Easter
Finally - Easter pictures!
A small Easter basket at home, then off to Gram and Pops for another basket and a backyard egg hunt!
Horse Country
We took a ride to the country recently, to test out Mama's new car.
Our neighborhood is just south of an area kind of known as "horse country", so we were hoping to see some horses and pretty ranches. We found some sweet mares, a couple of noisy donkeys, and caught a beautiful sunset on the way home. Oh, and Mama's new car is awesome!
Ribbit
Sam gets credit for the outfit and the funny face.
I can only take credit for the photos!
Central Park
I took Sam to play with some friends in Central Park last week. Frisco's Central Park, that is.
Aside from a few tantrums here and there, Sam had a great time being able to run around without me having to stay right on him. There are huge longhorn and cattle sculptures, fountains, and an outdoor amphitheater. Sam loved walking along the theater "seats" and blowing the pinwheel in the wind.
Sunset
We took a walk to the neighborhood pond the other night to feed the baby ducks.
We stayed for a while and as the sun began to set I snapped some fun silhouette and sun flare shots of the boys. Enjoy!
Ow-side
We live outside.
At least it feels that way right now. Sam does all sorts of things outside - runs through the water wiggle, looks for bugs with his magnifying glass, blows bubbles, sits on (not rides) his tricycle, and plays catch. A lot of his playtime is shared with his neighbor friend, who popped into one of the pictures I was taking of Sam! They beg to play together when they see each other from inside the house. Once outside, they fight like cats and dogs. Ahh, two-year-olds.
I wonder how Sam will handle the heat this summer. Will he want to be outside just as much as he was this spring? Or will he prefer to be inside on this couch like his Mama?
A Visit from Granny
Granny Nell stopped by this week with some Easter surprises.
She brought Sam some fuzzy baby ducks that quack when you squeeze them and some Sesame Street critters. Needless to say Sam was quite happy! She stayed for lunch and had some alone time with Sam while I met with our insurance adjuster and contractor. Sam read her books, and they shared a cookie snack while watching Oswald. What a fun visit!
Happy Birthday Daddy
Happy Birthday, Daddy.
Thanks for taking care of us and always being there for us. We think you're the best and had a great time celebrating YOU!
Farm to Market to Table to Tummy
Warning: This post contains no Sam pictures.
It's tales from the
NEST
, you know. It's not
ALL
about Sam.
Who am I kidding. I know it's all about Sam. But there are other birdies in this nest, too! Birdies who like to take pictures of..... vegetables. Lots and lots of vegetables.
I visited the Dallas Farmer's Market with some friends last Saturday while Gram and Pops took care of Sam. We had several reasons for going: to take pictures, to get some yummy local produce, and to have a few child-free hours to ourselves!
We had a great time. There are lots of things to see at the market - plenty of colors and interesting people to watch. I came home with zucchini, new potatoes, tangeloes that tasted like candy, tomatoes, a small pot of Cuban oregano to plant in our herb garden, and one pound of peanuts (in the shell) for Sam! I thought he might like to know where peanut butter comes from. After all, he is peanut butter's biggest fan.
Sunday night I made dinner for Brian and I with some of our market finds. It was delish. We had baked chicken with Crash Hot Potatoes (from the market), seasoned with herbs (from our back garden), and sauteed zuccini (also from the market). It was mighty tasty - I wish we lived closer to the market. We may try the Frisco or McKinney Farmer's Market this summer.
I'll make sure to bring Sam with me and get some pictures of him holding a vegetable or something. Because, you know, it IS all about Sam.
The Night It Was Too Noisy
The understatement of the year.
We had
just
finished our spring planting. I had
just
told Brian how nice of a job he'd done on our front yard. I had
just
said after dinner that evening (despite the weather forecast), "I really don't think we're going to get any of this rain tonight".
And then the wall cloud came in.
Night fell, we all went to sleep (for a little while) and then it started. First, a soft rain shower, quickly followed by a couple of lightening strikes with almost-simultaneous thunderclaps. My first thought: "Oh no. This is going to keep me awake for a while."
