BLOOMS

Over the past few years that we have lived in our house Sam has grown to love gardening and frankly anything to do with the yard. Love is actually an understatement because he could be outside 24/7 if he was able. Yes, even in this 100 degree weather we have been experiencing - that doesn't stop him, but only means more water refills! He has worked hard to get the yard where he wants it to be and this year all his hard work has come to fruition and looks amazing!!! He has learned a lot and I know will continue to grow in this new love! Here are a few examples from this Spring and Summer. I can't believe how well things have held strong despite some crazy storms and crazy hot weather, but it all still looks great! We did loose a canopy that we had covering our porch which we were using as shade for many flowers, but other than that things are looking good. We are thinking vegetables next year!!! (All pictures taken by Sam also)

Kwanso Triple Petaled Lilies

We have a lot of these and they multiply ever year -

let us know if you want some, we have plenty to share!

Assorted CalladiumsLantana - this stuff can take over!!!

Elephant ears, red Petunias,and two types of Sweet Potato Vines

One of our many Crapemyrtle trees

Asparagus furn, purple/red Petunias, Sweet Potatoe Vine, Coleus,

and wispies (technical term unknown!)

Hardy Hibiscus

huge blooms that catch my eye every morning

Asparagus fern - aka: Clown Hair!

Grape Vines - recently all the grapes were eaten by birds!

Echinacea -

beautiful flowers that attract lots of butterflies and bees

Pansies from the springTulips

Sam planted ~75 bulbs, so we had quite the showing this spring!!!

Bradford Pear Tree - spring blooms

(down to only two of these after one fell on our house 2 years ago)

Not pictured: beautiful pink Hydrangea (having a hard time in this heat), Tea Rose bush, daisies, various herbs/garlic, Four O'Clocks, Bloodgood Japanese Maple tree, Carolina Jasmine, Snowball Bush (Viburnum), Some Hostas, and many more that I don't know the name of!!!

GO RANGERS!!!

Our lives have been consumed lately with the Rangers and we are praying that they can pull it out tonight in game 5 against the Giants!!! Go Rangers!!!

All About Sam!!!

I have a lot of things to catch up on to finish out this summer, so I thought I would start out with Sam. First off, this past year Sam has spent a lot of time coaching the Coppell Cowboys baseball team. He loves baseball so much and it was such a joy seeing him excel and enjoy coaching these boys. They had a great couple of seasons and I think Sam and the other coaches really helped these boys improve and prepare for what's to come - HIGH SCHOOL!! Here are a few pics from the summer season.

The Team and Coaches

Next, on our Labor Day trip to Lake Hadley in Kansas the guys enjoyed a day taking in a game of golf. Sam sat out that day due to a hurt back, but captured some pretty great moments as the photographer!

Brandon

Trent

Trent & Brandon

Chris

At the end of the summer, Sam and some of his buddies went fly fishing in OK. They weren't as successful as they hoped, but had a great time roughing it out in God's country without the wives!!! Here are a few amazing shots that they caught one early morning.

Four Years Ago

Four years ago today I married my best friend. Four years ago today I was preparing to become a wife. Four years ago today I was stepping into the new life we would begin. Four years ago today I would never have been able to know how blessed I would truly be by the man God gave to me. The song below started playing on the radio not to long ago and while we were celebrating our anniversary last weekend it began to play in the car and the words could not be truer. God truly did give Sam to me and has created him to be the man that I need. The Lord speaks to me and blesses me daily through the man I call my husband and my heart swells just trying to express how much I love Sam. So Happy 4th Anniversary Sam, may the next 4 and next 40 more years be as blessed as the last 4 have been! Thank you for being you and for loving me unconditionally!

Dave Barnes - God Gave Me You (2010 Video & Lyrics)

Like I said above we celebrated our anniversary this past weekend. We changed things up a bit from the past and stayed at a bread and breakfast called Garden Manor. The picture below is the place that we stayed and we really enjoyed it. The grounds were gorgeous and so relaxing, so we were really able to take time to just sit and reflect on our relationship. We had such a great weekend and we really enjoyed getting to shut the world out and just concentrate on us!!!

Project

Me and Pops built a little arbor for my grapevines, and just for fun as well. I found a picture of a prototype that I liked and modified it a bit. I cut cedar to the measurements that I wanted and then stained the wood. Then it worked out that my parents came into town a couple of weeks ago, so it was a perfect opportunity to have a project to do with my dad. Plus I was able to use "the master's skills" in case I screwed something up very badly. :)

PS we did hit a sprinkler line :/ That was fun...

Here is the picture I went by:

Cut to Size:

Stained and assembled:

Installed and braced until the concrete dries:

Yay!!

Next step is to add some flagstone underneath or some type of pavers.

The flowers are blooming in the garden as well. Makes it very enjoyable back there (I'm an old man).