Mrs. Wilder, how does your garden grow?

Wednesday I headed to Atlanta to go to a concert with my best friend of 19 years. I got to her house a little early. Instead of just sitting in the car I explored her mom's beautiful garden. Not only is this garden strikingly beautiful, but Mrs. Wilder did it all herself. When they moved in to this house a very steep ridge was all that was there. Now it is a wonderful world of green, buzzing carpenter bees, and a patio that makes you feel like you can go escape the troubles of the world and disappear into a secret, special place. I quickly grabbed my camera and luckily got some shots before a huge rain storm blew threw. Enjoy!

Passing through the vine covered arbor and gates, looking down through the garden.

Bee!

Learning To Share: Emma and Jackson

Jackson has been part of our family for two weeks now. He is settling in really well and we all (including Emma) are used to him being here. His hyper-ness has slowed down some and his playing isn't always so rough towards Emma anymore. I think Emma would honestly be really sad if Jack left. They follow each other around all day and play constantly. They are much more interested in each other than they are in me. Although, occasionally they fight over who gets the majority of my attention at that given moment. I try to split it up as evenly as I can. However, Jack is a little bigger than Emma and usually wins the battle over the space leaning up against my legs. But Emma isn't left out. I make sure she gets special time with me too. Plus, she is more nimble than Jack and she uses that to her advantage a lot. This week they discovered they can run from the family room through the kitchen to the living room and dining room in a big circle. They are so cute trying to chase each other on the hardwood floors. I love watching them entertain themselves and have so much fun. I think they're on their way to becoming bdff (Best Dog Friends Forever). 

However, they're still working out exactly how to share. Each dog thinks every toy belongs to her/him. When we were visiting my in-laws this past weekend (for Miguel and his brother's birthday... I will blog later) the dogs started playing tug-of-war with this long animal toy. They loved it so much and played so cute with it that I decided to pick one up to. My mother-in-law mentioned she picked up a three pack at Sam's Club. I just happen to be there today and saw the pack and picked them up. I handed them the panda looking one first. Jack tore it up in a manner of minutes. Sooo I tried the alligator hoping they'd play tug-of-war again. This time it was a success! They played tug-of-war with each other for about ten minutes before Emma got bored and went to chew on a bone. 

Look at those intent faces... okay face, since you can't see Jack.

... Jack then chewed off an alligator leg and started to de-fluff him. I took away the alligator to save him for later play. 

Look at the green in his mouth... Mixed feelings here... don't want Jack to eat a toy, but we aren't fans of gators in this house ;) 

Moving, Part 2

I still want to blog about the moving day, and I took loads of pictures of the moving process, but for now I'm just going to do some before and after shots. We still have some things that we want to add and change but for just moving in and for our first house I think we're doing pretty decent. 

Family Room Before:

Family Room After:

Family Room Before:

Family Room After:

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After:

Living Room Before:

Living Room After:

This isn't how we want to leave the living room/dining room. It is just temporary placement of dining hutch and temporary sofa.

Hallway Before:

Hallway After:

Guest Bathroom Before:

Guest Bathroom After:

Office Before:

Office After:

Miguel is very excited about his U-shaped desk! Believe me, he will use ALL that space while studying!

My little black desk! I still need to get a chair and a desktop. 

Guest Room Before:

Guest Room After:

Master Bedroom Before:

Master Bedroom After:

Obviously we need to buy some nightstands. 

Master Closet #1

AKA Miguel's closet (still kind of a before picture)

Master Closet #2 /Sitting Room area

My closet and where the doggies sleep at night

I only have a before picture of the master bathroom. Also, not pictured is the laundry room... who wants to see that anyways... boring! ;) Also there are no pictures of the breakfast nook yet. We got the table but have no chairs yet. Someone purchased three of the four corresponding chairs so we are waiting till more come in.

This is one picture of the view of one of the trees in the front yard.

I need to get some good shots of the outside of the house too. We have a major over haul to do and have loads of plans for the yard. I'm so thankful for a handyman of a husband who also has a wonderful green thumb!