today was baby cousin karina's due date... and we are just beside ourselves waiting for her to get here!! kristie is feeling good, just ready to be a mom instead of a very pregnant woman! she has been dilated since the end of june, so that has intensified the anticipation of this little girl's arrival... and now we're just waiting. i've got the phone by the bed and the camera batteries charged!! i'll keep ya posted!
so back in june, i excitedly shared the news of the birds in our window... and i promised to keep you up to date on when they hatched and all that... well, the birds hatched on my birthday, they grew, they pooped all over the window sill, and they flew away...a month ago. so much for keeping you updated! while they were here, i spent probably 15 minutes every morning taking pictures and watching them... i couldn't get great shots some days because they knew we were there... i guess they could still see us even with the reflective tint. brian liked to play mind games with them thru the window... it was pretty funny. anyway, they'd be doing something really neat, and as soon as i'd get the camera, they'd go back to being boring ole' birds. i pretty much became the bird paparazzi!
ethan also loved watching the birds. he imitated me saying "bird" a couple of times as we watched them move around on the window sill. one day after the birds had hatched, we were reading "are you my mother", and i read the page that says something like "the mommy bird went to get food for the baby bird." he looked at me and smiled, turned around, and pointed at the window!!!!!! i love to see him learning!
ok, here's a little summary of our time with the birds.
i found the babies the morning of june 19
a couple of days later...
you can see that they're losing their down
lydia loved keeping an eye on the birds every time she came over.
the babies like being close to mom!
sounds like somebody else i know...
it was a little disturbing to watch the daddy bird feed the babies!
they stick their beaks down his beak to get the food...
i'll take nursing any day over that!
the babies have grown so much in a week!
the following pictures were taken 9 days after the babies hatched.
you can see that they've got all their feathers now.
it was so neat to see them flapping their wings!
looks like they're growing out of their nest!
close up of the baby birds
the rest of the pictures were taken 11 days after hatching.
they flew away the next day.
they've taken over the whole window sill now!
more wing experimentation :)
i caught the birds trying to fly away on video...
this was the last we saw of the birds.
the next morning they were gone...
here's the recipe for the beautiful, heavenly cake that christie made last weekend... i haven't made it myself yet, but i can't wait to have a reason to do so!!
1 boxed chocolate cake mix with pudding in the mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup of oil
1/2 cup of water
1 - 8oz. sour cream
1 box of small instant chocolate pudding
6 oz. of chocolate chip morsels
mix all ingredients with a mixer
grease bundt pan (christie says they always use crisco)
pour mixture in pan
bake at 350 for 45 min-1hr.
at 45 min, do the "fork test" to see if it's still gooey inside or done...
when the fork comes out clean, it's done!! yum yum!!
one of the things we've been "meaning to do" for several months is to hang ethan's swing in the backyard... so he had yet to experience the thrill of a swing until last weekend. the girls and i went to a beautiful park on a beautiful mild tennessee saturday evening. the day before had been 100+ degrees, but a much needed rain cooled saturday off quite nicely. after sitting and talking on the back porch in our pjs all day, we took subway sandwiches to the park and watched ethan enjoy his first swing! he absolutely loved it! from a critical photography perspective, some of these shots are not the greatest because my cute little subject was constantly swinging back and forth...and i still am not an expert at using all the settings on our new camera. but from a mommy's perspective, i think i captured some great moments. :) so ignore the blur, and imagine ethan's giggles!! and yes, that is lipstick on both of his cheeks.. what do you expect when you're the only baby around a bunch of girls??
i also took a little video... but youtube really lowers the quality of it- i hate that! you can still hear his giggles and see his fat little legs kicking toward the end. 
not sure what to think at first!
what a rush!
he's loving it now!
"anybody gonna come swing with me?"
"hey mom! are ya sure you and caroline can fit on that?"
a daddy with his little boy in his lap just melts my heart... especially when they're my boys! my favorite part of the day is when brian gets home and gives his undivided attention to ethan. just had to share this picture... 
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