Extreme Makeover Back Yard Edition

Two summers ago, our back yard looked like this:

My dad and Matt got rid of that nasty tree, I pulled the vines off the fence, and we were left with this:

The other side of our back yard was bearable. It just needed a little extra grass seed to patch things up, but was kind of boring.

Last summer was kind of crazy and I was pregnant, so we didn't work too much on it.

However, this year we did a back yard overhaul of sorts. After a lot of hard work, it now looks like this:

Matt and Mike put in a patio and Erin's mom generously gave us her old patio furniture!

We also have a berm, a garden, cedar flower boxes, and flower planters for the patio. That's right...we're big time. The grass came up pretty quickly with all of the rain we've had, and the plants in our garden are growing like crazy!

These are the cedar flower boxes on the back side of the garage:



In our garden boxes we planted tomatoes, green & yellow peppers, jalapenos, eggplant, cucumber, zucchini, and yellow squash. This is our first garden, so we'll see how it goes! Everything seems to be growing and we have a few little tomatoes on two of the plants, so I'm hopeful.

Matt worked SO hard to accomplish all of this! Talk about sweat equity! Really, I didn't do too much other than make sure Sophie stayed out of the way. I'm so proud of him!! Thanks, honey!

P.S. I officially only have one more week of work and then I will get to be a full-time momma for 2.5 months!! I can hardly contain my excitement. It is going to be SO glorious and Sophie and I plan on spending some quality time in our new back yard!!

Wordless Wednesday

(Okay, I tried about 20 times to turn this photo the right way. I have NO idea why it keeps doing this. It is saved in my photo album the right way, but continues to upload like this. If someone knows why, please leave a comment. Just turn your head to reveal the extreme cute-ness of this little love of ours.)

Wordless Wednesday

Some of my fellow bloggers like to do these so-called "Wordless Wednesdays," so I thought I'd join in the fun. I'll stop with the words now. Here's what you're all really wanting to see:

January 18, 2001 - April 13, 2009

It is a very sad day at the Schaefer household. Today we had to put down our little man, Rudy. I truly feel like a part of the family is missing. I fell in love with that 80lb pit bull the minute I met him, and if you know anything about me, you know that's pretty miraculous. I hate dogs, but I love and adore my Rudy.

It came pretty unexpectedly. He hadn't been acting like himself since Saturday night. Matt took him into the vet today and called me at the beginning of 7th hour at school (the last class of the day). Luckily, I have a co-teacher that hour, so I was able to leave right away, go pick up Sophie, and head to the animal hospital. On the way there, we talked about our options and agreed, with many tears involved, that it was Rudy's time to go. There wasn't much else we could do...or afford to do. Even if we could keep him alive, it was only a matter of time before he could get worse. I was glad to be able to hold him and sit with him one more time. He had been non-responsive all day, and Matt said that when he heard my voice in the waiting room asking where to find them, he lifted up his head and started wagging his tail. That pooch sure did have a big heart, and man-oh-man was he loyal. We're going to miss him so much.

My Big Brother

Back in February we went to Lawrence for Oskar's 6th birthday. I posted briefly of that visit here, but I promised to show pictures of my brother's house and I have a few more of the birthday boy.

One of his presents had to be hauled on the bed of my brother's truck. Oskar is opening it with Poppy anxiously waiting to find out what he got.

Yep, it's a go-cart. Pretty cool. Oskar LOVES cars and anything with wheels, so he was pretty much in heaven for the rest of the day.

Sophie's cousins sure do love her. I think this picture would be a great ad for Amy's clothing business. They are all wearing her clothes (other than Oskar's jeans.)

Okay, so I don't mean to brag, but...my brother is amazing. He's an architect/carpenter/builder/artist/genius, not to mention a very loving husband, father, and uncle. While we were there, we stopped by the house my brother designed and is building for his family. He has designed and built many other buildings and homes, but all of them were constructed under the needs/wishes of his clients. This is the first time he's been able to really show his own style without constraints (other than financial limits). We got the official tour, and I can't wait to see it when it's finished. He's pretty much designing and building everything by himself (down to making the windows and doors), so it's going to be a while before they can move in. He works on his other projects for clients during the day and goes to the house every night & on the weekends to work on it. (Needless to day he's getting a little burned out, so they're off to Jamaica for a week on Sunday for a much needed family vacation at the beach.) Here are some pictures of his masterpiece!

This is the front of the house. On the right side (behind the bobcat) is the garage, and everything to the left is the living area.

