{Day One}

Today is the day that I have decided to look at all the blessings that are in my life instead of dwelling on all the silly things that stress me out and make me worry. Since moving to Arkansas I have complained many times about the distance from my family, the "Southern Accent" I am picking up, and the fact that I don't know very many people. However, I have never commented on how beautiful it is here. In Arizona it's beautiful, but in a different way. Here I appreciate the beauty of how lush and green the trees in my easement are. I love the Spring when the flowers start to bloom, and the Fall when the leaves change color. My favorite thing today is how pretty my flowers are that we planted in our flower beds.

This beauty sits on the side of our house. It is full of these delicate white flowers. We need to get a trellis for it to grow up so it will be seen by more people. But, it is probably my favorite new thing we planted this year. Even better, it was free! Kevin's mom gave it to me for my birthday.

These are by snapdragons. They line the walkway up to our door. I've never seen flowers come back as much as these guys. Seriously, they are on like their 6th bloom since planting them back in the Spring.

This beauty is my wisteria. We bought it last year and it never bloomed. The flowers look like little grape clusters. This is the second time this season that they have started to bloom. I love this vine. It adds so much depth to our yard and makes us stand out on our street.

The hibiscus. This beautiful plant resides in our backyard in a corner. It is giant! No joke, it is probably as tall, if not taller than me. But the flowers that bloom on it are stunning! I remember the first day I saw one of these red flowers peeking its head out of the green bush that they grow on. It was so pretty and added so much flair to our backyard. Who doesn't love flair? In addition, Kevin said that we can blow this picture up and hang it in our bathroom. Which makes me feel super good that he liked a picture I took :)

This weird looking coney flower is from our crate myrtles. They were given to us by Kevin's mom when she decided to "clean out" her yard. They are so pretty and I probably should have taken a picture of the whole tree. But we have two and they frame our house beautifully. There is one by our garage and one on the other outer corner of our house. I was nervous about planting trees because I think of giant trees like in our backyard, but they are the perfect touch.

Last but not least, this is my favorite surprise. These little guys popped up in our flower beds just recently. I have no idea where they came from, but I love love love them! I think they were in our mulch... because I don't even think we planted anything like them last year. However, how cute are they? The are scattered through out our beds with different pops of color here and there. They are very cheery and so lovely! I am so thankful that we have good soil in our beds that allows for beautiful flowers to grow. Every morning when we leave our house we take an extra second to admire the beauty that we have created together.