a Big Bunch of Littletons

My mom and brothers and their families joined me and my family at my house for Thanksgiving.
We had a wonderful time together. We don't get to all see each other very often.

Christmas Memories

I'm getting ready for our choir Christmas party and ran across this picture from 2003.

A Visit with Shirley

Today, Papa, Gibson and Elam all went to visit Ms. Shirley. Ms. Shirley gave Gibson his very first haircut about 6 years ago. She looks the same, but Gibson is a lot bigger!

Here are some before and after pictures from today's visit.

Elam was great. He only had one breakdown when Shirley asked him to scoot back a little while Papa was getting his hair cut. She didn't want him to get hair all over himself. When he didn't move Gibson "helped" him. Thankfully another sucker from Shirley stopped the crying.

Gibson took my picture too.

Birdhouses

WE painted birdhouses last night. The kids were very serious about their work. I'll post pictures of the finished products after they wake up this morning and we take some pictures.

and - hahaha - it's 9:10 and Benjamin and I are the only ones up. YEAH!

Zoo Day at Cousins' Camp

We had a great time at the zoo.

Too much fun!

No time to type details.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Playing in the Creek

Cousins' Camp is under way! The Oklahoma cousins got in about midnight. The Tennessee cousins arrived today just before lunch.

The first thing we had to do - of course - was get out in the creek! We might not be able to move to Clarksville. The creek is too wonderful to leave.

Uncle Andrew found a snapping turtle under a rock ledge. Awesome! (be sure and say that with a 6 year old's tone)

Look at him trying to bite the stick.

A New Mailbox

Cousins' Camp starts Sunday night after church!!!

WOOOHOOOO!!!

All 6 cousins and their moms and dads are going to be here for a week. It will be so much fun!

So to get ready for cousins camp Papa washed all the mailboxes, chased away ants and snakes and spiders and all such things and...

most importantly...

added a new mailbox - a yellow one for Beau.

I had to put it on the end by Gibson's (I was putting them up in order) because 6 years ago when I put Gibson's mailbox up I wasn't thinking how in just a few years I would have 6 mailboxes!

Notice that the flags are up! That's means there's something in there for Gibson, Haven, Hannah, Elam, Benjamin and Beau!

A Bunny on Bear Hollow

You'll want to see a beautiful collage if you haven't been to my Hilldale blog.

http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2009/05/beautiful-bear-hollow.html

I want the grandbabies to see these pictures.

As I was mowing the back acre (which was WAAAAY overgrown - mower was broken, just got it back and then tons of rain) anyway, as I was mowing I guess I disturbed a baby rabbit nest because all of the sudden a little baby bunny rabbit took off running. I then started driving a little slower - in case there were others. Sure enough, another time around (or two) and out ran another baby rabbit.

This one ran just a little ways and then I guess he thought he was hidden in the grass. I turned off the mower hoping I could get up close to him and take his picture.

I walked slowly and quietly wanting to get a closer shot.

A tried my luck, walking in closer, wanting a better shot and hoping he wouldn't run away.

I was so close. He wasn't moving a whisker - holding verrrrrry still so I wouldn't see him. I could see him breathing hard. I stretched out my arm to get as close as I could for a picture.

I probably could have touched him! But he was so scared and I didn't want to terrorize him, so I went back to my mower and he ran off to join his brother.

After the next time around one more baby bunny ran out of the tall grass. I guess they'll get together tonight and talk about their scary afternoon.

Woodland Garden

I mentioned on Facebook the other day that I was out taking pictures of my woodland/shade garden. Sam said, "pictures! we need pictures!" So here they are. They are really gorgeous on my phone and not so great here on my computer. I'll have to see if there is something I'm supposed to do differently.

Jack in the pulpit. The "pulpit" will turn purple as it matures. Our mountain (I guess it's really just a hill) is covered with them. I brought one down from the mountain and it has multiplied. I'll get better pictures. I guess I need a nice camera. (hint, hint. June birthday)

Trillium. This variety has a brown "flower" and spotted leaves.

Nodding head trillium. Each plant has one large white flower that looks down. There are a lot of these on my mountain.

Columbine. I gathered seed from a columbine I had in another place in the yard and scattered them in the shade garden behind the grandbabies' mailboxes. This is one that came up from seed.

This is a tiny clover that has little pink flowers.You can tell how small it is when you see it in the picture below. It's there to the right of the maiden hair fern (which I also got off the mountain).

Fiddle Heads and Viburnum

I Twittered (or is it tweated?) this morning that I was out taking some pictures before I drove to Clarksville. The lighting on overcast mornings is perfect for outdoor pictures.

I have several different kinds of ferns in my back yard. I bought some and I brought some down off the hill. When they put new growth out in the Spring the fronds are called "fiddle heads" because - goodness. I hate explaining things that are so obvious...

Well, anyway, I thought it was a cool idea to take a picture of my fiddle with the fiddle heads. (actually, this is my viola)

While I was out there I couldn't help but notice how incredibly beautiful my viburnum were in the overcast light.

You probably know this variety as "snowball bush."

I don't know a common name for this one. But since there are 150 or more varieties I suppose you can't know all of them. http://gardening.about.com/od/treesshrubs/a/Viburnums.htm

Hannah and Benjamin

Grani told me to put up another post because she doesn't like seeing those snakes every time she stops by here. She uses the links on this page to get to the grandbabies' blogs.

I didn't have any new grandbaby pictures so I had decided to post about vibernum. Ooooo! Sounds exciting don't you think? Probably still will, but later. So to help push the snake pics off the bottom of the blog I'm putting up some pictures that Crystal took of Hannah and Benjamin that she posted on Facebook.

Aren't they beautiful! (the grandbabies, not the pictures. although the pics are good too.)

The Creek

Why Papa loves his creek.


Why Grani doesn't.

Passion Play Night

Randall came down from St. Louis with his family to see Hilldale's Passion Play. We had a great time playing together. These are pictures of Hannah and Benjamin and two of my nephews, Isaac and Asher and Aunt Christy.

After the Passion Play we played and checked out the set.