at first light...

and one hour later...

wordless Wednesday...

Happy Birthday "Bah"...

Yesterday was J's birthday and we spent a couple of days up north celebrating with Brooklyn and then drove home yesterday morning to celebrate with Bailey. Grandpa is a hard word to say for someone just learning to talk so Brooklyn says Bah! She loves her Bah dearly and when I went up last week she kept asking for "Bah" and grandma had to tell her he was gone on a trip. She would then go look at his photo and say Bah and come to me to be held - so sweet how she missed him. So we drove the 4 hours up north again on Thursday - Brooklyn was home and waiting and ran to the door with lots of hugs and kisses for her Bah. Grandma got a kiss but couldn't hold her - only Bah and it was that way most of Friday as well but thankfully loving on Grandma came back for the rest of the weekend :)

 

Bailey had hugs and kisses for Grandpa & Grandma as well and helped Grandpa open his birthday gift. She is just such a smiley happy baby even while teething.

Happy Valentine's Day!

mosaic Monday...backyard birds

We had snow yesterday and wind today so the bird feeders have really been busy. I took all these photos this morning except for the cardinal in the snowy tree and the pesky squirrel trying to get into the peanut feeder which were taken yesterday.

my little valentine's...

With Valentine's Day only a week away, I thought I would share my little valentine sweethearts...

I can still see you...

This female hairy woodpecker went into hiding mode when I went to the window with the camera this morning. I took the first shot with her hiding her face behind the branch but it blurred after the camera focused on the branch. Hiding behind a branch narrower than your head, reminds me of Brooklyn in the "if I can't see you, then you can't see me" mode...she'll cover her face with her hands and think we can't see her.

Checking to see if I'm still standing there...

Oh look! A redpoll thinks I can't see him either :)

The chickadee really didn't care whether I saw her or not, she was too interested in finding space at the feeders.

It is another very cold morning (-14F actual temp, windchill unknown) so the feeders have been really busy. I finally managed a shot of the lone immature Harris Sparrow that is spending the winter with a bunch of house sparrows and my beautiful cardinal is so shy I haven't managed a decent photo of him in weeks. Today, he is the background to a redpoll, the redpolls are the most seen bird at the feeders this winter. This mosaic also shows the dang squirrel who is costing me lots of $ in birdseed and makes a huge mess as well!

Every day right at dusk the cleanup crew moves in. It wouldn't be so bad if they only cleaned up the patio but they have the audacity to come right up the patio door steps and leave lots of little brown souvenirs for me to clean up.

The very worst thing about these dang rabbits is that they have done a lot of damage to the garden. The evergreen shrub pictured is simply getting a trim but many of my newly planted ornamental shrubs have received alot of chewing damage. The new tiger eye sumac is chewed off at snow level, the magnolia has half of its branches chewed off at snow level, the pom pom has all the lower bark chewed off as well as 3 miniature lilacs and my corkscrew willow. Don't even get me started on my clematis collection, they are all chewed off at ground level including the group 2's. It needs to warm up a little so my 2 hunting dogs get out of their warm beds in the garage and start hunting patrolling the yard as they usually do.

birdwatching with Bailey...

It is cold here with dangerous wind chills (as in schools called off today because of the cold)! Yesterday Bailey came to spend the day with me and she loves to look outside at the birds. We were sitting in the chair looking outside when movement out on the lawn caught my eye and this is what we saw...

I set her down and grabbed the camera but my patio doors are pretty full of little girl fingerprints so most of the shots were blurry but I did manage a few before they got scared away...

I think it had something to do with Bailey crying that I set her down...she wanted to see too :) Pheasant photos can happen another day but Grandma doesn't have too many days that she can spend the whole day cuddling a baby granddaughter! Bailey is such a happy baby - just look at her smile as she was getting put in her carseat to go home last night.

Wordless Wednesday...Grandma is the Best

Mosaic Monday...snow princesses & more Mexico

Update to the "beautiful girls in ruffles" post, Emma's mommy sent a photo of her in ruffles this am so here is a mosaic of all 4 snow princesses together (I like how the 3 are looking to the left towards our new addition, Emma).

One last post about our fun Mexico vacation and what better way to show an abundance of photos than mosaics? First up, scenes from the resort - beautiful flowers, a beautiful beach, interesting sand structures made each day and a reef was right along the shore so there was an abundance of fish to be seen...

This sea turtle was seen on our catamaran cruise but 3 of them were also near the shore by our resort and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were able to swim right over them while snorkeling. It was fun to see the different things people do on their vacations snorkeling, massages, horseback riding, sailing and having their photos taken with street artists...

The resort was just as beautiful at night with all the lighted walkways and pools. We had to get up early our last morning to catch the flight so I finally woke up early enough to watch a caribbean sunrise...

We really did have a relaxing and fun time escaping a week of MN winter and it was a great time to spend with family and as you can see we are not afraid of looking silly compliments of a guy whose nametag read "Tips" :)

and with ending the last of the vacation blog posts you know I can't forget the vacation kiss...a tradition is a tradition after all :)