Hummingbirds

I love, love, love my hummingbird feeder. At any given time we have two or three, even up to four hummingbirds feeding at it. Dusk is the best time of day to watch. The feeder isn't anything fancy. I purchased it at Wal-Mart for $12. The actual food is a simple water sugar mixture with a 4 to 1 ratio boiled for 5 minutes. They will eat about two cups of food a week.

It is actually quite difficult to take pictures of the hummingbirds. Well, maybe if you don't have a two year old and two large dogs following you around refusing to sit still it might be easy. I popped out the screen of our living room window and sat patiently at dusk with my camera ready. 

Playing with my camera settings

Changing the settings, this was using a different filter

First one

Second one

Third one

It is neat to see the different sizes and the colors are AMAZING. There is one bird that is quite aggressive and doesn't allow the other birds to eat. It is fun to watch as he gets distracted chasing one away another will sneak in for quick bite. 

Hummingbirds are surprisingly loud. One afternoon I was outside getting the feeder to bring it inside to clean and refill and hummingbird buzzed me. It was incredibly loud, I thought for sure it had to be a huge creature but no it was just a tiny hummingbird.  

Dentist take 2

It is amazing what a difference six months can make. Claire had a dentist appointment yesterday and did AMAZING! Sooo much better than last time.

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent the long weekend in Bend at Grammy and Papa Dean's. Claire and I left Friday morning and Dave came over on his bike Saturday afternoon. Initially, Dave was going to take Friday off but since he waited till the last minute too many other techs were already scheduled to be off and it would have left them short handed. As it turns out, he was quite busy and got in some overtime for the day. Plus, he enjoyed the long bike ride. Win-win.

In the past Claire has just slept with us on the bed but to be perfectly honest it wasn't working for anyone. I was grumpy, Claire was grumpy, Dave was grumpy, all from the lack of sleep. This time I brought with us a twin size air mattress. It worked awesome! Everyone had their own space and got a good nights sleep. I am hoping it works just as well when we go camping this summer.

As usual, Claire was very excited to ride the horses, feed the horses, pet the horses, brush the horses.... you get the idea. Its all she's talks about. In fact, she had it all planned out. She was going to ride Buster (by herself) and Dave was going to ride Rowdy. When asked which horse Papa Dean was going to ride she simply replied "he can share with Daddy". However, when it came down to going on a trail ride she didn't want to go. All she wanted was to trot along in the yard area and she only wanted to go for a few minutes and only once. Strange.

Tucker and Ruby came with us this time. Our normal dog sitter was busy. Ruby looks really fat in this picture. Maybe its a bad angle :). I thought she (we) was (were) doing really good keeping her weight down. Guess I'll have to get her weighed and see about cutting back her food.

I think the highlight for Claire was the 'pool'. Grammy's hot tub was a big hit. Just the perfect size too. Well sort of, perfect size that I didn't have to get in with her but she couldn't actually swim but Claire still had fun.

Once again Claire got a runny nose while we were there. Its not George the cat like I thought last time. I tested my theory with the Anderson's cat Maggie. Maybe the Juniper pollen? She's allergic to something over there, just have to figure out what it is.

The best part of the weekend was Dave and I went to a movie. Yes, a movie! We haven't been to a movie together since before Claire was born. Mom and Dean were nice enough to watch Claire for us. SHAWARMA!

Funny

Claire and I have the funniest conversations. For example this morning, I get out of the shower and find Claire sitting outside on the porch swing with a bunch of coins from our coin basket.

Claire: Hi mama
Me: Whatcha doing?
Claire: Counting my monies
Me: Okay
Claire: Yeah! I need to get more monies. I need big piles of monies.
Me: Okay

I need to start writing more of these down as they happen as I forget by the time I sit down to blog. Here are two random pictures from my phone.... enjoy! :)

Thinks she's old enough yet?

On the train at the zoo

Trying again!

We put in an offer on this house and are waiting to hear back from the bank if it's accepted. These pictures don't really do it justice. Its a cute house in a nice neighborhood. Totally move in ready! I'll keep you posted.


http://www.johnlscott.com/PropertyDetail.aspx?GroupID=268581858&ListingID=301266419&CMID=-1&Sort=0&RTR=50&LI=2&t=1

Hello Kitty!

After the Anderson trio got their ears pierced last summer and Claire wanted hers done too (because we HAVE to do everything the girls do), but I had my reservations so we waited. Over the last couple months Claire has talked about it more and more. We would go look at earrings, sit in the chair, pick out which ones she wanted, talk about that it would hurt; like a shot but would be all better soon, sit in the chair, talk about keeping them clean and twisting them, sit in the chair, pick out which ones she wanted, talk about that it would hurt.... you get the idea. This went on for several months where she would say yes she wanted to get it done and then change her mind at the last minute (literally as we were sitting in the chair, technician ready, she would say no). Okay, no big deal we would leave and she would want to try again another time. This her decision, I didn't want to force her. 

Last month we were at the bookstore at the mall and she said she wanted to get her ears pierced so we head down to Claire's (the name of the jewelry store), get all set up and once again she says no, so we leave but this time as we are getting in the car she starts crying saying yes, yes she wants her ears pierced. I tell her that if we go back in there she is not changing her mind again, that she was getting them pierced. Thankfully the technician was understanding and didn't mind getting all setup again. Claire picked out her favorite Hello Kitty earrings, she picked these every time so I knew that is what she really wanted and just a few minutes later she had her ears pierced. 

The pain surprised Claire, she was really upset, trying really hard until she was offered a pink lollipop and suddenly it was all better. It was tough for momma to watch knowing it was going to hurt, anticipating that pain for her but she was a trooper and calmed right down. Keeping them cleaned the first week was challenging. Claire would not let anyone come near her ears. The directions said to clean and twist them three times a day for six weeks. We did it once a day for a week. It was a two man ordeal. One to hold her down. Arms, legs and head all pinned and one to clean. Getting dressed was a chore too as shirts rubbed against her ears. Claire wouldn't hold still to do to slowly, fighting me and making it worse. I know that is the thought of it hurting more than the actual pain itself as she would say owie, owie before anything even touched her ears. It made me feel barbaric, that I was traumatizing her and that I did it knowing it would be painful. I even thought of just taking them out and getting them done again when she was older. We powered through and now they are all healed. Whew!

Waiting (she's wanting to wear her backpack lately, hence the straps)

Cleaning

Marking where they go (she had to do it too)

Getting nervous

She's not so sure

3, 2, 1....

Earrings!

Mother's Day

We had a quiet Mother's Day this year (my favorite kind). A friend of mine's mom invited us over to celebrate with them and two other families. The men cooked brunch and watched the children while us mom's visited. It was fun.

Side note: We take some terrible pictures! Is that what we really look like everyday? Ugg!