landscape design 101

saturday was a fulfilling day for us.  we laid sod!!!  the evolution of our yard has been a slow, on-going, seemingly never ending process (we started in march of 2011) but we are so pleased with how our yard looks today.  care to join me for a walk down memory lane??

at the end of march last year, we ripped out this cement pathway that led nowhere.  and got rid of the shack shed that was probably going to fall over any second anyways.

 

we took a huge load to the dump and then danny chopped down our gigantic, misshapen willow tree (whose roots were ruining the lawn and cement).

during april + may we built some grow boxes and planted our first garden!!

(while trying to ignore the dirt + weeds that were taking over the yard...)

we tolerated the yard, and tended our garden until october when we borrowed a lovely old tractor and attempted to till up all of the grass in preparation for our sprinkler system.  it didn't go over so well but danny and max sure had a good time driving it around the yard.

this is also when i started my landscape design class which i loved.  i learned so much and implemented everything i was taught into our current design.  i was able to create a master plan after looking at many professional plans + this is what we went off of when putting in sprinklers and sod.

in november, danny cut down our ugly, ugly pine tree (we promise we're not tree haters!  new trees will be planted soon.  see above plans.)

and then our good friend jamison brought over his nice new tractor and really tilled up our yard for us:

danny + max drove around our neighbor's 4-wheeler with a steel grate on back to try and level out the yard some more...

and then we got started on our sprinklers!!

danny and his dad ran electricity back to our shed.

we patched up our very sad looking columns on the front porch,

and rented a trencher to lay the pipes for our sprinklers.

we tore out our old driveway lanes, and formed up the front for a new driveway and front walk and had a great team of guys from our ward help us out with the job:

since we laid our cement in the middle of the winter, we kept it warm with cement blankets (i had no idea these existed until now!) 

and then, finally, we were ready to get the yard prepped for sod.  this brings us up to two weeks ago.  we hired a guy (whose name won't be mentioned because i would not recommend him...) who did a good job on what we actually needed him to do but had a very hard time listening + did a little bit of damage in the process (half of our stair railing, danny's shovel, and our water shut off pipe were all casualties!)  he smoothed it all out and got it in tip-top shape.  they also brought in some dark wood chips for our garden area.  doesn't it look beautiful?!? 

this last saturday was the BIG day.  we ordered sod from emerald turf in payson (who i would definitely recommend!) and we had a giant sod laying party (we laid a little under 3400 sq. ft!) many of danny's students showed up to help.  we got the job done in a little under 2 hours and afterwards we grilled up some hot dogs (complete with some copy-cat j.dawg sauce!) and had fresh watermelon, chips, and drinks.  a few of danny's older students work for the city during the summer so they took the lead and did a fantastic job!  we couldn't have done it without them.  max even helped out too, carrying little strips in his wheelbarrow :)

i can't explain how happy i am with our new yard and i am so excited to enjoy the fruits of our labors during the upcoming summer months.  we are putting in a patio within the next few weeks and will finish up our landscaping when we can find some great deals.  in the mean time, i will keep smiling every time i hear the sprinklers come on to water our beautiful green grass!!

I'm in love with freezer meals.

I know I've said it before, but I don't think I could ever say it enough: freezer meals are (one of) the best things that has ever happened to me!  My good friends Kim + Jessica are my freezer meal exchanging buddies and I have loved it.  We just had another exchange today and I came back with some gold for our freezer.

So I thought I'd share a few tips (and recipes!) with you in case you'd like to venture down the freezer meal path yourself (and I highly recommend it!)

+ Having a few girlfriends to exchange with has been fabulous.  There is usually three of us who exchange and we each make two meals.  You can't beat having six meals waiting in your freezer!  Precious gold I tell you.  It's always nice to get some new meals to try (since I often seem to get in a rut...making the same meals over and over again) and many of the meals I've gotten have become some of our very favorites.

