3 Anniversarys and Counting

So June 29th was our third wedding anniversary and we decided to splurge by going to the Hines Mansion. It's this cute little old house that has been transformed into a bed and breakfast.

This is the outside shot of the place.
These are the shots of the room (sorry I forgot my camera so the internet pics will have to do).

The tub in our room was awesome. Who doesn't enjoy a good soaky soaky in a huge tub, plus the sparkling cider made it extra fabulous.

I enjoyed getting back to Provo to see some of my old haunts and to check out the new buildings on BYU's campus. I was surprised how much the place had changed, but it was awesome too. Next year we go back to Matt's roots in Montana.

Attitude of Gratitude

So I have been pondering Meggie's post from Elder Eyring about seeing the hand of the Lord in our lives and being grateful for the blessings that we have. In that vein I have decided to write little bit of that here on the blog since it is my main form of journalling.

On the last post I showed off our new little bird bath and truthfully when I bought it I thought this is purely decorative and will not get used at all. To my surprise on my way home from work last week I noticed a bird on the edge of the bird bath and as simple as it sounds it made me so happy. I guess it was a stop and smell the roses moment when I realized how grateful I was to have a lovely yard to enjoy the birds and the warmer seasons of the year.

Here Little Birdies

It used to be empty and now its filled. We decided to go with a birth bath and a bird feeder.

I love the little froggie and hopefully he doesn't scare the birds.

Hooray one corner of the yard can move from the "finish it" list to the "maintain it" list.

Melissa's Graduation

Layton High with pride we sing thy name. Ahh the only school song that sounds like a death march. Melissa is the one going to her seat on stage, I know you can't hardly tell, but she was in the choir.
This is everyone switching their tassel's over.

My two sisters.

The parents and Melissa.

The parents, Melissa, and Grandma Sheffield.

Melissa, me and Matt. I love a good June graduation. Congratulations Melissa! Now she is off to Utah State in the fall.

Remember when . . .

. . . you had that moment when you realized high school was really over and you were not coming back. I had a flashback of that last night at Melissa's Extravaganza Concert (cue the Mandy). I'm not saying I loved high school by any stretch and there were a lot of painful moments, but it did have some definite high points. One of which was this fabulous group of girls I ran around with most of whom I am still in touch with today. This is a shout out to those girls who helped me through the tough times and who I still find hilariously entertaining. Love you girls.

Anyway after my moment to wax philosophical below are some pictures of Melissa's concert. Laytones are the show choir at her school which she participates in. Sorry the sign was hard to get a clear picture of.
Here's the whole group when they are not moving. Most of the time they sing and dance and we all know how well I take pictures when the subject is moving. Melissa is in the very center.

Here's the up close shot. Look how gorgeous she is. I can hardly believe next week she graduates from high school. This happened for me exactly ten years ago and now it's her turn.

Congrats to by baby sister and stayed tuned for the official graduation pictures.

Green Thumb Possibilities

Despite the blogging hiatus Matt and I have been keeping busy the past couple of weeks or months with some gardening chores. We removed some ground cover in this bed and added columbines and standing phlox. Hopefully the bark will make this area low maintenance and the flowers will give us some more color.
Last year we got rid of this humongous bush, but now we have a gap. Any suggestions? My ideas include a garden bench, a dwarf tree, and a hanging plant stand. The trouble is, whatever it is, can't be too big as it ruins the curbing, but it does need to have some substance to fill the space.

Check out these bushes. Matt trimmed them back quite a bit and I'll admit I thought he had butchered them, but look how gorgeous they are now. It is great when you end up with gorgeous landscaping as a result of your home purchase. I had no idea these would flower so beautifully and Matt really unlocked their potential.

How tall does a sycamore grow? We are going to find out. This is our most recent purchase to get some more shade in the back yard. This is Matt's baby and so far he has been tending with loving care. We sure are enjoying the spring weather now that its here.

Puzzled

So Matt wanted to try a 3D puzzle and here she is in all her glory. All I can say is man these are tough. All I can say as a puzzle nerd is that fully interlocking pieces are much preferred.