Not long after that, the tap-tap-tap of small hailstones started banging against the house. Now I'm
really
awake. My next thought: "Oh, no. The cars". Almost immediately the storm's intensity increased -
significantly
. Brian flew out of bed to look out the windows. I flew out of bed and put in my contacts - it was obvious at this point that I needed to be able to see further than six inches from my nose.
I looked out the front window once and could only see my pretty, just-planted hanging baskets whipping around in the wind. I checked on Sam and he was curled up in a ball, snoozing away. Unbelievable! I decided to leave him in his bed, hoping the hail would just suddenly stop. I looked out the back windows and could only see horizontal rain and hail. It got louder and louder and, as Brian later put it, just when we thought it couldn't possibly get any louder, it did. It was the most unbelievable sound. The scariest weather event I've ever experienced. Straight-line winds, 80 miles-per-hour, quarter sized hail coming from the west.
I shouted to Brian "I don't know what to do" (it was hard to hear each other), and then decided at that moment to get Sam and take him to our guest bathroom, which is in the center-most part of the house. Brian got us settled in there and then ran for the laptop so that we could pull up radar and find out how much more of this we had to endure.
I bet we were only in there for another thirty seconds, or so. But it was a scary thirty seconds! Brian said later he was waiting for the roof to fly off the house because it seemed like that was where this was heading next. We were convinced that if there had been a tornado or if the sirens had gone off, there's no way we would have heard them, it was so loud!
The hail finally stopped, the rain went down to just a sprinkle and we took a deep breath! We called Gram and Pops, talked to a friend on the phone, then tried to get some sleep. Sam went down easy, but it took Brian and I a couple of hours to get back to sleep, we were so shaky and sick-to-our stomachs.
The next morning we surveyed the damage. Our bedroom window was broken, our cars dented, my windshield cracked. The flowers were smashed - the leaves that managed to hang on looked chewed-up and the stems were banged up. And the fences - oh the fences! Surprisingly, only one flower pot was smashed, and Sandbox-Turtle made it through without a ding! There were leaves, flowers, glass, plastic and roof pieces everywhere. The sidewalks crunched as you walked! Neighbors reported hail smashing through windows, through wood blinds, and down hallways. One neighbor told us she was up collecting a bucket's worth of hail from her spare bedroom at one in the morning.
Right after Brian left for work, Sam called for me from his bed. I went in his room, he rubbed his sleepy eyes and said, "Mama, it's too noisy!". No kidding buddy, no kidding.
Turns out we needed new cars, a new fence, a new roof, a new window, several new screens and some other cosmetic touch-ups here-and-there. The neighborhood's a mess and still crawling with roofers and contractors looking for business. Brian's been busy talking with our home and car insurance companies. It's amazing how much time and money it will take the community to fix just several minutes worth of storm damage. Fortunately we're all safe and sound and the inside of the house is completely untouched!
2011's been a roller coaster of a year so far. It's only April - here's hoping for a calm and relaxing summer? Please?
outside of fence, west-facing
7:30 am, some hail still left, not yet melted
same side
plenty of hail left, seven hours later with temps in the 50s or 60s...
our bedroom window - we were fortunate, only the outer pane broke, so no glass in the bedroom
other neighbors weren't so lucky
Mama's poor car, facing west, little to block the hail
the windshield cracked a few hours after picture taken
Brian talking to one of many roofers looking for business
we've had a crash-course in roofing standards and construction
we'll learn more in the coming weeks, I'm sure
gotta end with a Sam pic - apparently it's now too sunny!
This is How My Boys Play
A little backyard fun before the sun set for the day.
Strawberries
Sam and I were so excited to find a certain something on the clearance rack at Lowes...
Five dollars for a strawberry plant that at another Lowes was on for almost seventeen dollars! It was meant-to-be for my little strawberry-loving boy. All our plant needed was one good watering and by the next morning it looked perfect. We're even getting some strawberries! As Sam was inspecting our new strawberries he squished one and picked another. Oops. We had to have a talk about letting the strawberries ripen before picking them. He's done pretty well since then!
