Announcing our new arrival.....

Two weeks after the first egg appeared, the first baby bird hatched in the nest outside Jacob's window. We've been checking every day, but hadn't noticed a thing...until this morning after church. Jacob looked out the window and noticed a "naked" baby bird. I have to admit that I think it's pretty ugly and creepy right now. It's all pink with just a few tiny feathers poking out of it's back. Mama Robin has become quite protective of her new baby and got a little irritated at us peeking out the window at them, so we are leaving her alone for now. The eggs appeared over a span of 2 days, so I'm sure the other eggs will be hatching soon. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, here's a picture of the new arrival. I apologize for the quality of the photo...it was taken through Jacob's window....I just didn't think Mama would be too happy if I went and poked my camera into her nest from the outside. Can you see it all cuddled up with its brother and sister eggs?

Jenna's Recital

Jenna's recital went well. She did a great job and was really excited about it. Afterwards we gave her 2 pink roses and she said "Is this because I did an excellent job?". She loved the pink flowers. The first photo below was taken in the dressing room before the recital. I just wished I would have noticed the grocery sack in the backgound. It wasn't actually sitting behind her...there was a mirror behind her and the grocery sack is reflecting from somewhere else in the room. Sometimes I forget that I have a digital camera, so I can look at the picture and change something if I need to before snapping again. I like the fact that you can see her reflection from the back though. The second picture is outside after the finale with her flowers.




















Great Grandma Lehman, Aunt Connie, and mommy's cousins - Kelly and Alaina - surprised her by coming, too. Alaina also dances and really wanted to come watch Jenna's recital. She brought her a big bouquet of orange daisies.

Dance, Dance, Dance

This weekend is Jenna's dance recital. She has been looking forward to it since starting dance in the fall. This is her first year of dance...and we went into it very reluctantly - especially Dad. She absolutely loves it though and does a good job. This morning was her dress rehearsal with full costumes. I thought she might be intimidated by the big stage, all the lights, and the audience...but she did great! Unfortunately, her photographer didn't do quite as well. I have a lot to learn about taking photos in dark settings, from far away, with no flash. YIKES! Here are a few pictures from this morning...not the best quality, but you get the idea. The first photos are from her ballet dance -"Someday My Prince Will Come". I love the hot pink tutu! I didn't get many good photos of this dance because she is in the back row.



















Her tap dance number is "Sugar, Sugar". She really likes this one, especially since she gest to "shimmy" during the song. The second picture below shows her in action during her "shimmy"...and check out the hairdo! Mommy FINALLY perfected a bun after a year of dance class! And, yes...there are boys in her class (Jacob HATES that!).


















The last number is the grand finale with all the kids in the Petite Performance (age 2-1st grade) on the stage together - "Shake Your Tail Feathers". She was buried in the back of the stage, but I managed to sneak a picture of her between some of the dancers. It's terrible quality photo...but you can catch a tiny glimpse of her in her finale outfit. Tomorrow is her actual recital and I hope it goes as smoothly for her as today did.

The Sandbox

We bought this turtle sandbox for Jacob for his 2nd birthday. He played in it for hours and hours - driving dump trucks, hiding dinosaur bones, setting up battles with his army men, and just digging. Who would have thought we'd still be getting so much use out of it 7 years later! Jenna loves to play in it now. She doesn't drive trucks, hide dinosaur bones, or have army battles...she cooks and makes wonderful sand cakes, cookies, and pies...although her absolute favorite part of playing in the sandbox is being BAREFOOT! She seriously would be barefoot or wear flip-flops 365 days a year if we let her.

Goodnight Ladybug!

My kids are definitely going to be sick of me and my camera in the very near future...but in the meantime, I'll keeping snapping away. Last night, as Jenna was getting ready for bed, I decided to take a few photos in her room. (I figured the white walls would be a challenge!) She wasn't real excited about cooperating, but I still managed to get a few cute photos of our little "ladybug" before she went to bed. I even managed to use the manual settings on my camera for the first time....it has proven to be quite a challenge and I have a lot more to learn about manual before I'll feel comfortable using it regularly...but it's a start! Oh - and my first official black and white photo with my new camera. I am really loving this thing!!!

