Mother's Day Was Busy!

I told Steve that all I wanted for Mother's Day this year was his help gardening. 

We just got home from Florida yesterday, the man spoils me rotten on a daily basis (especially with all of the pregnancy craving runs!), and as much as I love gifts and surprises, this is not the year to spend a bunch of money just for him to show me that he thinks I'm a good mama. (I had already been saving for new plants, so they didn't come out of our budget as "gifts".)

Being silly before church this morning!

So! Back to gardening and Mother's Day...

Mel met us at church, so we could all hang out together for the afternoon. After church, we grabbed a quick lunch at the delicious Honeybaked Ham Cafe and then headed to Home Depot to pick out some plants for the front yard. 

The previous, previous owners installed some huge flower/shrub beds, so I'm trying to go slow and not get overwhelmed with what we want to change or add to. Today, we just wanted to focus on the area around the front door.

Steve ripping out all of the dead underbrush in one of the beds. This front yard is so fantastic, but there are HUGE shrubs and it could easily look like the "crazy lady who lets everything get overgrown and no one can get in the front door" - kind of yard. We're trying to purge the shrubs that have gotten way out of hand.

This is looking at the front door...the large, green bush had two, dying azaleas on either side, so we ripped them out, trimmed the shrub, and planted two different plants on either end.

We planted a blueberry tree on the left side. I don't really care whether it actually produces blueberries; I just love how the branches seem more "spindly" in contrast to the thick shrub behind it.

On the right side, we planted a Golden Barberry. It looks really tiny here, but it should grow nicely into a yellow-ish shrub! We needed some contrast with all of the thick, dark green vegetation in this yard!

Looking out the front door, we planted (well, Mel planted) a row of red annuals and a rose bush at the end. 

A closer view of the rose bush. It's so hard to wait for plants to get bigger! I wish we could buy them huge from the very beginning! We made a good start, though, and I'm excited for the plants to grow and bloom!

 

This guy worked so hard! We both have some seriously sore muscles tonight, but it was worth it.

It was such a fun, relaxing productive day, and we loved being together with the girls! I love being their mama and I am so thankful to be the one who gets to watch them grow and learn!

My baby girl

My Squirt