He loves me - he really truly loves me

You may remember that last year we (Aaron and Phil) re-sodded our backyard and it was absolutely beautiful

Until

The snow melted and all we had was this:

Ouch! It hurts just to look at it.

We haven't really pinpointed if it was bad sod, too many feet pounding the dirt every day or the dirt was too packed for the grass to root really well.

I tried not to let it bother me but it did. A lot.

So, last night Aaron and Phil decided on a spur of the moment that today they'd re-do the backyard. Again.

And now it looks like this :

Love love love them for that! Now I won't have to spray paint the dirt green before we have any parties.

And here's my lovely new decor leading to our family room.

I seen the phrase in a catalogue and it totally stuck in my head. I truly believe that. Families that play together, stay together. Growing up we were pretty big on games and family time and I think that's still reflected in how close we are as adults. I hope I'll be that close to my boys when we're all grown ups :o) If you're ever looking for something unique like this for your family room - or any room - I can hook you up with Dan our custom designer. He also did the boys' names for the outside of their bedroom doors. They're simple but impressive all at once.

And one last thing.

One of my fave keepsakes of my boys are now ready to be hung in the family room:

Mom and Dad bought each of the boys a Harley Davidson leather jacket for their second birthday and once they'd outgrown them I just hung them in the closet. Recently I came up with this brilliant idea to put them in shadowboxes so we could display them. They're really too cute for words!