Driveway Baseball

It's baseball season again at our house....which means two very happy "boys". Jacob has moved up to the on-deck league this year. Last year's league used a pitching machine, this year it's the real thing with kids pitching. He is on the Astros and Chris is helping coach. Opening day is next Saturday, May 6th and he can't wait. He still isn't 100% sure what position he'll be playing - possibly second base. He is definitely one of the youngest and the smallest on the team, so he and Chris have been working almost every night on hitting, catching and throwing. Driveway baseball has become the routine at our house once again. You can check his progress online at the VW Youth Baseball website. Eventually it will list his schedule, record, and maybe even some stats...just click on the red words above and it will take you to the page for the Astros.

Leave us a message...

I just wanted to let you know that there is a section on each entry to leave comments. All you have to do is scroll to the bottom of the entry and click on the space that says "__ comments" (it will have a # in front of the word telling you how many comments have been left). And thanks Jennifer K. for leaving the very first comment....you're the best!!!

Signs of Spring

Spring is FINALLY here..and we are loving it!! Nice weather...blue skies...green grass...flowers on our trees...birds....robin's eggs....baseball....sidewalk chalk....enjoying our patio again....tulips and daffodils. I am home today with Jenna (she woke up in the middle of the night with a fever), so while she was napping, I took a walk around the yard so I could play with my camera and capture some spring photos.

LEAVING OUR MARK

Van Wert is in the process of building a new middle school/high school complex. It is due to be completed by Thanksgiving 2006. Chris and I have had the opportunity to tour the new high school complex during construction on a couple different occasions. Every time we went, Jacob was bummed because he wasn't permitted to go along. This week every student in the Van Wert City school system was bussed to the new high school to "leave their mark" as a type of time capsule. We were all permitted to sign the concrete gym floor with permanent markers before the wood gym floor is installed. Jacob was so excited to go....probably more so than most students because the Van Wert High School gym is such a major part of our lives for 4-5 months every year during basketball season. I went with his class so I could see his face when he walked into the HUGE gym. He was amazed and had a million questions for me....Where will our reserved seats be? Where will the team sit? Where will Dad sit? Where is the Cat Pack section? Where will the baskets be? He proudly grabbed his permanent marker and "left his mark" on the gym floor - his name and graduation year. As we left, I was also able to point out our names on a pillar in the gym that Chris and I were able to sign when we toured the HS in October (it will eventually be covered as well...but I was glad it was still visible so Jacob could see). He was in awe of the size of the gym and the entire complex and can't wait to go to the opening basketball game in the new "Cougar's Den" in November.

BUBBLES!!!!

Jenna loves bubbles...she can sit and play with them forever. For Easter, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Becca gave her all kinds of bubbles. Her favorite is a battery operated bubble blower that makes TONS of bubbles. She loves to turn it on, watch the millions of bubbles, and then chase them all over the yard. And by the way...robin egg #3 appeared in our nest today. It looks like mama robin is having triplets!

Our Spring Visitor

Look who has made their home on Jacob's windowsill! He discovered the nest on Wednesday, but we didn't catch a glimpse of the owner until Easter morning. He looked out her window and mama robin was sitting on the nest. She flew away when she noticed us looking out the window and that's when we saw the bright blue robin's egg. This morning, after she flew away again, we discovered egg #2. We did some internet research and found out that we should see baby birds in 12-14 days. Jacob is so excited and is keeping a chart of his obervations every day.

HAPPY EASTER!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. Our Easter was a quiet, family day....church, lunch at home, playing together, and dinner at Chris' parents. Of course I took the opportunity to take lots of photos, too (and Jacob survived all the picture taking, despite all his complaining!!).

My new toy!

I have been saving money for the past nine months to buy a new digital SLR camera...and I finally got it! Chris and I took a trip to Columbus during our spring break and I bought my new toy - a Nikon D50. It is so much fun to play with...and I'm loving being able to instantly see my photos. I have lots of reading and experimenting to do with it. Poor Jacob and Jenna will be so sick of having their picture taken.

I decided to create this blog as a place to share some of my favorite photos along the way. My goal is to have a photo a day...we'll see how long I can keep it up. So....here's photo #1....a totally random photo of Jacob and Jenna on the patio...my first official D50 photo.