Ben's 6 Month Pictures

I'm definitely behind with getting this blog up-to-date. I should have put these pictures up at the end of April when Ben actually turned 6 months old but this is the first chance I got to scan them in.

Landscaping

After we moved into our new house, Joe was very insistent and excited to do some landscaping in our yard. I, on the other hand, really wasn't looking forward to it. I think my lack of enthusiasm stemmed from the fact that I never really did it before and I don't know anything about plants or flowers. Joe pretty much knew what he wanted to do and kept asking my opinion as to whether I wanted arborvitae or boxwoods, annuals or perennials, and I had no idea what he was talking about! So our trip to Lowes was a little stressful on me as I tried to figure out what we should plant. In the end though we went with what Joe wanted and I guess I learned a few things.



Here's a before picture of the front of the house









Joe digging a hole for an arborvitae - for those that don't know, it looks like a mini-Christmas tree


















Here I am planting some impatiens in front of the other arborvitae we put in - check out my cool lime green gardening gloves - they really helped me get in the groove.













The death of a shovel - Joe was digging the last hole in front our steps to put in a boxwood bush when he hit a big rock. When he tried to work the rock out using the shovel as leverage, the shovel's handle actually snapped in half!













Eventually Joe was able to dig the rock out of the hole and we were both pretty impressed once we saw the size of it.

















Joe was pretty beat after fighting with the rock, so I grabbed the other shovel and planted the last bush by myself. I had Joe snap a picture since I doubted many people would believe I actually did any of the big stuff!

















Azaleas and impatiens under the family room window.










The smaller bush is an azalea that was already there but we moved it over. Then we removed a rose bush that was at the end of the flower bed and replaced it with a lilac bush. We moved the rose bush to the backyard but it has since died unfortunately.









Here's an after shot of the front of the house. It only took us about 3 hours to plant everything, and I must admit that I really like the results and it was easier than I expected. Maybe I've got green thumb afterall...but maybe not. :-)

100 Years Old

On May 16, 2006, my Uncle Jim's mother turned 100 years old. Nana, as she is affectionately known, recently moved into a nursing home but actually lived on her own until about a year ago. And she was still driving until about 2 or 3 years ago! She is in some ways the stereotypical older lady, always saying "Isn't that lovely, dear?" and "Oh, it's just marvelous."

My Aunt Marianne and Uncle Jim hosted a birthday party at the nursing home to celebrate Nana's century of life. Joe and I took Ben and Nana very much enjoyed seeing him, as did the other older folks that were there. I never realized that Nana was one of 11 children and amazingly she still has 5 brothers and sisters that are still with us. Here's a picture of them, one wasn't able to make it to the party though. The birthday girl is on the left but unfortunately I didn't get the names of the others:


Happy 100 Years, Nana!!!