Carter Mountain Apples!

On Halloween day (yep, I'm a slow blogger) we went to Charlottesville to go pick apples with our good friends the Petersons. There is a neat orchard there called Carter Mountain which is way on the top of, you guessed it, a mountain! I was really fun to get out and hand pick your own produce (and sample it too!). The weather was nice and misty and cool. One of the features of Carter Mountain is thier apple cider donuts. We all sampled some before heading up the mountain- I think Kate wanted one too!! :)

Here are some more photos of the day below! It was a great adventure and the apples have been so yummy! I made a great pie out of them the next week. Kate loved knawing on the apples too! :)

Sunday Walk at Maymont

This past Sunday David, Kate and I went to Maymont to walk around the gardens. Maymont (for those who don't know) is a big, Victorian manor and grounds that were willed to the city of Richmond after its owners passed away. The house is a beautiful example of high society in Victorian times and the gardens are goregeous! They have an Italian garden, arboreum, and a Japanese garden. I'd been there before with David's mom and sister-in-law, but he'd never been so we decided to take Kate on a walk there. It's nice too because it is free! The flowers were goregeous and allowed us to get some cute photos of Kate. I have to give credit to David- he was SUPER patient as I had him hold her up in various areas and hide behind her. :) He's a great dad and husband!
Katelyn is getting to be so much fun! She is four months old now and loves to look at the world around her. She's a happy baby and is so good!

Kate's First Vacation!

Katelyn and I had the opportunity to go and visit the "motherland" in July for two weeks. I was a little nervous to fly with a two month old, but thankfully my parents were flying back with me. It actually was very easy to travel with Kate. Everyone was very helpful and we made it without much trouble. Here's Kate with my Mom and I on our first flight. She slept pretty much the whole time. Phew!

We had a great time in San Diego, and Kate loved her time with her Aunt, Uncles and Grandma and Grandpa Murdoch! Here are some pictures from the trip! Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come!
This is Kate, my mom and I at the SD zoo! She had so much fun- she would sleep in her stroller, wake up, look around, then sleep and repeat. When she got sick of her seat, Grandpa took care of her!

Here's a cute video of little Kate! She's getting to be very talkative!

Wow.

Okay, so I'm google image searching for a picture of a scary looking rabbit to add drama to my next post about the rodenta wars and I stumble upon this website. It's all about people who participate in LARP... which, after reading through the site, means Live Action Role Play. Basically, adults dress up like fantasy characters (probably from computer games) and have battles. Some of them get pretty creative with their cosutmes. Now, I'm all about the unique ways to have fun, and... if you participate in this... more power to you for following your dreams, but if you don't check this site out!! *Disclamer* there is some adult language used in some of the descriptions, so just a heads up. My favorite part is the summer camp for kids.

http://threevue.com/category/life/matchmaker-love-at-first-larp/

The Rodenta Wars- Part One

One of the blessings of our place here is that we have a pretty big backyard! Last year, we tilled a "little bit of earth" (name that book... Secret Garden anyone?...no? just me?) and planted watermelon, beans, tomatoes and peppers. It was pretty successful except for the beans due to some lovely little GROUNDHOGS that had taken up residence under our shed. We tried everything to keep them out, but to no avail.

So, we thought that we'd out fox them this year and put gravel around our shed to keep them out and we filled in the holes. We trapped one last year and thought it was the end of our garden plants being decapitated. We expanded the garden this year and planted our corn, beans, squash, melons, tomatoes, peppers and I threw in some herbs and sunflowers out there for good measure. We rejoiced at the prospects of so much produce that would grace our table in July and August.

And then the squirrels came.

Like mini lumberjacks, they chopped down our corn plants, stripped the leaves off the beans and excavated the sunflower seeds. We could only desperately watch or go out like crazy people and chase them off. How do you beat a squirrel? They can climb anything and when you chase them, they just run up trees and yell at you from their safe posts. The situation was dire. Who could save us?

