Texas Vacation - Dallas!

We started off and ended our vacation in Dallas.

We have been wanting to visit there in hopes of maybe relocating someday!

We had about three days there, divided into one and a half at the beginning of our trip and at the end of our trip. In between Dallas we visited San Antonio and Corpus Christi, it was a lot of driving but it was a blast!

Here is Josh starting his day off with some salsa. People don't believe me when I tell them he LOVES salsa, so here's a little proof! haha

While in Dallas we got to visit the Arboretum, it was such a beautiful place!! I wanted to stay  longer but Our youngest Josh had other plans! hehe

My husband had the camera and he spent most of his time taking pics of the squirrels!! LOL

We sat here in the grass, looking towards the lake. I look forward to visiting here again, it was so beautiful lush and green, everything we don't have in the desert.

On our return to Dallas we visited the Ft. Worth Zoo.

Now, my husband loves squirrels  but I love Giraffes!!

They are so beautiful, I really didn't want to leave this spot, I could have watched them all day long!

Here is Sophie's favorite animal and she was over the moon when she noticed there not one but there were TWO baby elephants!

I forget the name of this bird, but he was big and interesting!

I enjoyed the lovely trees and all the nice shade at this zoo.

Notice that scary thing in the background!?!

Thank you Lord that they are not really that size!! Ewwww!

Beautiful big turtles, another family fave.

We departed Dallas in the afternoon so we snuck in some fun that morning and went to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was a pretty cool place! It's downtown and by looking at it from the outside you'd never imagine what was inside! Our camera died while we were there but we got a couple photos in first.

Here we have a stork.

A gorgeous colored bird

In the middle of this place it was like a rain forest full of wonderful plants and animals such as monkeys roaming around. Before the camera died we took this photo of a really unique flower that was growing on a tree and of the kiddos staring at a verrry big crocodile.

Thanks for stopping by! I will share some of our San Antonio/Corpus visit in a few days.

Take care and God bless!

-Debra Lea

Great Weekend

Hope ya'll had a great weekend!

We had a little picnic in our backyard! 

  

Taking a nice break from the Vegas heat

In our mini paradise of grass...lol

They cooled off so well that they needed a little baking time under the sun!!

*sigh* ahhh, weekends! How I love you.

Well now it's Monday, back to work and time to tackle a mountain of laundry! How is it that toddlers go through clothing so darn quickly?!?!?!

As promised I will be sharing photos from our Texas vacation this week!

God bless and thanks for stopping by!

New Title For My Blog

I've decided to change the title of my blog from "Dreaming Out Loud" to "Imagine Out Loud."

Imagine Out Loud is the name of my shop so I thought it be great if they went together!

This way I can post about new things I and or Sher and I are making!

Here is my current faux baked batch of goodies...can't wait to add in the deceptively delicious filling!

French Macarons anyone??

Hello Again!

Once again I have been missing in action! So sorry about that! Life has been quite busy with 2 toddlers at my heels. I also recently opened up my own Etsy shop! Opening up my own shop was something that I have been wanting to do for years and I finally did it!

I have been making faux sweets for my own enjoyment for quite some time, and have a little Christmas tree full of them so I decided to spread the love.

Here is a glimpse at some of the goodies I make and sell in my shop

ImagineOutLoud

~Faux Sugar Cookies~

~ Faux Cupcakes~

~Faux Donuts~

~ A Halloween Mix~

I have been having so much fun making new things and coming up with new ideas and creating things for special people! I'm truly blessed to be able to do it.

Needless to say two toddlers and my little shop have kept me quite busy!

I am really going to try and post more here on my humble little blog, thank you so much for sticking around with me and for reading and allowing me to share a piece of my world with you.

We recently came back from an awesome Texas vacation so I will be sharing that next!

Backyard Reveal!!

....and now finally, here it is! Pictures of our new backyard!!

Here are some photos of Sophie helping her Popo Carlos lay the sod!

We put in a new "Mr. Lincoln" rose tree and we were blessed by a sweet mockingbird, who made a nest there! She laid two eggs but only one of them hatched. It was really awesome watching the baby bird grow up and fly out of his nest. The little bird grew up VERY quickly too!! I was really surprised at how fast it grew.

This is the view looking out onto the yard from our dining room. It really is a dream come true to finally have a lovely lush lawn, instead of rough, dusty rocks and annoying weeds!!

We are really loving our bougainvilleas! It's so lovely to have such a beautiful pop of color!

Now we continue our stroll down the sidewalk and towards the shed and playground!

I love that we have this play set for the kiddos! I will admit however that the sand is so messy!!!! The kiddos LOVE it; Mommy not as much, hehe.

Off to the side of the shed, we have a little garden guest :0)

now to my favorite spot!...I love the flagstone floor, it reminds me of home sweet home -San Antonio!

I'm still trying to find the perfect table for the gazebo, we do put up a folding banquet table for bbq's. Also, growing up each leg of the gazebo are "Joseph's Coat" climbing roses...can't wait until the roses grow nice and tall!!

Down at the end of the yard is a fountain, a very lovely and calming focal point.

This part of the yard is my favorite! It feels park like, which is what I was picturing in my mind when I designed it.

I remember standing out here amongst all the rocks, closing my eyes and pretending that I was surrounded by grass instead....Thank you Lord for my yard! 

and finally the view looking back towards the house from under the gazebo. This photo was taken before we put that monstrous  play set together!

I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we did :0)

Thanks for stopping by my humble blog, God bless.

Just to refresh your memory here is what it used to look like:

*phew*

Our Backyard Pt: 4

Irrigation:

We decided to use something called netafim to water our grass...It uses half the water and there is less water waste because it waters from underneath the turf! Sher and I were so excited to come across this product.

Here is a video on youtube to show how it is installed.

The tubing goes underneath the turf and delivers water to the roots of the grass. It has actually been around for quite some time and is widely used in Israel. 

Here are some photos of the process:

A layer of soil goes down, then the netafim system, followed by another layer of top soil and then the sod is placed upon that. 

It costs a little more than your traditional sprinkler system but we are thrilled to be using less water for our grass..thus saving water and money in the long run.

Up next I'll share some photos of our completed yard!! It's truly a dream come true!! It's so surreal to look outside and see what has been in my head for so many years. We are so excited to actually have a yard now  instead of a rock and weed cemetery, hehe!! 

My Mom had hip replacement surgery on Monday so I promise to return with the photos as soon as I can! Thanks so much for dropping by! God bless.