Blog Design?

I've seriously been sitting here for an hour trying to figure out how to make my blog look better...any suggestions? I think my background doesn't match with the layout...ughhhhh....

The Yard and Square Foot Gardening

We've lived in our house five years now...and are just now getting to the backyard.  Oh, I know that some of our family members think perhaps we are slackers for taking so long (love you guys!) but we did have our reasons. First two years living here don't count-we suffered a few losses and the yard was the last thing on our minds. Next we had a baby, and who wants to do the yard when you can't even sleep all night? Not us. Finally, when we felt ready to get around to it, we couldn't quite decide/agree on what we wanted. All through this, we were also saving up so that we could pay outright for all of the work (budgeting is amazing people! Highly recommend it). Let's be real though, I had to work on patience a few times when I so badly wanted Eric to get a move on with this.  Anyway, it's time and I remembered to start taking pictures throughout the whole process instead of just at the end like I normally do.

So here is in front of our kitchen window. We will put our square foot garden here. Eric is in the process of installing the sprinkling/drip system as well as building the garden walls:

Close-up:

Another close-up:

Eric's excited he's doing this all himself:

Zane's helping and wearing sunscreen and a hat. I had to run out and smother BOTH Eilertsen boys with sunscreen:

Hehehe...someone found mud:

We will keep you updated on the progress of our yard!

Helping Daddy

On our spring break rampage of organizing, we needed to pause and build a step stool for Zane to use in the downstairs bathroom. What I'm noticing about this sweet boy of mine is his love of examining things: taking it apart or putting it together, it doesn't matter. He loves figuring out how things work. So of course when the opportunity to use tools and help Daddy put something together comes up, Zane is right there to assist as needed.

Organization

I don't proclaim to be a genius at organization. Instead, I search and steal ideas from other people and then apply it to my home, which is what I did during spring break. I focused mostly on two spots that were embarrassing for me: the closet and the laundry room. I forgot to take before pictures though! Here's the after:

 Closet Close-up

 Above: Hat rack on wall and command hooks for extra bags so nothing is on the floor. Way in the back of the closet are more command hooks for sports stuff we own, and the shoe rack is on the shelf so again, nothing on the floor. We all know that this family likes to pile stuff on the floor, so I had to prevent it!

Laundry Room: A room of hideous disgusting-ness before. Again, stuff on floor, NOTHING on the shelf...you get the idea. After:

 Pictured above: New target shelf racks ($16 each) and canvas boxes ($12 each) helped me organize the cleaning supplies and make it harder for littlest Eilertsen to get his hands on them. Cat supplies are all together in one spot, and all Costco stuff is put together.

Funny Birthday Pics

We attempted to take a group picture with the kiddos...So three kids under the age of 18 months...

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

The boys' tummies are hilarious here...too wiggly again

Happy 1st Birthday Ketra!

Check out my precious niece who just turned 1!

Lady Bug Cake

Opening presents with Mommy

Playing with presents

Eating cake

More cake

Love, love, love her!

The Faces of Zane

I was uploading birthday party pictures of Ketra's 1st (to come later!) and started searching through all the pics we have. I found some amusing faces Zane makes while we attempt to take his picture. (My apologies for some of the blurry ones...I don't know how to take pictures).

I also found this one...