Coconut

A beautiful little Persian kitty. Isn't she sweet? I wish I would have gotten her ears in the second one...but it was a spur of the moment snap, and I just loved her eye in that one. I don't know why the first one looks so dark on here. It's much brighter in Photoshop!

My "NEW" Niece

Okay, so she's been my niece for nearly six years, but she looks like a whole new person. Bailey had her first short haircut today. I think she loves it. She even checked the mirror before leaving the house earlier today just to make sure her hair was still short! LOL. It'll be great for the summer!

Green House

I loved this old green house with the bright red geraniums in barrels.

More From The Patch.....

Filling my camera bag full of ripe berries.

"ENOUGH!"

Saturday found us at the Breland Hill Strawberry patch. The kids had a grand time picking the strawberries and playing on the playground equipment. We took a whole berry picking crew: Riley, Bailey, Emily and Hogan! I'm sharing a few of the photos I took of the kids, and I'm sure I'll have a few more for tomorrow's post. We picked a total of 14 buckets of berries, and it didn't take more than 30 minutes. The berries are huge and delicious! I wish I had taken a photo of Mom and Pat. It was raining a bit, and their hair grew to at least three times the normal size! LOL. I also missed Emily's behind-busting fall. She slipped in the mud and landed right on her fanny! Nothing was hurt but her pride. LOL.

Rosie!

Today's post is especially for my Aunt Kathy. She just LOVES mice, and I know that, for that reason alone, she will immensely enjoy these photos! LOL.

Meet Rosie, Riley's guinea pig. He named her on his own, and I think he picked a sweet name for her. She is a mess and makes the funniest sounds....especially when you take her food bowl or water bottle out of her cage to refill it.

And......CONGRATULATIONS to new parents, Dale and Amy. Their "little" bundle of joy arrived this morning. Joshua Cole weighed in at 9 pounds, 1 ounce and was a whopping 22 inches long! Sounds like a strapping young fellow to me!

I love these eyes!

Now if I could just get the smile to be a little less elusive.....I'd have perfection! Taken yesterday afternoon in the window light of my SIL's hospital room.

I'm an aunt...again!

Victoria Grace was born 3-28-08 at 12:59 p.m. She weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces and was 18 inches long.

Happy Resurrection Day!

My Boy....

in blue (and refusing to let the smile show). Look at those sweet cheeks.

Monkey Toes

This is Leland, or "peanut" as he is affectionately called. He is such a mess these days, and the best baby I've ever been around. He is truly just a content little guy. He's always happy. How refreshing! LOL. He's so hilarious since he has found his feet. Take his pants off to change the diaper and the legs immediately go straight into the air and are grasped by his chubby little baby hands. Take the socks off, and he'll even suck on his big toe. Talk about limber. It's like he doesn't have any bones at all. Today he was over and trying to drink his bottle with his feet...or at least that's the way it appeared at one point. I love this kid. He gives the sweetest sugar to his Aunt Mamie.

A morning visitor.

Shot this one through my bedroom window. Not alot of great color in this one....but it IS a photo! I'm making progress.

Look Ma!

No training wheels! This poor kid has been wanting to learn to ride his bike without training wheels for what seems like forever, but his bike isn't the greatest and the tires won't stay pumped up. I guess he got tired of waiting for it to be fixed! On Friday, I had to babysit the kids my grandmother usually keeps because she had to go out of town. Riley came down after school and grabbed the first available bike without training wheels and took off. He bugged me until I called Mammaw to see if he could borrow the bike today so that he could ride. I made the call, and he and Bailey rode all afternoon. Mammaw told him to keep the bike until after his birthday (hoping that he will get a new one of his own for his birthday). My plan is to go tomorrow while he is in school and buy one for him. The hard part will be to keep it a secret until Saturday!

Not great pictures because it was still full sun outside when I took these, and I suck in full sun. There are big time blow outs. However, these are pictures that you just HAVE to take. These are the milestone pictures. The day a boy learns to ride his bike without training wheels...well I would think that would be something he'd remember for quite a while. My dad remembers his first bike. A used 26" girls bike that he got for Christmas. My Pappaw bought it from someone on his mail route. Mammaw laughed when I told her that Dad told Riley about his first bike. She just laughed and said "He hated that bike!" LOL. I hope Riley doesn't feel the same way about his new bike!

Woohoo! Two Days In A Row!!!

I'm on a roll. Heh...we'll see how long it lasts! LOL.