+ Plan on spending a good chunk of time preparing (but don't worry, it'll pay off!)  I'm a bit of a procrastinator, so I usually end up making all of my meals the night before our exchange.  That can get a little crazy.  This time I was able to make everything a full day in advance (which is huge for me) and today was much less stressful.

+ You can freeze almost anything!  I feel like we've gotten more adventurous as the months have passed and I love it!  Don't be scared, just have fun with it and experiment!  Some things don't reheat as well as others, but at least you tried :)

+ Use mason jars, freezer ziplock bags, tupperware, disposable pans, etc... to freeze your meals in.  My personal favorite are ziplock bags since they take up the least amount of space.  If I'm using disposable pans, I've also learned to put a layer of plastic wrap first, before the foil to prevent freezer burn.

Here are some recipes from our most current freezer meal exchange:

The Best French Dip Ever

Pizza Dough Recipe + Pizza Freezing Technique (Top with whatever you like!)

Delicious Homemade Bagels

Cilantro Lime Chicken Taco's

And more tips on freezer meals if you're really interested!:

Marta Writes

Annie's Eats

Our Best Bites (Scroll down to the bottom for freezer friendly meals)

Martha Stewart

I'd love to hear about your freezer meals!  Have you done them before?  What have been your favorites?  Don't have enough room in your freezer?  Think again :)

a night away.

i honestly can't remember the last time that danny + i got away for a night to ourselves.  so this last week, during danny's spring break, we were determined to put a stop to that trend.

we booked a hotel in downtown salt lake (the city creek marriott to be exact!) and had the most lovely, relaxing, wonderful overnight stay!!  we must do these little trips more often :)

danny's parent's so graciously offered to watch the kids for us so on monday morning we left our little town and made the drive up north.  we got there around noon and said goodbye to our sweet kids about 2 p.m.  for the following 24 hours we were together--just the two of us!--and it was the weirdest thing ever :)  

we checked into our hotel, admired the view from the 11th floor (yes, we live in a small town! hah!) and got prepped for a few hours of shopping at the brand new city creek mall!! i was more than thrilled.  we were able to spend as much time as we pleased in each of the stores and i had my very first experience at H&M.  it did not disappoint!  we spent half of our disney gift card and splurged on a rocky mountain chocolate factory carmeled apple.  yummmm.  we had such a lovely time.  city creek is absolutely gorgeous and everything about it is awesome.  if you haven't checked it out for yourself--go soon!  since we were there on a monday it was hardly crowded at all and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

after shopping for a few hours, our feet were sore and our bags were heavy so we walked back to our hotel (which was literally right next door!) and rested up for an evening out on the town :)  we went to blue lemon again (we went there when we were in salt lake for conference) but i just can't get enough.  i ordered the special for the day: grilled trout on edamame + peas with squash and i couldn't have been happier with the dish.  plus, they have the best ice in the world so i was one happy camper!  (i told you i'm addicted to ice!)  we strolled around a little more--enjoying the water/fire show--before retiring for the night.  once back at the hotel we each ran 1.5 miles on the treadmills (side by side!  when is the last time that happened?!?) while watching one of our favorite shows, psych.  and then we cooled off by swimming in the pool + hot tub.  it was the perfect end to the perfect day.

the next morning, danny's birthday!, we slept in (!!!) and hurried off to the salt lake temple.  we haven't done a session there since right after we got married so we were glad to be back.  it is such a beautiful temple, inside and out.  the grounds are absolutely breathtaking this time of year and it is just a great place to be.  we enjoyed a nice lunch with danny's mom + kristina + tim (even though the kids were out of control!! welcome back :) 

and then we headed to provo to celebrate danny's birthday with my family.  we had a yummy dinner with brownie's for dessert.  what a wonderful day!!  happy birthday babe.  i hope it was a good one :)  i know i had fun!  thanks for being such a wonderful husband, father, friend, seminary teacher, etc... i know so SO many people love you!!