A couple nice updates...

We were very blessed to get a nice income tax return this year. The first thing we did was get a new railing on the stairs. We didn't even get it because we wanted to (we actually had other things that we wanted to do), but it was a necessity! Abi could put her head through the old one and slide underneath - not safe at all!!!

I'm sooooo glad that we got it done though - We absolutely love the new railing! I'm in the process of staining/poly-ing it still. But, it looks so nice - nice and modern and new!

I've been dreaming of re-doing this garden since we moved in 2 years ago... I was finally able to get to it this year. I dug all these out a couple months ago and then spent pretty much every day thinking about exactly what I wanted to put back there!

And this is the finished product!! I love it - I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. I think that it will look better as the plants grow a bit, but I already really like it.

We also just had a new roof and gutters put on - courtesy of our home owner's insurance due to a hail storm we had last year in June. We only had to pay the $500 deductible and the rest was covered by the insurance. It was soooo noisy and we couldn't stand having the construction guys here - they were just nasty - but thankfully its done and we shouldn't have to replace the roof for many years to come! We actually just had the gutters done last year, but the insurance agreed they should be replaced - so we have new gutters again for 2 years in a row...