The Cats

The crawlspace entry point...where the kitties live
What a beautiful, precious kitten!

the view from between our front porch steps

We've recently become a cat haven for a cat family. About 6 months ago, we noticed a white cat hanging around in Nick's lawn shed in the backyard. It was kinda fat and was not interested in coming near us at all. I figured it wasn't hurting anything out there, so we left it alone. We never offered it the first bite of food or water, but it seemed to do fine. I hadn't really given it much thought lately, until the kids and I drove up the driveway the other day, and we saw the white cat, not as fat as before, and 2 small white kittens following her in front of our garage. Obviously, she had been pregnant and I don't know when or where she had her kittens, but I'm guessing it was somewhere near our house. That same afternoon, Rachel and I were in the den and I noticed a little white fur ball on the front porch. Sure enough, the mom and her babies were on the front porch sitting there. Of course, Rachel and I had to go see them and the babies were quite adorable. They are all pure white. At first we thought there were only 2 babies, but we've now seen 3, and I hope there aren't any others that I haven't noticed. We snuck outside very carefully and quietly so we wouldn't scare them away. The mom was less than thrilled that we were out there and gave her low grrrrr sound at us. We stayed away from her and only pet one of her babies very briefly. Then, they all hopped off the porch and went underneath the front steps. So, we noticed that the cats have found a large opening that leads under our house into our crawlspace, and that's where they're living. I don't know if the mom cat had her babies there or not. So, now we've got to decide what to do with all these kitties. We don't really want any cats, and we definitely can't afford the maintenance that they require. I know responsible pet owners get their pets spayed and neutered and we definitely don't want this Gesabelle cat using our home as her birthing place and home for any other kitties to come. We've considered calling Animal Control, but I'm betting they won't get them out from under our house. (About a year ago I had to call them for a LOUD, CRYING cat that wouldn't leave and was always on our porch and when they came to get it, they couldn't find it...PUH--LEASE!!) So, I guess it's up to us to catch these poor kitties and take them to Animal Control. I wish we needed a cat around here, but all we can afford are children...and that's pretty tight! So, if ANYONE wants a cat, I'll hook you up with some adorable ones! :)

A Birthday Party fit for a Princess!

Rachel went dressed as Snow White-

she also wanted to bring her baby with her.

Belle is putting on the birthday girl, Rylee Ann's make-up

Jonna and another princess

Rach can't wait to be made up

a little blush...

a little blue eye shadow...
(every girl's favorite!)

and a little gloss will do it!

What a beautiful little Snow White!

Rach and the birthday girl (dressed as Belle)

Looking at the other lovely gowns

Rachel's next choice for dress-up...

a lovely white gown, which she thought

looked like a wedding dress.

She LOVED this one!

The table is set for tea

lovely little princess

Carson, Rylee Ann's brother isn't sure

what to make of all the glamorous gowns

Ava, one of the little princesses, dressed

as Belle

Debbie and Ava

the make-up station, where little girls

turn into princesses

My sweet little princess

the whole princess gang

waiting for tea to be served

Princess Rachel is loving all this!

Belle is quite a lovely hostess serving pink tea

to Jonna and the other girls

Rachel is dancing and twirling Camilla, a younger princess

Rachel has picked her 3rd princess outfit for the day...

She's having such a great time twirling in her dress!

Still dancing! and boy those bright orange shoes look good!

Today, Rachel went to her friend, Rylee Ann's 4th birthday party at Belles and Beaus in Watkinsville. It was such a cute little tea party. All the girls came dressed in their "princess best" and then tried on other princess dresses, gloves, shoes, hats and jewelry. It was great having a huge dress-up room where the girls could imagine being a princess. All the little girls were so into it. There were about 16 or 18 little girls there...so it was quite crowded. Even Belle was there to greet all the princesses. She put make-up on each little girl, served them all pink tea, pb&J sandwiches, cheese doodles and fruit and even danced with them and sang them a song. She actually has a very pretty voice, and the girls loved hearing the Beauty and the Beast theme song. Rachel had such a good time and thinks she might want to have her 5th birthday party there next year! What a fun morning!!!!

A special day with cousin Juju

Cousin Best Friends

Yea! We're ready to jump!!!

WHEEEEEE!

Go Nana!

Bradley loved jumping and running with a ball!

Rachel kept trying to make a basket!

got some air

Rach was having a talk with her ball

got some toddler air

Looks like good basketball form, Juj!

Yea, Bradley!

Taking a break!!

See ya!!

Run, Juj!

Taking a break!

Wheeeeeeee!

Still love Wheezy!!

Taking a pizza break!

Trying out our new life jacket

Bradley kinda likes it!

Now he doesn't!

Juju tried on Rachel's bathing suit skirt

Juju loved performing her ABC's on this "stage" for us to enjoy!

It was Rachel's turn, but Juj wasn't enjoying her performance!

Still not impressed!

The sweetest girl ever!!

The sweetest girl ever!!

Silly boy found something to chew on while he swims!

We were so excited to see Juju today and spend time with her, nana and pop! We first met up at Pump it Up and jumped our hearts out. The girls had a blast trying everything out together. Bradley loved the slide and we did it MANY times! We were at Pump It Up for about an hour and then left to go swimming at Gege and Papa's house. It turned out to be such a nice day and it was kinda muggy outside, so the pool felt wonderful! The girls stayed in the pool for about 4 hours and got a little too much sun, but they had so much fun together. They argued about very important things, like what "Patrick" from Spongebob's color is, or what to name Gege's new donkey. Rachel decided on: "Seashell from the lost boy whose name will take him far". I'm totally not kidding here! I have NO idea why she came up with that name or where it came from. Julia decided on "fish" for the donkey. That became a huge argument since both girls thought their names were right. There were many more little incidences like this, but overall, the cousins just LOVED being together. Bradley was in and out of the pool at his own whim and he probably swam a total of 45 minutes the whole day! But, he had a great time doing his own thing. Gege bought him a new life jacket thing for babies and he sorta tolerated it for about 10 minutes. He laugh/cried while he had it on. I think he liked the buoyant feel, but still wasn't sure he liked the extra padding on his chest and back. He ended the day playing in the bottom cabinet of the GRILL! He found out that he could open the doors and sit in it. So, Gege and Papa are definitely going to have to move it away from the pool so that the next time it's used and is HOT for several hours as it cools down, Bradley won't try to climb into the cabinet!

What a fun day!!!

We can't wait to see our sweet Lane family as soon as possible...

hopefully for Bradley's birthday!!!