Spring time

'Tis the season for planting and other yard work. We've been enjoying the warmer weather lately and have done some planting in the yard over the past couple of weekends. Our perennials from last summer are starting to wake up and come out of the ground. We installed a hummingbird (or whistling-bird, as Lindsey likes to call it - same difference, right?) feeder that we can see from our kitchen table. The kids are very excited to watch the birds come and eat! 

I just love these little trees. They are red lace-leaf Japanese Maple trees. I love that the leaves are always red and they are just beautiful. This one is still waking up from the winter a little bit, but it should get nice and full. It is the center-piece of the planter in the back yard. We also planted one in the front yard. I think they will make nice additions.

This is an Azalea plant. It will be green all year long and will favor us with these beautiful blossoms every spring. There is an amazing variety of things you can grow here in the northwest. It was really hard to decide on what to plant. And we're still trying to decide what to put up against the house in the back yard. 

This is a nice black mondo grass plant. It will have little purple flowers in the summer time and will add some nice texture and variety to the planter.

Everything is pretty small right now, but it will look really nice as things grow bigger with the warmer months ahead.

A couple of side notes:

This is how I found Katelyn one morning while everyone was at school. She had been dancing in her dress-ups to some beautiful classical music with her baby. After a while I noticed that she wasn't there anymore. She had curled up on the stairs with her baby to take a "nap" and listen to the pretty music. That's my girl!

And here is the best I've been able to get so far. We keep trying to catch Dylan's smile on camera, but he's pretty sneaky with it. Smiles are just the best! (By the way, these pictures of Dylan are a little deceiving. He is getting a little bit more chub, especially in his cheeks, but he's still pretty little. He's just about nine pounds in this picture, and is wearing a preemie outfit still. He's swimming in the 0-3 month clothes. But all in all, he's come such a long way!)

And hooray for warmer temperatures outside and a bit more freedom to go places!