Timber!

The tree out our kitchen window got damaged in the crazy snow and ice storm, in January. Our land lords wanted to remove it anyway so when it got damaged, we got permission from them to just take it down ourselves. I was very happy to get rid of that tree because I really hated it's tiny red leaves that were always all over everything. Luckily, Chris is really good at taking trees down so he came over and helped us. And we had fantastic weather that weekend.

Before we started taking it down. This was the damage from the storm.

 

 Broken branch on the roof

 A bunch of our privacy shrubs got damaged in the storm too

 Using straps to direct where the branches fall. We didn't want anything hitting the house.

 The branch that fell on the roof during the storm, was covering the sky light in the kitchen

 Quite a few branches are down already but there's still a long way to go

 Making progress

 I seriously didn't realize that the tree was that tall until Chris was on the roof cutting it down. That thing was huge!

 The branches from the tree took up the whole side yard

 Adios tree!

While we already had everything out, we decided to prune the rest of the trees in our yard, too

 Skyler was having a great time with his new lawn mower

 Such a cute boy!

 I like the trail of bubbles on the grass from his lawn mower

 A whole truck load of useable firewood

 While the guys were cutting down the tree, I was putting Dylan's birthday present from Grandma & Grandpa together. He now has his own trike.

 He thought it was pretty fun!

 The boys love playing outside!

 I love the silly faces he makes!

 Now to get everything all cleaned up

The next day, Rich managed to compact all of the branches down and got everything to fit in the truck and trailer so he only had to make one trip to get rid of it

When Rich left to get rid of all of the branches, Skyler and I went out back and started raking and sweeping up all of the sawdust and little twigs. He's such a good helper!

And Dylan had a great time playing with the toys on the porch. He's getting to be such a big boy!