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!

Today is the day!!!

Homeless No More!

Yes, as of today at 3pm we will no longer be homeless! We are set to close on our house in Jasper! Yea!! We have been waiting for this day for SOOOOOO long! Approximately 7 weeks of being homeless! We have been working hard the past week to start preparing to move. Harris has been VERY busy putting in hardwood floors upstairs and building a railing for the stairs. Below you will find a couple of pictures. We love this house and all the possibilities with it. It is an older home that has been loved incredibly and we can't wait to carry that on. The house sits on almost 6 acres and backs up to Blackwater Creek (for those of you who know the Jasper area). In fact, the back of our "yard" is the creek. Great for fishing and lots of exploring for a young boy. The best part is when it is just right, you can hear the water from the back screened in porch. To be honest, this house has a lot of what Harris and I have always said we wanted "one day"- tons of porch space, rooms to grow into, and land to love. Well, that day is today! We honestly weren't planning on this just yet but it is amazing how things work out the way they should. We know there is a bigger plan than what we know and we feel that this is just a step in the direction we are being led. Moving van loads on Wed!!! View of house from the little road that ends at our driveway. There are nesting houses all along it for lots of birds!
View from front.
Discovered last week that there is an apple tree that has apples great for pies and baked goods!

View of house down by the creek.

This is where we will be working hard to have great gardens.

My goal is to have a pumpkin patch next year!!

Closer view of backporches (my favorite places).

Great screened in porch, side deck for grilling and covered porch downstairs for bike riding and playing!

Storytime Fun...Nick Jr. Style!

Last night, Tucker and Mommy had a great time at Nickelodeon's Storytime show. We went with Aunt Chelle and Abby and Aunt Laura and Sarah. What a great night of crazy fun- and yes, we also enjoyed seeing Dora, Wonder Pets, Backyardigans and Kai-lan! Tucker wasn't sure what to think of it all and had some interesting comments. But in the end, he had a great time watching the characters and staying up late! Trying to get a good picture of the three cousins before heading off to the show in the Loftus Mobile!
Crazy Aunt Chelle- All the inside pictures were a bit dark! We kept getting in trouble trying to take pictures! Supposedly you can't even take a picture before the show-even without flash!!! Wow!

The backdrop(?) that would come down in between shows.

Tucker and Mommy after the show!

Boy was he going strong for past his bed time!