The BIG 4.0!!

Lordy! Lordy...Yes, I am 4.0!!!

CHEERS!!!

I can not believe that I just turned 40. I remember when 40 was soooo old. Feels like yesterday that I was celebrating my 30th birthday. Where does the time go? I am definitely not complaining about turning 40- in fact I am very grateful to be turning 40 and to be celebrating another year of l.i.f.e!!! It is so appropriate that my 40th fell on Thanks-giving because I truly have so very much to be thankful for!  BRING IT!!

My sweet baby girl helped me to make a wish and blow out the candle on my birthday cake.  All my wishes have come true and one of them was sitting right there on my lap.  I am one lucky momma!

Thank you so much to all my friends and family that sent me wonderful birthday wishes.  A special thanks to all the were able to come out to PF Changs to help us celebrate too.  We had a wonderful time and I felt very special!!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was pretty exciting this year.  Not only was it my big 4-0 but I also got to meet a few new family members that traveled to Houston from Mexico.  Keith had not seen his cousins in several years and this of course was their first time meeting me as well as Ahliana.  Keith was proud to show off introduce his girls.

Keith was the eldest son this year so the responsibility of carving the turkey feel on him.  Not a job he particularly wanted but did nonetheless.  I should mention that he did a fabulous job and the turkey was delicious (thank you Randall's for the pre.cooked.turkey)

Ahliana was definitely the life of the party.  The.center.of.attention.  She was wonderful and very well behaved.  Felt a little bad that she was the only child there but she was well entertained and everyone made special time for her.  Prior to eating Papa said grace, then he turned if over to his big sister, then to Ahli.  Ahli's grace:  I am thankful for Jesus, and my mom, and my dad, and all my friends.  Such simple words that she spoke to a table of 20+ people yet they put a tear in my eye.  I was so proud and so touched by these simple few words.

Much needed five minute rest after lots of food and lots of play.

Halloween 2011

Halloween was very busy for us and I love it.  We had a Fall Festival at Ahli's school, a small Halloween party at the house with her school friends, which I had lots of help in hosting from 3 other fabulous mommas, and then of course we had Halloween night.  For two of these festivities Ahliana was Little Red Riding Hood and an adorable one if I do say so myself. Then we had to change it up for Halloween.  She decided that she was tired of being Red and wanted to be Snow White.  Thanks to one of our dear friends who handed down several dress up dresses we were able to fulfill this last minute wish. Again she was the most adorable Snow White of the night.

Along with Halloween parties and  trick or treating we also made a couple of stops at pumpkin patches to get face painting done and take lots of pictures and do some crafts.  I really love October because it is truly the beginning of Fall for us.  Although it has been 80 degrees for the last few days, we did have a couple of cool brisk days that we have been able to enjoy and I am patiently awaiting the next cool front.  We finally went this last weekend to pick up Fall/Winter clothing for Ahliana so now I really am ready.  We have already lite up the outdoor fire pit and we have roasted marshmallows...we have even had hot chocolate.  I am ready for some more...so Mother Nature... Bring.it!

The Letter Opener

The other day as I was sitting in our study (If that is what you call the room that collects all the stuff we don't want seen around the rest of the house that just happens to have the computer.) and Ahliana handed me a letter opener.  She asked my what it was and I told her that it was, a letter opener, and went back about my business.  I was uploading pictures to the computer and just happy she was occupied enough to let me.  She asked me for a piece of paper so I gave her one and a highlighter to write with.  The next thing I know she is handing me the letter opener and asking me to open it... I asked "open what" and she pointed to the "A" that she wrote on the paper.  She wanted me to open the letter... how flipping cute is that.  I love this child more then words can express but it is the little stuff like this that just makes me want to take her into my arms and just hug, kiss and giggle with her until she makes me stop.  I am one lucky mamma and I would not change it for the world!

Voila Catty is a Butterfly!

It really is an amazing transformation (which I guess should not surprise me...birth in any nature is a pretty amazing thing, right).  The first picture that you will see is not of our gorgeous butterfly but of the cocoon that Catty once lived in.  You can see where he broke free (a little foreshadowing) and the cocoon that once was a beautiful green and appeared to be thick in nature now looks paper thin and clear.

May I have a drum roll please.... Let me officially introducing Catty the Butterfly!!!

I took a picture prior to releasing him because I was worried that he would fly away and I would miss him all together.

She was so excited to be releasing her butterfly. She was very sweet and gently placed it on the milkweed.  Of course right after she let him go she wanted him back on the stick so she could carry him around like a prize.  She told all her friends and the director of her school that we were going home to release her butterfly.  When Mike, the director, asked what kind of butterfly she looked at him proudly and said "a Monarch butterfly".  She is growning up way to fast.

The milkweed plant.  Of course I picked a yellow one.

I had a hard time getting a good picture of Catty with his wings open...do you see the two black dots that are symetrical toward the bottom of the wings?  Those are the indication that he is a male Monarch.  You can also tell by looking at the cocoon...but I am NOT that good.

Catty Update

Right after I wrote my last post, Catty cocooned (turned into a chrysalis).  Or as Ahliana has learned from her Little Einsteins show..Catty is getting a wardrobe change (how cute is that), it is really undergoing metamorphosis.  The Cocoon is really beautiful.  It starts off emerald green with gold glitter in it. 

Before they cocoon they attach themselves to a part of the container so they can "hang".  They will make a silk button and attach to it hanging upside down forming a "J".  At this time the caterpillar goes through it's last molting process (shedding of the skin).  The only thing left in the container that resembles the caterpillar is the molting (exuvia) of it's head...and in Catty's case the head stayed connected to the top of the cocoon and then fell off about a week later....I knew Catty was special.

