A Little Bit of Spring

 

We’ve had a few days of nice weather lately and have been taking advantage of it by going outside in the evenings. It’s so fun to watch the kids play outside! I recently found this tractor at a second hand store and my kids are in love!

They drive it as fast as they can chasing each other- in this scenario Colton was a Ninja Turtle trying to catch the “bad guy”.  (notice his superhero costume? Undies and cowboy boots- it’s been pretty standard attire around here lately!

There’s also been quite a few crashes with the tractor (particularly when the underwear bandit is driving) as well as the occasional soccer game.

Fun times!

The Chicken Coop

After several weekends of work, the chicken coop is finally complete! My sweet husband spent a ton of time building this coop, and I love it!

We also spent quite a bit of time painting the coop this last week- good thing we had some good “helpers”…

I definitely think the dogs and kids got more paint on them than I managed to get on the coop!

Here’s a little photo-tour of the chickens new digs… This opens up to the nesting boxes (where we’ll hopefully be collecting eggs someday)

The second the last shingle went on I evicted my little flock from the garage. There had been far too much free ranging going on for my taste so I’m glad to have them in their house rather than mine!

They have to spend 4-5 days shut up in the coop in the hopes that they will learn to go “home” at night. The kids are missing them and run out there to check on them first thing each morning.

 

Not my day…

Yesterday was one of those awful days. Like, go down in history, bad days!

It started out with a trip to the pediatrician, which was originally intended for a 2 month well-baby for Brenna. It turned into; “hey, while we’re here… all my kids have some version of the plague doc, how about we check them out too.”

This weekend sometime Delaney had developed sores all around her mouth, which I first thought were an allergic reaction of some sort but turned out to be impetigo (a super contagious skin infection). Thanks to my trusty friend Google (note to self- NEVER Google image skin infections, my eyes are still burning) we started her on an antibiotic crème Sunday, but when the doctor confirmed that it was indeed impetigo she also had to start oral antibiotics and can’t go ANYWHERE until the sores are all healed . Fun times! I also got to bleach the entire house and am still trying to work my way through all the laundry trying to prevent the rest of us from getting it.

While we were there (I’m sure doctors love people like me), I also had my doctor look at Colton’s toe. Earlier that day he had complained that his toe hurt and when I looked at it I realized that he had a REALLY BAD ingrown toenail (seriously bad, his toe was purple and a few stages away from gangrene, I swear!). Not that big of a deal… so I thought! Turns out it’s a really bad infection, so he got a round of antibiotics too! (handing them out like candy at this point). AND… if it’s not better by tomorrow we have to go back and discuss having it surgically removed! Who does that for a toe nail?!

Finally, it was Baby Brenna’s turn. Luckily she’s healthy, but small. So, I get to start taking her in every month for weight checks. She ALSO appears to have colic. Fun times! My doctor said there’s not much we can do but wait it out, though he did recommend that I cut chocolate and caffeine out of my diet for awhile…..

HOLD UP… chocolate AND caffeine?!?! My kids are cute and all but c’mon not chocolate and caffeine? What’s left to live for?? (Oh yeah, wine…. there’s still wine)

After that apocalyptic doctors appointment, I decided that I needed some coffee (no caffeine be damned at this point). Because I’m nice, I ordered some for the girls at Ryan’s office thinking that I’d deliver it while I waited for the prescriptions to go though…. after loading my car with 10 drinks, a sleeping baby and two whiney kids… I go to turn the car on and here that horrible click, click. YUP, dead battery. Perfect- all this before noon!

 

(my friend Kate sent this picture to me to cheer me up after such miserable day- and it described my feelings exactly!

 

Thank goodness Dutch Brothers is across from Les Schwab and a nice guy brought the jump box over and started my car! Phew!

After a 30 minute wait at the pharmacy, with a now screaming baby and two whiney kids (and one stupid old man who cut in front of me in line) we made it home…5 hours later!

I’ve never been so happy to see naptime in my entire life!

2 Months

This little lady is already 2 months old! It seems like times moves faster with each baby, I can’t quite believe that she’s already this old!

We went to her 2 month check up yesterday, and the poor little thing had to have 5 shots!

She is still tiny. She only weighted 8 lbs 12 oz and was 23 inches long. She is still mostly in newborn clothes, and still keeping a newborn schedule, eating every 2-3 hours. Because she’s still so small the doctor wants me to start bringing her in for monthly weight checks (outside of the regular well-baby exam) to make sure she’s still gaining weight. She’s definitely petite, the other two chunked up quick!

She also seems to have a little colic, poor baby! She is very fussy, especially in the evenings, when all she wants is her momma to rock and hold her (I don’t mind too much, but my family’s tired of dinner from the crockpot every night!).  Truth be told, all the crying can be really frustrating, but I’ve really enjoyed all the extra snuggles too! I love having another little one to nap with on the couch and rock! :)

Besides, there’s a lot of these moments too! Love that gummy smile!

Easter

 

We had another fun Eater weekend! Saturday The Wieseler’s came over and we decorated eggs and then let the kids hunt them. The kids had a great time dyeing eggs- and we went through ten dozen eggs in less than and hour!

The weather was beautiful and the kids had so many eggs that they had unload their baskets a couple of times!

Then on Sunday morning the Easter Bunny showed up with some new treasures!

Sunday afternoon was spent out at the farm, hunting eggs and playing!

They kids bounced on the trampoline- This is my cousin Lydia, Jessica’s niece Allie and Laney.

Grammie and Brenna

It was a gorgeous day on the farm. It’s so pretty and green in the spring!

Colton, Jude and Noah spent the entire afternoon on a bear hunt! They found some of my brother’s old toy guns and loaded them in the wagon and raced around shooting bears. They had a blast!

… and at the end of the day I finally corralled all three for a picture!

Brenna and Delaney even had matching dresses! Love these three so much!

A Chicken Update

We’ve still been enjoying our little chicks (who aren’t really little any more with their new feathers coming in!)

The kids adore them, especially Laney, so much so that I think they’re in danger of being “loved” to death sometimes!

They’ve survived races…

the slide…

The dogs, and have been turned into “chicken dinner” a time or two…

They’ve been worn as hats…

Chauffeured around in a Tonka truck…

taught to play parrot… Arrg matey!

and been given LOTS of hugs

Colton is even giving “flying lessons” for any birdie slow enough to get caught!

Can you believe they’re all still alive and relatively uninjured?!

Ryan’s spent the last few weekends building me a coop- I love it! I think we’re going to try keeping a few- and I’m looking forward to finishing the coop and getting them out of my garage!