Have you seen it??

His first loose tooth - gone.

First Monkey now Puppy?

Do you remember when Brech was a monkey? Today he decided he was a puppy. He found a ball and convinced his brothers to throw it for him. He would pick it up with his teeth and bring it back. Oh what could be next???

Notice the tongue??

down on all fours to get the ball

Here boy, here boy....

I had to include this cute picture of Thing One and Thing Two. I have a feeling they will be into so much trouble with she gets a bit bigger. Though at the moment she appears to have a "help me" look on her face. Smart girl!!

Five is Alright

Yesterday we celebrated Rex's 5th birthday. What a great day for a birthday! Any day is a great day, but Rex's birthday is the greatest (according to him). He had cupcakes in ice cream cones and a few cupcakes just for Mom for the middle of the night.

It was good cake.

Happy birthday to you....

He huffs and he puffs and blows out two candles.

Chocolate frosting is the best!!!!!!

He have a great time opening presents. He received shoes, a ball, a telescope for outside bug hunting, a bug container that magnifies the bug, a butterfly house, a Capt. Rex Star Wars figurine, books, bubble bath, Dr. Seuss things, a frisbee, cards and money and a bike. The Capt. Rex is his favorite gift, well, everything is his favorite.

gifts and more gifts equals spoiled boy

Rex got to go to town with Dad special to pick out a bike last Saturday.

HE LOVES IT!!

AND

Carpet Angels

We had carpet installed yesterday. After the installer left, the boys decided to make carpet angels. What fun we have here.

Last Post from SD

Wow, its only been a month since we were in South Dakota and yet here I am FINALLY posting the last of the pictures. We ended our trip with some time at the ranch. Darren and the boys always find something to keep themselves busy there. Blase and Stephen were treated to "driving lessons" from Grandma. She even wrote out a certificate for more lessons next time they come back.

Blase having a lesson. He's hasn't stopped talking about buying himself a Ranger. Why buy one when Grandpa has one??? :-)

Too happy!! Beyond proud!! Great memories!

Stephen was NOT about to be left out. Even Cormac had a lesson (with extra help from Grandma). Stephen was hipper about the whole experience. A million words a minute.

Here are Stephen and Grandma checkin' fences. They are still all there...even after Stephen drove in the field. ;-)

Here are a couple of sweet pictures of Girl. She's only a month older now. That concludes our South Dakota trip, May 2011. South Dakota remains missed as are all our friends and most of our family there. ;-p Ha ha!! 'Til next time.

Discoveries

When you aren't sure what happens when you are not looking - its a good policy to put up a trail camera. What few mysteries we couldn't figure out have been solved.

First mystery. Where are all dem babies??

I have been looking for a doe with a fawn to take a picture of. Fawns at this time of year are the sweetest, cutest animals! I saw one pair, but they were gone before I could find the camera, let alone turn it on and take a picture.

MYSTERY SOLVED - they only come out when I'm sleeping. Stinkers!!

Second mystery. Can Darren actually aim, shoot and hit his targets??

MYSTERY SOLVED - Ok, so most of you know he can hit a deer. Most of you even know he can hit a target with his rifle and scope. What most of you don't know is that he CAN hit a chipmunk with a pellet gun from our deck. BTW, chipmunk count is up to 5.

Here are two very nice, good boys at 12:26 PM. They are minding their own business and having fun.

Third mystery. Who or what knocked the roof off the bird feeder??

MYSTERY SOLVED - BUSTED!!!! Picture says all that needs to be said.

Fourth mystery - Who keeps knocking the bird feeder down?? Recall this post? The proof is in the picture correct? How about FOUR pictures.

Surprise! CALLED IT BABY! BOOYA!!! The boys and I were right. Bear, BEAR, one more time to make sure that Darren reads it clearly - BEAR!!! For a height reference, the bird feeder is probably 4 feet to where the bear's head is.

Oh my what do you have here?? Its a BEAR! Have you noticed that its only 9:58 PM? I was actually awake at that time. Honestly I could have been sitting on the deck at that point (though I wasn't). Insanity. Just feet from our deck and I didn't even know it.

Going, going....

GONE! Well, we have another bird feeder to fix. Darren has decided our birds will just have to go hungry until this bear decides to leave the bird feeders alone. We wouldn't want the massive critter to get in the habit of visiting our yard. And we THOUGHT we had critter problems before. Those chipmunks and squirrels are nothing compared to the bear. We are naming the bear Birdie. Blase thinks the bear must like bird food.

