Getting cuter

Not quite a week since they hatched, and our baby bird friends are getting much cuter. Some wing feathers are growing and their eyes are open much wider... in fact, they can definitely recognize now that I am not mommy or daddy. This one just stared at me the whole time I was out there and flinched a bit every time the camera clicked. No more beaks wide open for food from me!


Here is mom and/or dad. They're quite good parents, as far as I can tell. I know they're both around, because I've seen them both at the same time, but usually I see just one or the other flying into the nest. If you look closely, you may be able to see that in the second picture he/she is carrying some food home to babies. Still hard to believe that those babies are going to look like this someday soon! They're awfully gray and fluffy for now (not to mention those beady eyes!)

Don't miss it...

So, it took me 2 1/2 weeks to finish my blog post about our trip to the beach last month. You can scroll down or click here to see it.

Enjoy!

Oh, and what the heck... here's today's edition of "Lucia's obsessed with the baby birds":

two little beaks sticking up!


snuggled in - see a little eye peeking out?

eyes are opening! and still mostly mouth! Crazy to me how much they have changed in a day... and that they will be out of the nest in only 2 weeks. And I thought my babies grew fast!

They hatched!

Okay, so I know they're ugly, but I'm still so excited that we have baby birds. I can only see two, and that's all the eggs I ever saw, but there could be more hiding further back.

little half-bald fuzz balls!

hoping that I was a mommy or daddy bird bringing some food - love that little head poking up!

Congratulations, mommy & daddy wren!

(and an even bigger congratulations to my dear friend, Ursula, on the birth of her 3rd daughter yesterday!! She is absolutely beautiful)

Father's Day

Just wanted to say "Happy Father's Day" to my wonderful dad, who also happens to be the most amazing, fun, loving Papa I could ever hope for for my boys...

grandkids photo 6/12/2011

... and to my amazing husband, who is the Daddy I've always dreamed my children would have.

Father's Day 2011


You both mean more to me than words could ever express.

As for our day, we had a great one! A special breakfast for Daddy, followed by church and Bojangles for lunch, some Best Buy time for Mason, then dinner out with TCBY (one of Mason's favorites AND they had free yogurt for dads today) for dessert. Can you tell food is Mason's love language? hehe :)

Mason with the boys at dinner

doing "cheers" at TCBY! :)

PS - Happy Father's Day to every other dad out there. And for those who are missing their dads especially today or wishing they were a dad, I'm praying for you!

House guests

Last week, I noticed that there were some leaves in our pot of mint on our back deck. The next morning, I sat at our breakfast room table, eating breakfast and trying to focus on reading my Bible, but I could not take my eyes off of the deck. These two Carolina wrens were working constantly to build a nest in our mint, and I was totally struck. Perhaps it's the long legacy of bird-loving that my family has passed to me. Perhaps it's my reading of Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts that has me more aware. But I was filled to the brim with joy at watching these birds build a home for their family.

I've been trying to stay away so as not to scare them off, but 2 days ago, I peeked in and saw some little eggs in the nest. I am so thrilled and loving our newest house guests.


...and aren't they just the cutest little birds you ever saw? :)

Beach Week

Grab an iced tea - this is going to be a long one!

We were so fortunate to be able to spend a whole week at the beach at the end of last month, thanks to my wonderful in-laws!

They allowed us to use their condo to spend the weekend with a group of amazing friends that my brother has been so kind to share with me :) JR & Preston are two of Bret's best friends from undergrad and they have become very dear to me over the years as well, even more so as they have married two of the nicest women I know. And then, of course, there's Bret & Ryan, who are just one of the biggest blessings in my life. Anyway, JR & Lindsay have been in Denver since the summer Ryan was born, doing their residency, and they will be moving to Africa in January after the birth of their first child in September. Crazy, huh? Yeah, we think so, but we love them anyway. SO, we decided that we needed some extra quality time with them on their visit to NC this summer, and what better place than the beach?

We began our weekend with a trip to the aquarium. Ryan loves to hang out with Ava & Eli, and the feeling seems to be mutual, since Ava has already declared that she is going to marry Ryan. Works for us! :) Here are the 3 of them getting ready to explore the aquarium:


Ryan checks out a large fish:
A bunch of the group looking at rays (mostly too nervous to touch!):
Beautiful Ava:

Back at the condo, we were soon greeted by JR & Lindsay, just arriving. Ryan & Ava quickly enticed JR to read to them:

We spent quite a bit of time just hanging out in the condo and enjoyed every minute of it.

