I am going to make it my goal next year to have Christmas shopping done by July 25th. I think it loses out on the spirit of Christmas to drag in on the 23rd or the 24th like a steam engine late to a major stop or something.

We are actually done. I could run to the store for something...I can't remember what. So, I won't. I went today and it wasn't horrifically bad at Wal-Mart, believe it or not. I just needed some buttons. I ended up with an armload of stuff (I refuse to push a cart through Wal-Mart; the last time I did a wheel fell off). I got to the register and tossed my arm load down at the self-check out and Becky called asking for one more thing. I gathered it all up again and picked out the thing she asked for. I came back, tossed it all again and checked out. When I got home something was missing and it wasn't on the receipt so I must have dropped it somewhere in between tossing, gathering and tossing again.

I would like to ask Jesus to forgive me for letting things get too hectic for His birthday!

I made little donkey cookies today to give out to people with the story of the Legend of the Little Donkey. It's a story about the donkey that carried Mary when Jesus was being born in Bethlehem which was also ascendant to the donkey that carried Jesus for his Triumphant Entry. It's just a story. I thought it would be a good way to proclaim the wonderful News of His birth.

We made cookies with Melanie and Timothy. Timothy had so much fun putting "sprinkles" on the cookies. I think he called Doug "grandpa" when we arrived. Their new puppy, Ginger, piddled when we got there, or had just piddled.

Have a wonderful Christmas Celebration! Try not to let things get confusing and think of Jesus and how wonderful it was when the Angels came to proclaim His birth! I know how exciting it was when my grandson arrived but the angels were thrilled to know that God's plan of salvation was beginning when Jesus was born!

We spent this past weekend up in San Jose. Here is Lucas in his Christmas stocking I knitted for him. He's a great stocking stuffer! Below is Sarah and Lucas and the gingerbread house Sarah and Becky designed. They are so talented. I thought they did such a good job on the roof.


Yesterday we celebrated Timothy's 2nd birthday. He liked the cake I made with whipped cream. He even said, "Good cake." What a compliment! He blew out the candles all by himself.

We said good-bye to the baby birds on Sunday. Our neighbor, Terri Lynn and Hannah came and got them. They are happy in their new home and the lighter bird seems to be a special friend to Hannah and likes to be held by her. It's back to normal for Chester and Belle and have resumed nest making and egg making again.

Well, we're home again from North Carolina. We had a great time seeing Andy and Jessica and spending a little time with Doug's family for Thanksgiving. Here we are at the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. We had a great time while touring it. I love the Blue Ridge Mountains; it is so pretty up there.

















Here's a picture of Lucas watching the bubbles.
It was fun having a baby in the house again for a whole week before we went to NC. Also, the baby birds were just clumps in the nest before we left and when we got home, you can see how much they have grown.

That is Belle sitting on the perch and the babies sitting on Chester in the nest. They get a little nervous and run to mom and dad when I approach them.
Here is a picture of Andy and Jessica's home and our attempt at burning leaves. We eventually got brave and burned them in an open pile after we discovered the trash can idea didn't work too well. There were just too many leaves.

The two chicks are doing well. Chester and Belle have been sitting on them, either Chester or Belle or both, all of the time and still hiding them as well as they can. I did see one with it's eyes opened yesterday. They feed them until their crops are fat and full.

Another update on the babies: they are cheeping and one is more visible, always sticking it's head up and cheeping for food. I took a video of that one and he's pretty ugly with big, bulgy, dark spots for eyes and dark skin with yellow frizz sticking out of it. We'll have pictures soon, I'm sure. Chester and Belle try to hide them and stare at me when I get too close.

Another quick blog today. I just peeked under Chester and lo and behold, there was a chick under him! Belle is setting in the nest also, so they are being very good parents. The chick is quite big; I was surprised. They must have hatched some time since yesterday because I saw the eggs still whole then. I'm so excited. I will get pictures as soon as the chicks are visible. I checked out a web site and they can fly within 10-12 days of hatching. Amazing!