And then my dad came to visit. And bought David a BB gun. He gave him some pointers, like shoot towards the ground, use the scope and shoot with pellets for the kill. We practiced outside on soda bottles. And then we waited.

The next week, David, in full dental scrubs, made his first kill. We were so excited! Take that squirrels! After that, the squirrels left the garden pretty much alone and we thought we won the war. But we were wrong... oh how we were wrong.

Welcome Katelyn!

After nine months of waiting, we're pleased to announce the arrival of Gert! Katelyn Rebecca McIntyre was born on May 17th at 7:18am!! She weighed 7lbs 10.9oz and was 20.5 inches long! It was a long labor (24 hours, with 3 and a half hours of pushing!), but well worth it (I can say that now that it's over). It was great having my Mom here to help and spoil Katelyn- she put in some late nights with me!

Katelyn is now over a week old and she's already changed so much! It's fun and tiring being a mom, and I'm so thankful that I do not have to go back to work any time soon (how do working moms do it?). So, here are some pictures of our little one's first week!

The Final Few

Well, we're down to the last two weeks until baby Gert arrives (or at least until her due date). Gert (short for Gertrude) is the nickname my family has for her and I think my sister will call her that the rest of her life.

Overall, this whole pregnancy has really been great. I think that Heavenly Father knew I am a preemptive stresser (what if I'm barfing in class? What if I have sciatica?) and so he blessed me with a fairly low key pregnancy. It's been really neat to experience the miracle that creating new life is. I love feeling the little kicks and rolls (except the ones to the ribs) and it's been fun getting the room prepared too. It's been great (albeit uncomfortable at times... well most of the time...) to have this opportuntiy. Now let's get it over with! Ha.

My students at school have had fun with this whole adventure and now that I'm officially in the elephant/hippo body type, they have been walking around with their backpacks on the front saying "Look, I'm Miss Mac"! If I wasn't preggo, I think I'd be mad, but in the meantime it's funny. Especially since it's the BOYS that are doing it. The kids in the classes love it when Gert gets the hiccups (it makes my nametag bounce) and a few front row students have been brought out of boredom when Gert decided to make my belly look like a wave pool.

This weekend, David and I went mini golfing and it was as intense as the Masters. :) He ended up being the Tiger Woods of the mini course, but it was close until the last 8 holes. It reminded me of when I was little and my dad would take my sis and I mini golfing. We would get to a particular hole and dad would say "okay, if you make this shot, I'll give you fifty bucks!" To a eight and five year old this was incredible. Unfortunately, we usually cracked under the pressure and missed. I do remember one time though making it, and then my dad taught me a valuble lesson in gambling: Double or Nothing. He said that if I made the second hole, he'd DOUBLE it! The converstaion went something like this:

Me: "No way dad, I'm keeping the fifty bucks!"
Dad: Come on, it's double! Think about it, you could get 100 dollars!
Me: No! I want the fifty.
Dad: It's possible! You made the last one right? You could be throwing away fifty bucks! Where's your sense of adventure?

Dad evenutally talked me into the Double or Nothing and... I missed. But, it was always fun to go with Dad when he was in the wagering mood! And now, I'm pretty good at mini golf (except when I get to the last nine... I still choke under pressure!).

The "Official Grand Opening"...

Alright. Well, about a year ago I had good intentions to start a blog of our lives. But, it went the way of many of my grand schemes and good intentions... on the wayside. So, I figure since we're just about to become parents (3 weeks left!) I'd better get on the stick.

So I'm kicking it off with a "Grand Opening" of our blog, even though we've had it for some time now. One summer in college I worked at a furniture store that had been open for nine months, and they had their "Grand Opening" sign up the entire time. So if Thomasville furnishings can have a belated "Grand Opening" then shoot, what's stopping me? :)

So welcome to the Grand Opening of "The Honest Tooth". I can't provide free financing, or no sales tax until 2011, but I can attempt to keep this site updated!