Just Heartbroken....

This is a photo taken last April of my Auntie and my Uncle. They are like grandparents to me and we are all very close.

Sadly, my uncle passed away yesterday morning from heart failure and renal failure. He was 85 yrs old and will be missed. He was a special man. My auntie and uncle were married for over 60 years. My auntie is totally devastated.

We love you Uncle A and we will miss you. We will take good care of Auntie H for you.

Mom's Need Time Out Too!

I am going to participate in a Blog Bump so from time to time I will be adding a post to my own blog here about other blogs that I find interesting.

Blog Name: Mom's Indulgence

http://momsindulgence.com/2007/taking-time-for-you/

Taking time for you is what its all about in the current blog post. As moms and busy women we often forget to take time out for ourselves.

I just recently came back from a fantastic vacation to the Jersey Shore so I realize myself how important it is to take a break from our every day lives.

Stop on by the Mom's Indulgence blog and take a look around! I am sure you will find something interesting to read there!

Happy 23rd Birthday Jenelle!

Where does all that time go? I can not believe that our daughter just turned 23 years old on June 19th!!! Happy Birthday Jenelle!

Birthdays here in our family are always a big deal. We usually have parties and make it a several day celebration, especially if the birthday falls on a weekend.

Our daughters due date was July 4th, I was hoping she would arrive a tad early on June 29th since that is my birthday and we could share the date, but Jenelle had other plans and arrived on June 19th which ended up being a blessing because on the year she was born, June 19th was Fathers Day so my hubby was double blessed that day.

Are birthday's a big deal in your household? Do you go way out to celebrate them?

Shelly

Babies Fledged!

Well...this will be the last picture of the baby house finches! This picture is at age 10 days. I got up Saturday morning to go check on them and they were all gone! So they fledged on Saturday morning at age 12 days!

Mom and Dad are still hanging around in the pine tree that sits about 30 ft from my hanging basket. According to my bird book, house finches can breed 2-3 times per year so perhaps we will be blessed with another round of babies sometime this summer. I will let you all know if that occurs!

My husband and I totally enjoyed this experience!

Crock Pot Chicken Marengo Recipe

This is the recipe I made for dinner yesterday and it turned out delicous! Please stop on by my main blog at: http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com/

Crock Pot Chicken Marengo

2 1/2 to 3 lb. frying chicken, cut up
1 (1 1/2 oz) pkg. spaghetti sauce mix
1/2 c. dry white wine
2 fresh tomatoes, quartered
1/4 lb. fresh mushrooms

Place chicken parts in crock pot. Combine dry spaghetti mix with wine; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours. Turn control to high and add tomatoes and mushrooms. Cover and cook on high for 40 additional minutes. Makes 4 servings.

Babies are now 8 days old...

As you can see from the newest photo they have alot of down fluff on them and I can see the starts of feathers now too. They all have their eyes open and are peeping their heads out over the nest in the flower basket.

They are making a mess in the nest and all 4 of the babies seem to be crowded in there now that they are bigger. I didn't see the "dud" egg in there today so either they ate it or mom/dad removed it.

~Shelly~

Baby Birds are 6 days Old!

Well, our baby house finch birds are now 6 days old. They are getting alot of furry down type of material on them now and have even started opening their eyes. I can hear them from outside my bedroom window and can see them in the hanging basket.

Since its been 95+ degrees here in PA, we have checked on them often. They were over-heated today and breathing hard so we misted the flower basket with some light water and they actually seemed to enjoy that although mom was not happy and dad was certainly not happy and took a dive at my husband. We haven't been able to get pics of mom and dad yet.

Today's photo is of our 4 hatchlings and they are now 6 days old. The 5th egg never hatched but is still in the nest at this time.

~Shelly~

Bird Watching - We Have House Finch Hatchlings!

My husband and I are big fans of birding. We enjoy watching them, trying to identify them and of course watching hatchlings grow up.

For mothers day he got me a beautiful hanging flower basket. A week later we noticed a very small bird (we believe she is a house finch) going in and out of the flower basket.

We finally got nosey and suspected she had made a nest and took a peek and low and behold there was a beautiful nest inside our flower basket with 5 tiny blue eggs (the size of marbles). It has now been 2 weeks and we finally have hatchlings!

Yesterday we noticed that 3 of our 5 eggs have hatched and then this morning another one hatched so we now have 1 egg left to see if it hatches. I hope you enjoy the photo's and I will be updating my blog from time to time about these beautiful little birds!

For more information about the House Finch Birds please see:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/House_Finch_dtl.html

~Shelly~