Here is a new baby picture for my blog. I bet you can guess who? The cloth diaper dates the picture, I'd say. Yes, it's Andy, about 5 months old, as cute as ever. I can't believe he's married and owns a home now. It seems like yesterday he was in those cloth diapers. He was a happy baby, similar to his nephew, Lucas. Hey, we just noticed the Farmer's Tan.

Today is day 11 for the eggs so we can expect them to hatch at any time. I pried Belle up a smidge and discovered there are two eggs. The tension is running high in the nesting area, I'm sure. When Belle first started setting on November 1, Chester got busy gathering string and tucking it in around her. He gets lonely and bored when he's not sitting on the nest. He usually rings the little bells and messes around doing stuff in the cage while Belle sets. When Chester gets his turn, Belle perches patiently and is still and calm.

When he's absolutely, positively, bored and lonely, he joins Belle in the nest, as he did a few minutes ago and I caught him on camera.
So, that's whats happening in the incubating process, so far. As soon as a baby hatches they will toss the shell out and we'll know what's up then! Hopefully, it will be soon. It could happen anytime up until Wednesday (11-14 days from the time the egg was first laid on Oct. 31).

Cheers!

Just a quick post to let you know that we had a great time this weekend with Lucas and Pieter. Lots and Lots of time with babies: rocking them, cuddling them and making them smile, laugh and we just had a ton of fun with them!

My camera batteries are dead otherwise I would post a picture of Chester or Belle sitting on their nest. They had one egg as of Tuesday and are securely incubating, perhaps two eggs by now. While Belle sat today, Chester was tucking string around her. The egg/eggs are the size of my thumbnail. By November 10-14 we should see the results of their efforts.

Today is my friend Pixie's birthday. Hope she has an enjoyable day.

More cute pictures of my baby. Becky thinks Andy must have put her in this basket. I have so many pictures of Becky smiling and laughing. No wonder she's still such a cut-up; she started out that way. I also found a picture of her sucking a pacifier. I don't remember her having one and she eventually sucked her finger. Not surprising since she sucked the pacifier upside down.

I saw Sarah's picture of Lucas in his swing and thought I'd find the one when he was 2 days old in his swing. You can see how much he has grown in less than 5 months!

Amazing! He's still a young, sweet, baby, though. Can't wait to see him again!

Here is a current picture of my baby, all tuckered out from her day in the woods. Just as adorable as she was at 10 months.

This past weekend we spent with Sarah and Daniel, and Lucas, of course. We had a great time. On Saturday we watched Lucas at Gymboree. He wasn't as busy this time; he had to stop and have a snack. The lady who leads the class did mention that Lucas will be "graduating" out of the class soon as he is more advanced now, reaching and grabbing things. Sammy was quite fun to watch this time. He got to laughing at some of the toys.

Sunday we went to the Hakone Japanese Gardens and wow! That place was amazing. We then followed a narrow, twisting, and turning road up the mountains for nearly an hour to Big Basin. The redwoods are amazing and even though we couldn't stay long, it was worth the drive. We would like to go again and perhaps have a camping trip. We left Monday morning and had to say goodbye to our sweet grandson. It was the best weekend we've had in months! It was a great way to finish off Doug's first week at his new job where he worked normal hours again. It was great to have a weekend again. Thanks for a great time, Sarah and Daniel!

Guess who's below? Yep, it's Sarah at about 6 months old; in the studio portrait she's about
8 mos.
I thought we could compare her looks to Lucas's side by side.

I can't wait to see them tomorrow. We're very ready for a visit.

Sarah's blog is so much fun; mine isn't as cute with just birds and a dog picture. So, I decided to put some pictures of my "baby" on here. This is one of my favorites of Becky and she's about 10 months old. This is a cousin picture and she had so much fun doing this picture with them. I'm sure they were being silly and semi-uncooperative. Isn't she cute with her two little front teeth showing and her little hair tuft on top?

I might have so much fun with baby pictures, Sarah may see some future posts with cutsie pictures in it of her. Then, we can compare her looks with Lucas's.

Have a great day. Chester and Belle are fine.

