Frog Update

This morning Barrett went out in the garage first, just like he promised, to make sure that the frog was still in it's bucket where we left it. Barrett was peeking in the bucket, and after several seconds of him looking in the bucket I figured the coast was clear. I soon followed behind and took a look inside to see the frog. One problem though...the frog was missing! Quickly I ran into the house while saying, "Barrett, why didn't you tell me it was gone!" His reply, "I never said it was still in the bucket!" Thankfully within a few second, which seemed like forever, Barrett spotted the frog right behind his jeep ready to escape from the garage door once it opened. Barrett moved fast though and caught it again. Now it is safe and sound in a new contraption of a house in our garage...for yet another night. The proud frog catcher holding his new friend.
All stretched out it measures about 16 inches.

That is one gigantic frog! Look at the size of its toes!!!

Barrett, being the wonderful frog catcher that he is, caught another frog this evening (sitting on the big frogs back). This one is a more normal size frog. I guess he thought the big one would like a little friend (or maybe a nice meal.)

GIANT Frog

Tonight on a rainy ride home from choir, while driving by the pond in Savannah, a creature crawled across the street in front of us. We slowed down to get a closer look. It turned out to be what I think is the worlds largest frog!!! There was a car directly behind us so we couldn't slow down too much to get a good look at it. We made a u-turn and went back for a second glance, just to see if what we were seeing was real. Sure enough it really was a GIANT frog! Barrett went home, picked up a bucket, went back in the rain, and caught this amazing frog (all while trying to stay dry under the umbrella.) We brought it into the garage to spend some time looking at it - along with calling all the family in the neighborhood to come and see the prize winning frog.
Not a joke, this frog is about 8 inches long.

We looked it up online and it appears to be a bullfrog.

It is hard to grasp in a picture the enormity of this thing!

As of right now, this frog is still in a bucket out in our garage. Barrett plans on keeping it there until at least tomorrow. I just have one wish - for Barrett to walk out into the garage in the morning, first, before I go out to get in my car, to make sure that "Prince the Bullfrog" is still in his bucket and not hiding somewhere else in the garage to greet me good morning.

The Great State Fair of Texas

Today was a fantastic day to spend outdoors at the Texas State Fair! I took a day off of work and we took the dart train to fair park and spent the day together enjoying all the sights! Big Tex
Barrett eating a turkey leg. We also enjoyed an order of Chicken Fried Bacon - the winner of last years favorite fried food. This years favorite was fried butter, but we didn't try that...not brave enough.

Barrett in his new car - a Viper!!! We always love going to the car shows and dreaming...

A few sights at the petting zoo:

A baby camel drinking milk from its mother.

I had never seen this before - a 'Jacob 4 Horned Sheep'.

Cute pink little piglets.

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*** I will say that we did go to the Vita-Mix demonstration once again, and walked away without buying that wonderful machine once again. I guess Barrett will have to use his ear plugs for the next few months since I will continue to talk about how wonderful it would be to have one. I'll just have to keep dreaming. :-)

Java - All Cuddled Up

Well, Java has fallen in love with sleeping in our master bedroom closet. Every morning when I wake up, there she is, all cuddled up, sleeping. I find her snuggled up against an old shirt or two of Barrett's left by the laundry basket. Barrett says that she spends a majority of her day, once again, sleeping in the closet. Her big pillow bed was in her cage (which she doesn't sleep in anymore.) We decided it was time to break out the fluffy pillow and set it in her "bedroom" to snuggle up and enjoy while she takes all of her much needed naps - all night (and day) long...what it must be like to sleep all day!!!

She loves her new pillow in the closet! Look how cozy Java is.

Tossing and turning during her nap.

All rested and happy now!

Looking out the window enjoying the rain.

Tired...once again.

Fall Is Here!!!

I love fall! I love the colors of fall, the tastes of fall, the feel of fall, just everything about it. Right now I am snuggled up on the couch by the fire, enjoying a nice cold evening outside, but a nice warm cozy evening inside. The cool weather seems to have started a little earlier this year which is quite alright with me. Cold weather is the best! I was excited to be able to put out our fall decorations last week. We also went and got our pumpkin today. Let the season begin! Welcome to our home!

This morning, like many Saturday mornings, we took a bike ride over to the donut shop in front of Savannah. It was extra special today because we got to put on our warm jackets (and if you are extra excited about the coolness like I am - a scarf and gloves) and ride through the cold weather to get to our donuts. Ooo, we love these donuts!

One of my projects for the day was to make this 'Haunted House' pillow. We were talking this morning that most of our decorations right now are for fall, nothing really specified for Halloween or Thanksgiving. I had found this idea online earlier this week and decided to go for it. Now we have an actual Halloween decoration in our house. I am not very big on decorations for Halloween, but I figured this was cute enough. I am pleased with how it turned out.

