well, ok, mostly just me- but Regan helped a little too, as seen above!) were busy working on a fun new outdoor project this weekend!  I'm excited to share it with you- so look for that post coming soon.  :)

In  the meantime, here are a few other shots I thought I'd share from our weekend.

I Need Input!

Okay, what do you all think?

My little sister, the professional photographer, took pictures for us at Thanksgiving.

(It's so GREAT to have a photographer in the immediate family! Yay! Lifetime supply of great, affordable pictures- woohoo!!!)

Which one should we go with for our "family" picture this year?

Number 1:

Number 9:

Number 10:

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

I was much too lulled by the warm, mild, perfect and beautiful fall we had- I'm just not ready to suddenly be so chilly!

Today's high is 36, and we'll be having a nice winter-y mix of rain and snow all day.

Big sigh...

I don't hate winter- at first.
In fact, for the first 6 weeks or so, I kind of like it!
After that, all bets are off.

It just gets too cold, and too dreary.

Thank goodness we don't live in a state where the winter lasts even longer!
I'd never make it.

It makes me wish, so so very much, that we had a fire place or a wood stove in our home.
How lovely it would be to just curl up in front of the fire, enjoy some hot cocoa or warm tea, be wrapped up in my favorite sweatshirt and warm fuzzy socks, and have my cozy blanket and a good book with me.

Ah, if only! Maybe one of these days.

We are trying to conserve this winter, and we'll be trying to keep the heat down
a bit more than we used to.

Mind you, we'll be keeping it at about 68 degrees during the day, and 60 at night, so we won't be freezing by any means- but I'm the type of person who likes to be WARM.
Really, really warm!

I'm that girl who has to wear long sleeves in the summer, and have a sweat shirt handy, because I freeze to death in the grocery store. Or in a restaurant. Or at the movies.

You know- THAT girl.

So, I'll be investing in some more "winter wear"- you know, warm socks, sweats, long underwear, and pretty much anything with "wool" listed on the tag!

The windows in our little old house have definitely seen better days-
they're old, peeling, and extremely drafty, so dressing in layers will be a must.

I'm going to start thinking warm thoughts!

Stay warm, and have a great day!

What We've Been Up To, Part 4

Building a New Outdoor Play Area:

We rented a sod cutter and got busy cutting and rolling all the sod for the area.

Koa wasn't a fan of the loud noise from the sod cutter,
but she did enjoy playing in the "sod mountain" we built!

Who says girls ain't got muscles?! :)

Ugh- they were really heavy though.

Continued...

Manly men! Rolling up the sod.

Scooping up the left-overs.
Our backs were sore and stiff that night!

Look at those pipes! :)
Those rolls were heavy!

Pete's friend from work needed a bunch of sod for his yard.
Did we have a deal for him! :)

Continued More...

All the sod out, and one post in.

Making progress...

Making more progress...

Putting on the finishing touches.

And a quick acrobatics show.

Finished!

Spreading out the woodchips.
(I helped, I promise! I just had to take some breaks- you know, to take pictures!) :)

LOOK at all those empty cedar mulch bags!
We got it all done just as the dark was closing in.

By the time we were finished we were filthy, tired, and very sore.
We let Pizza Hut cook for us.
We ordered a ton of food, and we ate it all too! :)

I (ahem!) was behind on the dishes, and we ran out of plates-
so Sarah offered (very happily, I might add) to use a platter.
Hehe! :)

The finished product!
I've got more in store for it, definitely, but it's looking good!