OP from last week:
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/35098781.aspx
Thanks everyone for your advice!
However, DH decided to "just do it" and cut down the smaller tree with his small saw. It came down within about 15 minutes total, very easy. For the larger tree, we borrowed FIL's chainsaw, and FIL and our neighbor came over to help. I told DH that "I don't want our daughter to lose BOTH of her parents in a freak chainsaw accident" so I stood in the driveway and watched. They cut down a few of the big branches first (using a rope and pulling the branches down), then cut down the trunk, it only took about 20 minutes maybe. Then I grabbed my pruning shears and cut the branches down to smaller sizes. We fillled up 2 large Yard Debris containers, and there's a bunch of branches still in the front yard, along with one huge piece of trunk.
So excited to be moving along with our landscaping plan for the front yard!