Joshua's Update

Joshua is scheduled to be here July 19th! Mum will be here July 18th and I'm just trying to keep up with everyone! ;-) lol!!

Joshua's Update

I realized I haven't done much posting about our much anticipated new addition, so I thought I would now.

Joshua (still no middle name yet) is well and happy in his little amniotic world :) Our prenatal checkeup went well yesterday. His heartbeat is in the 130's and growing as he should be.

He's very active. Climbs my ribs and does kung-fu all the time! :-)

Next Thursday we get to see him on the U/S again. Looking forward to that!

He should be here July 21st :)

Fun Ideas

Came across this idea from thehappyhousewife.com website and thought it will be good for my 'free activity' slots.

Indoor and outdoor activities printed on cardstock and placed in a jar for the kids to pick one out and do when they need an idea :)
My indoors are orange and my outdoors are red.

Just a pic

Just wanted to get a pic of me and all the children, including Joshua. We've been discussing for a while what to name him. Each time we'd ask Nate he'd say "Joshua" and that name just seems to fit well with everyone :) Joshua Allen. (Still working on the middle name :)

Chick girls-- end of April

Spent quite a bit of time with the girls this morning. Lovely sunshine and a strong refreshing breeze. Had to clean out the brooder, so we put them in a dog kennel out in the sunshine. Hannah found a nice big stick for a perch. We also gave them some lettuce and yoghurt for the first time which didn't last long! Enjoyed sitting in the canvas chairs, petting and watching them :) They're not so skittish now when we go to pick them up. I'm looking forward to when they'll be able to roam in their pen during the day :)

Chicken Pops!

HAha, :) It's been fun and surprising to watch the growth of these girls. They certainly have changed in the week that we have now had them. No more neat downy chicks, but they rather resemble the "the ugly duckling"...shhh!!!! did I say that!!hehe.

Their tail plumage has started popping out, and their necks are getting longer. Some appear a little scruffy as they are losing their down and feathers are coming in on their backs.

I didn't realize this, but they love to eat ants!!! Those red ants that make me swell bad if I get bit! I put a board in their brooder that had caught some of the feed they had spilled and there was a bunch of ants in it. Those ants were the first things the girls went for, and it was funny watching them dart around.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

The Girls are here!!!!! Woooot!!!!

It was a busy day this past Monday!! Many errands to complete before we could go get the girls! :) It was a hot day and we didn't want them waiting in a hot car.....

The most used sentence of the day was; "Are we going to get the chicks now?" ;-)

DH has been working hard to get their residence liveable. Still got some of the siding to put up and the vents to put in. Then he's going to build a knee-high wall going across the room including a door. There will be chicken wire from the wall to the ceiling to allow for air-flow and light into their side of the coop.

We have been discussing names and come up with:

Lilly
Lucy
Georg(ina)
Marianne
Eleanor
Margaret
Rahab
and Gloria :) Not sure who is who just yet, but hopefully they'll fit one of 'em :)


Enjoy!

Chicken Coop Progress

DH and FIL have been working hard on building the chicken coop :) YAAYYYY. Enjoy the pics :)

Welcome March! and baby chicks!

I like March :) I love Spring and the promise of new things :)
We drove to church last night. The sun was quite low in the sky. We admired all the Bradford Pear trees in blossom. Hannah said "They've got snow on them!" :) They were beautiful :)

On an alternate route that we sometimes take to town, lives a man who raises goats. One day soon we will stop by and ask if we can admire his baby kids :) My children love animals :)

Before going to church I told the children I had a surprise for them. I took them to the Tractor Supply store. We followed the sound of the chirping until we found the water troughs being used as chick corrals. Little itty baby chicks. About four different breeds; blacks, yellows, and cinnamon colord babies. There were also some baby ducks that we fascinated over :) The children were very good and didn't squeeze nor handle roughly. Although one poor baby felt the floor suddenly, he was quite alright.

Caleb seated in his stroller, grabbed the side of the trough so he could peek over and look in! :) He is so gentle. I held a chick for him and he stroked it's head :)

Hannah was tall enough to be able to reach in and pick out her own chicks to hold, but I handed Nate's to him. He wasn't too sure about the feet touching his hands... they felt prickly! :)

Shaun and I have been talking about keeping chickens and recently we have progressed to chicken coop designs :) I would like to keep Buff Orpingtons and raise them from chicks. TSC offers an ordering catalogue. Your chicks arrive at your local post office! That will be a treat for our local postladies! :) I'll have to remember to take my camera :)

Valentine's Day Cake

A special cake for my wonderful family :)

Valentines Day treats from friends.

A special treat this year has been getting to know the families of an on-line Bible study group. We decided to do a Valentine's Day exchange for the children. We have had a great time putting together Valentine packages plastered with stickers, and finding out where in the United States the Valentine greetings we received originated from. This was really the first time Hannah and Nate looked at a map of our country, and they both were interested.

Valentine's Day Bird feeders

The kiddos and I enjoyed making these bird feeders. We are trying to encourage a different variety of birds to visit our garden. Enjoy the photos to see the results :)

Volkswagon video

Good morning!
I was at a grocery store last night coming out with my purchases, headed to my car. A lady a short distance away was also walking to her car, which she started from her key-fob. I thought to myself. That is a nice convenience :) Well, today a friend posted this video on FB, and I think it so funny, so I posted it below. The little guy's mannerisms are great :) Enjoy!

Valentine's Day

Just thinking about what we can do special this month for Valentine's Day, and the month of February. The kids and I will be putting some valentine cards together for the children of my Good Morning Girls Group. We are excited about this. One aspect of this activity is to plot on a map the location of each card we receive in return :) (Gotta find a good map!) We're gonna head out to our tourist info center to see what we can find to include in our cards about our hometown.

I'm reading through a list of Valentine book titles/ descriptions courtesy of hsclassroom.net and hopefully we'll be able to find some of these at our local library. Looking forward to cuddling up with the kiddos.

Working on a secletion of Valentine crafts we can make with Daddy in mind :) We had fun making the Hershey Mice...(thank you, Jenny Bender for the idea) They sure are cute! :) Will post photos as we go along.

Have a blessed day!

Renovating the blog!

Hello! --just a quick note...
I haven't posted a blog in nearly three years and thought it was time to revamp the thing and get back into it :) Quite a bit has changed on blogger so I'm having to learn again as I go. Please be patient with me as I work on it :) 

 Hope you have a great day, and thanks for visiting :)