John-Land!

If you didn't already know this, John's sister Amie's husband Gary has a great love for all that is backyard entertainment. They have always called it "Gary-Land," so I'm calling our backyard John-Land now. It's not quite as crazy as the Henry's, but it's getting close!

We got a swingset a couple of weeks ago. John actually picked it up in Coppell and brought it home on a truck. It took him a weekend, but it looks great, fits perfect and we all love it!!

This was the first nice evening after we had it. The kids both love it, but Katherine will over and over beg to slide. That girl is going to turn in to a slide!


Of course, David had to make up a game to play while sliding down the slide with the basketball. He had to have Katherine join in as well.
Just sliding down the slide isn't enough of course, David has to PROPEL himself down the slide to go even faster! Then he shows Katherine what he's doing. Oh dear, we're in for it.

While we're talking about the backyard, here's a picture of what it looks like now. I don't think I blogged it (or did I?) but we built a new fence and included the driveway in the backyard. We have a gate to drive the cars in, but the best part is that it makes our backyard HUGE!! We love it.

Also, John's been hard at work (hiring people to) pulling out bushes, trees and other foliage to start over on our backyard landscape with a blank slate. The huge tree will stay of course, but almost everything else has gone.
This was the backyard the day we looked at this house for the first time. This was in spring of 2007.
Then about a year later, we undertook (well, John undertook) the project of removing the deck. You could see this thing from the Google Earth maps - it was GIGANTIC.
And this was the backyard about 2 months after the picture above. After the deck was removed and after the grass was installed. It looks nice, but those plants are mostly way past maturity and aren't really all that healthy anymore. Of course, not to mention that this actually makes the yard feel smaller! So we're going to re-fill most of the areas where plants were before, but with smaller (and new) plants. I can't wait to see it when it's "finished" again!
So Katherine is following in her big brother's footsteps with the need to stick out her tongue!

Here she is swinging on the swing...
Climbing up the ladder...
And about to slide down the slide (yes, it's dark outside & we're still sliding)...
In the spirit of copying the Henry's, we also got Katherine a chair just like Lauren's last weekend. She loved it over Christmas and was thrilled when she saw it in the store.

She does love her chair, but this is also her newest trick. When I tell her to smile, this is what I get:
So I took several pictures of her playing around in her chair.

David loves the chair too. We tease him about liking a florescent pink chair, but it IS very soft, so I guess I can't blame him. He shares much better than Katherine does!

David got this easel for Christmas (hmmmm, the Henry's have one just like it, I'm starting to get a complex). We got them some dry erase markers and now Katherine wants to draw all the time. She and David worked together to draw this one:

I love the look on Katherine's face in this one!
Okay, so to my knowledge, the Henry's do not own this outfit.

So Katherine got a new hoity toity outfit. Don't ask...but isn't it cute?!?!?

Again with the "Smile!!" command and Katherine's reaction.
Okay, now she is just adorable.
Speaking of adorable, check out this video of David!!