Critter Crisis

We've had critter troubles. Chipmunks are trouble no matter what, no matter where. Darren had some target practice courtesy of the little munchkins. If only they would stay out of the garage and out of trouble!! Now I am an animal lover, really I am. And so is Darren and so are the boys. That being said - we believe that animals serve a purpose, like providing meat for us. When animals serve no purpose - or their only goal in life is to bother us - then we do something about it. Chipmunks are destructive to property. Its a fact. SO - in our best interest - we needed to take care of that.

Next critter problem involves squirrels. We are not too bothered by squirrels. About the worse thing they do is climb the screen to get to the suet feeder by the kitchen window. Not a big deal, until I scare one and it pees on the window. YUCK! The boys got a big - no scratch that - HUGE kick out of that. It was the talk of the house for a good hour. That's big around here. :-)

Blase would like to take care of a certain squirrel. If only we could figure out which one it was. See for yourself - what would you want to do? We laughed and then sighed and then laughed again. In its defense - it only picked on the trees that were already dying.

Ohh I'm so hungry. What's in here??

What about this one???

Yummm, JACKPOT!!!

Oh so young and tender! Like a good acorn should taste. Now to get rid of this stinkin' tree.

Stubborn ol' tree! LET GO ALREADY!!

This is more work than it should be! OH, why can't I remember where my acorn stash from last winter is. I need some Ginkgo Biloba!!!!

COME ON! One more time and I'm giving up!!

Ahhh, sweet success. I think I burned 1200 calories to get this silly thing.

Green Thumb Washout

We can't win. First we take our plants outside for some sun (which hasn't been seen that often). The first couple of nights we brought them in and tucked them into a safe bed. In the morning we would set them back outside. That worked just fine. Then we started leaving them out all night long - now that they have grown up to frustrating teenagers. They are some where between babies and ready to shoot up any day. Letting them to their own devices all night long was working, until last night and the MASSIVE down pour. If you can forgive my blurry picture attempt, you will notice that they are pretty much floating in their containers.

Enough water???

Look who we found tucked among the containers.

And this one was up on the window trim. I suppose the rainy weather is good for frogs and toads, but not so good for teenage plants.

A Girl's First Father's Day

Father's Day is probably more precious to daughters than to fathers. The bond between father and daughter is special. They share so many tender moments. Sometimes I shed a tear of happiness, or a tear of homesickness, or a tear of sadness when I think of my dad. The memories I have made with him are some of my most treasured. Though in our family its hard to pick most treasured memories as there are so many good ones! I have made a point of photographing special, random moments of Darren and Gianna. I am certain that she will be a daddy's girl and will have many moments to treasure.

Here she is checkin' the internet with Daddy. Chances are they are dreaming about rifles.

And here is a Girl's First Father's Day.....

Happy late Father's Day to my daddy...I love you. I miss you.

Flora and Fauna

Hello all! I have been missing for a good reason. I told my dad not too long ago that if I didn't post every day not to be worried as I was probably just fulfilling my vocation of mom and wife. Its a good thing when my blog does not take priority over my duties. My main duty for the past week have mostly included painting trim. I enjoy painting and after as much trim as I have painted, I'm actually getting pretty good. I am being very nice and painting for Darren because he said he would rather have a root canal on a live root with no pain medication than paint trim. I think he was going a bit overboard - but I'm still trying to help out. This past week has been a great one for our flora and fauna hobbies. I bought some annuals, but still haven't planted them. They will be nice when I finally get around to that. (STOP RAINING PLEASE) In the meantime, my family has been kind enough to pick me some lovely flowers from here, there and everywhere around our yard.

Aren't they beautiful?? If I could I would send them "SPECIAL DELIVERY" to my dear friend Jessica for her birthday today. Happy birthday dear friend!!!

The birds have kept us entertained this week as well. A wonderful woodpecker and finch were visiting us. Ignore the dirty window and the cute stained glass fish in the window.

We were treated to a hawk moth sighting as well. I'm not sure exactly which kind of hawk moth as I did find out there are tons of them. It was very friendly.

Stephen wanted to keep it to see what happens next. Ummm, not in my house kiddo!!

There is nothing quite as pretty as color on the bird feeder. Pesky Blue Jays are taking over, but at least they are easy on the eyes.

Any guesses on what did this?? The boys think BEAR and Darren thinks DEER. Darren fixed them and hung up a trail camera hoping to find out the truth - if it happens again.