HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

Dad, I love you because we can do Daddy dates together with nobody else.  You are such a good dad and you love me.  You're such a good dad and you always help me.  I love you because we have our snuggle time and we play together and we snuggle and I like to lean on your shoulder for pictures.  (then she blows a kiss to your picture)

~Annie

Dad, I love you because you read Narnia books to me.  I love you because you are just my Dad and I love you!  I love you Dad because you are always there for me when I have trouble and am worried about something.  You are always there to help me and to guide me.  You are just a great Dad, like some kind of superhero right there in front of me to guide me.  You are some kind of superdad and I just really love you.  I don't know what I'd do without you. 

~Robby

I love you Dad because you love me.  You really care about our family and you help us a lot and you are smart and you read to us and you help me with Scout stuff.  You are always so fun and you like to play with us and I love you!  You are a great person and a great dad and a great friend.  I'm glad you're there in our family.  

~Tyler

Da! Da da da! Da! Da!! Da!!! (pointing and signing at your picture)

~Luke

I love you for being such a great dad and for helping these kids turn out so well (among many other reasons)!  Happy Birthday!!!

~Becca

Classes

We've tried to be careful about not signing the kids up for too many activities or at too early an age, but we couldn't resist this opportunity to let Annie take some gymnastics classes along with her cousin.  She asks me every day if she gets to go to gymnastics today.  It's been fun to watch her enjoying herself and learning some new things.  But I can also see how easy it can be for parents to want to live vicariously through their children as I remember my days doing gymnastics and how much I loved it. 

The boys have been thrilled with the basketball camp they attended last month and are eager for a chance to play on a real team. 

Luke has been getting some lessons from his brothers in boxing.  He seems to have a real talent for it and never misses a chance to punch his fists in the air whenever a song from Rocky is playing. 

Speaking of classes, I'll be teaching another childbirth class starting next week.  Email me if you're interested.  :)

Luke's Birthday

My baby is one.  He has been for one month now, but maybe it's taken me this long to accept it.  Now that I'm no longer in denial, I'll post some pictures of the occasion.  

The traditional balloons were a hit.  Luke spent most of the day like this:

 and this:

 and this:

 (you get the idea...)

Brown eyes are somewhat of a novelty in this house.  Aren't his gorgeous?! 

 He was pretty excited about his food all day.  Yummy eggs for breakfast.

 Luke LOVES taking baths.  Thank goodness, since he usually gets 3 a day.  In case you can't tell from the pictures, he insists on being quite an independent eater, and bathing is somewhat of a necessity after every meal.

 Dad joined us for lunch...we had a lovely picnic lunch up in the mountains with a whole bunch of other homeschooling families.  We meant to go last year as well (it's an annual event), but Luke was busy being born then.  :)

 (If a bath isn't readily available after eating, removing all Luke's clothing is our next best option.)

 Dinner time!  Homemade Cafe Rio salad.  Luke requested it, of course.

 Don't you love it when you unintentionally wear matching clothes with your spouse?  Andrew and I used to have a couple of identical tshirts that somehow we'd always end up wearing on the same day.  Now we just go for the same color.

 CAKE TIME!

I like to fool myself on my children's first birthdays and pretend that I am making them a healthy cake.  So nevermind that there is about 20 cups of sugar and 10 pounds of butter and cream cheese in this carrot cake, because there are carrots in it too, so it counts as a healthy introduction into the world of sweets...right?  I managed to ignore all the unhealthy ingredients I was adding as I made the cake, but once I tasted it, I couldn't lie to myself any longer.  It was just way too addicting to pretend it was healthy anymore.  I'll have to post the recipe sometime.  Seriously amazing. 

 Luke seemed a little nervous & overwhelmed when we put the cake in front of him.  He even started to cry.  But once he got a taste, all was right in his world again.

 I kind of think I have about the most adorable baby there is.  I just can't get enough of this little guy.  We kept the presents simple and few...he didn't need much and I am in the middle of transforming into a wanna be minimalist, but I couldn't resist this little Star Wars tshirt since that was what made the kids fall in love with Luke's name.

Luke, you light up our lives with your smile and your laugh and your little open mouthed kisses.  I love how you get shy and embarrassed sometimes and snuggle your head into me.  I love how you reach out to your brothers and sister to hold you and so patiently put up with being dragged and thrown around.  I love how much you love animals, especially the chickens, and always want to play with them.  I love how you start laughing anytime anyone else is laughing nearby.  You just look around and know there must be a good joke, and always join in.  I adore it when you show us the new signs you are learning with your chubby little hands.  It always makes us laugh when you start shaking your little body and dancing every time you hear any music.  And even when you keep me up at night, I count my blessings to be sitting there snuggling such a precious boy as you that I can call mine.  I love you Luke!! 

We've Got Eggs!

 hooray!  our very first egg!

a store bought container, but our very own eggs! 

look how orange and bright the yolks are! 

 there is not any cheese or anything else added to these eggs

 Our chickens were considerate enough to wait until we returned from our trip back east and laid their first egg on the day we returned.  I was the one who found the first egg, and I must admit that I was at least as excited as any of the kids.  I felt like a kid myself on Christmas morning.  It was a very exciting event and we haven't gotten bored with it yet!  

It was our adventurous (aka troublesome) chicken Alice who first began laying.  No surprise there.  She is the one who first learned to roost, who first started trying to escape from her box as a little chick, the first one to get into our garden, and the one who always seems to be off on her own little adventure or causing trouble in some way.

It has now been 3 weeks since we got our very first egg.  We now have 3 chickens laying, and I'm sure the other 3 won't be far behind.  

