When we moved into our home 1 1/2 years ago, there was a single tree in the backyard. That first summer, we discovered that it was iron deficient. Its leaves were a sickly yellow color all season. When the first hint of autumn arrived, all the leaves shriveled up and fell off the tree. Sad day! Jared would have none of that this summer! He has worked with the tree for months to get it a nice green all summer long. But what he was really hoping for was that our little red maple would give us some red this fall! Lucky us! It has been the pride and joy of our little family for a few weeks now. I just LOVE looking out my kitchen window! The tree has grown a lot, as you can see from this 'before' picture. We have also added some child-friendly landscaping. A playhouse and slide are going to grace these pictures next year. I'm starting to really love the back yard! These are pictures we took of the girls while they were picking leaves to press dry. It's so nice to have them in the leaves in back now--I used to make a special trip to the canyon to gather them. The good news about the front yard is, Jared has promised that he won't plant sudan grass in the parking strip ever again. Maybe some day soon it'll start to look like the back :) Happy autumn!