Bye Bye Birdie

Yesterday, while bird watching, I saw that the babies were starting to open their eyes. Not all the way, just a tiny bit. I watched as Car and Daddy flew around the yard, keeping a close eye on them.

I guess it doesn't take long for their animal instinct to kick in because this morning the nest was empty. They went from tiny, bald babies to independent little flying birds in one week! I checked the yard again this evening for any traces of them but they are gone, even Car! I am so sad, they grew up too fast.

Whose Your Daddy?

If you have been following my posts about our birdies then you may have seen a red bird in one of the pictures. We noticed that he is always around and assumed he was bothering Car. I even saw something in his mouth one time so we would shoo him away whenever we saw him. That leads me to this posts title....

The other night while watching TV, Pat noticed that the birds on a Lowes commercial looked like the ones in our backyard. Duh?! The red bird is a male Cardinal, the Daddy! We didn't realize that they stay together and watch over the babies.

If you look closely you can see something in his mouth.

After doing my research I found out that the Mama incubates the eggs while the Daddy watches over and brings her food. After the babies hatch both, the mother and the father feed them. That would explain why he is aways around and always has something in his mouth. Today, during my daily birdie photo shoot, I saw Daddy go into the nest and feed the babies!

This is Daddy leaving the nest after the feeding.

He must have brought a feast for dinner because they look like very full babies.

On a sad note, after 9-11 days the birdies leave the nest, often they still haven't mastered flying. I hope when that day comes they all learn very quickly!

So the countdown begins...5 days (at the most). Boohoo!

Big, BIG Weekend

It all started on Friday morning. Governor Nikki Haley choose Stier Supply Company in Irmo for the location of her press conference regarding local, small businesses and jobs in South Carolina.

If you are interested in seeing the full newscast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih_SVBQlATc

As soon as the Governor left the building, the stomach pains that Pat had been experiencing all morning escalated so he went home to rest.  About an hour later, as Becky and I were finishing our lunch, I got a call from Pat. He was not in good condition, he had come down with the flu or food poisoning. I rushed home with some soup and ginger ale. After 3 hours he finally fell asleep, I took that to mean that things were on the up and up. So I decided that I would get ready and attend his cousin, Billy's wedding. I left a note and quietly snuck out.

The wedding was nice and a good chance for everyone to catch up. One of my favorite parts was the photo booth, what a blast! As the reception was coming to an end I glanced up and saw Pat! After his nap he felt much better and couldn't resist missing out on the wedding.

Notice our matching lipstick, compliments of JuJu!

Saturday was JuJu's last day in South Carolina so we all spent the day at the Stiers for quality family time! JuJu is such a girl. She loves her makeup and nail polish. Pat and I left the house for a few hours and when we came back I thought that Becky and Haley had gotten in a fight, their faces were black and blue. Then I realized that they had been playing beauty parlor (so sad I missed out on that one). But in addition to the girly girl, JuJu is a ball of energy! I kept telling her that she was a monkey. I love that she will climb right up in your lap and snuggle, even if only for a few seconds. Then she's down on the ground, crawling up your legs, sliding down, doing handstands, rolling around. I was tired just watching her! 

JuJu and Maggie love each other!

Luckily we will get to see all of the Jacobs very soon! Can't wait!

When we came home this morning the first thing I did was check on Car and the babies! All 3 birdies have hatched and they are so (ugly that they are) cute!

Look how fuzzy they are! I wonder when they will open their eyes?!

Car keeping a close watch from above.

Now we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Kenney's. Shelly and Rob are officially South Carolina residents!

Our New Addition

For those of you that might be holding out hope for a Baby Stier sometime soon, you will be disappointed. The newest addition to our family is a bird! Car, as we call her, is a Northern Cardinal that made a nest in a small tree just outside our back door.

Pat was the first to notice and as soon as he told me I grabbed the camera to get a pic. Just after I snapped the first one he (as we were calling it) flew away. That was when I realized that she had 3 little eggs in her nest!!

I have made myself stop taking pictures because I didn't want to scare her. But she is so beautiful and I think its fascinating to watch her protect her babies.

Here you can see that she "puffed" up when another bird came around.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! Just now, in the middle of writing this post I went to let Maggie in and noticed Car fly way. As I was closing the door I glanced at the nest and saw BABIES! I frantically ran through the house to get my camera, squealing to Maggie that Car's babies had hatched! Now I really don't want to scare her so I only got one good one...

I only saw the one little beak so I hope all three are in there and healthy. I am so excited to watch them grow! We may have to hold off on the new roof until our babies are a little older!



Last day together

The Baumgarner Family will be packing up to leave in the morning. This trip has seemed to go by exceptionally fast! We spent our last day together at the lake. Emily went knee boarding again (on her knees this time) and so did Issak. He also surprised us all and rode the jetski!

