The Leviners

Sam has many many talents and hobbies, not to mention his other wonderful husband/daddy qualities (I have bragging rights...it is what it is)! Seriously, I consider myself very blessed to have him as my husband and Caroline's daddy to go through this life together (and yes, he does put up with my rants and raves and all my other faults...isn't he precious)! There are, however, several things that I would say go unnoticed on my end or that I may not express "loudly" my appreciation. One being, Sam's talent in our yard!  If you saw our yard five years ago you would have never imagined that it would look like it does today. Our yard didn't have grass in the backyard, there were lots of scrawny trees everywhere, plants were displaced, there was absolutley no organization to our new yard at all (I would have asked Sam for pre-yard pics, but he thinks I took the following pictures for a plant activity at school...well we are doing a four week unit on plants). Sam spends a lot of time in our yard, a lot of free time that is (maybe the reasons for me not always noticing his hardwork and the effort he puts into beautifying our homestead)! I'd rather he run Saturday errands with the girls! In fact, I do love our yard. I have seen it transformed beyond belief over the last five years! This includes cutting down trees, getting sod, putting in an irrigation system, bringing home huge pieces of equipment (Sam manages an equipment rental store) that allowed him to reach great heights to trim trees (yes, this act almost caused me to have to forever live in a loony bin), cutting down the neighbor's tree (ask me about this one, the tree interfered with Sam's design so he wanted it gone, the neighbor complied..he was getting it down for free, and when the rope that I was stuck holding almost broke in half while pulling the tree in the opposite direction of the neighbor's house...enough said friends...enough said), paying several mortages for the fine employees at Lowe's (for all the thousands of dollars we've spent there), and all the hours upon hours spent drawing landscaping designs...is now perfectly evident in our yard! I love the details that he puts into designing the homes for all the plants, shrubs, bushes, etc. that are housed in our yard. I love how he meticulously chooses plant colors for hanging baskets so they will compliment each other. I love how he purposefully chooses a variety of plants for our yard and picks the perfect spot for them so that no matter which direction you look you will see something very different with every turn! I love how hard he's worked on designing the scene that I see everyday when I walk outside. I appreciate his dedication to our yard, and I especially love everything about him even when God has given him so many more talents beyond landscape design...now that is something to be thankful for!

I Love...

 the potted kinds

the hanging baskets

this fun guy...

and his cousin

that we even have a Christmas tree

these beautiful and colorful numbers

the two sections of rose bushes (when we lived in O'burg, Sam planted a new rose bush in my parent's yard every year)

this one the most..she's my fav...

along with all the gerbera daisies; these are my yellow friends

all the flowers and plants that have yet to be planted

these green plants the most

these too for their "fullness" and greenery

these because they look like sponges

how these look when the wind blows

Sam's new fav...the rock garden

this view!