One

Our sweet baby boy is one year old.



What an amazing, sweet, happy year it has been!

Happy 1st Birthday Christopher!

We love you.

Let the Learning Begin

We have peacefully entered a new school year.

Things came together with ease and not much fanfare.

I think we were all ready to have some rhythm to our days.

We have a lot of lovely learning planned

 and plenty of great support to make it happen.

Thank you God for the opportunity to learn;

 grant us the grace to persevere with joy!

Snapping Turtles

Earlier this summer, late in May, we had quite the surprise.

We were drawn to the back yard by the sounds of our dog viciously barking.

The children came running inside shouting, "There's a big snapping turtle!"

We do not have a pond or lake nearby,
only a creek with a few wet hollows here and there.

Bailey, our golden retriever, did not like this intruder at all.

The snapper had dog fur hanging from its beak. 

This pre-historic looking creature was caked in fresh mud.

We were very confused as to how or why it wandered into our yard.

We were going to try to remove it to the woods
but we soon realized snappers are very dangerous!

We removed Bailey from the scene;

the snapper went to the edge of the woods and disappeared.

A couple of hours later we heard the barking again. 

It was back.

We crated the dog and watched as the turtle chose a patch of mud. Much to our shock it began digging and depositing eggs!  It was a mama snapper!  She was there for several hours and then headed to the creek.  We quickly looked up the gestation of baby snappers and wrote the possible hatching date on the calendar.  The boys put caution tape and flags around the neatly covered nest.

All of June, July, and August we watched and waited.

On the last possible week for hatching we discovered this small hole.

Michael gently used his hands to lift the top layer of soil.

We were so curious and excited!

Inside were dozens of hatched eggs.

There were a few eggs that hadn't hatched. 

There were yolk sacs but no baby.

One egg had a perfectly formed snapping turtle that didn't make it.

Over the next two days, the boys found three little snapping turtles in the creek.

We're wondering where the rest have gone?

Will any stay around until adulthood?

We'll definitely be more careful when exploring down by the creek!