Our Little Helper

Finn is obsessed with shovels, tractors, dirt and anything digging.

I got an early birthday present about a week ago and we needed to plant it. The minute Ben stepped away from the hole, Finn jumped in and took full advantage to help.

The Lake

Finn loves sand, and he loves water. Nothing is better than a beach for him, sadly we are landlocked. But we do have a lake and it's Finn's favorite. It's always a battle to get him to leave.

Home Owners Association

Just in case any of you out there don't know how to pick up after your dog, here are step by step instructions sent to me by my home owners association. I thought it was pretty funny how detailed they got. Really? Is it this complicated? Tip #6 is especially important.

Why pick up your dogs waste???

Diseases found in dog waste that can be passed on to your dog:
Parvo virus, Whip worms, Hookworms, Distemper, Hepatitis, and Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis.

Diseases found in dog waste that can be passed on to you:
Round worms, Tape worms, Giardia, Salmonella, and Cryptosporidium.


How to Pick Up Dog Poop

Whether you like it or not, you are responsible for cleaning up after your dog. Not only is the waste not a pretty sight (or smell), but it’s also a breeder of germs and disease. Dog feces plays a significant role in water pollution, especially in cities, and the bacteria that makes its way into streams, lakes and the water table can make people sick. Here are some ways to minimize the unpleasantness of this task.

Steps

1. Take your dog for a walk, Keep them on a leash, and bring a plastic bag for yourself to hold. You could also tie the bag onto the leash.
2. Walk and enjoy the day out, but once the dog stops and smells the ground, be ready start removing the bag from your pocket, and start opening it.
3. Hold the leash with your one hand, as you maneuver the bag with the other. Or, if you are not alone, ask the other person to hold your dog’s leash. Put your hand into the bag, grab the bottom of the bag with your fingers, and pick up the mess on the ground.
4. Use your other hand to pull the top of the bag over your fist, retaining the poop inside the bag.
5. Tie the bag tightly, and dispose of it in the nearest trash receptacle.
6. Continue to enjoy your walk with your dog.
7. Wash your hands thoroughly when you get home.

Tips

1. Always carry more than one bag.
2. Some pet supply stores have doggy bags that are scented. You may want to try some!
3. If you can’t bring yourself to handle the poop, even through a plastic bag, purchase a commercially made “Pooper Scooper”. These usually consist of a handle on the one end of a long arm, with a double-sided shovel on the other end.
4. When picking up with a plastic bag: On Grass, make a claw like circle with your fingers-get as far under the poo as possible, then lift.
5. Plastic grocery bags work great for picking up dog poop. These bags do sometimes have a tear or two, so it helps to use two bags – one inside the other.
6. Holding your breath until you’ve picked up the poop and tied a knot in the bag helps a lot.
7. Assert yourself when you see an irresponsible or unprepared pet owner who fails to pick up their pet’s poop by offering them one of your own extra bags, and if they don’t take the hint Contact the Daybreak Community Association at 801-254-8062 to report the incident.
8. Violators will be immediately assessed a $25.00 Fine per occurrence.

In order to preserve our beautiful parks and open spaces and for you and your pets health, the Association is taking this seriously and violators will be enforced appropriately.

Finn's Room

The artwork Finn created for his room.

New Plants

I hate the plants that Daybreak put in our front yard. They look like weeds. Finally over the holiday weekend, I tore a bunch out and put in new ones (with Ben's help). Hopefully they really fill in next year and look even better.

These beauties were only about 1/4 of all the plants we planted. My front yard still needs a lot of help, but at least we figured out this small area. The rest can wait until next year!

New Wall

I've been wanting to add something more to Finn's room for a year now. Everything I wanted was just too expensive. Finally, thanks to Amy Coe and Babies R Us, Finn's room is much cuter.


This next picture doesn't have great quality because we were doing a panoramic so you can see the entire wall.


Finn loves the circles. He points (he points with entire hand) and gasps.

We have an idea for the opposite wall as well. Hopefully we'll get that done in the next week and we'll put pictures up soon.

