Spring Happenings

Spring is closing out, so I figured it was time to give an update!

We had our first camping trip of the year in March and went with our Sunday school class up to Lake Georgetown. We stayed close to home because we were trying to get more non-campers to join us. Over the 2 days we had about 11 people and 3 dogs so it was a success!

Bernoulli was visiting for the weekend so he got to join the fun

Zelda with her backpack

A few weeks later, we had another cousin wedding in my family. David and Skye had their wedding in Houston and so we drove in Saturday afternoon for the rehearsal dinner then the wedding was Sunday afternoon. They had the ceremony in a chapel, then the reception was half indoor, half outdoor. The outdoor area had cornhole and giant jenga for people to play games which was kinda cool. 

playing with baby Daniel at the hotel

It was really great to spend time with family, I just love big gatherings, its so fun!

We are now owners of 7 Quail! Our friends Aaron and Jean have been talking about backyard quail and all the ins and outs of owning them. They have a pretty small footprint, are quiet, and a lot easier than chickens. They also are high producers of eggs. Anyways, Aaron wanted to try it out, so we agreed to help and let our backyard be the host of this project since they live in a small apartment. So Aaron built a really cool house for them to live in that we can just drag around the yard to different areas. There is chicken wire all around, so no cleaning required, they just poop and it falls out the bottom. There is also an auto food dispenser that we just fill up and the water is similar, we just fill up the outside container every few days. They have the first room that's open, and then under the slanted roof they can go for protection from rain and thats where their food and water come out. They are pretty fun and have started laying eggs, we are up to 14 now!  He was right, they are pretty small even full grown, and very quiet. Gaius is pretty unsure of the whole endeavor, but he is adapting pretty well. They also have a built in dirt bath and then another container we put in for a second one. We fill it with top soil and they love love it. Its pretty funny watching them get dirt all over themselves.

Michael planted his spring/summer garden a few weeks ago, and it is already doing really well! We did beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, watermelon, cilantro, blackberries. potatoes (those are the big ones in the middle), and started an asparagus bed. He also puts wildflowers around the edges for ants/other bugs on congregate on and stay away from our good plants. The potatoes and watermelon are a new venture, so we will see how those turn out! The dwarf peach tree is doing well in the back, hopefully it will give fruit this year?

In true spring fashion, we did some spring cleaning out of our flower beds! We spent all day on a Saturday about 2 weeks ago when Michael's parents came to town to clean up and re-do some of the front flower beds. There is just SO MUCH and its been needing work for awhile. So here's the before:

And the much much better after!

So glad to get that done! We still want to line the walkway with bricks or stone to make it look a little more polished, so hopefully we will do that soon. Longer term, we may take out all the bushes in a few years, but for now, it looks so wonderful!

House updates

We have done a few small projects and one big project since my last update!

First up, Michael removed the tape player and closed in the bottom of our intercom/sound system box.

The door still needs to be painted (whenever I finally break down and paint all the trim), but its much nicer to have all those cords hidden! He was able to hook up a raspberry pi in order to play music from the computer, and we can also hook up our phones to play things from there as well.

This one happened a few months ago, but we re-decorated in our bedroom! The main upgrades are the blackout curtains and the new comforter. The white has held up very (and surprisingly) well with Gaius. I do have to wash it once a month, but that's not bad! I also cleaned out our books and this past week framed some postcards from Israel and made the bookshelves pretty :).

I keep forgetting to take "before" pictures because I get excited to change things, gotta work on that! Trust me, it looks better now haha


Last but certainly not least, we FINALLY upgraded our tile!! (cue hallelujah chorus) Gone is the white, always looks dirty tile and in its place we have a really nice dark grey with a matching grout.

Before:

After:

I love the fact that it still matches our cabinets without having to now paint all of those and replace counters. Maybe down the line at some point, but I am really really happy with the overall look.

I'm still deciding if I need to replace the kitchen rug or not, some days I like it and some days I think its too dark...

New Bathroom

Our guest bathroom finally got itself a little makeover!

Nothing too huge, but its amazing what a little bit of paint and some new decor can do to totally change the entire look and feel of a room. This bathroom used to kinda stress me out a little bit from the half-painted walls (who even does that!?) to the mis-matched shower curtain and rugs, it was looking sad. 

But now, its looking preeetty good if I do say so myself!

I love love the wooden flower thing (or whatever its called). That might be my favorite part of the whole thing! At some point, I hope to change out some of the fixtures and maybe even the cabinet, but for now, I love it!