Scott is explaining something cool about the house to my dad & Matt here, but I was taking a picture, so I missed what he said. I'm sure it was pure genius. :)
This is the section of the house you could see in the last picture. (The garage is to the left.) It will be the kitchen & living area. The open spaces to the right are going to be filled with huge windows looking out to their backyard/courtyard.

This is looking from the courtyard into the room (kitchen/living area) from the last picture. To the right is going to be Amy's studio "wing". To the left (which you can see better in the next picture) is all of the bedrooms (there will be 3 of them).

Again, this is from the courtyard looking to the left at the "bedroom wing" of the house.

This was taken from the kitchen/living area towards Amy's studio "wing". That's my dad and behind him will be those huge windows looking out to the courtyard.


A good friend lives next door to the house Scott is building. Scott designed and built their house, too. This is their kitchen. It's pretty representative of my brother's style.

This is the friend's living room area. The house is heated primarily by the wood furnace you see toward the back of the room. The floors are concrete and have radiant heat.

So as we continue to visit and see progress on the house, I'll be sure to post more pictures. My brother has wanted to be an architect since he was six years old. It is SOOO cool to finally see his dreams coming true. I love you, big brother. Go enjoy Jamaica! You deserve it!

My Friend Erin

Our dear friend, Erin, took more pictures of Sophie this past weekend! They turned out SOOOO great! Check them out at http://erinjustthething.blogspot.com/

If you like her work and would like to have your family photographed, Erin is holding a mini-shoot day on April 18th. Not only will you get AWESOME pictures taken, but the proceeds go to a great cause. Here's what Erin has to say about it:

"The cost is $100. You will receive a 30 minute session and 10-15 full res images on disc. ALL of the proceeds from these mini shoots will go to the Kairos Christian School. (The school was started by a local woman who's mission is to be able to offer a quality education to the children who's families cannot afford the traditional schools. When I clicked on the link and saw the sweet faces of the children I melted. I knew I wanted to do something to help. So this is the idea that I came up with.) Its a win win people! You get great photos of your kids and we can help this school help the kids of Antigua. The mini shoots will be held in Lafayette Park from 9:00 - 3:00. Call me or email me if you would like to reserve a spot. Lets fill up those slots and raise as much money for them as we can!"

One thing I love about Erin is her charitable and tender heart. She's not keeping a penny of what she could be earning for a lot of time and hard work. Like Erin said, everyone benefits from this...the school raises support, Erin gets to spotlight her amazing talent, and you get incredible pictures of your family to cherish for a life time! Go to her blog or website to contact her for more information or to book your spot!

Feb./March Update

Woah. I didn't realize it's been over a month since I last posted. There's a lot to catch you up on, so hold on to your pants.

Toward the end of February, we went to Lawrence, KS to visit my brother and his family. We had such a great trip! My brother is an architect and has designed and is in the process of building their house. The pictures are on my parents' camera, but let me just tell you that he is AMAZING! Their house is going to be incredible. I will be sure to post pictures as soon as I get them. We had a wonderful visit with them. Everyone is doing well. Amy is controlling her MS with diet and is feeling great! Here are some photos of our time with them.

I just love watching Scott with Sophie. He's a great uncle!


Our trips to Lawrence are always action packed! Oskar & Poppy are full of energy!

Another action shot.

Some other updates on our little Sophie:

1.) She is 6 months old! How did that happen?! Our little girl is getting so big!

2.) We have introduced solids and she is LOVING it! We started with rice cereal, of course, and have since added sweet potatoes, peas, bananas, and prunes. Now, if you're a mom, you'll probably understand the order of these things towards the end of the list. Sophie loved sweet potatoes, but hated peas, so we moved on to bananas. The bananas were a hit but then she got a little plugged up. Actually, a LOT plugged up. We're talking nothing coming out for nearly 4 days, which explains the prunes...which she actually likes a lot and certainly did the trick.

2.) Sophie is gaining more interest in Rudy every day. She likes to pet him and is definitely curious about what he's all about.


3.) Sophie enjoys watching the computer screen and TV. She could sit and watch for as long as we allowed her to, but we try to keep it brief!



4.) She has learned to get up on all fours, rocks back and forth, and is sure to be crawling soon! It's fun to see her learn new things every day with this. She's getting more and more adventurous.



5.) Bath time is still her favorite activity and you can't keep those toes out of her mouth!

6.) She sure loves her mommy & daddy and separation anxiety has definitely set in!!


And there you have it! Hopefully it won't take another month before another post!