Chester and Belle have continued their "birdie dance" but after a few days of this Belle seemed to be having a problem as she was all fluffed up and hunched over. I checked on-line and it seemed she could be "egg bound." I supplied a lamp to warm her up a little and shortly after that she must have expelled a shell-less egg. She seemed to feel better after that but I seperated them to give her a chance to recover. She is near the cage in a "hospital cage" (the box I brought them home in) with a lamp and she is pecking her food and cooing to Chester and he is calling back to her. They miss each other dreadfully. I hope that she will feel better after this.

We were busy yesterday with volleyball games.

Andy and Jessica are doing well. We actually talked to Andy today. They spent the day at Uncle Dave's.

Well, I think Belle and Chester were properly named. They are showing interest in their nest, and each other, and Belle has been sitting in the nest and Chester does, too, after she gets out. There is also other evidence that Chester is a boy and Belle is a girl. It's been quite interesting watching them. They like the homemade nest better than the other store bought nest. I'll keep you posted on their activities.

We caught
Sammee
watching
the neighbor
boys
playing
basket-
ball today.
We call this her "prairie dog" stance. She can just barely peek over the bottom of the door and see out. She was also watching the garbage men this morning and was very worried about them stealing our garbage. Sorry Sammee, but the garbage is not yours to keep!

Tuesday night was Becky's first volleyball game at the home gym. They lost 0-3 but in the third game they did a much better job. One of our girls got hurt and the rotation was a little different and they seemed to play a little better. Maybe they just got warmed up. The only two lines in the paper about the game was two lines about Becky and how she led with nine blocks, three kills and two service aces. We're pretty proud of that.

Sarah asked me to put a picture of my new birds on here and I tried it and it was a new skill for me and look! I did it! Belle is on the left and Chester is on the right. I take them to the family room in the morning and let them sit on top of Sammee's cage so they can bask in the sunlight. They love it and when the sun moves away out of the window, they try to fly out of the cage towards the sunlight they see outside. They're not too bright when they keep running into the side of the cage. So, I place them back in the front room where they stay the rest of the day. This winter more sun will come into the front room windows and they will enjoy having more sun during the day.

Have a blessed day!

If you look to the left you will see I have links now. I figured out how to do that all by myself. Yesterday we went to Pet Co, just for fun. Well, we ended up getting a pair of Diamond Doves. They are miniature doves, grey with speckles on their wings. We are beginning to hear them coo a little so I'm hoping they are settling in to their new home. We named them Chester and Belle; we really don't know if they are a boy and girl but it doesn't really matter. I had Diamond Doves about 8 years ago or so and I made the mistake of putting them in a larger cage with big doves and some predator got them. I really liked having doves but this small version is more to having indoors. I promise I won't put them outside. I promise I will care for them. If the people at Pet Co new my tract record for having birds, they might have denied my purchase. We won't tell them about all my failures.

It is smokey and warm here, about 90. There is a fire somewhere, not sure where, and the air is filled with the acrid smoke with an orange glow from the sunlight coming through it.

I'm trying a new thing today. I'm adding a picture. Hey, I think I did pretty well. This is from Sept. 1, when Andy and Jessica got married. Aren't they adorable? We saw them for a whole 5 hours that day. It was really quick. We ate dinner at AJ Spurs.

It's Friday and the end of our 3rd week of school. (I checked out the calendar and it wasn't our 4th week after all.) Things are just moving along. Doug takes Becky to volleyball practice. I stay home and drink tea and watch TV. Ok, I do make dinner, too. I'm also painting my birdhouses. They are looking a little weathered so I'm adding new paint and brightening them up.

Hope your day is bright! Babbs

Today is my first post. We are in our 4th week of school now and doing very well. Becky took 3 tests yesterday in Spanish, Geometry and Biology. She got a 95% or better on them. She took a World History test today over the first 3 chapters and did very well, too. She might have done better if I wasn't such a boring teacher. Perhaps with time, I will become so interesting and fascinating that Becky will become enthralled with World History. I'm more enthralled with it now than I was in high school. Maybe because now I'm old enough to BE history.

I hope my first post is successful. Have a great day. Babbs