Our Growing Family

Friday, the boys and I went down to my parent's house to spend the weekend. Aaron worked for the railroad Friday night, and then had irrigation work to do all weekend. He got down there on Saturday night, but worked on their neighbor's sprinkler all day Sunday. He is busy, but we are lucky and glad that he is! That's how I get to be home. :) When you ask Jackson where daddy is he says "Daddy, Choo Choo!"

The boys, my mom, and I drove to a bakery in Athens on Saturday to order Jackson's Elmo birthday cake. Yep....Elmo. I wish when I planned his 1st birthday party I would have known that would be the last "theme" that was up to me. I have been trying to show Jackson everything. "Jackson, let's have a YEE-HAW party!!!!"....."Elmo." "Jackson, let's have a baseball party!!!"...."Elmo." So...I have accepted Elmo. Good ole' Elmo. I can't believe he is going to be 2! He has been making so many sentences lately. It is so much fun!

Here are some videos and pictures of the boys swinging at my parent's-






As we were sitting in the backyard watching the boys swing a storm started blowing in. The wind picked up like crazy and it look like rain was coming, so we quickly gathered everything up and moved to the porch. (there is a reason why I am telling you this....keep reading)

The storm was gone. We took some pictures. As always, Rigley chased birds, squirrels, ducks,etc.

Rigley wondered off to the next door neighbors yard, so my mom walked over to get him. My mom watched Rigley as he was acting weird and doing circles around something. Mom was trying to get Rigley to listen (which he isn't good at) but Rigley was intensely doing circles around what appeared to be leaves. Then....I heard my mom make the sound and do the motions she does when she finds something gross. You know - rubbing her arms, jumping around...ewww,ewww,ewww. She said "There is an animal over there." We ran over there to find this -
Do you know what this is? We didn't.
I know, I know...you are probably thinking a baby dinosaur. I thought the same thing. Although it does look like a dinosaur, I'm afraid that is not what it is. Maybe a puppy? Someones dog had a litter of puppies and instead of trying to sell them in a box at the local Wal-Mart, they decided to just throw them out? The tail looks like a mouse, but not the feet. Maybe an opossum? About this time, we started hearing a loud animal sound. We realized they were baby squirrels when the mother squirrel was up in the tree wanting to attack us. We think the strong wind knocked the babies out of the nest.

We quietly moved to the porch and watched. The momma squirrel came down and picked up one baby.....licked it off and carried it up the tree....came back down for the 2nd baby.... licked it off and carried it up the tree.....came down for the 3rd baby....looked around........... We knew where is was, but it was away from the other two. It was closer to where Rigley plays. We wonder if Rigley picked one up when he found them and moved it to the other location. ewwww.yuck.
The momma looked and looked, but never found it. She went back up the tree. I told my dad to get a shovel and move the squirrel closer to the tree so she would find it when she came back down. But she never came back down. :(

I spent the night searching on the internet "How to take care of a baby squirrel." It was sad to watch a helpless, alive, little thing. Ugly or not - it was sad. I however, never took action. I left it in the yard.

The next morning, I was excited to wake up and had hopes the little baby would still be laying in the grass so the momma squirrel could find it. My dad however, informed me that the neighbor threw it away because it was dead. ????????? I wish I had a chance to say goodbye. haha!
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Aaron was mowing the yard this afternoon, so I let Jackson go outside with his lawn mower to "help."



Garrett started eating rice cereal and now he is trying out veggies. Last week was squash and today he started green beans. He LOVES green beans. At one point I was playing airplane with the spoon and he yanked my hand down to his face and opened his mouth really big. I couldn't get it into his mouth fast enough.


Jackson is forming a new habit. He sticks his tongue out when he is really concentrating. He needs to stop or his lips are going to start getting chapped, but I know if I draw attention to it he will think it is funny and do it more. The odd thing is, I still remember when I was in 4th grade and my best friend Kristin would laugh at me in class because everything time I was focused on my work I would lick my lips. So...I understand!

You have to enlarge this picture to see, but his tongue is out while he is mowing as well.

Happy Back to School to you all! It feels good to be at home this year, but I am thinking about all of you who had to leave your little ones to go to work or those of you that have to drop your little ones off at school. My day will come. I wish I could protect them forever, but I know that is not the case.