Where the Wild Things Are... or should I say Exotic?

Upon moving into our home in Jasper, I was ready for all kinds of wild animals to visit our home and property. Have had a fight with a camel cricket or two. Waiting to see all that will come...deer, turkeys, various birds. Yes, I said birds but not peacocks!! Peacocks originate in South Asia, not Walker County. But, yes, we have two peacocks that visit us. One was even walking around our deck at odd hours and left us a present or two (including feathers but not pretty ones). These two peacocks come to visit us from neighbors up the road. They actually come to visit our immediate neighbor's chicken and rooster. Imagine looking out your window and seeing a peacock walk by... talk about taking a double look!

Pickles

Spent a day this past week with my dear friend, Jennifer. She and her husband, Marc, had a huge harvest of cucumbers. So, we decided to have an adventure in canning! We canned bread and butter, sweet and dill pickles! What fun we had testing things out and trying something new! Thank you, Jennifer for a wonderful day!

Three Times the Charm

Tucker's favorite park in Gardendale is the "Carrot" park- or as he calls it due to a small picture of a carrot. So, when asked what park he wanted to celebrate his birthday at he very quickly said, "The Carrot Park!!!" We celebrated Tucker's 3rd birthday this year the day after the 4th and this was his first birthday to combine family and friends. Tucker was very excited to share his Diego party with all his friends and family. He ran around like a wild man and even had a few three year old tantrums. But all in all, h had a great time. So great, Diego might even say, Mission Complete!!

Ready to eat his Diego cake. Tucker had been waiting for this cake since October.
Every time we would visit the store, he would go down the dairy isle yelling, "I'm coming Diego!!" I think this picture sums up the relationship between Tucker and his cousin Sarah.

A tired party boy!! At least he has shoes on in this picture! He ran around the park without shoes on for most of the party- one less meltdown to deal with for the day!

Our FAVORITE cookies! Moonlight Cakes makes Tucker cookies each year! She does an awesome job for an amazing price! Check her out! She'll even put personal names on each cookie if you want!

Party, Party!

Born on the Fourth of July

Yes, a little behind in blogging about our sweet baby boy's birthday, but that is just how it goes these days! :)

Tucker had a big celebration this year- a three day celebration! We didn't know if we would be in our house by the 4th or not, so in advance we had reserved a park pavillion for his official party. Since we did end up being in the house, we ended up having multiple celebrations- 3 to be exact which was fitting for it being his third birthday!

We started the celebrations off with dinner with Grandma and Pop King on Saturday evening. We enjoyed a yummy dinner out, homemade cupcakes and then presents afterwards. Then on Sunday, the official day, we had a potluck dinner with the Rhodes family, the Franklins and our dear friends, The Rollins. Tucker had a great time swimming and playing with Sarah Catherine.

Exhaustion

Yes, we are finally in and I guess you could say settled. Or at least as settled as can be for now! We closed on June 25th and movers moved us in the next week -along with Harris (and all the rest of the family) moving odds and ends from various homes and our storage unit. I think I can actually say that pretty much all of the boxes have been unpacked (except a few) and hopefully pictures will be hung this weekend. Tucker has loved being in his new home. Our basement has a large den as well as two sets of Jack and Jill rooms on either said. Tucker has pretty much taken over his bedroom and the den. He has his train table set up in it plus all of his toys and tools! Many fun times to come! He sleeps well there too! We leave the stairwell light on all night so if he should need to find Mommy and Daddy he can. He has only had to do that once during the night and comes right up in the morning to make sure we are up and ready to go for the day! So far, we are trying to get back in a schedule of things. Tucker has spent many days riding his bike on the screen porch, exploring the yard and finding "fossil leaves", visiting our new neighbors, walking through "blueberry forest" (the blueberry bushes of our neighbors), eating breakfast or lunch on the back porch, and just having lots of space to play! I am sure we will have many more stories and pictures to come... what an exciting journey we have embarked on!

Taking a little rest after all the exciting play on one of our first days here!