I LOVE this photo of Ava:
There was quite a bit of technology floating around the place, and Ryan was drawn like a magnet any time a computer appeared. He spent a good portion of the weekend trying to convince Preston that he needed angry birds on his iPad.

Ryan's favorite toy:

Eli latched on to the computer craze, too, but in a more age appropriate way (and yes, the thumb sucking part of this photo was posed):

Lindsay & Ryan... anyone who will read to him automatically gets Ryan's affections:

Cousins playing. Ryan is an endless source of entertainment for the little ones:


Kaeden tried to give Atticus a kiss... he didn't appreciate it:
Sweet Atticus:

Mischievous Eli:

Trying to get a cute photo of Ryan & Ava... they decided to be goofy instead, but the photos still turned out precious:

... and a little more what I was going for:

Just a sweet photo of my Kaeden:

We did actually make it to the beach a couple of times. We didn't last too long, with all the kiddos in tow, but they certainly enjoyed it!

Here's Ryan, dressed & ready to go, showing off his style:

Kaeden's first time on the beach. He tolerated the wind, sand, etc. much better than I expected:

I just love this photo - all the kiddos with a partner, enjoying the beach in their own ways:

Ryan loved playing in the water with his daddy...
...but he didn't mind playing in the sand, either. Mason decided it would be fun to bury him. Ryan wasn't too sure at first, but he got into it (figuratively & literally):


Even Ava caught the burying bug:

Atticus seemed to enjoy his first beach experience as well:


Beach time on the second day, it was Kaeden's naptime, so he nursed himself to sleep right there on the beach. I kept him under the cover so the brightness wouldn't bother him & he was so sweet snuggled up that I had to take a photo!

Finally, here's the whole group on the beach:

Saturday night, we celebrated the newest addition to our group with a shower & found out what it's like to involve men in a baby shower. Sigh.

The cake:

Us ladies all had milk. The men? Beer.

Playing games:


Presents:

The ladies:

...and the men, trying to flick decorative flowers into a glass:
Men at a baby shower? I don't recommend it. But we sure did have fun :)

Monday morning, some of the group had left, but the rest of us enjoyed exploring Fort Macon.

There are a lot of canons there:

Atticus & Bret


JR & Ryan


sweet Ryan

And lots of fun places to run & play:



We even had a photo shoot! I really wanted to get a good cousin picture. Here are the best:


and the outtakes are just as fun as the good ones:

Mommy & her boys:

JR & Lindsay (and baby bump!):

Once everybody left, I was on my own with the boys for a day before Bunny arrived, which honestly freaked me out a bit. We stayed as busy as possible to keep my mind off of the reality that every support person I had was at least 3 hours away!

We did another visit to the aquarium:




After taking his picture in the crab, Ryan insisted that he take mine, which was a little complicated with Kaeden in the carrier, but we made it work. He actually did a decent job:



I love that Ryan looks like he's trying to avoid the shark in this one. Really, he was just being goofy!

And we found a fun playground on the way back from the aquarium too. Bonus!!


Our week at the beach concluded with a few days of time with Bunny (Mason's mom) & we had so much fun. Ryan adores his "B"!

Some more fun at the beach...




And I finally gave in & let Kaeden explore the sand (even though I knew he would eat it, which he did. Yuck!)

We spent quite a bit of time at the pool, too. It was great! Ryan even learned to swim across it by himself (with a floatie on).




A sweet pj photo of my boys:

Kaeden, enjoying the swing:

Kaeden learned to crawl while we were at the beach. Kaeden attacking his toys was a new challenge for Ryan, and one day, he got fed up & just decided to move his toys to the landing of the staircase. Brilliant! :)

What a leaf blower will do to Kaeden:

And finally, Ryan helped B. clean Grandaddy's boat & he had a blast. I couldn't believe he sprayed me with the hose!

All in all, we had a wonderful week & clearly made a lot of great memories. We are so thankful to live within driving distance of a wonderful beach and to have generous family to share it with us!