Anyway, since I distressed Cassandra with my last post about the serial killer, I thought I would post a photo of our new feathered friends. Meet Ricky and Lucy. We have no idea which one is Ricky and which is Lucy....but heck, they don't answer to either one of them so what does it matter, right?! In fact...we may even have two Lucys or two Rickys. Who knows?! At any rate, they're love birds. Mom found them on ISLC classifieds.

An interesting tidbit about their history: Erin used to own one of them! LOL. Mom didn't know it at the time she answered the ad, but they belonged to Sheila, Erin's sister-in-law, and she actually got one of them from Erin. So, one of them started out being named "John Deere Green". Sheila and her kids renamed the pair to "Stella" and "Luna". They both said that they gave them away because they "just didn't have enough time to spend with them", but after a week or so of living with them I feel pretty comfortable in saying that I think it was because they NEVER SHUT UP! LOL. Riley is ready to serve some lovebird kabobs. Ah well, they're pretty and kind of funny to watch.

THERE'S A SERIAL KILLER ON THE LOOSE...

...and he's killing off all of our livestock. Thus far we've lost a rooster and two hens. The latest victim was Othello, mom's dove. I was out taking a few photos of Riley one afternoon, and as we came up on the back porch for a bit I realized Othello wasn't going crazy and cooing in his cage. I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that something had grabbed him, pulled his head through the bars of his cage and then ate it. That's the killer's MO. He takes heads. He didn't actually kill the two hens. They put up one heckuva fight and kept their heads, but just barely. My brother, Adam, had to put them out of their misery, the poor girls. It was all very traumatic, and I think we all shed a few tears over the horror of it all. I've been told the killer is most likely a hawk. I hope Ducky is okay...I haven't seen her in a while.

This picture is in memory of dear old Othello. He was a pain in the &%$ while he was here (with his incessant cooing), but I miss him now that he's gone.

Visiting the Dentist

Riley went back to the dentist yesterday and had a small filling put in. He did a great job! Didn't make a peep. The dentist is very good with the kids, as was her assistant. They were cracking jokes the entire time, and Riley never felt a thing. Sounds like a successful trip to the dentist to me. My pics, on the other hand, weren't so successful!

I Got It...

...a smile! But you'll have to wait for my Christmas card to see it! LOL. Here are a few that didn't make the card.

I love this first one!

Fall Color

Wow! It has been so long since I posted on this blog that I'm almost surprised that I still know how to do it! LOL. After a couple of weeks of not even taking my camera out of it's bag, I finally got outside to experiment with a new shooting mode (at least new to me). I played for less than 10 minutes, and I didn't have any great inspiring subjects at hand....but I did find this little spot of color in the yard. I like them.

My Reluctant Hillbilly

He wasn't reluctant to BE a hillbilly. He was reluctant to be a PHOTOGRAPHED hillbilly. I took the camera out of its bag, and the whining/tears started. You'd think I was asking him to gnaw his arm off and let me video tape it or something. I don't even require smiles all the time....just a PLEASANT expression would be nice. Ah well....he was adorable today in his bib overalls and straw hat, and I had to snap a picture....pleasant expression or not. It was the only day of spirit week that I took photos....you wouldn't think it would be too much to ask, would you?!

Yep...even more....

More pics from the festival. I haven't had time to finish editing all of these, much less get the camera out and take more! This is always such a busy time of year!

Riley's school has had spirit week all this week, and the kids have had to dress up every day. It's been fun, but rather exhausting too! On a happy note, Riley and his friend Logan have dominated the kindergarten with their costumes, with one of them being chosen every morning to represent the kindergarten in the daily school costume contests. Their costumes? Logan was chosen for his Knight of the Lord's table costume. Riley for his Superman PJ's on pajama day, and his pirate costume on character day. They were both chosen on twins/pairs day today for their Robin Hood (Riley) and Friar Tuck (Logan) costumes, which were very cute. I think they've enjoyed it...but I'm pretty sure Riley would just as soon wear his school uniform tomorrow! There is no rest for the weary, however.....tomorrow is Hillbilly day! Should be interesting! (I didn't even take my camera to school this week for photos! Hopefully I can get some from the yearbook staff for his scrapbook!)

This is our pastor, "Pecos Pete" and his grandson, cowboy Jaden.

Gavin and Brooke were adorable all decked out in their cowboy/girl gear!

"Jimmy Bill" has to be the second cutest boy in the whole wide world. Second, of course, to my Riley. *wink*