Birthday Weekend! This is a long blog...

This weekend Andrew got to stay with my parents, which also meant I got to see a lot of him!! My mom picked him up Friday afternoon and my Dad and I met them at Cracker Barrell for dinner. Here he is when we drove up... he had my mom's sunglasses on upside down.. he looked like a bug!

Here we are at Cracker Barrell... Mom helping Andrew color..

After dinner we went to visit Matt at the fire station. He had to swing out to a different station, but Andrew still got a tour of the fire trucks. It was starting to get dark, so the lighting for pictures was kinda rough.

Is this not the cutest kid???

Here he is sitting in the drivers seat... He looks so little in the big fire truck!!

Andrew with his Uncle Matt & Pepere. I had problems getting him to smile at the right time in this one... he looks a little grumpy... ;)

Here is Matt showing them a video of the apartment fire they had that day.

Andrew jumped up in the lieutenant's seat.. he put on Jeff's sunglasses and said "I'm a fireman!!" So cute...

In this picture, Matt had the lights going on the truck for Andrew to see...

I loved this one.... he grabbed the headset, put them on his ears, and adjusted the mouthpiece... looks like someone has been playing with his daddy's pilot headset! He knew just what to do.. He's a born pilot and fireman.... It was funny, at dinner he said " I be 'piyot' I be fireman, I be what I be!" So cute.

After a busy night he got to crash in his new 'old' toddler bed his Memere bought... here he is posing...

Don't forget the bedtime story! His memere read him a Kyle's favorite bedtime story from "Under the Tagalong Tree."

On Saturday, my parents, Matt and I took Andrew to the Dallas Aquarium.. he was a little young for that place though. There was too much going on for a 2 3/4 yr old! Here he is on the way.. he was wearing Pepere's glasses this time.

We tried to get him to take a picture with the shark statue, but he was being a little grumpy as seen below ;) That little stinker..

Here were Matt's favorite animals at the aquarium.... (Just kidding) He kept saying he was going to get a shovel and come back and "take care" of these.

Owls!! They were trying to sleep and did not enjoy my camera flash..

Look at these crazy creatures we saw!

Here was my favorite.. the cheetah! I love big kitties and wanted to take him home!! He kept moving so I couldn't get a decent pic of him...

After the Aquarium, we walked down the street to Spaghetti Warehouse. Afterwards, he saw the giant dinosaur statue and was fascinated with him! He had to go see him up close and pet him. He hated to leave the dinosaur behind!

Saturday night we had our friends over for a game night. Since it was the day before my birthday, Heather ordered a cake for me. So nice of her!! Thanks, Heather!

On Sunday, my parents took us (and Andrew) to Saltgrass for my Bday lunch. Here is a pic of Matt and I (looking pretty tired).

Here is another pic of us (with sun grins this time)... I'm wearing the dress Memere gave me for my bday. I love it! I also got to wear the necklace she gave me a few years ago.. it matched perfectly! Thanks, Memere!

I had a great bday weekend! Our big party is on Wednesday!

Flowerbeds!

Since we moved in, we have been waiting to do some work in our flower beds, and on Sunday we finally did! I bought a park bench to go out beneath our tree and we tore out some bushes, moved some bushes around, and planted three crepe myrtles and some flowers. It was a muddy day (see from our clothes) after all the rain we had the past several days. At least it was nice weather! Now we just have to pray there isn't another freeze! Nala enjoyed watching us....

The BEFORE picture from when we moved in.... notice the overgrown tree on the right and the ugly bush on the left (which was very sharp.. we both have some battle wounds)... This picture doesn't show all of the flowerbeds, but believe me, they were very overgrown and random! We counted six different kinds of shrubs/bushes along the front of the house! We got rid of some and moved others.

The AFTER pics.....

We trimmed up the bushes on the left in front of the window. They have pink blooms and are very pretty, but were overgrown! We also moved around the bushes that you now see on either side of the tree. We planted a couple mums there in front as well as some flowers.

The ugly sharp, spanish bush was in the middle of all the stone... now the stone just leads up to the bench. We planted some flowers all around there.

It's hard to see the crepe myrtles because they aren't in bloom yet, but they are there, trust me!

In this pic, you can see the new fence/gate we rebuilt and stained a few weeks ago. Matt also trimmed up the honeysuckle, which looks much better. The big bush on the right (in front of the AC unit) was where the crepe myrtles are now. Also, the little bush by the fence was one we moved.
Our big bradford pear tree is in bloom.

We can't believe we did it all in one day, but we sure were tired! Matt was sore from all the digging up of bushes and the digging of holes. As for me, I took a rock to the knee cap (it ricochet off a bucket directly hitting my knee cap.. it sent me to the ground and brought tears to my eyes).. I also fell in a hole of muddy water. We also had to deal with our whiny dogs looking through the fence at us! We are glad we got it done though!