Spring Fever!

This winter has been brutal! I am so ready for spring!! Walking around my yard this past couple of weeks, I've been finding flowers popping up all over the place. I can't wait for the daffodil show. I planted about 1500 last fall, along with the ones I planted the year before added to the daffodils that were already in our yard. My neighbor grew up in our house and she said the daffodils in the yard have been there since before her family moved in over 65 years ago! We didn't know they were there until last year. I wouldn't let Mark mow a lot of the yard and made sure to fertilize them. I'm hoping they bloom this year. Lots of them have buds already!

I'll make sure to take lots of pictures when they start blooming!!

For our 1st Anniversary, Mark and I went to Charleston, SC last year. I fell in love with the azaleas and camellias. Mark and I bought some camellias at a plantation and planted them in our yard. They haven't bloomed yet, but  I bought two more last summer. One of them has started to bloom and it is beautiful. Here is a picture of the flower.

It isn't fully open, but you can get a general idea.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Charleston, SC.

This is a gorgeous bed and breakfast on the battery that is way too rich for our blood.

The last several pictures were from the two plantations we toured. We didn't pay to get the home tour, we just wanted to tour the gardens. It was definitely worth it!

Rainbow Row

There were so many gorgeous private backyard gardens. They inspired me to come home and do more to our yard. I planted lots of small azaleas in our woods last spring. Unfortunately many became casualties this week to the guys dumping wood from the old oak on top of them. My plan is to plant more azaeleas and camellias in our woods. It will be several years until they mature enough to make a huge statement, but I'm looking forward to seeing it in the future.

Another Big Project!

When we moved in almost two years ago, one of our huge oak trees in the front yard was dying. We let it stay another year hoping that maybe the frost killed the leaves the first year. Last year, the leaves came out on about 1/4 of the tree and then they died shortly there after. We decided it was time to take the tree down. We procrastinated a big, knowing how big of a project it was going to be. We hired someone Mark has worked with on several jobs to take it down with his bucket truck. I think we've got enough wood to keep us warm for a couple of winters with our wood stove. I'm already taking advantage of the wood this week!

I'm just hoping that my daffodils that I planted last fall that are already popping up do not fail to bloom this spring because of the huge limbs falling on them...

A Cake for Carla and Ann

Monday I took a cake for Carla and Ann's Birthdays to work. Everyone seemed to enjoy the chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting. Once again, I had fun making it. I guess it's a bit of a creative outlet for me.

Happy Birthday Anna

Our neighbor's birthday is this week. I baked a birthday cake for her and took it over for our super bowl evening. Since it fell between Super Bowl Sunday and Valentine's Day, I decorated it with footballs and hearts. I used white chocolate and milk chocolate buttercream frosting. It turned out pretty good, so here's some pics.

Of course I have to put another picture of the chick chicks up...

Once the snow started to melt a bit, they finally got brave enough to start going outside their coop. I think they were just sick of staying in for days. You can see by the mud prints that they didn't go far into the snow. They ducked under the coop and went the other way to the muddy mess where the snow had melted.

2nd Snow Storm

The first weekend in February, we got our second dose of snow. This winter has been brutal...yeah yeah, I know what all of you Wisconsinites are thinking, but I moved down here for a reason! I am so ready for spring. I sure hope all of my daffodils bloom this spring and make this winter worthwhile. Mark and I are really going to appreciate spring this year. I had to work during the weekend of the snowstorm, so I packed a bag before my first day back at work. I ended up staying there two nights, unsure of how the roads would be. Or shall I say the drivers down here. There were tons of accidents when the first flakes were falling. Mark took some pictures of the fresh fallen snow, so I could see them when I came home.

Rusty and Banzai

Mark's sister Sara gives us things for our future when we go to CT. This time, we got some toys for when we have kids. Rusty and Banzai thought one of them was for them. :-)

They would play together and then fight over it...now it resides in the attic.

NYC

Mark and I went to CT to visit his family in January. While there, we took the train down to NYC with our friends. We stayed overnight in a hotel right at Times Square. It was great fun!

The lights were incredible at night. We ate at Carnegie Deli, where Mark enjoyed his Rueben...it was HUGE! He shared it with Holly and still had lots left over.

We walked all over shopping on Thursday. I had FAO Schwartz on my list of must sees. I loved looking at their toy catalog when I was younger. Grammy always used to get it around Christmas time.

I always thought it would be fun to have one of these dogs! :-)

Rockefeller Plaza was definitely not what I had envisioned. It was nice, but smaller than I thought it would be. Its a small ice rink towered over by huge buildings. Not like ice skating in the corn fields in Wisconsin!

I never would have thought you could make a M&M store 3 stories tall! We just looked...can't imagine spending what they wanted for M&Ms. After checking out the M&Ms, we went back to meet up with Scott and Holly in line for Broadway tickets. Before the show, we ate dinner at Patsy's. The food was good and the service was great! Very nice staff. We went to Chicago, Ashlee Simpson was starring in it.

After the show, we went to The Mariott Marquis Hotel to their revolving lounge on the 48th floor. It was neat to see the city from that perspective. I felt like we were in an episode of Friends as we passed by one hotel and saw a naked man at a desk. No secretary to be seen though. :-)

This is a picture of ugly naked man for all of you Friend's Fans.