April 27th Daddy Duck!

This morning we woke up to daddy duck walking around the front lawn. He seemed to be protecting the momma duck who was in the nest. My neighbor taught me something interesting about the male duck. He said that you can tell how old the duck is by how many curls it has on it's tail. As you can see this duck is 2 years old. He also told me that they start to loose their coloring when they mate.

The momma duck has been sitting on her nest all day today. She came out for a few minutes to eat and stretch and then she went right back to the nest. Here are a few pictures of her taking a little break. Since she has been sitting on the nest all day, we can now try to figure out the due date of the ducklings. She will sit on the eggs for 28 days before they hatch. So, May 25th is the ETA!

We want to give the momma a name. My son says her name should be "Bessie." My daughter says her name should be "Chocolate Brown." My husband says her name should be "Maria el Pato." I'm thinking maybe "Esperanza" would be good because it means hope in Spanish. We really "hope" the eggs hatch. What do you think we should name the duck? Give us some ideas or vote for one of these names.

April 26th Momma Duck and 8 Eggs

I checked the eggs at 8:30 this morning. I couldn't tell that the momma duck was in the nest when I walked up to it. As soon as I touched the grasses she flew out of the nest and scared me half to death. Since she hasn't been around I wasn't expecting her to be there. I think I scared her too. I hurried and took her picture and then took my kindergartner to school. When I came back the momma was gone so I took a picture of her nest. We are up to 8 eggs now! When I was going in the house I saw the momma and the male flying together northward.

1:30 PM . I went outside to check the mail and found the momma duck on the neighbor's lawn looking for food (probably bugs). There are some workers over at the other neighbor's house so she might be keeping her distance. I'm so glad she came back. I was afraid that I might have scared her off for good this morning.

April 26th 6+1=7 Eggs

It is so thrilling to go check the nest and find more eggs. Today we have one more for a total of 7! It's getting harder to take pictures of the eggs. The mother duck is making more efforts to cover up the eggs with fallen grasses. Click on the picture to maximize it and you can get a much better look.

April 24th 2 More Eggs!!!!!

It's been several days and I haven't seen the ducks or any new eggs so I thought that maybe they were abandoned but I went out and checked on the nest and found two more eggs in it. It's kind of hard to see all of them and I don't want to disturb the nest but here they are! I saw our neighbor girls on Sunday and they told me that the ducks were sleeping in their backyard that morning. I've also done some research on ducks on the internet and I learned that they should lay between 8 and 13 eggs, usually one per day. Then when all of the eggs are laid the mother comes and sits on them for 28 days. And then they hatch. We'll see what happens.

April 21 More Temple Square

Did I mention that tulips are my favorite?
Like Mother Like Daughter
Big sister is so loving!
This is one of the only smiles I got while she was looking at the camera.

April 21 Temple Square

We made a trip to Temple Square this evening to check out the tulips and take some pictures. This one is one of my favorites. I had a hard time getting her to look at the camera but I thought the lighting was really nice on this one.

April 18th More Newborn Pics in Black and White

Here are some more of the sweet newborn from this morning. I converted these to black and white. I'm just learning to use my new editing software.

April 19th Mother's Love

Here is a great photo I took during a newborn photo shoot this morning. I thought it was a sweet one! Look at how the sweet little baby is smiling a bit. Cute huh!

April 16th More Eggs!

I went out to check on the eggs and to my surprise there are two more! I saw the ducks again on Saturday morning. They were sleeping on the neighbors lawn. But, I haven't seen them since.

April 13th New House

I've had a request to see a picture of our new house. Here it is!

April 13th Look What I Found!

We have this big long grass in our front yard and I haven't really known what to do with it. It's all dried up now and it is blowing all over the yard. So, today I went to pull it out and rake it up when I found these! I'm not certain but I think they might be duck eggs. Yesterday when I came home from picking up my daughter from school we saw a male duck and a female duck walking around the front yard. They stayed a while but I think they might have been scared away by all of the construction and jackhammering that was going on at the neighbor's house.
I left the eggs and the grass alone. I hope the momma duck comes back.

April 8 Peek A Boo

Here is my little guy peeking out of the slide at the park. I thought it was a fun one!

April 8 Photo Shoot With a Friend

On Thursday I did a photo shoot for a friend. We took pictures of her 3 kids in their Easter clothes. This is my very favorite picture out of all of them. It was a fun morning. Boy was this little girl active! She was all over the place!

April 7 Easter Egg Hunt

We went to the Easter Egg Hunt at the city park. It was over in about 10 seconds. My 6 year old only got 1 egg. After the hunt I found her in tears. My 3 year old found the golden egg that was to be turned in for a big prize. He was nice enough to share his prize with his big sister.

April 7 Something a Little Quirky

Here is something fun that I found on my walk! The picture is kind of busy because of the background and the fence but check out all of those bird houses! Click on the picture to maximize it and get a better look at the houses.

April 2 Signs of Spring

I've been going walking in the evenings. I've also been loving all of the blossoming trees. Everywhere I look I see trees with white and pink blossoms! It's so pretty I had to have a picture. I liked how the blue sky really shows through on this one. It's a pretty contrast.

Our new house is in a rural area and on my 45 minute walk there are lots of great things to see. I walk past a cattle ranch and a few horse pastures and even a pasture for sheep. There are grown up sheep and then some cute little lambs. I wanted to take some pictures of the lambs. Here is one of my favorites.