Finally easier on the eyes.

I have lots of beautiful pictures to show you from this weekend (ironically none of them have anything to do with Easter?) but first I want to show you some of my landscaping improvements!

My mom came last weekend for Kaitlin's wedding and majorly blessed me by getting the ball rolling on landscaping our back yard and a little in the front. I don't know why but I just didn't know where to start so it always stopped me. Now Kanyon's having to tell me to slow down!

I pruned the front flower bed of all the dead (which was a lot because of our harsh winter - at least that's what I tell myself) and raked out all the dead leaves and brush. I then transplanted some of the Dusty Miller around so it was more evenly distributed. Vaughn and I picked out bushes for me to replace the ones that had died and I planted those behind. Then my mom planted a few flowers here and there and bought me that plant to put on a shepherd's hook, which I got this weekend. Such a great idea, Mom. I potted some flowers and planted a few seeds in another pot for the porch but this picture doesn't show that. I'm really happy with how its turned out! Especially paired with the new trim.

 Those bushes in back will hopefully grow much taller to give some height.

The bushes in front have grown great and are really helping to shield that orange on the brick.

We were blessed to have three beautiful trees already in the front (as well as in the back) and I love this one. Its leaves are pale pink in March and go to purple and now bright green here in late April. Does anyone have any idea what kind of tree it is?

Of course, gotta sneak in a picture of Zeb..

 He loves when I work outside so he can play in the water. I really need to upload a video of him fighting with the hose. Hilarious!

Our front porch is probably the next thing to be fixed, although we're not sure when. Could be soon but could be next year, depending on how much it will cost which depends on whats going on underneath that crumbling cement top layer.

But we DID pick out and order a new storm door this weekend! We wanted one that would match the new trim and plus we knew we wouldn't be wasting a perfectly good storm door because we will use this one on Kanyon's leather shop. Speaking of his shop..

No improvements lately since its getting busy for farmers here again but I have a good feeling that when we get that new storm door in, Kanyon will not want the old one sitting around and will install the new door and storm door to the shop. We'll be able to scratch off one to-do on a long list for that shop. (When I say we... I mean Kanyon.)

(See some grass finally growing in?!)

Here is the new flowerbed that Mom worked on while I was getting ready for Kaitlin's wedding! I love how it looks and its already majorly inspired me to finish it out along the back of the house.

 That bird feeder and shepherd's hook its hanging on I picked up at Lowe's this weekend because apparently all the birds in Dawson County live in our tree. There's a ridiculous amount. We love the pretty sing-song birds but the black squawking crows.. they eat Zeb's food! And every time I replace Zeb's water, there are black feathers all in it so they bathe in his water. So I bought a bird feeder to try and deter them. Kanyon, though, decided we needed a more direct method..

Don't worry, he only shoots the annoying crows. Not the pretty, good birds. He got this new pellet gun this weekend specifically for this purpose. Its pretty fun : )

Here is the flower bed from farther away so you understand what I mean by finishing it out. We need a few more plants for it to reach the porch. We may not put anything within a few feet of the porch and just mulch it, though, because we don't know where our future porch will extend to and don't want to have to uproot anything later.

Here is a close up of my favorite plant Mom got us - its taken so well to the flower bed!

Kasha came and helped me mulch the bed and then gave me a plant from her flower beds: an umbrella plant to hide the passage hole to underneath our house. If you look in the pictures above, it sticks out like a sore thumb because its covered with plywood and a cinder block. But hopefully this umbrella plant will cover it up without making it too hard to get under the house if we need to. (This is an iPhone photo which is why the color is weird.)

And last, here is a picture of what the ground looks like on one edge of our backyard.. these berries fall off our neighbor's trees into our yard and I like the effect! That might annoy some people but I don't mind it since its in a part of our yard I probably will never landscape.

Also makes a cool picture ; )  Zeb has discovered that he can eat the pecans that fall off our pecan tree over in the same area so he is always snacking on them now.. Maybe he'll figure out he can eat the little blue things too?