For the second year in a row now, we have a little birdie's nest in our lilac bush outside the kitchen window. At the very beginning of my maternity leave last year, I can remember the constant chirping and birds flying back and forth between the nest and the fence post and tree and another fence post and blah, blah, blah... The mama and papa bird kept constant watch over their lovely nest. While it was adorably cute and touching at first, the chirping, I have to admit, got a tad bit annoying after awhile. And, I am not the only one who was practically driven to the brink by chirping little birds...Riley literally almost made a break for it through our window screen about 50 times last spring/summer.
Well, I had my hunches a couple weeks ago that our bird friends had taken up shop in our bush again, because the chirping became louder and more constant outside. And, sure enough, when I pulled some branches back and strained my neck...there was a beautifuly crafted nest perched way inside the lilac bush. Unfortunately, I can't get a good enough angle to get a picture of the eggs (the nest is much further back this year), but here are a couple pictures of the nest and Riley at his post (taking a break to eat, of course) making sure the birds know he's got his eye on them...
Tonight we actually got to sit down and have dinner together (Hooray for Family Night!) and at David's request, I made spaghetti. Ally is a really good eater and she is close to a year old now (Yikes, where did the year go??), but she has never had spaghetti before, so we figured this was the perfect opportunity to introduce her to the wonderful world of Italian food. She absolutely LOVED it! After she tired of eating (which was a long time), she proceed to rub sauce all over her face...cute, but messy. :-) It was so much fun to watch her eat her "big girl" meal. She is growing up so fast!
Our last stop was over at my parents' house to see my mama. Granny and Grandpa came up from 