These eggs are yummy!  We're really loving these new pets of ours!

 

heartbreaking news

We were devastated to hear this news last night.  We do not know this family, but our hearts are still hurting as we imagine the shock and heartbreak they are now experiencing over such a senseless act.  All day long I have been wishing that I could help these people in some way.  Not knowing them personally and living far away has left us with two options: Praying for them and donating here.  I truly believe in the power of prayer to help sustain people and carry them through tragedies such as this.  I hope you'll take a moment to offer one in their behalf.

(And if you are interested, the fundraiser mentioned was started by a friend of ours, Connor, and we can vouch for his honesty and integrity.)

lost & FOUND!

I lost my camera. 

At first, I wasn't too worried.  We knew exactly when we had it last, and I was sure it was just somewhere hidden in the car or in one of the bags we hadn't looked through yet after our busy 4th of July weekend.  Then, after searching the car and unpacking all our bags, I became a little more nervous.  A few days later, after I had pretty much torn apart our house and car and made Andrew talk through the events of the night we lost it for the 100th time, I began to panic.  Where was it?  Did someone else take it?  What pictures and video were left on there?  Would we ever get it back? 

I realize that in the big picture of life, a lost camera is no big deal.  But still, at the time, it felt like a really big deal to me!  After it was missing for a week, I was up most of the night trying desperately to remember anything that would help me find it and praying hard for a solution...or at least that I would be able to just get over it and move on with my life!  By the next morning, I was feeling more calm and felt like it would turn up somehow.  We were busy getting ready for church when I heard Andrew call my name.  As soon as I heard him, I knew he had found it.  I was thrilled! 

It was in our church bag.  We had gone to our friends' baby blessing the week before, and put it in there so we could take a picture with them...although we must have been REALLY tired when we did so, because by the time we got to the baby blessing, we already didn't remember where the camera was and thought we must have left it at home.  (I guess we're getting too old for busy holiday weekends.  Getting up for a 7 am church breakfast on Saturday, then heading to a family gathering, and then staying up for fireworks that night, plus needing to leave the house by 8 am for church the next day, led to us being a little loopy!) 

I'm not really sure that this story is very blog-worthy, but for me, although I would really rather not need to buy a new camera, I have always had a camera that is easily replaceable, so it has always been about THE PICTURES (and video) that I might have lost.  So, I am sharing this experience so that you will STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING right now, go and get your camera, and make sure that you have saved EVERYTHING on there...just in case.    

And now, for the two other people in the world besides me who are still not on facebook, and to keep this post from being picture-less, here are some of our most recent family pictures.  My friend Jen told me about a contest her sister Carrie was having, and I entered, and I WON a great deal on a photography session!  Since Luke is nearing his first birthday, and he still does not have one picture on the wall, I decided it was about time.  Carrie was great...we were not at our best that morning in more ways than one, but she was patient and cheerful and easygoing and accommodating.  Thanks Carrie, we really appreciate it!      

 

Love this boy!

Seriously love this baby of mine!
I can't believe he's almost 10 months old.

Meet our Chickens:

(Here you go Liz...)
 
See our chicks: 

See our chicks eat:

See our chicks get named Glint, Sunshine, 
Snow White, Molly, Alice, and Belle:

See our chicks learn to roost:

See our chicks play outside:

See our chicks sleep:

See our chicks attempt escape:

See our chicks grow:

See our chicks move to the garage in their fancy two room brooder:

See our chicks segregate (and squish...they did have two roosting sticks at their disposal!):

See the beginnings of our chicken coop:

See our (almost completed) stylin' coop:

See our fence being dismantled to allow our chicken coop through:

See the men who made it all happen:

See how sturdy this thing is:

See how happy these wives are to have their husbands back after hours and hours and hours of late night building:

See how happy I am to have my coop in place:

See the fence getting put back together:

See how happy the chickens make Luke:

See how happy it makes our free-range chickens to be out pecking around in our backyard:

The End.


some footnotes for those who care:

"What the heck, you got chickens?!"  Yes, I know.  Most things I do seem a little crazy to me too.  I kind of became obsessed after our visit with Hunts; spent about a month reading every single thing I could about raising chickens, and then we just decided to go for it.

"Why?"  Well, the attempt to become just a little bit more self-sustainable was a big part of it.  The cost of keeping chickens will pretty much equal the cost of buying eggs for our family.  Plus, they eat all our table scraps, eat the bugs in our yard, fertilize our yard, not to mention give us delicious eggs (just a couple more months!!).  Also, the kids have been begging for a pet for many years, and for some odd reason, I could finally agree to a pet that was giving me something in return, and that stayed outside!  We also eat a lot of eggs.  And after watching Food Inc. and tasting what fresh eggs taste like, I don't have much interest in store bought eggs anymore.  They recently passed some legislation in our area to make it easier for city dwellers to have backyard chickens.  There are even a couple of other families in our neighborhood who have some.  Plus, Andrew and I decided that 'We just weren't weird enough!'. (I know some of you may disagree!)

"What kind do you have?"  The yellow ones are Buff Orpingtons, the black with white wing tip (chicks)/black & white chickens are Barred Rocks, and the all black ones are Australorps.

"Don't you need a rooster?" and other egg questions:  Chickens naturally lay about 1 egg every day or two.  A rooster is needed if you want a fertilized egg, and only fertilized eggs can grow into chicks, but a rooster is not needed for a chicken to lay an egg.  The chickens will start laying eggs at around 5 months, which means early fall for us.