Our Real McCoy

My sister and her husband blessed our family with a brand new baby in October.  His name is McCoy, McCoy Francis, and he is such a blessing to us all.  We have been fortunate to be able to see him quite often during these first five months of his little life because my sister has come back "home" a few times and has been able to stay for a couple weeks at a time. 

He is smiling all the time, laughing, and learning to use his voice.  Swinging makes him laugh and he loves baths.  He is little and looks so much like my big sister!  I am in love with him and so proud of my sister for entering into mommyhood and doing such a good job at it.  He has been teething and is working on his fourth tooth! McCoy's daddy left in January for an overseas trip for the National Guard and will return to see his baby boy at eight months old.  McCoy listens intently to the voice on the phone when Kimberly plays Lonnie's voicemails; it's a sweet thing and I'm ready for him to be back and enjoy watching their baby grow, and to complete their family.

I have pictures and pictures and videos of the little feller, too many to post, but I have to share some so enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mushroom Journal - Entry I

Keane and I quickly went into the woods Monday evening when I finally made it home from work and with no luck, we came back home with 0 mushrooms.

Yesterday we drove home from work together and I went right into the kitchen to begin making a dish while he went straight to the woods to see if he could find any mushrooms. A few minutes after he left, he called me to say he already spotted 15! I grabbed a few cold drinks and left supper to be finished after mushroom hunting, and joined him in the fun! In a short period of time, before the sun went down, we walked out of the woods with 36 mushrooms (leaving 6 in the woods for the kid to find this evening). A successful hunt with some delicious mushrooms soaking in the fridge waiting to be eaten tonight!

It has been an early spring this year.  It was in the high 70's yesterday and we have had little spurts of rain and a lot of sunshine in the past few weeks so it is perfect for mushrooms!

Lenox our Leopard

After the death of our last Bengal, we had to wait until the next litter of kittens was born.  I was anxious to receive the new kitty but also nervous that it, too, would become ill.  I asked for a male if there was one and waited impatiently.  Then, after work on a Friday, Keane and I drove a couple hours to meet my then 9-month-pregnant sister and brother-in-law for supper at Texas Roadhouse.  We then headed off on a not-so-fun road trip on some backwood gravel roads to pick up our by-now-pretty-pricey kitten.  Once we picked him up, we then had about a five hour trip home and this was after our handy dandy GPS took us through the most narrow, windy, dirt roads where we even lost GPS service.  We seemed to take the longest way possible back to any highway or road that didn't seem like it was from The Wrong Turn. Aside from this, we made it home with our leopard kitten.  And he's still with us today, 5 1/2 months old and as sweet and ornery as could be asked for.

A little about Lenox:
He had a cute name tag but he lost it when his collar was too big for him and we have not found it since.
He loves boxes (what cat doesn't?)...big boxes, boxes that only his head fits in, Barbie jeep boxes, clear ornament boxes.
He can run and he can jump! I need to measure just how high our little leopard is jumping.  It is scary to think how high he will be able to jump some day. 
He was 4.5 lbs on his last month's vet visit, and he is supposed to get around 20 lbs.
He wakes up with me every week day morning around 6:00 and loves joining me in the bathroom while I show and get ready...and he wakes us up at 6:00 on the weekends as well.

Nashville, Tennessee

Our first "real" family vacation.  The only person not able to attend was my sister's husband who began a new job the week prior and so could not join us.  We have so, so many photos.  It was hard to narrow them down this much to capture the most of our trip.  The weather was perfect, still warm but a small break from the excruciating heat and humidy in Missouri.  We were able to fit in a lot of sightseeing and still had enough down time to play some Yatzee and visit.  And happy early birthday, Momma!

Here are some photos to summarize our trip...

 

 

Downtown Nashville and all the honkey tonks.  We never made it to Margaritaville...

Downtown and some of the business and music side of the city...

The Ryman Auditorium (the old location for the Grand Ole Opry)...

 

 

Hard Rock Cafe (1 of 150 in 53 countries)...

 

 

Putt-putting pretty much consisted of this, surviving the heat, and almost everyone getting a...

 

Hole - in - one!

The Country Music Hall of Fame, a lot of things to see in here.  This doesn't even begin to show everything there is to see...

 

 

And the Grand Ole Opry with James Otto, Little Jimmy Dickens, Mark Wills & Loretta Lynn...

 

 

Oh, and we found over 20 states license plates on the way there and back.  Keane found the most...and the furthest.  Winner gets...a "good job baby!"  It was a great time.  We plan to return sometime; there is a lot to see and do there!

Washers, anyone?

After our 4th of July activities, we decided to make our own set of washer boxes.  Keane looked up washer box dimensions and we got to it...or he got to it I should say.

 

 

Kaden helped work the screwdriver...

 

...while Kylie and I played with chalk.

We, too, put in a screw so that we all had a part in the making of our washer boxes.

We stopped here and there to answer phone calls and such.

We (he) spray painted black and gold.  MU Tigers stickers will be finishing touches, some day.

 

Happy washers!

Salsa & Pickles

We made our first homemade salsa from veggies out of our garden!  It is very tasteful and we are pleased with our first try.  There may be a few changes to perfect our next batch but rock on homemade salsa!

Onions, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, corn...and seasoning = our homemade salsa!

We attempted to make three batches...one mild for the kids, one medium for us in case we didn't like the third, hot with jalapenos, but in our attempt to turn down the back burner with the hot salsa, we turned down the front burner instead which led to the burning of our hot batch.  Other than that it went quite smoothly.  We are proud salsa makers!

I also made one of my favorites...pickles!  I planted pickling cucumbers and added the needed ingredients and viola...tasty pickles!  Love this gardening thing...