Go Dogs!!!

Who does Jacob look like?

Who does Jacob look like? It seems like that is a big question when you have a new baby. Well, I think he looks like Marie the most. The top picture is Jacob. And the bottom picture is Marie when she was a baby. What do you think?

Sister and Brother

Big sister singing to baby brother

Jacob Thomas Williams

Little Swimmer

This summer we've started Marie in swimming lessons at the new pool. She is the youngest one in the class, and sometimes she has a little trouble not getting distracted with all the cool things at the pool. But at least she's not afraid of the water. And she does end up doing most of the things the teacher has the kids do, even though she is sometimes the last one. The main thing - she's learning a little something and having fun doing it!




I would say this looks like a mother duck and her ducklings, but the teacher is a guy. It is pretty cute about how all the kids are listening to him.



The water here is about 3 and a half feet deep. Marie is barely 3 feet herself, so she's doing a good job of hanging on. I guess she's not scared that her feet don't touch the bottom.

Taking a leap of faith.

She spotted me taking pictures!

Father's Day 2011

Marie is getting old enough to really understand things now. And Father's Day was no exception. She was so excited about it!




Here she is showing Daddy the card that she made for him.

Even though it's Daddy's present (a new electric beard trimmer), Marie had a big part in helping him open it.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Bird Update

Well, today I was sitting on the porch and saw both mama bird and daddy bird out of the flower basket. And it was a very warm day. And I could not resist the urge. So what did I do? Well, I checked on the baby birds. A few days ago 3 of the 5 eggs had hatched. Today only 1 of those 3 birds were in the basket, so I guess the other 2 didn't make it. But those other 2 eggs that hadn't hatched a few days ago still had not hatched today. So it's probably doubtful that those 2 will survive even if they do hatch. The flower basket was extremely in need of water - it had been more than 2 weeks since I last watered it. I made several holes in the soil and watered it that way. Hopefully that will last it a while, because I really really really am going to try to not bother the birds again. With only 1 of the 5 original baby bird eggs likely to survive, I really hope this little guy makes it.

I'm a little concerned because even though he's a little bigger that a few days ago, he still can't hold his head up. And I'm wondering if he should have more fuzz/feathers.

Mama bird or daddy bird???

Keeping a watchful eye on the baby.

Grilling at the Beach

I'm trying to be patient and wait for Jacob to come, but it's pretty hard when I'm at home looking at all the baby things and getting everything ready. Tonight I had a nice distraction from that when Tom, Joan, Liz, Bill, Marie, and I went to Eagle Beach for a little grill out. The weather was great too! Enjoy the pictures.

On the way home, we saw this bear at the side of the road eating. Not the greatest picture, but it was Marie's first time to see a bear.

Garden and Flower Baskets

Last year Jody and Dana bit me with a gardening bug. I tried taking care of the front bed that was already established, some hanging baskets, a little raised vegetable garden, and a new bed with some bushes in it. The baskets and garden did HORRIBLE last year while the front bed did really well. The new bed thrived with some transplanted bushes. This year everything is a big success so far! I've been so excited about it!


I planted all the vegetables, mostly starts, the first weekend in May. Right after, there were 2 nights of hard frost. Half my snap peas and three-quarters of my lettuce was ruined, and one broccoli plant was struggling. Then a cat got in it a dug around in the space that I had planted my carrots. I was so discouraged that didn't even go out there for a couple of weeks to look at it, because I thought everything would die just like it did last year. Well, I was wrong. Some stuff did survive and did really well. I replaced the snap peas and lettuce with new starts, and added some strawberries. Then Bill built me this great green house, which I think has made the garden just take off. This picture was taken 10 days ago, and it has grown a lot even since then. You can't see quite everything from the picture, but here's what I'm growing: 1 zuccini, 2 strawberries, 7 or 8 carrots (originally planted 16, but then the cat came along), 4 broccoli, 8 onions, 8 snap peas, 4 lettuce, and 4 spinach.

Here is some lettuce from the garden. I had originally planted 8 lettuce plants, but 6 died in the frost. The remaining 2 from the original starts are doing really well. I expected the lettuce to look like the heads of lettuce in the store. Jody came over last Wednesday after church, and she said to go ahead and pick the lettuce and eat it. It has made for some tasty salads and lettuce for sandwiches. It is much fresher that anything we get at the grocery store, and lasts a lot longer too!

Last year I thought this flower was a weed and almost dug it up. But Jody quickly told me that it was not a weed, but a peony (I think). Last year it bloomed when I was in the Philippines. But this year I'm staying put, so I'm excited to see what it will look like and smell like once it blooms.

Here are my hanging baskets. Last year I was a terrible failure at all 3 baskets. But I figured out my mistake. I originally got baskets with flowers that liked the sun. This year I found that while there is a lot of sun that shines on the flower bed during the day, the eave of the roof blocks the sun from getting up to the baskets. So I took them back and exchanged them for flower baskets that liked the shade. What a difference it made! I feel so successful now! What I'm not so successful at is knowing what the names of these flowers are. So garden/flower buffs, look at these next few pictures, and if you know the names of the flowers let me know!

Baby Shower

This last Sunday, the ladies at church had a baby shower for me and Jacob. It was a lot of fun and the time seemed to go by so fast! I cold kick myself for not taking very many pictures though. A big thanks to Dana for putting it together, and to Lela and Rachel for helping her.

I have to say something about these sinfully delicious cupcakes. Rachel asked me what kind of dessert or sweet stuff I liked and I told her chocolate chip cookie dough. She found a recipe and made these incredible cupcakes! The frosting tasted just like cookie dough - but better!

The Shrine

A couple of weeks ago Liz, Marie and I went to the Shrine for a little picnic. The weather was perfect! We even got to see a whale. It came pretty close to shore. It was the first whale that Marie had seen and she liked it a lot. It was hard to get a good picture of it since it didn't come out of the water very much. But you could hear it blow and make all kinds of sounds really well.

There was family vacationing for the week at one of the cabins at the Shrine. Marie made fast friends with this 4 year old little boy and they enjoyed watching the whale, following a little squirrel and playing hide-and-seek.

The Bird's Nest

A few weeks ago when I was watering my flower baskets, I came across this bird's nest. Since it had no eggs in it, we went ahead and took it out thinking the bird would build somewhere else.

Marie liked seeing what a bird's house looked like.

Well, the next week when I went to water the basket, the bird had returned. She hastily tried to build a nest but must not have had enough time before she had to lay her eggs. So now there are 5 little eggs in a sparce nest in the flower basket. I definitely didn't want to remove the eggs. So I went to the place I bought the basket and asked them what I should do. They said to water around the eggs and they should be fine. It's been almost 2 weeks and I think they should be hatching soon. I've tried not to bother the basket too much. It's only needed watering once, but is due for another watering soon. Hopefully a couple of weeks after they hatch, they will be ready to fly away and I can resume my normal watering and dead-heading. The basket has done fine, but I worry about the eggs since they don't really have much of a nest.

Here is the best picture I could get of the mama bird. She is on the branch near the middle of the picture. Okay bird lovers - tell me what kind of bird it is. A finch maybe?

Campout

The teens had a campout at the beginning of this month and we decided to go too. Bill and Marie spent the night, while I enjoyed a more comfortable bed at home. Marie absolutely loved going camping. Especially after she got a little toy campout set for her birthday.

She is such a big girl - and she knows it!

A campout isn't a campout without a campfire and stories.

Camp buddies!