Clara and the ants

After making s'mores at Grandma's on Friday night, Clara decided she'd
had enough to eat. She set hers down on the patio which prompted a
question from her dad. She said she was feeding the ants with her
food. She then picked it up and asked, "Do you want it Papa?"

Addendum to Natural Consequences

And when you throw up on your blankie, you will not have it for the night. 

Natural Consequences

Lessons learned from natural consequences in our home...

When you take a shower for too long, the hot water runs out. 

When you don't use the ladder to get out of the bunk bed, you will eventually hurt yourself. 

When you shout at the top of your lungs because you're way over tired, eventually you'll make yourself throw up. 

Babo visits Molly

Babo came over last week to visit the new baby Howard. In the photo below, the two of them were first getting acquainted. Molly was awake for the visit which is a change from her normal procedure of eat, sleep and "you know what."

On June 2nd, Molly was seven days old. Using an approximation, Babo was 33,351.

Molly Elizabeth

Molly came into the world on Wednesday, May 26th. She was a healthy size and so far is doing everything babies are supposed to do. The other three children are adjusting to her in their own way... Christopher and Clara have been very sweet to her and Sabrina is fascinated by her. Here are a few photos that have also been posted on FaceBook.

Mower troubles

With the election last week and baby #4 coming next week, yard work has gone way down on the priority list. To expedite mowing the yard, we arranged to buy a riding mower from Pops... the same one we sold to him last year. Excited about his new lawn equipment, Adam eagerly went out to mow the front yard... or as Annette puts it, harvest the crop. You see, the grass had gotten so tall, it probably could've been bailed after being whacked down. After one good cut over the front yard, Adam went back a second time with the mower at a lower height setting to chop it up and try to make it look better. One swipe later and the mower sparked, flamed up and began to smoke. It's like all of its will to mow just gave out. After soliciting a neighbor's help who is more qualified in these kinds of things, we finally determined if this mower was going to last several more seasons, it would need to be serviced appropriately. So now it's up at the tractor repair store and we're anxiously awaiting how much damage it's going to be to get it up and running again. In the meanwhile, it's back to the reliable Honda push mower.

PS The neighbor cut our lawn.

Contagious

We've been trying to get Adam's Mom and Grandmother together for a portrait session for quite some time now. We finally used Mother's Day as a great excuse to record these two together. As usual, Babo's jovial laughter is simply contagious!

New Family Member

Before you all get too excited... we are still waiting on baby #4.

We did get to meet another new member of the family this weekend when Tim brought his 5 month-old puppy, Stella, into town. Stella is a Great Pyrenees/American Bulldog mix. At her young age she's already 40 pounds and as big as Christopher. She was a sweet as could be and did very well with the kids who ran around calling her name... even Sabrina.

Dandelion Crop

We try our best... we really do. But with all we have going on right now, lawn maintenance is some times neglected. On the bright side, we have cultivated a beautiful crop of dandelions this spring. Here you see my very proud dandelion farmers. Please note, these images were taken just before the crop was mowed down and fertilized so as to prevent nasty looks from our neighbors.

Papa's Birthday

We enjoyed dinner with both Adam's Mom & Babo tonight for his birthday. The kids had a hand in making it a special evening too. What a great day to celebrate our best Papa!



Who will be the first to blow out the candle?

You've Come A Long Way, Berry.

When our little girl was born with a head of strawberry blonde hair, it was too much for me to resist photographing our redhead with a little 'berry' inspiration. Now, a year later and she's still our beautiful little berry... you've come a long way, Berry!

Birthday Portraits

Here are a couple of studio shots of our little berry as she turns the big number one!





And not to be out done... one good cupcake deserves another for the berry's big sister!

Happy Birthday Sabrina!

Sabrina turned 1 year old earlier this month. It appears in the image below that she's trying to blow out the candle, but I think eventually her big brother had to help her out.

Louisville Science Center

Went to the Louisville Science Center today with Todd and Heather.
Clara would've stayed at this exhibit all day if we would have let her.

Good times.

Flower children

I don't know exactly how this happened, but I believe Clara helped her sister put the head band on. - Adam

Sabrina and Babo

Couldn't pass this one up. This photo was taken earlier in February when we had an impromptu visit over to Babo's for dessert one evening.

Time Lapse of Snowman and Fort

Yesterday Adam and the kids went out to play in the snow. Here is a time-lapsed video of their attempt at building a snowman and a snowfort. Be sure to watch for Sabrina and Annette in the window watching everyone play in the snow. Also, you can see the shadow of the tripod/camera move along the bottom of the window. The shutter speed was one image every 2 seconds. At the end, Adam gets a phone call from his brother that causes him to sit down.

Happy Birthday to Clara!

Clara turned 3 last week at a birthday of games and balloons. Here she is just moments before blowing out her candles.

Human Genome Project

Two young scientists working on an organic model of the human genome project. Marshmallows should never be used as construction equipment for something this serious. One slip of the 'mallow and you have the genome of a fruit fly instead.

NWTF Calling Contest

Today, Christopher and I (Adam) went to the Hunting and Boat Show
downtown for the turkey calling contest. We had a great time - it was
fun to hear him gobble back to some of the first competitors. Here
he is pictured next to his favorite part - the turkey. We also got to
see a hunting dog demo.