December 18 -- Joshua!

Twas just a week before Christmas and a gift of life came to join David, Samantha, Hannah and Riley.  Joshua Robert joined the family just after 7 AM!!  Coming forth at 9 lbs 7 ozs he shows up weighing 50% more than either Hannah or Riley and seemingly healthy in all respects.  David and Samantha have this thing about making beautiful babies and Joshua is no exception.  So... here's Joshua!!

 

Minutes old :)

 

The kid is definitely a bruiser!

 

Already good at one of the three things babies do.

 

Peace to all.

 

Hello there, Joshua... welcome :)

 

 

 

Turkey Shoot

Thanksgiving 2013 turned out to be a most delightful 6-day adventure with the kids over in NC.  David had worked on Veterans Day which resulted in his being able to take Friday off to make it a real 4-day holiday weekend for him as well which was certainly nice.  David cooked up a turkey in the new outdoor fryer and it was incredible moist and delicious.  Samantha had worked in the kitchen for 2 days putting together all the fixings to go along with the bird and of course it was all delicious.

In addition to the wonderful Thanksgiving day meal there were other adventures during the trip.  Included was a number of very fun times in the backyard shooting a pellet/BB gun I had brought along with me.  I'd gotten the gun up in CT where it was used to take out some voles that were making an absolute mess of my lawn in the back.  Since then, it has sat in the box waiting for some action.  Turned out it got plenty of action!  David and I had a pretty fun time with this thing and it meant a lot to me to do it with him.  We're both rather experienced but had never shot together except for the times, many years ago, when I bought him a BB gun and got him going on it.

Hannah wanted to give it a go so that's what we did.  The first day out it was pretty much just letting her get used to holding and shooting a gun, learning some safety issues, and just shooting basically for the fun of it.  The second day we went out she really got the hang of it!  After some instruction to get her to understand a 'sight picture' a bit she proceeded to really shoot well.  More times than not she was able to hit a soda can 15-20 yards out and that's a pretty good shot with this little thing!

Hannah listening to a bit of instruction and then having a go at it!  She found wearing my hat with the brim turned to the side to block the sun worked quite well.

 

And of course Riley just had to follow big sister Hannah!

 

It was just so wonderful to visit with David, Samantha, Hannah and Riley!  Here it's me and Riley after a day at the range.

 

The kids got out the Christmas decorations and of course Riley had to help.  Is this kid cute or what?!?!?  Looking at this photo now I start to think what next year at this time will be like.  Joshua will be going on 1 year old and Riley will either have trained him as an accomplice and the two of them will be tearing into the goodies together, or she will have locked him in his room.  Time will tell :)