backyard beauty

yesterday, my little lady came running into the house saying, "mommy you have to come see this!"

now immediately, i thought to myself this can either be really good or really bad.

with two little ones, you never know what you could find.

to my surprise it was this beautiful flower...



i have no idea yet what kind of flower it is, but it is certainly beautiful! the leaves look like tissue paper. we found out that the previous owner's mother of our house worked at the botanical gardens and was the one to plant things in the yard. i can't wait to see what else pops up!

i guess it made up for all the allergy testing i went through yesterday too. basically, i'm allergic to all kinds of things...all weed pollens, all tree pollens, grasses, cats, dogs, and a type of mold. makes me sound like i need to live in a bubble. however, it does give me a much better understanding as to why i've had so many problems.

i felt bad for my little lady when we had to tell her we won't be getting a dog. she's been asking for one for a long time.

any suggestions of pets that are good for kids that aren't dogs, cats, or any type of rodents?