Tyler's Creatures

Tyler has always been fascinated with seasons.  Winter has always been his most favorite.  Afterall, it's the season that has Christmas and his birthday, and on occasion brings him snow.  But he's almost always just as excited for summer to roll around.  I think it ranks as a VERY close 2nd to winter.  In the summer, he looks forward to swimming (he is such a little fish!) and all the creatures that can be found.

He absolutely loves catching, observing, and playing with a number of little creatures.  Fireflies, lizards, turtles, frogs, insects...  You name it and he's probably caught one at some point.  We have to sit out and catch fireflies pretty regularly.  He has a net and "bug catcher" for this very purpose.  He won't stop catching them until all their little glows have faded into the trees.  Then his blinking bug catcher goes to bed with him, and I have permission to release them once he's asleep.  He's a pretty proficient little firefly catcher too.  If you're on facebook, you may have read his firefly story from last week.  If not, here's what it said:

"After running some errands, we got home when fireflies were lighting up the sky. Tyler stayed outside for a few minutes to catch some. About 5 min later he comes running in looking for his bug catcher. He finds it and starts emptying the contents of his little fist into the container. I'm expecting 4 MAYBE 5...but... he caught 17! Amazingly, most all of them were still alive and kicking!"

Tyler also names all his creatures.  And before releasing them back into the wild, we have to take pictures to remember them by (with the exception of the fireflies).  A week or so ago we found Feisty the turtle.  He got this name because he wasn't scared of anything and would keep moving even when being held.  I don't think I saw him go inide his shell even once the whole time he was in our posession.  Feisty got to hang around and play for a day and a half before I decided he might need something more than leaves, grass, and water to keep him alive.

FYI - Tyler was recovering from some sort of break-out (rash? allergic reaction? virus? I'm not sure...) on his face.

Then just the other night, he caught Slip the frog.  We put him in a bowl with holes cut in the lid, but I'm thinking Slip wasn't feeling the love.  We only kept him captured for a couple hours before his release. 

(Please excuse the blurry photos, but he was still inside the bowl.  It was dark out when it was time to release him, so I took the photos inside.  Call me crazy, but I insisted that Slip stay in the bowl while inside the house.  The last thing I want is a frog hopping around my house at bedtime!)

And is it just me or is Mr. Slip slipping me the finger in this next one...

I guess he took the bowl thing personal.

Or it could have been the flashing camera in his face...

Sorry Slip.  It was for the boy.

When it Rains, it POURS...literally and figuratively

We have had a crazy amount of rain here for the past few days, and today it all came to a head! Since our creek had already been sounding like the rapids of the Mississippi River, I knew this was bound to happen...

All it took was non-stop rain through the entire night and morning for it to start to pour across our driveway and yard!
Immediately upon waking up this morning, Allison comments "I hear the rain. Let me go see." So she goes to the window and is silent as she peers out for a few moments. Then she comments again, "Wook Mommy, it's a waterfall!" Sure enough...

So we have a river in our front yard...
and the makings of a lake in the back!

We're actually very blessed that, even with all this rain, we have minimal water in our basement, and are really only having to deal with some very annoying leaks in our sunroom. If you've ever considered owning a house with a sunroom - DON'T!

Even though the water damage isn't too excessive for us, we have had it "pouring" in other areas. On Friday evening, we were out running errands in the Blazer. It kept making terrible popping sounds in the front everytime Billy turned it, and he told me that the front end was going to need some work. Well, that work has come sooner than we would have liked. Upon arriving home, Billy was backing up to park when all of a sudden there was one final LOUD pop, and then the front end on the driver's side hit the ground! The tire had broken off, and there we sat. Needless to say, we said a prayer of thanks for our safety that night. We were very blessed this happened in our driveway rather than while we were going down the freeway at 70+ mph!

Only problem now is, we are down one car until all this rain stops so that Billy is able to fix it! Let's hope this baby doesn't decide to make his debut while I'm at home carless! Fun times!

Family Photos

We went out with my sister, Vanessa, last Thursday so she could take some practice family photos. We found this great spot at Kennesaw Mountain, complete with a huge grassy field and railroad tracks! She calls herself a "beginner photographer," and while she may just be starting out, they turned out pretty professional in my opinion! Thanks Vanessa!

The Hadley Family ~ May 2009

I know I already have this one at the top of my blog, but it's a little fuzzy for some reason, so I wanted to post it the way it's supposed to look!

Our energetic and spunky Tyler Man!

The happy couple after 7 years of marriage!

Our adorable little go-getter, Miss Allison!

THE END!!!