Landscaping

Our main landscaping project this fall was to create a bed around the gate on the right side of our house.

The first thing we did was to put in the black plastic edging around the bed portion that is outside of the fence.  The edging continues from the front of the house, along the side, and to this bed.

Next we put in pavers along the back side of the bed (inside of the fence).  We plan on using these in some of the beds along the back of the fence.  We also laid flagstone stepping stones through the gate that match the ones in the rock bed along the screen porch (they aren't "permanently" placed or leveled in this picture, but this is where we placed each one).

And then finally we put in plants and mulch.

(Sorry for the poor picture quality - the sun was super harsh when I was taking these.)

We also put in some screening trees in the backyard where we plan on making beds in the spring.  All the plants in the corner bed were bought at Lowe's for 50% off when they were clearing out their plants to make room for Christmas trees.  We plan on putting a cluster of small deciduous trees (like redbuds or crape myrtles) in the corner, a small magnolia trees, and some large rocks in this bed.

We planted these 5 screening trees directly back from our patio.

This bed will also have a large rock or two and some other smaller plants.

Because we are bringing in the rocks and taking up a portion of the yard with these large beds, we decided to wait until next fall to kill our backyard and reseed.  We didn't want to tear up new grass or pay for more than we needed.  I can't wait to have real grass instead of weeds and Bermuda (the one yard we border has mostly Bermuda so that's going to be a never-ending fight).

Downtown Storytime

Two weeks ago, Rylan and I met Missy and her boys (on Wednesday when Carter had school) at the downtown library for storytime.  At the end the kids can come up to the stage while the librarians sing part of "What a Wonderful World".  Carter has gone up there once or twice and Rylan may have joined him once (I can't remember anymore), but Rylan needed no encouragement and went right up to the stage and sat!  He ALWAYS refuses!

Will and Luke went up too!!!

I had a cute video of the kids up there but can't find it now.  Oh well.

Outer Banks - Day 2 (The Rest)

After climbing the lighthouse, we walked about Historic Corolla Village for a bit.  We went to the Corolla Wild House Museum (which was more of store) and then over to the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education.

There is a small aquarium as well as a handful of other exhibits about the Outer Banks.  It was free and worth a few minutes to explore.

Also in the area were a couple of letterboxes.  We didn't find the first one we looked for but the second one was easy (Brian actually spotted from the car).

Our next adventure was to drive on the beach.  We were pretty nervous about this (Brian was nervous before we started after reading lots of stories of people having to get towed and then I was really nervous once we were on the beach that we were going to get stuck).  It was crazy how deep the ruts were - the bottom of our car dragged through the sand often.  We were in search of the wild horses but after a few miles decided to turn around because with the weather, they probably weren't going to be easy to find, just hanging out on the beach.

Luckily we made it back to the pavement without any issues.  After re-inflating our tires we headed to the hotel.

Throughout our trip, Carter begged and begged to play in the sand.  After seeing all the sand while driving on the beach, he wouldn't let up.  We tried to go on the beach at our hotel but it was insanely cold and windy and I couldn't do it.  We lasted less than 5 minutes.  And I really wanted to take the kids on the pier too, but we only made it up the steps to the part over the beach.

We went to a local restaurant for dinner (Barefoot Bernies - one of the few still open in the off-season) and then went swimming at the hotel again.  Here are our crazy boys in the elevator on the way to the pool!

We had lots of fun swimming and then cleaned up and went to bed.

Sunset

It's getting dark now by 5 pm but at least we've been having pretty sunsets lately!  This was taken looking out our back windows.

Outer Banks - Day 2 (Currituck Lighthouse)

After lunch on Tuesday, we went to Currituck Beach Light Station in Historic Corolla Village.

This lighthouse was built in the 1870s and still has it's original lens.  There are 214 steps in it and Brian appreciated every one of them as he had to carry Rylan both up and down all of them.  Carter however walked every step on his own!  (He may have been partly motivated by the kids in the group in front of us being promised "I climbed the lighthouse" stickers when they came back down.)  He raced to the top and we kept having to tell him to wait for us!

Driveway - Part1

We had our 1-year home warranty meeting on Friday before Thanksgiving.  Our list of requested repairs was relatively small and just about all were approved.

On Tuesday a crew did all our drywall repairs (like nail pops and tape lifting at seams).

This morning we had just about everything else fixed:

• Cracked grout and caulk
• Sloppy glue on our front door
• Leaking spigot
• Rattling downspout

And our major repair got started this afternoon.  When the sewer was being connected to our house, a super deep trench was dug.  It was filled back in and then our driveway was poured over the trench.  Unfortunately the ground had not settled enough when the driveway was poured because 2 of our panels had wide cracks across them and one panel was sinking.

One of the cracks ...

The front panel had sunk almost an inch compared to the adjacent panel.

The plan was to remove 3 panels and pour new concrete today.  The concrete didn't get poured yet (they finished too close to dark) but the panels were removed.  Unfortunately the new panels probably won't match in color to the old ones (even when we seal them in the spring) but hopefully it won't be too bad.  They had to be replaced.

The guys used a jackhammer, sledgehammers, and large crowbars.  It appears that they were able to spare our irrigation system.

(I took these photos from the master bathroom and the window doesn't open so there are horrible reflections, but you can get the gist of what's going on.)

The guys seemed to have done a great job of being careful and not damaging any concrete that was staying or our landscaping.  Yeah!

Powerball

We won $4!  It's not $587 million, but the first time we've won anything with a lottery ticket in probably 7 years (granted, we only buy tickets a few times a year).

4-Year-Old Check-Up

Carter had his 4-year-old check-up yesterday after school.  We had no major concerns or questions so it was an easy appointment.  Carter got to have his blood pressure taken for the first time.  He got a little concerned when it got tight, but was fine.

Here are Carter's stats from yesterday and a year ago ...

At age 4:

• Weight: 35 lbs, 0 oz (50th percentile)
• Height: 40.5 inches (50th percentile)

At age 3:

• Weight: 31 lbs, 0 oz (50th percentile)
• Height: 36.5 inches (25th percentile)

Yeah, Carter is now average height!  It's probably that hair though :)  He needs a haircut about 2 weeks after getting one!

After lots of questions from the nurse, Carter got to put on a gown and wait for the doctor.

Our only question for the doctor was about Carter's adenoids.  Ms. Judy, Carter's speech teacher, has always pointed out that Carter is a mouth breather and that interferes with his speech production.  So she asked that we check with his pediatrician to see if his adenoids are enlarged.  Our pediatrician said they are a little bigger but nothing abnormal and he'll grow into them.

After getting checked by the doctor (which Carter did great with), he did a vision and hearing test.  All was good with both of those.

And last, Carter needed one shot.  He wasn't thrilled about this at all.  But he did AWESOME.  This was his first shot in his arm.  He sat on my lap and did a little whimper kelp during the shot but was fine a few seconds after it was done.  Within a minute he was telling me how it didn't hurt at all.  Good job, buddy!

We are thankful!

Before Thanksgiving, the kids in Carter's class each got to fill out a feather for this turkey saying what they are thankful for.  Carter's said "family" and the rest were generally the same except for Maddie's.  Hers said, "My mommy killing turkeys".  Amy has 4 kids so wasn't embarrassed.  But she did try to explain the feather by telling us that she thinks Maddie got that from the lady that cleans their house telling them about getting a live turkey for Thanksgiving.  Sure :)

Today was library day at school.  Carter's class gets to check out books this year and had to return their books today.  We were a little early so Sarah Kate and my boys sat and looked through their books for a few minutes.  It was a big change from their usual running up and down the hall making all kinds of noise!