Bowling, Birthday, and Such

This last weekend we celebrated my Aunt Stephanie's birthday. She treated us all to some bowling for the occasion, which was a lot of fun. Even Austin loved watching the action, and Nate was ecstatic when he got his first turkey:

 Austin is 10 months old as of today, and as cute as ever!

Austin hasn't really figured out crawling yet, but is now scooting and rolling himself all over our house. He still loves to clasp his hands together though, even when crawling:

Introducing...Our New Fine Feathered Friend!

A couple weeks ago, I found out that the parrot breeder we have been working with had a six year old male Red-Sided Eclectus Parrot available for adoption. He was a rescue bird that had been living in the home of a lady with lots and lots of other birds. The lady who had him was a hoarder, and apparently she let her birds have free run of her house. So her house was full of junk, birds, and bird messes. Her birds had not been abused, but they had also not been given all the attention they needed.

After meeting with the Eclectus last Saturday, we decided to take him. Arrangements were made, and he arrived here at our home Monday.

 He is slowly warming up to us, but he is still a bit wary of his new home. He has had a lot of change going on in his life recently, which is really hard on parrots.

I am so excited to have him though. He is such a beautiful bird! And he is lots of fun too. The first day he was here I brought him up to the studio for a bit. I hadn't heard him say anything yet at that point. I had my back turned from him momentarily when suddenly I heard a clear voice say "Hi!" I was so startled that I jumped, and then I realized it was our new bird.

We have found that he actually says all sorts of things, and makes all sorts of noises. Some things he says are: Hi, Hello, Whatcha' doing? Who's There? Come here, Bye, Pretty bird, Thank you, What?, and a number of other things. Some of it is more clear than others. He also makes lots of noises. He can whistle, laugh, sound like a siren, and make some funny digitized sounding noises. At some point he was also taught to make lots of animal sounds, and sometimes he sounds like a jungle. He honks, makes other birds' sounds, calls like a monkey, and so forth. I have also heard him say "rib-it" and "meow." He also can make some really annoying sounds, like a really terrible sound that reminds us of fingernails on a chalkboard. But overall, it is pretty fun and entertaining.

We still are trying to decide on a name though, so let us know if you have any ideas!

Valentine's Day

Nate made dinner for Valentine's Day this year. It was delicious! Lasagna with rolls, smoked Gouda cheese, salami, and a salad. Since we ran out of time on Valentine's Day, I made my valentine dessert later in the week: a blueberry raspberry pie with hearts cut out of the crust.

Of course, we still made the usual Valentine door-bell ditching runs with plates of homemade cookies as well!

I gave Nate a hooded sweater for the occasion as well:

Plus a few other things. Austin got a new blanket sleeper (since he is about ready to grow out of his current one.) And Nate gave me a couple much appreciated gifts as well, like a gift certificate for some See's chocolates. (Yum!) We don't have many pictures though, since I left my camera at my parent's house, and the battery on Nate's old camera died after just a couple snap shots.


It was fun, but then I have always thought Valentine's Day to be pretty fun...

Valentines Weekend Date

Rebecca spent a lot of time putting together our Valentines date this year. We switch off every year between doing the activity and making dinner. We did the activity on Friday to give us more time.  It was a:

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For each part there were folded slips of paper with all of the options.  The twist was that I could not go back to a previous option once I opened a new one.  Just deciding what to do was fun!  Part 1 was the activity.  We went to the Layton Fun Center.  Mini bowling was pretty cool and we enjoyed the arcade games too. 

Part 2 was dessert.  We went to Chiles and got 1 molten chocolate cake and 1 chocolate chip paradise pie.  I had to help Rebecca eat her's.

 

Part 3 was "Relax".  We sat in bed and watched funny on-line videos.  We had a great time! I was also impressed how much effort she went to especially with how busy she has been with her card business (Valentine's Day is one of her busy times of year).  If you can't tell from the pictures, she hand made all of the envelopes and lettering.