Next on the list today was cooking a fall treat - Candy Apples. I had never done this before but thought it would be fun to try. It was a fun, sugar filled project. Ingredients - 16 apples, 6 CUPS OF SUGAR, 1 cup light corn syrup, 2 cups water, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp red food coloring, wooden sticks.

My personal chef, Barrett, helped me make the candy apples and did a fabulous job. We even got to use our new candy thermometer.

Boiling SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR!!!

The finished product - 16 red delicious candy apples! Yum! Yum!

Another Fall project completed, and a tasty treat to enjoy!

We got together at the Benkers house this evening and brought the apples with us to share with everyone.

Madi, taking in all the sugar.

Dad, who made a puppet out of his apple core.

Korbin - it looks like the sugar already kicked in!

Chandler, all set and ready to eat.

Oliver's 1st Birthday

Oliver turned 1 this past week. We went to his cute birthday party on Saturday.

Happy 1st Birthday, Oliver!

Love,

Uncle Barrett & Princess Tanya

Oliver tried on his new pajamas that we gave him for his birthday. He is all cozy with his new PJ's and his favorite little blanket.

Ollie wore his birthday boy outfit with a prince crown. So cute!!!

Wow...I had never seen such a cake for a little guys first birthday. It was like the size of a wedding cake. Oh, so beautiful!!! I am convinced that I will one day learn how to make cakes like this with the fondant icing.

Tara got real creative here. She made her own birthday banner decoration using pictures of Oliver. How creative. Very impressive, Tara! I loved that idea. That will be a great keepsake. I look forward to seeing this hanging up on Ollie's 18th birthday :-)

Oliver invited one of his neighbor friends to join in the celebration.

Opening presents

Having the first taste of his frosting on his little cup cake.

Yum, yum! He really enjoyed every bite.

All warn out and covered in cake.

Dylan had fun playing in Oliver's new birthday toy.

Well, all that sugar from that big cake finally kicked in.

It was a fun party!

Grampy

Early this morning, my grandfather "Grampy" went to heaven and is now in the hands of Jesus! Although we are sad to not have him here on earth with us, we know that he is with our Lord singing in a great big choir and we look forward to one day seeing him again in heaven. I am blessed to have so many happy memories of Grampy. Yesterday we were able to spend the day by Grampys side, hold his hand, tell him we loved him, and think about all of the memories we have made with this great guy! These are the hands of Grandy and Grampy after 61 years of marriage! Anytime you would see these two love birds together throughout the years, you knew they were truly and genuinely in love with each other. They have set an incredible example to us all of what a marriage built on a solid foundation should look like. Thank you Grandy and Grampy!
Not many people can say that they lived in the same city as both sets of Grandparents! I have had the honor of being surrounded by all 4 grandparents for most of my life. During my first 8 years of life in Pennsylvania, Grandy and Grampy lived there too. We moved to Dallas where Mimie and Papa lived and just about 1 year later Grandy and Grampy moved down to Texas too. These years have been extra special.
Grampy with me at my graduation from Dallas Baptist University.Celebrating with me at my wedding.

There are many wonderful memories I have of Grampy. This is from one of our annual "Hershey Kiss Hunts" on Easter. Instead of hunting for Easter eggs outside, we would have a Hershey kiss hunt in the living room on Easter with Grampy and Grandy.

A few other special memories:

* Grampy sitting at the head of the table on Thanksgiving carving the turkey

* On Christmas he would put on his Santa hat and pass out the gifts from under the Christmas tree

* His talk of when he was in World War II and all of the missions he flew in his bomber

* He played the violin in the orchestra. After his concerts we always made our way over to Denny's where I would order the kids "fith" meal- that is fish, I was just really young and could never pronounce it right.
* His love for pound Cake with Grandy's famous chocolate icing - he loved this cake. When we would leave their house after having some of this cake on a special occasion, Grandy would always want to send some leftover cake home with us. Grampy was always a little protective of his cake, making sure that Grandy didn't give away all of his special cake.

* Grampy singing in the choir - both at our church in Pennsylvania and here in Texas.
* Us grandkids playing with a few of his odd but intriguing "toys" in his office - a glass cube full of floating pennies, a rubrics cube that I could never figure out, and a copper colored wind up musical figure with an airplane that spun around...if you have seen this in his office you know what I am talking about.

There are many other memories, these are just a few.

Thank you Grampy, for being such a great Grandfather!!!

You are loved and will be missed!!!

P.S. Can't wait to join you one day in that new choir of yours :-)

xoxoxox