Where to start?

You know it's really easier to blog when you just keep doing it instead of waiting a long time and then you don't know where to start!
well they say a picture is worth a thousand words- and also a great way to remember what we did!

These are not in order but still fun.

v has really taken off with his walking- he wants to do it all the time. He had a blast walking all around the tennis courts while the big kids had tennis lessons. 

James made this beautiful dresser for me- such a handyman!

Just tried roasted cabbage- love it!

love V's his size friend!

Sweet girls at our house for our first God's Girls meeting 

James and kids made this super fire pit. we've really enjoyed it- we even collected some Christmas trees around the neighborhood.

I love that we can have fun helping friends!

we took pics of every egg we got for the first bunch- so sweet!

Love the kids deciding on their own to have a winter picnic!

v wasn't quite ready to get in on the eggs 

stroller buddies! we've been going on a lot of walks- we usually have a couple bike riders, a rollerblader or long boarder, 2 stroller riders, and 2 walkers- so fun!

Our princess Valentine's lunch with friends- KG, C, and I made lots of heart shapes (PB & J sandwiches, apple and pear slices, cheese slices, and cookies.) KG was a great helper. So sweet!

James and I were blessed by a friend watching our kids so we could go out for delicious dinner at Sherefe. For our special night out, we ordered the Mediterranean Feast- so good! And we took food home!

My amaretto coffee was so good!

Our newest tradition is me taking our kids out for each of their 1/2 birthdays. Yes, K's was in January but it was during our fast and who wants their 1/2 birthday celebration during a sweets fast:) so February Waffle House it was- ice and all! It was really nice to get out just the two of us! 

Bubble fun after reading One Small Drop. I wanted to put  a picture of our practicing being bat mommies from Apologia Flying Creatures but haven't downloaded my pic yet and I'm tired. So I'll just remember smelling essential oils and trying to find our baby bats :)

My sweet helper! We were blessed to have a wonderful February where we could have fun and help others! 

Chickens

So these pictures are not in order but we sure have enjoyed our chickens. Some days I wonder why we waited so long to get them, but then I think we probably got them at the right time. The kids are big enough to help care for them and they are so much fun to watch pecking around the yard. We have learned some life lessons and heart ache as we lost one to sickness, two to animals, and one because roosters don't really belong in neighborhoods. 

Here's T with one of our two golden wyandottes- originally named Eve or Mrs. Noah (from our grand plan to name the hens after the first 10 women in the Bible). now named Goldy

Can you tell which one is Flopsy? Originally our brown leg horns were Rachel and Leah but Flopsy really fit! We did have a system to our naming- The Goldens were Eve and Mrs. Noah (original mothers of humans), the silvers were Sarah and Hagar, Brown Leg Horns were Rachel and Leah, Plymouth Barred Rocks were Shiprah and Puah, Pillar and someone were Rhode Island Reds and Liberty our Ameraucana. All the chickens got new easier to remember names.
Flopsy laid 10 eggs in the last 13 days- almost one a day since she started last Monday. 

Flopsy's first egg

My wonderful farmer husband! working hard on the coop (AKA chicken palace)

Flopsy laid her first four eggs by the window and these (7 and 8) under the deck. We've started keeping the chickens in the run until Flopsy lays her egg in the coop. Maybe tomorrow she'll find the nesting boxes. Today we kept them even longer since there were lots of hawks circling overhead. 

The kids were so excited to have homegrown eggs. I was too! Flopsy's eggs are smaller than store-bought but so bright and good! We've been weighing her eggs. The first few were 1.4 ounes and now they've grown to 1.7 ounces which is what she will probably lay. 

All of us enjoyed chicken watching!

Everyone was involved in the building project!

Look at these little sweeties! We kept them inside for about a month. they sang so sweetly- although it did get loud! Here are our wyandottes and leg horns when they were days old.

It was so neat to watch how fast they change. Every day it seemed like they got new feathers. They were a lot like newborns too- eat, sleep, potty, cuddle. So sweet!

Many hands make light work :)

Doesn't take long to paint with five painters!

We had lots of days of chicken playtime- cuddling these little chicks!

Our rhode island reds at 2 days old. 

Fun to have animals to show our friends!

Chicken cuddling with our plymouth barred rocks and rhode island reds.

We used this moveable run a lot at the beginning but only until we found that they wouldn't run or fly away. Now they're only in the coop/ run at night or if we have an intense soccer game :)

Roo is a very handsome rooster. We kept him until he started crowing (very loudly) and getting more aggressive and we were so thankful for good friends who took them to their country home- lots more land! I still miss him some but now I'm not worried about him bothering kids playing in backyard or our neighbors. He wasn't mean but he really wanted his treats and got pretty demanding. He definitely kept his little flock together. It was also very neat to see the two little flocks merge together. We had 6 pullets (2 brown leg horn, 2 golden wyandottes, and 2 silver wyandottes) and then two weeks laster got 5 more 2 rhode island red and 2 Plymouth Barred Rocks. Until Roo brought the two flocks together, they mostly stayed separate. Each group would peck and scratch together, eat together, and cuddle and nap together.  (I never knew chickens cuddle!) The chickens don't nap as often now but sometimes still do. They are very good at going to bed on their own- I wish our kids were that good at going to bed!

Wyandottes

The girls spend most of their day hunting and pecking. I love to sit and watch them. 

I'm not the only one!

Christmas Part Two

Starting Christmas celebrating early this year, meant we had lots of time for Christmas fun!

Christmas donuts from a friend!

9 month old birthday snuggles

Christmas carolling at a nursing home.
We loved this last year and this year too. We went with our homeschool group (plus a few church friends this year.) Besides the songs the group sang, K also played Silent Night on his recorder and C sang Little Drummer Boy. 

We went to a holiday library concert

Read lots of good Christmas books-this was one of my favorite new ones this year.

I always love our Jesse Tree- Thank you Janelle! 

A first this year was the Nutcracker. The girls and I really enjoyed it!

We went with two friends and their daughters

The girls all sat together the first half. The second half the girls were by their Mommies and C took a nice nap. She enjoyed what she saw. We loved that we knew most of the music because of the Tchaikovsky-discovers-america-audiobook. And both girls really loved reading the Nutcracker book after we went. 

We did lots of neighborhood caroling and cookie delivering. 

So much to smile about- especially at Christmas

Two boys went with us to big church

we were only planning to have one picnic in December but it was so nice out that we had an extra!

We rode our bikes to the neighborhood cookies with Santa party at the lot. Nice to have some cookies and chat with neighbors. The kids had fun playing. we did skip the hot chocolate since it was shorts weather!

Manna had a nice MU Serve team dinner- complete with bouncy house!

and snowman decorating