Easter beagle

For Maggie's first Easter I thought it would be cute to take a photo of her in some bunny ears, sortof like this. I even found a leftover pair of ears from Halloween a couple of years ago, and I had plenty of treats to bribe her to sit with. So how hard could it be, right? Right.

Here is our very best shot:


Please note that both ears are sticking up and that her head is centered between them. Success! Here is an excellent representation of how the rest of our little photoshoot went:








Sigh...

Backyard

We have been in our new house for 6 months, and this past week we put sod down in the backyard. Finally we will have grass and not dirt! What follows is a look at the backyard's thrilling transformation. Thrilling.

So, here is what it looked like when we bought the house. We distinctly remember our real estate agent saying "this backyard has such potential." Yes! Unfortunately, "has potential" mostly means "currently sucks." Our favorite part of the yard was the Dumb Fence. The Dumb Fence had two basic regions. There was the redundant region where it backed up to the neighbor's 8 foot luxury fence. And the stupid region, where the slats are so far apart that our dog could squeeze through. Dumb Fence. The backyard hedges were also out of control due to not having been trimmed for a couple years. Hmm...if the previous owner of the house is reading this blog post, please replace the words 'dumb' and 'stupid' with 'charming' and 'rustic.' You can't really replace 'redundant' though.

Here is the side yard. It had even more potential than the backyard.

Next, we have the results of our DIY efforts. I (Clay) did two things that I feel were especially manly and worthy of an American macrobrew when I was finished. First, I took down the redundant fence using a drill, a hammer and a shovel. That added about 2 feet of yard to our property, and the neighbor who owns the luxury fence was also thrilled because I was able to chop down all the scrawny trees that were growing between the two fences and were beginning to damage the luxury fence. Second, I reused the wood from the redundant fence to fill in the gaps in the stupid fence. Third, I trimmed the hedges using a trimmer I borrowed from Greg. BTW, Greg has every power tool that Lowes carries, so contact him if you want to borrow something. I personally recommend the nail gun. After buying some patio furniture, we'd taken it as far as we could. Definitely livable, and a huge improvement. But if we wanted to reduce our potential further, we were going to need professional help.


So, this picture was taken after Day 1 of the pros. We had them create a walkway through the flower bed so that you can actually walk to the back yard. We also had them regrade the land so that water won't run into our bedroom closet when it rains heavily. I know, right? You can also see the outline I drew for some flower beds along the fence. I just kinda walked along with a can of spray paint and told the landscapers that this would be the garden boundary. We also went to Lowes and picked out some bricks to line it with.

Also, here is the side yard after the pros had regraded. Such potential!

And here's the backyard after Day 3! We had irrigation put in, with separate zones for the lawn and the beds (lawns need more water than beds). Really we couldn't be happier with it. In the mean time I have been reading Neil Sperry's book on Texas gardening and picking out shrubs and perennials and all that so that we can get some color in the beds. I also became a fan of Neil Sperry on Facebook, joining thousands of Texas blue-hairs and possibly Jadd Masso.

We have grass in the sideyard! Maggie likes it.


Here's Mags racing across the backyard. Notice the graceful curve of the flower beds.


And finally we have a gratuitous cute puppy photo. Don't try to convince me that you are here for the articles. We know better.

Dallas Arboretum

Last weekend we found ourselves dressed up for a wedding and standing in front of a bunch of beautiful flowers at the Dallas Arboretum. So we took a few photos and got some really pretty pictures. Although I think you could put a tired, cranky Frankenstein on a bad hair day in front of these flowers and still get a pretty picture...

A little of this, a little of that

Lots of stuff going on around here...most of it fun or at least random enough to (hopefully) be halfway interesting.

Maggie, the laptop and the baby bump continue to jockey for space in my lap...


The crib arrived!


We've made a couple of quick trips to Dallas. Above is our cargo for a two day trip...we try to pack light, of course.



We also visited One World Farm were Maggie met some donkeys, sheep, lambs and chickens.


Last week poor Maggie had to get spayed. She did just fine, though and after a day or so of droopiness we were delighted to see that she was back to stealing shoes and causing trouble.


Clay and I took a Baby Care Basics class. Here he is learning to swaddle.


Until we bought a house and started going to Lowes/Home Depot every other day I had no idea that lots of people take their dogs home improvement shopping. It actually seems like a terrible idea, really, but then again, why not...

Moth

Clay: "What's that Maggie is looking at?"

LL: "Eh...nothing. She found a crinkled up tag on the chair cushion."

Clay stares some more at the tag...

LL stares some more at the tag...

Maggie stares some more at the tag...

Clay: "That's not a tag. It's a giant moth."


I know, our lives are really, really riveting. We expect E! to arrive with the cameras any minute now...

Braley's wedding!

Miss Braley got married last weekend in Dallas and I was lucky enough to get to be her Matron of Honor. Here are a couple of snapshots of the action-packed weekend:

The bridal luncheon at City Cafe


The girls at the bridal luncheon


Rehearsing


On our way to the church in the H2 limo on the day of the wedding


Heading into the very pretty Perkins Chapel


This photo cracks me up...don't forget that Braley and I were in the same spot on opposite sides of the drill team kick line in High School...in my poor delusional brain we are roughly the same size and height. Ha! But isn't she pretty? Every detail was perfectly thought out and smoothly executed all weekend long from the Thursday night welcome BBQ to the farewell Sunday brunch. Congrats and best wishes to Mr. and Mrs. Klatt!

Awkward Maggie photos

While Maggie is obviously one cute puppy, she has her bad photos just like the rest of us. She is pretty hard to photograph as she is constantly moving or at least chewing frantically, and she gets really bad red-eye in her blue eye. And sometimes really bad blue-eye in her brown eye. Here are a few of her less glamorous outtakes. And note that there is plenty of photographer error represented as well...

Eeeeek, the eyes. Isn't it nice to have built-in 80's 3D movie glasses? Nice, wind-swept ears, in any case...


Kindof like rubbing your stomach and patting your head? I think she often sticks her tongue out when she springs into action (like Michael Jordan only without the creepy Hitler-stache), but usually it's hard to capture the moment on film/pixels.


We all struggle with double chins


The upside-down pose...known to be even more difficult than the underwater pose they attempt on America's Next Top Model, only Maggie isn't a drama queen about it.


Must watch the fly-away ears


Clay and I get the side-eye from her all the time.


Looking a little strained


Focused more on comfort than aesthetics


Pretty sure she's thinking, "You've got to be kidding me..." Assuming she's "thinking."


An awkward snuggle with the monkey grass.


One of her many Lohan moments. Having a good scratch without any concern for who is watching or what they see


Feeeeeeeed meeeeeeeee