Happy Birthday America!!!

We are celebrating the 4th of July and even though it is a bit soggy we've had a fun time. Started with a fun family celebration on Sunday, then a day of running around visiting and then back at it celebrating today with a parade! Now everyone is heading home.

Our little FIRECRACKER!

O.N.E.

Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild. ~Welsh Proverb

Can you believe she is ONE? Me neither...it has been a whirlwind. She is an incredible "little person". She LOVES being outside with the wind blowing in her face. She enjoys her pup dog (though there are battles brewing). She is loving and lovable. She is intensely inquisitive and quite the quick learner, she gets focused and must be re-directed to keep her out of "trouble". She is vocal. She has blue eyes. She's serious. She love, love, loves Peek-a-boo. She is walking, she is crawling, she is trying to run. She eats sweet potatoes, butternut squash and acorn squash; however, she loves "boob" the most! She is the bombdiggity and we feel incredibly blessed beyond measure to be called La and Be.

She was certainly interested in that cupcake! Momma did let her have an itty bitty taste of the frosting which she did not seem all that excited about.

Her momma had these words to say...

Without a doubt, this past year has been the best year of my life. 
Because of you, I am a mom. Something I have always dreamed of being.
Because of you, I know the deepest meaning of love.
Because of you, I strive to be the best I can be.
Because of you, I feel complete.
my daughter, have changed my life in the absolute best way possible.
I read somewhere that having a child is like letting your heart walk around outside of your body.
That couldn’t be more true.
It’s amazing to see how much you have changed over the past year.
You went from an ittty bitty 6lb baby to a walking and talking one year old.
You went from sleeping away the day snuggled in my arms to climbing on me like I’m a jungle gym.
You went from reaching at objects on your play mat to learning how to wavy bye bye and give high fives.
You went from baby cooes to babbling to your first words, dada and mama.
You went from rolling, to crawling to walking!
You went from being a baby to being considered a toddler (even though you will always be my baby).

The eagle has landed...

Seriously, it has. Actually, they have! We took a little road trip the other day to Stella, MO to Eagle Days. It was a scenic drive down and the eagle watching was INCREDIBLE. We have been so fortunate to see eagles in the wild before but this was lots of eagles and not just flying. There were two in a field just sitting. Have NOT seen that before. And when we have seen them before there were only one or two. We saw two in a nest and we saw two flying; all in Florida. This trip we saw eight flying at once and then a few miles down another a couple dirt roads, bam, five more in another location. We also saw an immature eagle who had not yet gotten his distinguishing white head and tail. 

The little dot in the middle of the upper two barb wire fencing is the eagle.

We also saw several white and red tail among other variety of hawks. And, of course, as per our normal bird looking we saw lots of birds we could not identify. We are hilarious to listen to, I'm sure, as we try and determine a birds identity. It's a good way to enjoy sunshine in January and that's a fact! Bird looking is quite fun.

As we made our way back north we popped in to visit the local National Monument. I had been as a child but wow it has changed dramatically. In 2007 they built a new facility and it is truly world class. One of the finest National Monuments we have visited. Very well done, a nice hands on area as well as an educational area along with a true museumish area It really is a wonderful building. The park ranger on duty was so cordial, as well as chatty and informative. We enjoyed this little side stop for sure.

A day or two after our eagle outing we decided to make another little day excursion over to the local conservation area. It's another place I had not been since a child; and, it was not at all as I remembered. In fact I don't think we were in the area I had been to before. We had hoped to see eagles. We had read that last year they reported 25 eagles were in the area. We, unfortunately, did not see any. We did, however, see and hear several woodpeckers and a few squirrels along with a couple cardinals. It was still a very pleasant day. We also checked out the campgrounds. Nice primitive sites that would be quiet and peaceful something we will keep in mind should we like to go local for a little getaway.

Trying to find the woodpecker we could hear.!

Latest Happenings

It's been wintry. Like icy wintry. We actually spent an extra day in NE due to the ice. So when we returned to ROADA we quickly decided it was time to do some weatherproofing. We added some insulation to the sliding door and also used an insulation kit (made for a window but it worked well for our door). It was a good addition and we saw immediate results. Next we added more bubblewrap insulation in our cabinets. So far it seems to be helping. We still plan to add more insulation to the bathroom wall and also potentially to our back doors. Every little bit helps and we are hopeful these little adjustments make wintering a little easier. We also hope it will help to keep the heat out better in warm weather. 

CAUTION: MiRV at work...

HighPoints and Hot Springs

Howdy there! So we have decided that 2017 is gonna start us on hitting HighPoints. We aren't aiming to make all 50 in the U.S. in one year but we are going to try and make our way through the list as we travel around.

Driskill Mountain in Louisiana is our first HighPoint!

Mount Magazine in the Natural State was our 2nd HighPoint. (That's Arkansas for those unfamiliar with the state nickname.)

Hot Springs, Arkansas in front of BathHouse Row.

The weather was more than chilly on this trip but we made the best of it and still had fun! We enjoyed the time away and now we are looking forward to seeing Trigger again. She's growing way too fast, I'm afraid she will be walking before we make it to see her again. This child is on the move according to her mother and popping teeth like popcorn!

Stay warm out there; it's looking like we are possibly going to have a heck of an ice storm if the weather guessers are correct. However, since it's still a few days away it's anybodies guess if they are gonna be right or wrong.