Sarah

okay...I know it's a little late, and that the only people that follow my blog (Becky and Kim) have already spent enough time with Sarah, that this will be old hat, but here we go anyway!

We couldn't be more happy to have little Sarah in our house! She is so sweet and calm. Everyone loves her and some love her a little more fiercely than others. Her little screams, (of joy of course) sometimes remind us of the fierce love she recieves. She has started to smile and we all gather round and lobby for her smile in our behalf. "She smiled at me!" We're so grateful she's here and love her very much!

Seriously?

they hatched...

life...

You know life is interesting isn't it? I mean, you meet many kinds of people who are all so different. Each has something unique to bring to the table and really you can learn from everyone. But every once in a while you meet someone who stands out above the rest. One that you recognize is special. One that sees the world through different eyes and helps you, even if for just a fleeting moment, see things through a better set of glasses. Well, we meet someone like that. We really haven't even spoken, as a matter of fact we have only observed each other from a distance, but I'm better because of him. Life is a little more beautiful because of him. Before I introduce him, let me go back a couple of years.

One spring morning I went out to take a look at our garden to see how it weathered the winter storms. Much to my surprise, I found that a mother duck had nested in last years dead tomato plant. I very clever disguise, I thought. She sat so patiently for 4 weeks and finally one day she hatched 8 sweet little ducklings. Aside from our efforts to make her happy in our back yard, she finally figured out how to get them all safely to the pond down the street. It was a wonderful experience. Our family could not have enjoyed it more.

Then last year we had a couple of ducks nest. One hatched her eggs and was gone before we even knew what had happened. The other started much too late in the year. She did her best, but we think the heat cooked those poor little things, and just about cooked their faithful mother.Last year we also had a sweet little house finch nest in our hanging flower basket. She unfortunately, had no success at hatching a little brood. Now this year we had a pretty dove who has started her family on top of our heating lamp (it's nice that it's being used for something) and will probably have two little mouths to feed in another week. For the first time, though, I noticed this year lots of male ducks hanging out together. I know I have seen this before, but have never thought about the fact that these guys are passing the time together while their little gals are sitting on nests. It must be a long 4 weeks for them, and even longer for the females, day in and day out sitting on a nest. Last week we discovered that there are extra special ducks too. Marissa came in and said, "mom there is male duck in our back yard". At first I was a little concerned that he might be terrorizing the devoted female sitting out there doing her job, but with a closer look we could see, he was just out there "being with her". Since then on numerous occasions we have found this fine father duck keeping watch over and spending quality time with his sweet mate. We have witnesses a lesson from nature. True kindness and love happening right here in our back yard! Now if we can just leech a little of that and do it inside the house, it would be a true lesson learned. Our family theme this year is "Kindness Begins With Me", and this guy has got it down!

Beautiful Sunday Afternoon

Last Sunday we made our way to the park in our neighborhood. The kids grabbed the kites for some fun. After the little ones wore themselves out running around trying to keep the kites up Christopher and Marissa had a chance to really fly them. They flew them as high as they had string.

Allison, Jacob & Kathryn had fun playing with all the branches someone had left at the fire pit.

Thom recruited our good friends Connie and David Atkisson, who's back yard bumps up to the park, to help him untangle his kite. Thanks to some patients they finally got it done and up!

It was really a pretty day...maybe a stretch to call it rest, until we got home and all the wiggles were out, then there was rest!

So Shy...

So here at the Hall's we have a really shy bunch...lots of people watching them just put them right back in their shell...but when it's just them and mom...sometimes they come out. This was one of those rare times!

I know...total shocker!

A Late Discovery...

So I looked out on the deck the other day (about 5 days past Christmas Eve) and I found this...

They had endured a few cold nights. I'm not sure how Rudolf, Comet, and Dasher missed this thoughtful offering. As you can see (or maybe not, since they are starting to turn black from the frost bite) they were even peeled. I couldn't stop smiling. Kids are so darn cute!