good times in Chattanooga

This past weekend we went to Chattanooga for Robbie and Emma's wedding. It was Henry's first vacation and he did wonderfully. We had a blast!

on Saturday we went to the aquarium

a leafy seadragon -what a wild creature!
gary petting a sturgeon

butterfly garden



blue hyacinth macaws

sea nettles
the penguin exhibit was a good one. they also had an exhibit featuring seahorses which was interesting as well.
Joel, Allison and Madeline went to the museum as well. Guess it wore them out!

Lunch with the Solomons and Allison's parents
how cute are they?!
Robbie and Emma at the reception. The wedding was beautiful-very simple and elegant. It was such a nice event!
Robbie and his mom
Papa and Henry

little guy on a BIG bed
he slept great in his pack and play - check out those cheeks. what does he hide in there?!
a few photos before getting H dressed for the wedding

happy boy!

Shelby's Big Day

this past Saturday we took Shelby to a herding clinic in Shorter, AL. the clinic was to test your animal's natural herding instincts and as well as to provide additional training for those animals already "working." shelby went into the pen about four times . . . she did pretty well on two of the four times. she has never seen sheep (that we know of) so it took a little time for her to realize they were there. once she saw some of the other well trained dogs herding the sheep, she was ready for another go at it. it was a lot of fun to see her reaction, behavior, and natural instincts. it was also very interesting to observe the other dogs that had undergone training-they are quite good at their jobs! there were border collies, australian shepherds, and heelers present. Shelby was the only sheltie. gary and I were really proud of our little one!

sheep are so cute! we never had sheep on our farm growing up, but we would definitely consider trying our hand at them once on the ponderosa.

the other dog in the pen is jasper; he belongs to the gentleman that was conducting the clinic. he was an old pro and very patient with the newbies.

henry wasn't all that interested in the day's activities. he was awake for some of it and looked around a bit, but mostly he snoozed.
shelby in action
go shelby!
one of the sheep stomped his hoof at shelby-as if to provoke her. it was hilarious!
rounding them up

a beautiful, breezy friday afternoon

so, let's talk about your financial goals . . .

I went in to work today for a little while to catch up on a few things, and Henry tagged along with me for a bit. He was most helpful in placing a few trades, researching cost basis information and running retirement projections - helpful as in he woke up when I was finished. It was fun to have him there.

catching up

The cousins come to visit!

Look what a beautiful young lady Molly has become!

Madeline, Molly, Trip & Henry
Well, the scooting around in the crib has resumed and seems to be a nightly routine now. This was Mr. H yesterday morning . . .
and here he is this morning! Breakthrough . . . this morning was the first time he was all smiles when he woke up. Normally he cries. Exciting!

Congratulations to Mandy & Todd on the birth of their son, Trammel Todd Walker (Tram) and to Shawn & Stephanie on the birth of their son, Jacob Thomas Allen (Jake)! It's wild how many new babies have arrived in the last year and will continue to arrive in the coming year. Between all of our friends, we have quite an army!

and Henry's current weight and length are . . .

. . . 12 pounds, 13 ounces and 23 1/4 inches long. To recap, in just 17 days he went from 11.4 and 22 1/4 inches to his current statistics. wow! he is now 12 weeks old and is still so pleasant and sweet. he is very smiley lately - as in he will smile in response to you.

and, he is the drool king. he drools non - stop!

Some of us hosted a shower for Heather, Harold and Baby Georgia this past weekend. Heather is 31 weeks and looks fabulous!
bedtime smiles


Gary had a long but fun weekend with the boys in Myrtle Beach . . . he caught up on some much needed sleep.

blue eyes cryin' in the bath tub . . .

henry still loves bath time. check out these blue eyes! his eyes started out a stormy gray and have progressively turned a radiant blue. gary's eyes are brown and mine are green . . . so who knows what they will be.

everything was all well and good . . .
. . . until I had an accident in the tub. needless to say he only does this when I bathe him. gary has never been pooped on during bath time! nice!