Nessie

3 months in and Rick and I are SUPER EXCITED to be expecting a baby boy! He's been standing on his head the entire first trimester, not sure what that means, but all our genetic testing came back clear!

We've spent the weekend celebrating and planning, looking at clothes and baby room furniture, and then I saw this Loch Ness Monster on Pinterest and HAD to make one!

It took all afternoon, but was totally worth it and I'm pretty proud of my homemade plushie.
"Nessie" came out SO CUTE!!!

I still have about 1/2 a yard of the super fuzzy blue fabric, so now I'm on the hunt for another plushie pattern.

The Smallest Snapper

Rick and I thought with the cooling weather it'd be safe to go for a walk...

No such luck.

The tiger mosquitos found me and are capable of biting through clothes, and after Rick smashed about 7 that had latched onto my back we had to retreat to the car and have given up hiking until after the first frost.

But, during the short time we were out on the trail, we found this SUPER TINY SNAPPING TURTLE!

He's so cute!

He looks like a tiny dinosaur

Rick had almost stepped on him when I spotted him,  so after a couple pictures he moved him to the side of the path

Except for a few tail twitches, the snapper was pretty indifferent to us taking his picture.

We also saw a lovely Red Admiral. I'll be sad when all the butterflies are gone for the season, but I'm really looking forward to being able to go out without mosquitos.

Rollo Turns 3!

To celebrate Rollo's 3rd birthday, the fourth graders made him birthday cards!

He was very excited.

De Soto

Great Blue Heron

weird yellow grasshopper

goldfinch

toad

kingbird

Dickcissel

wren

Dickcissel

Dickcissel

Oriole

Great Blue Heron

Purple Martins 

Lark Sparrow

Yellow Billed Cuckoo

Yellow Billed Cuckoo

Yellow Billed Cuckoo

Lauritzen Gardens with Mom

Mom came out for a visit, so we went to Lauritzen Gardens to explore for the morning

some flowers I snapped pictures of the name tags, others... I have no idea what they are.

Purple Heart

Miltassia Shelob Tolkien
(Shelob was the giant spider in Lord of the Rings!)

BANANAS!

Mom and I both laughed at this. We've seen this pose so many times at home!
It always ends in tufts of fur.

some kind of water lily

Bat Flower

Globe Amaranth

Russian Sage

Balloon Flower

Hardy Cranesbill

Emperor Oak

Mom under Wisteria vines

busy bee

Clematis
I'd never seen one like this before - 'Rooguchi'

surprise lily

juvenile Robin

I love how this water lily looks like it's glowing!

They had a whole series of really neat train tracks set up. 

hybrid tea rose 

hybrid tea rose

hybrid tea rose

Sunpu Castle Gate

Tori Gate
the sign said it's supposed to be like a mini Mount Fuji

This goldfinch has claimed these Sunflowers

'Teddy Bear" Sunflower
I think this was my favorite flower of the day!

Hostas

Daylily

Daylily

Koi
We loved the yellow one, he just GLOWED!