Backyard improvements

Ben and I have steadily been brainstorming how to improve the landscaping situation in our backyard. When we bought our house it wasn't BAD, it just wasn't our style. There were lots and lots of rose bushes which were beautiful, but completely impractical for our young, rambunctious, stumble-trip-stumble-trip boys. So, we have slowly been pulling out rose bushes and this spring decided to make some bigger changes. Ben worked really hard and very quickly at this project and for that I'm very grateful!

Check out our compost - it looks so lovely with some of the plants we had to pull out to accommodate our new plan. I took this photo days ago and I looked at the compost this morning and the plants are actually growing in there.


Here's a look at how our landscaping in the back used to look.


And here it is now! It may not look like a huge change, but it is, believe me. Now, when you open the gate into the backyard, you'll walk on grass, not mulch and stepping stones. Plus, we have more grass, which compared with the mulched-wasteland that used to be there, is a huge improvement!


And this is what it used to look like around our deck - notice all the non-grass mulch area.


And here it is now, with a nice green carpet of grass for the boys to shake all their sandbox sand off in!


And, one area that needed and continues to need some love is along the north side of our house in the backyard. This is the perfect spot for a shade garden. The previous owner of our house planted the hostas, but didn't use any landscaping stones to delineate between the grass and the landscaping or tie it into the rest of landscaping. So, we put these extra stones over here and now we need to work at caring for this somewhat new space.

Rylee Jo

Rylee attended her first MCC Relief Sale last weekend and man was she cute! She had on her tree hugger onesie and was completely attentive during the 5 Times Harder concert. What a doll!

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day - did you know that? I encourage you to make every day a day that's friendly to our earth. I fail at this regularly, but I keep trying. I want this earth to be a nice place for my children and grandchildren to live. Recycle. Reduce. Reuse.

Glorious Easter Sunday

Noah and Levi don't really understand what Easter is about. I tried to tell Noah several times and he looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe next year, the Easter story will make sense to him. But, regardless of understanding the stories in the bible, the boys both understand candy and new farm toys. An Easter basket was simply a convenient excuse for me to get Noah a grain truck and to get Levi a loader tractor - both items we have been missing in Noah's ever-expanding farm play.

The day started with a search for Easter baskets. Levi had no clue what was going on, but he thought it was fun once he spotted it. Noah understood pretty well, but we still had to help him look.

Do you like Noah matching outfit? We're about a quarter of the way to having Noah potty trained at night, so there is often a partial wardrobe change in the middle of the night. He had no clue he was standing right next to the Easter basket when I took this photo.


Years ago, my parents hid one of my sister's Easter baskets in the oven. My mom had told Noah the story on Saturday night, but by the morning Noah had forgotten.




Our niece Rylee was dedicated at Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church on Sunday, so we went to be a part of this special worship service. Rylee was her normal-angelic-self and all three looked stunning!





After church, we stopped at Cracker Barrel restaurant for lunch. Oh-me-oh-my, do I enjoy their pancakes! We had a wonderful lunch - although not typical Easter food.




Sunday evening the Epp family gathered to celebrate Easter at my parent's house. Supper was unfortunately eventful - after eating a good supper, Levi coughed a few times and then threw up. He wasn't actually sick, though, I think it was his stomachs reaction to too much lactose. So, Levi had an early bath and got into his jammies before we even got out to the shed for the traditional Easter egg/basket/bag hunt. So, he wore his footy jammies with shoes out to the shed - he looked ridiculously cute.


Noah found his Easter bag in the tractor.


And, after herding the cats, I mean second cousins, together I actually got a photo of them! All but Rylee are on the air seeder. Addi, Caiden, Noah, Ty, Cambry and Levi - they make quite the crew!

A Saturday Together

We had a great day on Saturday. Noah went to sleep on Friday night anticipating eating breakfast at the doughnut shop. The first words out of his mouth on Saturday morning were, "We go to the doughnut store for breakfast?" So, we headed out to Druber's just as fast as we could get the four of us into the car. Otherwise, we played, took a trip out to the farm and just had a nice day together.

In the car, on the way to Druber's in Newton.








While Levi took his afternoon nap, Noah and I read a couple books outside in the warm sunshine. It didn't take long before Noah was bored with reading and got out the mower to pretend he was cutting the grass.

Johnny Appleseed

Noah loves to sing the prayer Johnny Appleseed. I got him to sing it for me, but I was a little slow in getting the camera going, so I missed the first part of the song. Enjoy!

Family Time

Ben's parents, Tim and Sue, were here this past weekend. I took a ton of photos, but none of them have Tim and Sue in them. I'm not sure how that happened, but unfortunately, it did.


Wrestling is as normal at our house as playing farm or trains.






Sleepy Levi just after his Sunday nap.




Noah got the idea that we were going to the beach on Sunday. It snowed on Sunday and was cold and miserable outside, but Noah wanted to go to the beach. So, Noah put Levi in swim trunks, Noah's swim trunks.




Levi was enjoying pulling Ben's hair. He laughed and laughed each time Ben yelled in pain.

New, but classic

A sandbox is a classic, but our boys don't know that. They think it's a brand new adventure, a brand new wonderful world to play in. Grandpa Schrag built the sandbox and on a visit last weekend he installed it in our backyard. Great Grandpa Hertzler came over to help, too.



Levi, ornery, Levi.




And, the finished product! Thanks Grandpa Schrag!!