My favorite plant

This is my favorite bush in our yard. The home builder put it in, so I have no idea what it is. We almost ripped it out, because we thought it was dead. I'm so glad we didn't.

Anyways, anyone know what this is? It's a bush that just has really long sticks/branches coming from the ground up. I love the white flowers.

Yard Work

We have finally (kinda) gotten our backyard done. We have one side, that we aren't finishing right now, because we don't have a fence, and our neighbors haven't done anything to their yard. So it isn't worth it. Our front needs a little help still and bark. But I think we've spent our max this year.

We finished the patio, planted some more plants and laid bark. It looks so good. We seriously worked non-stop all weekend and my body is aching.

Working Hard

Saturday morning we woke up at 6:30 to get to home depot by 7:00 to pick up a rental truck. We met my brother Morgan at the house at 7:30 and Ben and Morgan went to Progressive Plants to pick up our plant order. They unloaded the truck fast, since we had to be down in American Fork by 10 for Emmy's baby blessing.

After the baby blessing we headed back home, changed and got to work planting in the rain. After about 30 minutes the rain stopped and was perfect weather for the next 2 hours. Just enough time to get everything planted. We had help from Isaac (my nephew), Matt and Morgan. Ethan showed up just in time to see us finish.

We bought around 30 plants and spent way too much money. We are broke now!







Now all we need is our patio done and some mulch. These will probably happen next year.

Grass....

We finally got grass today. Now all we need is a patio and plants. Hopefully by the end of next week we'll have both. Just in time to be covered by snow.

Disaster Area

My home office is a complete disaster area. I haven't filed anything away since Finn was born. Mainly because I didn't have anywhere to put anything. This is how I have it organized...







Over the weekend we purchased a big metal filing cabinent from IKEA. Finally I can be organized! This is one of my many projects over the next week. Hopefully I can find the time.

Neighbors

Olympus Landscape has been working on our backyard for 2 days now. So far it looks awesome. During this process, we have discovered that our next door neighbor is a total jerk. He called Daybreak HOA and complained that a trailer was parked in front of our house. He then called the owner of Olympus yelling at him because there was a trailer parked in front of his house, that they parked their BobCat in his UNFINISHED backyard for a few hours and that one of their work trucks leaked oil ON THE ROAD and his dog ate some.

First off, when my neighbors on the other side were finishing their yard, their landscapers put tons of rocks and equipment in our unfinished yard and I could care less. It wasn't like we'd hang out in our dirt/rocky backyard and they didn't ruin anything. Also, I'm sure many cars leak oil on roads. There is no law against that. And our neighbor's dog is ALWAYS either chained up or on a leash so I know he is totally lying about his dog eating it. I have never seen that dog even 2 feet next to the road. I love dogs and I would feel aweful if their dog got sick. But there is no way you can control what is on roads. The only thing to do is keep your pets away from them. Then the owner Soto from Olympus had to come over and show my neighbor the property line to prove that his trailer was directly in front of my house and not his.

Hopefully my neighbor will calm down. He has to go through 2 more days of this.

Day Off

Seems like some of the busiest days are the days you are home from work. Today here was my original schedule:

8:15 - Our builder was coming to fix a few things
9:00 - Landscape company coming to give estimate
12:00 - Lunch downtown with three friends
2:00 - Cousins coming to visit and see Finn
5:00 - Pictures at Penny's for Finn

Craziness, especially when you know how far away I live from everything. So the Builder is still here fixing things. My dog is going crazy because of this stranger freely walking around our house. The landscaper came and left and Baby was crying (just put him down for a nap) so I feel like I can't get anything done!

At least my lunch got cancelled, Sad, but a relief. And my cousin can't make it up because her daughter has dance class. I do however have another landscaper coming over this afternoon I think to finalize everything to get started tomorrow. Yea!! I cannot wait to have grass. If only it was still nice outside to have a BBQ once it is done.

Here is a picture of our cute house that we are working on: