Backyard Transformation - Finale

Over the past five months, since we arrived in the USA, our intense focus has been to landscape Steve's mom's home. I am so glad to say, we are like 99% there now. From dust bowl to paradise, from cactus, weeds, rocks and dirt, to a beautiful and refreshing garden filled with flowers, lawn and a fountain!One can only appreciate this final product if you can compare it to the way it was and how we got to this new place! First the after shots, then the before shots and finally many shots of the process. Enjoy the transformation!!!

The overgrowth before we started...
And now for the journey to where it is today...

Friends

We have been blessed with such precious friends!!!Here is Steve with Tom Mercer (Sr. Pastor of HDC) and Kev Reynolds (Lead Pastor of Flipside). They had enjoyed a morning sharing together outside Starbucks at Victoria Gardens in late December around the topic of "Oikos".

Dressed for work

Deron has enjoyed working at the hospital transporting patients. Here he is all dressed for work in his scrubs and all!

Pam's Birthday

It is so fun being able to celebrate family events together. Pam chose as her locale to have us all converge at Spaghetti Eddie's for a scrumpuous lunch! Happy birthday Pam!

Cosy at homeschool

One of the benefits of homeschooling is Purlie gets to be right in the middle of it all. Here Jasen is pressing in to finish his math in time for Christmas, and of course, Purlie took advantage and worked her way onto his writing board.

Exploring Georgia

Shellie recently took an exploratory trip to Georgia. It was so confirming, as we sense the Lord is leading us that way. Her co-explorers were Jenny, Stef and Jonah. Here (above) they are sitting discussing their plans for the day with Pam (part of our Georgia family).
Shellie really connected well with Kathie, the real estate agent who showed them nearly 3 dozen homes in the few days they were there.
Here is a home that Stef liked. Ironically it was called the "Hayley"One of their stops included a tour of Rodger's furniture store (Rodger is Pam's husband).

Real Snow

In early December we had our first wintry blast. This is what we saw from our front garden in Upland.Being that we live in the foothills of some huge mountains, we took a little spontaneous drive after Flipside one Sunday to experince this cold fluffy stuff first hand. Here is Jasen, totally not dressed appropriately for the snow, but totally loving it at the same time! Notice the sandals!

It even snowed for us (a little) as we were getting ready to head back down the mountain.
Of course we had to try to bring some home with us!