Ties or Tutus?

We had a gender reveal party a couple of weeks ago. We invited friends and family over for munchies and the 'big reveal' of what Baby Hein will be. I had my mom make a banner for the big occasion...it said Ties or Tutus...it turned out really cute, although it's hard to see in the picture!

I had everyone 'vote' on what they think Baby Hein will be....

and then we had some jokesters who were not very participatory....(is that a word?)

Gpa Melvin

Note that both Gpas-to-be are in this group!

I went and bought two outfits for Baby Hein for the grandmothers to unwrap. 

And the race was on......

My mom saw the color through the tissue paper....

It's a girl!!

And then we unwrapped a few gifts....reading Aunt Teresa's poem for Baby Hein...

A tie or a tutu, a blessing to hold,

This new little bundle swaddled in cardinal and gold.

Pompoms, baseball bats, helmets or bows,

We pray for 10 fingers and 10 tiny toes.

A tie or a tutu, either one will be great,

To nurture and brainwash to attend Iowa State!

Be it dance shoes or cleats, brown eyes or blue,

We hope this little one will attend Moo U too!

A tie or a tutu, we don’t really care,

But anything other than a CYCLONE- BEWARE!

-Teresa Streeper Anton

The Eberts gave us an ISU burp cloth.....that Nathan mistakingly thought was a rally towel!!

Everyone had a great time at the party! It was a lot of fun!

Here is a pic from our 20 week ultrasound. Everything checked out well...she has all the parts she's supposed to have and is measuring in at 10 ounces. She was not very cooperative in getting her picture taken as she had her arm in front of her face the whole time. 

So now we continue to pray that the second half of the pregnancy goes as smoothly as the first....

And we anxiously await the arrival of Vivian Lynne Hein in November!

Before......and After

So here is our backyard as of last summer/fall virtually untouched from when we bought the house. We had major drought issues last year so the grass was super dry....plus it hadn't had any attention or fertilizer during the three plus years the house was empty. Needless to say it was in desperate need of some help!

Plus....we had the super ugly 'crop circle' from where the redneck pool sat. The small concrete pad was too small for all our furniture and everything was just generally ugly. 

Wrigley's urine also does a number on the grass. 

So we started work on a backyard transformation. We had plans drawn up for a new paver patio that we like to call 'the chopper pad'. Nathan and I about had a heart attack when we finally saw how big the patio was going to be.

As it turns out, the patio wasn't as big as the gravel that was initially laid down. Things are beginning to take shape. 

We had 7 trees planted in the yard as well. Three evergreens, two tulip trees and two flowering crabapples. 

Almost done!

So they didn't finish everything until late in the season last fall, so we had to wait until this spring to have the landscaping installed. 

Finally, the finished project!! The landscaping was done a couple of weeks ago. We had to have sod placed over the areas where the skid loader drove through the back yard and where they dug up for some of the landscaping. 

It was quite a chore getting the water feature set up and running....we had many electrical/landscaping communication issues.

My small hosta garden under the deck. 

We decided that lawn crews move much faster in Texas than here in Iowa. Our crew in Texas would have had this done in less than a week.....not 6 months (but in their defense, the weather hasn't really been on their side this spring...it's been very cold and rainy)! But at least it's done....we still have to get our sprinkler system hooked back up....but beggars can't be choosers. 

My goal this weekend is to get the redneck pool up!

Happy summer!