First Comes Love...

I use the word "blueprint" liberally... For those of you wondering / asking, below is an aerial sketch of what the deck will look like.  Double click on the image to see a larger version.

As promised, below are pictures of the latest going-ons in the yard.  Spent last Saturday laying sod (beautiful day for it) and planting a variegated maple.  Everything is coming along nicely and we hope to start building the deck next week!  Moving right along!  Laying sod...we bought 35 rolls!   Took Kevin about 2 hours, but the end result looks great!   Yard in it's current state.  The areas on the side between pre-existing grass and sod have been seeded...should see some growth in a few weeks   Digging a hole for the tree.  We'll be extending the island you see there to the right   Our new tree.  Thanks Lucy; we love it!  Plan to purchase some primidellas to plant along the west side of the yard, then we'll wait for the deck to be built before adding the flagstone path and additional shrubs...we'll be sure to update you along the way.  In other news, Happy Birthday to m...

A day late, but hope you all had a great Easter and were able to spend time with family and loved ones.  We had fun this year, hosting dinner for the first time! We had my parents, brother, aunt and uncle over for an Easter feast complete with cheesy potatoes (a Lauckner favorite!) and strawberry / rhubarb pie (a Nickinovich favorite!) It was a lot of work, but well worth it.  The pictures below are from dinner prep and Easter morning....I completely forgot to snap a few shots at dinner! We had lots to do on Saturday night.  There were eggs to be dyed and pies to be made!  Final product.  It tasted pretty good! Kevin feel asleep on the couch while I made the pie. He had been working in the yard all day! I kicked off Easter morning with a surprise egg hunt for Kevin. I've gotta admit, I thought he'd be a little more geeked, but I must remind myself I'm not married to a 5 year old...   We will however have one in 4.5 ye...

Not much too say about this, but it was too random / cute / funny not to post.  My Mom came over today with the below....a gift from my Dad to the baby for Easter: Yes, a mini Easter basket, filled with mini marshmallows, and a pinch of fake Easter grass.  Below picture gives an idea of scale: Thanks Dad... this made me laugh!

Well, it's official; as of last Tuesday, we no longer have a driveway, and as of Saturday that void has been filled with a ton of topsoil (4 cubic yards to be exact). Below are some pictures of what I like to refer to as: "Yard Remodel: Phase I".  Oh, the things Kevin puts up with  :) If it were up to him, we would have waited a few months before diving into this mess, but I got a bee in my bonnet and decided, "there's no time like the present!" . So here we are; yard a disaster, baby on the way, and a whole lot of dirt in our yard.  We will be seeding this front area.  A deck will be built out front with a pathway to the door (on the left side of the house). French doors will open onto the deck. The void pre-topsoil Our dirt being delivered!  I offered to help, but Kevin said it was "pretty tough manual labor" and I should stay inside and rest. Can I be pregnant all the time?  ;) Kevin spent all day on this ...

It's official, as of Monday morning, Kevin started a new job with Loft 9 Consulting!  I'm so happy for him and proud of all the hard work that got him to where he is today.  Can't wait to see what the future holds! He will be working from home which will be perfect while I'm on maternity leave; picnic lunches!  Or so I'd like to believe  :) Since there was no "first day of work" picture, I will leave you all with the below:  Kevin's first day of school... just as cute today as he was back then!

Abigail's growing more each day and is now old enough to have her very own website!  (we'll update more as time goes on...) http://thelauckners.ourbabychannel.com/ Happy 25 weeks, little one!

In the wise words of my Mother-in-law, "Thank God it's Sunday!"   As promised, below are a few pictures of Kevin's double screen Masters week. Lots to look at! Congrats to Charl Schwartzel for the big win today.  Also, congrats to Kevin for coming in first place on Tiger Woods 2012....big win in the Lauckner house today!   I watched for a bit, although Minnie was clearly bored to pieces.... Happy Masters Sunday!

I really shouldn't use an exclamation in the subject line.  The week typically means Kevin dissolves into the couch to watch golf until Sunday, but it's also a fun time at our house.  He loves watching the Master's (says it's his Super Bowl), and it's fun to watch him geek out and get so excited about it.  This year he set up two TV's side by side so he can watch the Master's on one, and play his new Tiger Woods 2012 (Master Edition) on the other.  This is no joke....we gave it a test run last night.  I promise to post pictures this week once he's in full geek mode  :) It's also hard to believe that 3 years ago today, Kevin, Kirk, Amy and I were in Augusta, Georgia walking around Augusta National (like as we speak)!  What a fun day and week it was....every year I think of that trip and all the fun memories.  We saw lots of famous golfers (Fred Couples, Tiger Woods, Gary Player..), then spent a week in Charleston, South...

As always, we filled the chalk board with "to-dos" this weekend and did our best to complete them by Sunday.  Kevin's been getting the wrath of "nesting mode", but he's a trooper. This weekend's big project was painting the nursery and assembling the crib: check and check! (both thanks to Kevin)  Below are pics of  "Stage 1".  We'll update you as things progress in nursery land! A blank, and messy slate Getting started Friday night Finished product on Saturday morning! Everything looked great once we painted the second coat Saturday morning, but Kevin wanted it perfect, so he spent another half hour going around with a touch up brush- how cute!  And I dilly dallied around the house and took pictures of myself and random things  :) My favorite baby dress so far!  Got it in SF last weekend Baby closet.  Melt my heart.... Another adorable SF find.  So practical  ;) Self portrai...