This is a picture of Catty and his little friend before he cocooned ...



Ahliana is so proud of her caterpillars.

  

Look you can see Catty changing his wardrobe.  Can you see the butterfly in there?  Cool!!

I have to admit that I have become a little obsessed with caterpillar raising.  At one point we had Catty in a cocoon and six other caterpillars.  No, really look below.  One caterpillar was too small to keep in this container so I had to keep it in a separate smaller one (and I wonder why my hubs thinks I am a little nuts).  I read that only about two to five caterpillars that hatch form many hundreds of eggs makes it to adulthood...so I thought I would help out, you know become a butterfly foster parent so to speak.  The way I see it, the milkweed only attracts butterflies twice a year (Spring/Fall) so really it's not like we will have them year round and it is educational for Ahli.  Plus it is really a cool experience watching a caterpillar molt... I am hoping to catch the cocooning process and the end when the butterfly breaks free of the cocoon, spreads it's wings to dry and just waits to be let free....amazing I tell you, amazing!  

They start out so little and fragile.  When they are small like this I would not dare let Ahliana touch them.  I actually caught her petting the one she was holding when she was wearing the orange outfit above....oops.

Then they get big and they eat you out of milkweed leaves.

Stay tuned.  Catty has emerged.  Is our butterfly a he, as I suspected, or a she?  I should post the follow up either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Meet Catty

I would like to introduce you to our new pet, Catty the Caterpillar. We have had him for about a week. When I first brought him in he was only about 1" long.  Now he is probably close to 2".  This morning when I fed him he was plump and looking pretty juicy.  His black stripes had a little glow to them...they looked like velvet.  I am hoping this is an indication that he will soon form a chrysalis (cacoon) and go into hiding. He will stay in his cocoon for about 2 weeks and when he reappears he will be a beautiful Monarch butterfly... and then I should really be able to tell you if he is a he or a she...maybe.

See his little white boots.  Apparently those are called prolegs (the 'fake' legs).  Why would a caterpillar have 'fake' legs... I have no idea?  I do know that he actually has three pairs of legs and the set that are closer to his head he uses to pull food in. 

See... How cool is that?  I know pretty cool huh.

We keep Catty in a small container built for bug hording.  I have to admit that having Catty in the house has made me a little crazy.  Crazy in a good way, not in the "what am I doing, there is a bug in my house, kind of way".  I check on him everytime I walk by to see what he is up to.  He really is a fun little guy.  I have also found myself checking the milkweed plant outside everyday when I go to get him a new leaf to eat.  I have found eight additional caterpillars.  I have only taken two more captive, I just don't know where I would keep the other six (maybe I will find a bug house big enough, if I can talk Keith into it?).  The other two are much smaller then Catty.  One is itty bitty, not even 1/2" long and the other is about 3/4" inch long.



All of these pictures were taken about 4 days ago and he has grown quite a bit in those few days. The first four pictures were taken with a macro filter so I could catch every detail - he appears much larger in those pictures then he really is.

This is the second caterpillar that we have captured.  The first one (which we found on Ahliana's birthday) cocooned so quickly after we captured it that we did not get to watch it grow.  I mean it cocooned within 30 minutes of us finding it.  The cacoon process is slow but really cool too...so stay posted for some more caterpillar/ cocoon/ butterfly pics.

Thank you Shellie!!  This caterpillar/ butterfly experience has been amazing for both Ahliana and me!! 

RAIN

Look at this beautiful dark sky.  We have had rain now for 3 days straight and it has been fabulous!  We have prayed for it and at one point Ahliana and I were even doing a tribal dance in the living room - a rain dance so to speak.  It looks like are prayers are starting to get answered...Thank you Lord!  We needed it! 

Although it has rained a couple of hours a day for the last three days our grounds are so thirsty that they are just drinking it in.  So far it has been just enough to quench its thirst.  The ground is literally drinking it in as soon as it hits. 

After the rain let up to just a sprinkle, Ahliana got to slip her toes into her galoshes (gosh I love that word), wrap up in her rain coat and go outside and dance in the rain.  At first we had a little trouble finding a safe puddle large enough to splash in ( like I said the ground just drank it in) so we splashed in every little puddle of water we could. 

Little side note:  These galoshes are very special.  They were her cousin Tyler's when he was little.  She has had them for about 1.5 years now and she has really wanted to play in them but they have been, and still are a little, too big.  She loves Tyler so much and reminds me that they used to be his all the time.  I love that they are special not only to me...but to her too.

Then daddy suggested she splash in the big muddy puddle around the trees/plants... game on!  She really is a water bug... happy in any kind of water whether she is swimming in it, dancing in it, or bathing in it, just as long as she is in it.

 

The pictures below are from rain day two.  We were already outside playing when the rain started to come down.  I ran in the house to retrieve her raincoat and galoshes so Ahli could continue to dance and play in the rain.  This time however, it was a little more then just sprinkles of rain... it was the hard down pour and she was L.O.V.I.N.G -it .. and I do mean loving it!!!  If I wasn't taking pictures and worried about how I would get her in the house and dried and warm I would have been out there laughing with her...maybe.

Rain drops keep falling on my head ♫ ♪

We are very grateful for the rain that we have been getting and I hope that we continue to get more.  I also hope that areas that are much in need of rain such as Bastrop and Austin start to see some soon as well.  We have been hit hard this year and the fires that surround us are way to close for home.  Farmers are needing to sell off cattle because there is no grass for them to graze and they are losing crops.  It has just been really bad.  I know that this little amount of rain that we have had is not going to take us out of danger we are still in the middle of the worst drought I have ever seen... but it is a start and we will take it.  So again - Thank you Lord for answering our prayers- Amen!