How to Entertain a Two-Year-Old Boy
It's very simple really.
Step One: go outside and turn on water
Step Two: set hose nozzle to "mist"
Step Three: sit back and enjoy the show!
Heritage Homestead
I came here on a field trip once when I was little girl, and again with
my
first class over ten years ago.
Yesterday, I got to take Sam and that was the best trip of all! We went with our photography group and there were lots of great photo ops.
Sam loved everything - the chicks, horses, sheep and hens. He got so excited over the eggs, both the toy-eggs and the real eggs, that we found in the hen house. And he loved watching the tractor, throwing sticks in the creek, and learning how to jump on a hopscotch game.
I think he like the red one-room schoolhouse the best, though! Doesn't he look like a model student? Ha! He didn't stay in that desk for long - he wanted to play the piano that was "like Granny Nell's"!
Splish, Splash, He Had an Absolute BLAST!
We had a summer sneak-peak this week.
We met some of our photography friends at the Fairview splash park this week. We went there with them once
. They've added a new feature this year called "The Village Beach". They basically took a small field and covered it with sand. There are several volleyball nets, playground equipment, beach chairs, shovels and pails and even a little boardwalk. Sam liked playing in the sand but LOVED splashing in the fountains. He ran and giggled, ran and giggled for almost three hours. When Brian saw these pictures he said, "This is going to be a fun summer!" I agree!
Guest at the Nest
It's a baby bird!.
We've watched Mama and Daddy sit on the nest in our tree for a while now, and we finally have a baby. Just one, though, and boy is he big! Sam and the neighborhood kids have enjoyed checking-in on the birdies everyday I've been able to put my not-often-used zoom lens to good use!
baby bird
baby bird
close-up of Mama bird
Eye See You
Gotta love the Target dollar bin.
This ladybug magnifying glass has kept Sam quite busy, searching for bugs on the sidewalk and berries on the bushes. Even
Daddy
has been caught playing with it - specifically trying to show Sam how to burn leaves with it. Just what we need - a toddler who knows how to start fires with a toy and the sun.
While We Were Away
It's been a while since I've posted.
I'm now really behind...lots of pictures to edit, lots of stories to write. Some funny, some happy, some not-so-much. I've taken some time away from the blog in part because our computer was out-of-commission for the last couple of weeks which makes blogging impossible. But the main reason I haven't been writing was because we started the new year off taking care of and worrying about our little Sophie. After having to say goodbye to her on February 17th, I wasn't much up for blogging stories and family pictures. We haven't been just sitting around; Brian and I both have jobs we had to show up for and Sam to take care of. But things I usually enjoy, like sewing and photography and blogging, just weren't that appealing for a while.
But we're feeling better now, and with the photos piling up and the "tales from the nest" that need to be told, I'm somewhat forcing myself to get caught up with my blogging. I know how much everyone loves to read about Sam and watch him grow and this site has become very special to our family, so I'm not going to let it fall by the wayside!
You'll see some entries are "post-dated" just because I want to keep stories close to their original dates so that when Sam is older and reading these posts they are dated accurately, so keep checking February and March over the next few days to see new posts.. I have lots of posts coming up about what's been going on around our nest...like a certain someone turning TWO!
Enjoy our new photos and our new tales, and thanks for being patient while we were away.
(Brian took the picture above during our last trip to the park, Sunday, February 13th, 2011)
Sick (posted 3/27)
Allergies are wreaking havoc on our little nest.
But watching Mickey Mouse cartoons - - with your pal Mickey Mouse - - makes it a little more bearable!
Turtle (posted 3/27)
This turtle is magic.
It's been a gift to me as much as it's been to Sam. He loves his turtle - it shows him the moon and the stars on his ceiling - and it's made naptime and nighttime a breeze. Thank you cousin Hollie. Thank you.
