My little Pumpkin and Our Front Yard

Dalton is now 16 months and growing bigger by the minute it seems. I swear I am going to have back problems from him wanting me to hold him, ha! Yesterday was his actual 16 month birthday and he was being in his stuck up my butt moods all day. He wanted me to hold him every five seconds and finally I just had to sit with him on the couch because I couldn't do it any longer. Now today, my lower back is killing me. I don't know how much he weighs I haven't checked but I thought it was funny how when he was a newborn and only 8 pounds I was like Oh he's so heavy I can't hold him for that long or my arms are going to fall off and now he has to be over 25 pounds and he's still wanting me to hold him. Him and Aggie are doing great they just are driving me crazy. I really feel like we're living the Marley and Me life right now. As far as housebreaking Aggie is doing great but someone by the name of Dalton is deciding that when I go to change his diaper to take off running and then pee on the floor. Aggie is horrible about chewing. In fact, if you have any hints please push them my way. He is definitely like Marley. He chewed through the cord of our stand up fan in our bedroom so now there is two pieces of cord and I swear I'm going to start buying shoes from the dollar store because he has eaten almost every single one of my heels at least one out of the pair. Here is a picture of both of them looking at me like who us we are not bad at all.

One thing that they are is very sweet to each other. Aggie plays with him all the time and lets him lay on him and kisses his hands and feet and Dalton gives Aggie kisses and has to always lay next to him on the floor when taking a nap with his hand around him instead of on the couch or bed. Dalton started learning how to sing this weekend. Yesterday Dalton and I went to my mom's for dinner and he was sitting on her couch swaying back and forth saying "happy" and claping his hands. My MIL taught him the song You are my sunshine Saturday and she kept singing it to him over and over and over and then he finally starting singing happy eyes happy eyes I know he's trying to do the part happy when "skies" (eyes) are gray. It was just adorable. Poor chantz missed it because he was at home miserably sick:( I think there is for sure a stomach virus going around and he got it. I tried to keep Dalton away from him all day and kept trying to sanitize everything so we wouldn't catch it. He's also talking up a storm. He says Diego clear as day now instead of Dehdo and he says Doorah and Bob for Sponge Bob which I'm super excited about because we're staying at their hotel and going to their character breakfast in less then two weeks when we go to Florida now I just need him to learn Mickey and Minnie really quick:) He's still learning more colors and he learned GiGi and Aaron and out, no more, all done, hi, hello, and he waves by bending his little hand like he's squeezing the air now instead of just waving. He knows high five and he knows how to say bad dog and stop to Aggie. If we ask him does he want a spanking he'll shake his head no and say no in a high voice or if we ask him if he's supposed to be doing something that he's not supposed to he'll say no and shake his head no. He loves to get on his four wheeler and drive it all around the house and he's learning how to turn the wheel. He's starting to do very good with silverware instead of eating with his hands. He can eat a whole kids meal now when we go out to eat and he drinks out of the little kids cups with the straws so it's nice incase we forget his sippy cup. He LOVES to wear his shoes anywhere and everywhere. He knows how to brush his teeth all on his own now but we still aren't using toothpaste as the doctor said it's bad at this age because they swallow alot of it. And as soon as we get back from Florida we're taking his crib apart and starting to transition him to his own big boy bead!!!! Last night he slept with me in the guest room since Chantz was sick and Dalton's been having nightmares alot lately and waking up so I just had him next to me so he could feel me if he got scared and this morning I left him in there while I was getting ready. This is an extremely high bed in fact we had to get our queen bed in our bedroom that we have now when I got so far along pregnant because I couldn't even get into it anymore when I was so big and this little man got down off the bed and came into the bathroom and grabbed my legs this morning when we woke up. He didn't even fall off the bed. I kept walking by the room every now and then because I was so scared he would but when it was time to get up he just got up and got down and came to say goodmorning to me. It's so easy with him this age but it's also sad because he's growing so fast I feel like before I know it he's going to be going to school:(

Ok, I know I said I would show you before and after pictures of our front yard from two weeks ago, but I lost the before pictures. I am going to show the after pictures and try to explain best as I can what it looked like before....

Ok this is actually the front garden. When we moved in the plant in the back that is wild grass I think there was five of those and three indian hawthorn plants scattered in here with brown mulch and that's all. We added these two red cactus looking plants but one of them died so we dug them both out and my Uncle wanted the one that was still alive so he now has that one. We wanted to go with a more simpler look here so we got two yucca plants and kept the one wild grass plant. We added red lava rocks to border the garden to match our brick and put the solar lighs in. We also bordered the garden with those little plants I don't know the name of them but I see them everywhere and they have little white flower sticks that come out of them during spring and summer.

Here is a better view of the whole thing I just wanted to get a centered picture for up top. We still need something for our gutters that the water won't destroy that little area of the garden. Any suggestions???
Ok now this border of the other side of the sidewalk never existed. It was all grass when we moved in. So we had to dig up all the grass aligning it and then plant the bushes and fill in with lava rocks to match the other side. It came out beautiful, it's really hard to get pictures because I can't fit it all in the camera at one time. We were trying to get red tips for here because on the other side we face the mailboxes and the people whose properties touch it are not the greatest landscapers so we wanted something pretty to look out to from the breakfast room. Well when we went to the store these were so much more full than the red tips. I don't remember what they're called but they start with a c and they look just like red tips to me. They have the red tips but they get this really beautiful flower thing that you will see below. We didn't know what those were at first but after a couple of days they started blooming so I think it will look really pretty once they grow bigger and thicker that we can shape them and see the flowers coming out.

Anyways, that's our new front yard. It was alot of work but totally worth it. We now have a very distinct walk way instead it just looking like it's sitting there all alone and we'll have more privacy with the shrubs once they grow and it will block all of the bad views that we have from our breakfast room. We have solar lights every two bushes going on the other side of the walkway now too so that makes it very lighted and pretty at night time. I really wish I had the befores so you guys could see the difference because it's really a big transformation but I don't know what happened to them:(