Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Our New Neighbor

About a week ago, when Ty was mowing the yard, he noticed a nest in the bush outside our back door.A couple of days later, there were four little eggs inside. We think this may be a first attempt for the mama bird. Do you see the way the nest is lying? It's attached to the tree quite well, but it looks like it's about to fall out of the tree. Quite precarious! Mama Bird has been very faithful about keeping her nest warm. She ignores Mayzee completely, but if one of us steps onto the back porch, she flies to the tree across the yard to flap her wings and scold us for being too close.Here is another shot of the precious cargo.This afternoon, when I peeked out to check how things were going, I saw a new neighbor. And I mean BRAND new. He/she still has bits of egg shell stuck to his body! (See that little white speck on his back? That's shell.) I think I may be as excited as the mother bird is! I can't wait to see if the others will soon follow suit and join us in our back yard!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Around the Campfire

Because my brother is preparing to go on a 1 year remote tour to Korea, his wife has decided to move to my parents' home with her two darling little boys. Memorial Day weekend, they brought the final load of "stuff" up to my folks'. Their little boy requested a campfire, and my little boy requested s'mores. My dad was happy to oblige.Samantha adores her little cousins and they think she's pretty cool, too. This is Declan getting some lap time.Jeremy brought his friend, Matt. Matt brought his friend, Crockett. While my family fell in love with Matt, my kids fell in love with Crockett. He's the cutest little (huge) chocolate lab puppy. At 10 months old, he had acquired most of his size and lost none of his puppy playfulness. The kids loved running around the yard with him and he loved tripping them up. I tried to get some pictures of Crockett and Zachary wrestling, but they all came out blurry.My sister in law is so pretty. Isn't that rude?Here's the future inhabitant of Korea. We will miss him while he's gone. But, we're also glad that we are going to get to spend so much time with Sandi and the boys.My cutie-patootie nephew, Declan. He is 2 years old now. I was playing around with the special settings on my camera. That's why this picture is a tad blurry. But it still shows that sweet little smile!This is Andrew. He's 4. He is the sweetest little boy and will give you a hug at the least provocation.
This is me enjoying a yummylicious s'more. It was worth the wait. Some of the boys decided they wanted hot dogs, too, so we had marshmallows and hot dogs cooking at the same time. Nobody was complaining.
All in all it was a great night. We sat around the fire talking, laughing, and telling stories on each other. I wish we could have more evenings like this one!