Treasure Hunting

Vic got a hand held GPS from one of the guys at work and wanted to go treasure hunting. Boys! Apparently, a bunch of people with plenty of time on their hands go out and hide little knick knacks for others to find and enter the coordinates so that they can be found with a GPS. We didn't find anything but a bunch of mosquitoes, spiders, and hurricane damage! Hayley had fun though!

Bonfire!

Well, after Gustav and Ike, our yard is finally cleaned up. In the process, I encountered a couple of snakes in the yard so since Hayley was helping clean up, I told her she had to wear her green rain boots because there were snakes in our yard. She asked why there were snakes, and I told her because the yard was so messy. We invited some friends over on Sunday night and set the piles of sticks on fire and Hayley was running around telling everyone that we were burning up the snakes! Crazy kid! Anyway, it was fun. The fire got a little too big for comfort a couple of times but nothing that the hose and Vic couldn't handle!

New Family Member(s)!

Hayley received a VERY early Christmas present a couple of weeks ago! Two Shetland ponies- however, she is only keeping 1! The pony that we wanted for her included a 5 month old baby and she had been re-bred, although its not 100% that she is pregnant again. In fact, we are hoping that she's not just because thats one more thing to worry about in the spring. Anyway, her name is Daisy and Hayley is calling the baby Happy for now. She has only ridden her twice so far just because we dont have all of the equipment just yet, but both times she did not want to get off! Happy will be going to her new family in December. I will have to get some pics of Hayley riding but for now, all I have is the ponies!

A Day at City Park with D.D

My Mom and I took Hayley to City Park to ride the rides and then we went on the street car. Hayley had a blast!

Day 2 at the Lake

More Pictures from the Lake House

Katie is somewhere in there!
Bailey looking a bit annoyed
Noah enjoying his boat ride
Katie and Hayley

North Carolina

After a nearly 10 hour drive to Dad's house in NC from the cabin in Alabama, we were quite relieved to get there. Although, I'm not sure how excited Dad and Shelley were when we opened the van and there was 2 dogs, a cat, and a rabbit in tow! I was a bad person and didn't take any pictures while we were at the house. In fact, I had completely forgotten about the camera until we were loading up the van to go to the lake house. Therefore, I tried to make up for it at the lake house but Shelley wasn't able to join us, so we were one person short in all of the pictures.
Katie did an awesome job skiing and Hayley loved tubing!

Joe Wheeler State Park

We stayed at the cabin for 2 nights. It was a nice break from driving and it was beautiful. The animals enjoyed being able to stretch their legs too. So did Hayley!

Hurricane Gustav Evacuation

Well, with a mandatory evacuation being placed on our parish, my fear of storms, and the guaranteed loss of electricity, the children and I evacuated for Hurricane Gustav. However, Victor stayed behind to protect the house from the threat of looters after the storm passed. The majority of the animals accompanied the kids and I on the evacuation also- they are my kids too just in a different sense! We initially had plans of going to Memphis, TN to stay with my late uncle's girlfriend. However, about half way there, Hayley got car sick and threw up all over the van. We stopped at the very next exit where all there was was a Super 8 motel. Out of disgust, stress, and anxiety, my mom and I stayed at the motel for the night and continued to Memphis in the morning. However, with both children and all of the pets, we were only welcome to stay 1 night in Memphis. So then, the kids and I traveled to Rogersville, Al where we stayed at Joe Wheeler State Park in a cabin for 2 nights. In the meantime, I had no communication with Victor and the last text I received from him said that things were getting pretty scary at the house and one of our sheds had blown away. I went 24 hours without any communications from him and was getting increasingly concerned when he was finally able to call by driving about 30 miles north of our house. I also finally got in touch with our electric company and they said it could take 3 weeks before our electricity was restored. With that news, I decided to drive to NC to stay at my Dad's house until we could go home. And then, once our power was restored, the had Hurricane Ike centered for La so we stayed a few more days to wait out Ike, which hit Texas and only caused tropical storm strength winds and rain at our house.

Gilbert

We have a new addition to our family again. His name is Gilbert and he is a 5-6 week old gray kitten. He too has become more of Hayley's pet then mine. She named him after the cat on her favorite cartoon show, Caillou. We have had him for a month now and she is just now starting to leave him alone so he can be a cat and not be held 24/7. He's been great with her for the most part. A few scratches here and there when Hayley got to be too much for him, but he has really been very tolerant for a cat.

Noah's first spoon feeding!

Noah's doctor gave me the go-ahead at his 4 month check up to start feeding him solids. We started with carrots and he loved them! However, about 48 hours later, he was exceptionally fussy and had diarrhea. We moved on to peas to see if he handled those better but got the same response about 48 hours later. After sweet potatoes have caused the same issue, I think we may put spoon feeding on hold for a little while and see if his tummy handles it better in a few weeks. I will still continue to feed him rice cereal and oatmeal with a spoon just so he doesn't forget how to eat from a spoon!

More Pictures

I took a few pictures of the kids while we were just hanging around the house. You can really tell how much Hayley is taking to the animals and the animals are taking to her. Hayley and Maggie are just about inseparable. Noah is starting to get mobile. As soon as he's put on the floor, he takes off- whether its rolling, scooting, or turning- he will be across the room in a matter of seconds! Thats scary!