Then we went for a boat ride and an adventure on Beaver Island (not the real name, what Pat called it)

You might be wondering how I got all 3 of them to pose, look at the camera and smile...

the 3 catfish heads perched on that tree stump!!

 Goose eggs, we saw 4 or 5 nests around the island.

To add a little more adventure to our trip Pat decided to jump from a rope swing we saw hanging along the shore line. I think he and I found it much more impressive than any of the kids!

Until next year....

XOXO

Rent-A-Kid

My brother and his family come to visit once a year so when they are here I try to spend as much time with the kids as I can. Unfortunately, having a job really gets in the way so my time is limited. One thing that Pat has made tradition is going to Friankies Fun Park. As usual we started off with the go carts: 1st place - Dylan, 2nd - Pat and Emily and 3rd - Me and Issak. And we were not just 3rd we were LAST but I was thankful that Isaak didn't care and he assured me that "it doesn't matter" what place we finished!

We added laser tag to our trip this time and it was a big hit. Half way through our game I ran into Pat (literally) and told him to lay off the younger ones - yes I am the Aunt that always lets them win! When we finished and got our scores Dylan was, again, in 1st place with over 6000, I was in second around 2000 Isaak and Emily to follow with scores in the 1000's and Pat was dead last with -275!! Ahaha! I guess he didn't need my advice! He was hit more times than he fired so he was in the negative!

After all of the running around and sweating it was game time...

I know this picture is a little blurry, but Isaak doesn't like having

his picture taken and he is smiling in this one!

Deal or No Deal - where Dylan won a lot of tickets.

 I am very thankful that earlier in the day Rick and Krista had taken the kids to Frankies to play putt-putt and a few games. They instructed me that all of the tickets were to be put together and then split up evenly at the end. Thank goodness, no fighting over tickets!! By the end they had almost 2000, largely in part to Dylan who spent most of his time playing the games that gave the most tickets.

To end our successful night on a good note....Pat said he was going to pull the car around. As we walked out, we passed a few other teenagers with their families, and there was Pat with the windows rolled down, and the radio on full blast, "Come on kids, load up!" he yelled with Justin Beiber BLARING in the background! I know they were embarrassed (especially Dylan) but they couldn't help but laugh!

Almost everytime we see each other they are asking, "Remember when...." followed by a story about something we have done in the past. I hope they will always remember all of the fun we have together and how much I love them!

Happy Easter

As I mentioned in my blog last year, one of my favorite things about Easter is that my brother, Rick, and his family come to visit. And as usual we spent the day at the lake.

This year the temperature has been unseasonable warm but as the Baumgarner family made their way south the temperature began to drop. Last week the highs were in the upper 80's and this week the highs were in the mid 70's! I felt so bad that it was going to be "cold" when they got here. As the car pulled up to the house Friday night and everyone unloaded, my niece, in short sleeves and a skirt asked, "Why is it always so warm here?" and I responded, "I was thinking it was a little chilly!" So when we walked into the backyard at the lake on Sunday I wasn't surprised to see Emily in the water having the time of her life.

And the boys - fishing, fishing, fishing...

He would be embarrassed that I used a  picture of this

little fish but I can't help it, he just so cute!

And just before Issak gave up, BOOM he got one - a bass!

And now here's Dylan's big daddy. An 18 inch pike!

They are really rare in Lake Murray.

We ended the evening with a relaxing, sunset boat ride...

Little white dog with brown ears (Daisy)

 and big white dog with brown ears (Maggie).

Poor Emily fell was rolling down the stairs (for fun) -

notice the nice carpet burn on her head!

And our captain for the night...

Dylan with no hands...Yikes!



And it wouldn't be Easter without sugar cookies. This is another thing I missed this year due to my pesky job!

The footballs have each of the boys #'s and initials on them.

The carrots were a new one this year, aren't they cute?!

Because everyone was together and I wasn't in town to celebrate my birthday with my parents (for the first time in 30 years) my mom surprised me with a cake. Not just any cake, a shoe cake! What could be better than a new pair of shoes?? One that you can eat!!

I am looking forward to this next week and  some great family time. I hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!

Bidding My 20's Fairwell!

This past weekend we had our annual girls weekend which doubled as my 30th birthday celebration!

The girls planned the whole thing and kept our destination a secret. Jenny and Haley arrived Thursday evening to pick me up and away we went on our road trip, destination...

Friday afternoon we picked Shelly up at the airport and the festivities began! We started off with lunch at Merchants in downtown Nashville. A passenger on Shelly's flight suggested it and we loved it.

Once our belly's were full we could concentrate on taking in some of what Nashville has to offer.

Local "artists" playing their homemade instruments

Printers Alley, where the music happens!

Friday night we had dinner at Sambuca. The food was great and we enjoyed the live music (except that we had to repeat ourselves 4 times so everyone could be in on the conversation).