Little Ann

A few weeks ago we discovered an alligator in the pond, here in our apartment complex. Don't worry, it's all fenced off. It was the most exciting thing for me and the boys! Some of the guys here named the alligator Charlie (from the youtube video "Charlie bit me"-of the little kids). We only saw Charlie one time and were totally fascinated by him. I take the kids out there almost everyday and we throw rocks and look for him. But after not seeing him for a weeks, we figured someone had taken him out. Then last night we found out someone had because he got too big. My kids LOVE to go down there and wait for him to come. Julien talks about Charlie every day and we only saw him once! This morning we took a family walk and to our pleasant surprise someone had put a baby gator in the pond! Her name is Little Ann and she is so cute! We are really mean and like to throw rocks at the gators to watch them snap. Luckily our aim is not the greatest so she didn't get hit much (and they are little tiny rocks for all you people who think we are cruel). Here she is...

This is the beautiful pond in our back yard!

Julien's new favorite thing to do...throw rocks at gators!

Dad and Jonah gathering pebbles to throw.

Here she comes!

Isn't she cute!? We really could just watch her all day, if it weren't so hot!

We are ruined for life!

Last night I was taking a shower and Rich came in the bathroom and got something out of the bathroom closet. Next thing I know, he throws a box on the floor and is screaming about some "big" spider. You must know that Rich and his whole family (every one of them!) HATE spiders! I don't like them either, but usually I'm not too scared of them. So after I got out of the shower, I go to look at it (it was hiding in the box), thinking it was probably a small one...I looked, screamed, then threw the box back down on the floor. Rich was freaking out, to say the least, and once I saw how huge and scarey it was, I was too! I'm always the one to kill the spiders in our house, so I had to think of a plan. So we got some tongs and I picked up the box and stuck that nastey spider in the bag. Rich was going crazy. Here it is....


We still don't know what kind he is, but we hate the fact that he was in our apartment! It may be hard to tell just how big he is, but believe me when I say huge! After we (or I) got him in the bag and we searched our whole place for more, we sat down to watch a movie. We were still creeped out and had that feeling of spiders crawling on us. I put on a pair of socks and just when I put my foot in, I felt something in my sock! I ripped it off and started screaming (so did Rich) and he was soo mad at me because he thought I was joking. So we get a flashlight and with our hearts pounding, we slowly open the sock and look for a spider. We kept seeing shadows that made it look like something dark was in there, so we kept freaking out more! But we finally rolled the sock to the bottom and it was just the seam of the sock. Did we feel dumb, haha, kind of, but we were squirmy all night about spiders! Now everything we pick up in our apartment we shake first or examine it before getting too close! We may be ruined for life! Or at least until pest control comes again!

Here is the little sicko compared to the size of a crayon and a quarter!
Ugh, I'm getting chills just looking at these pictures!

Uncle Rob!

This weekend Rich's brother, Rob, came to visit us in Florida! He lives in Gorgia and rode his motorcycle down to see us. We don't get to see him much, so it was a special treat. Rob is a Ranger in the army and we are so thankful for his service and sacrafice! Any chance we get to spend with him is great. The kids LOVED him and they played with him the whole time. Now that he is gone, Julien is always saying, "Mommy, I love Uncle Robbie." He misses him already. Hopefully we'll get to see him and his family again before we go back to Utah! Here are some pictures that depict how much fun they had!

(note: for those wondering where we are, this is our apartment in Florida. It's a temporary stay and that is why it is decorated in kid art and number border).

Thanks for coming Uncle Rob!