Woody Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker....
Only the 2nd time I've ever seen one of these guys, although I've heard him in our woods several times. Pounding some big holes in the crabapple. Tried to talk him into pounding on the other side so I could get a clear shot, but he took off. He is one big funky-looking bird!

2 months (yesterday)!

So I meant to post yesterday, but the day got away from me. Yesterday marked 2 months old for Alena! It's gone by so fast and yet it's hard to imagine our lives without her. These top two pics are from the day she was born (above- nice scrunched newborn face) and the day after she was born (below) during her first main alert time.
The next two pics were taken yesterday- what a change already! We are having a ton of fun with her lately as she's moving, smiling, and cooing like crazy!

The 11th of September

Official date! I've found people are less taken back if I say it that way (instead of September 11).
Here is where it will be (from 1pm til whenever...):
Lost Dutchman at Trout Haven
And it is WAY better in person, ask Ashley. Spencer wants us to make sure we get some good ones and sell them back to the location.

Sorry to those who requested the next weekend, we did keep it open, but the person we wanted to Officiate couldn't do it the next weekend, and it worked better schedule-wise for Spencer. And Ashley told me to be more selfish.

Easter Fun

Alena's Baptism

We took some portraits of Alena in her baptism dress today. A lot to ask of a tired little girl....




Reuben's baby ring, passed down:


Of course the shoes are an important part of any little girl's wardrobe...

Alena Rae

I realized that we never posted any of our own pictures of Alena on the blog, only on Facebook. Wow! Here are some recent pictures of her. I forgot that when you post, it goes newest to oldest, so these are in opposite order, but oh well! Alena is smiling and interacting a lot now, and it is so much fun!


She loves her bouncer and love this blanket that a co-worker sent as a gift last week in the mail!
Chillin' at a barbeque with friends last weekend. She needs to grow into daddy's sunglasses a bit yet. :)
Can you tell I love this little headband on her? We love our little girl!

It's on facebook, it's official (just a ring won't do it these days...)

Here are a few pics from the hike, and after the happy ending. Hooray!


Time to get girly!

I second that.

I didn't that hail over here, but I did have lots of rain. I had a rapids going around my house and down to the front yard.

Wet Basement

We had a little storm roll through this morning....a bit of excitement to break up the day.
I didn't get pictures of the really large hail...I never saw it that large in Michigan... but captured some of the after-effects. Thankfully, our cars were in the garage. Funniest part was the cat. She hid in the basement for two hours.
Now I'll get some exercise hauling buckets of water from the basement.

The woods by the creek...




The view down the path. Hard to tell where the banks of the creek are supposed to be.