That Can't Be Comfortable!

What is it about a child's bed that is so very unappealing? This is how I found Miss Baylee tonight on my way past her bedroom... completely out on the hard floor.

Camping

My Noisy Little Shadow

I often find myself on the telephone walking quickly through the house to escape "the noise". While I'm talking, I'm not always aware of the source of the noise, just that it is there and I try to get away from it. It is always something different, and as long as it is not screams of pain or anger, I usually just ignore it until I can get off the phone. This particular day, it was: "thump, thump, tat!tat!tat!" "thump, thump, tat!tat!tat!" I eventually say goodbye and hang up and look behind me to see what has been following me all through the house. This is what I find. Aubrey is wearing my shoes, thumping them as loudly as possible while pushing his extremely annoying (and favorite) lawn mower. Thank you Aunt Julie for that one! ;) It cracked me up that I could just block that out, I'm getting better at this mom stuff. This is exactly why I rarely talk on the phone. I love you all, I just am unable to have a normal conversation without getting off of the phone to find red marker all over my couches. Maybe in a few more years...

And They're Off!

Jaden, Daddy and Grandpa took off today for Jaden's first camping trip! As you can see, he was very excited. He got his own little sleeping bag and couldn't wait to use it. I kept hearing, "Mommy, is this the year I am going camping???" I am a little nervous, of course, but I know he couldn't be in better hands. =)

Playing Catch-Up!

It has been a little while since I've been able to post anything! Our computer went down to the office and I have been using Tony's laptop a little here and there. =) Aubrey is doing much better and is back to his normal happy little self. We have just been enjoying our summer, gardening, chickens, birthday parties and even some swimming lessons. Here are a few pictures to get us back up to speed. Aubrey fell asleep on the couch the other day and looked so sweet, I had to take a picture. Can you say "Out of control"? My squash, completely out of control. Swim Lessons with Miss Macie at Gabe Woodward Swim School. =)

Our Poor Little Sickly One =(

We took Aubrey into the Dr. on Thursday morning for a red toe... totally thought I was being one of those crazy overprotective moms. Turns out that his toe was infected from an ingrown toenail. He also had what I thought was just allergies... turned out to be an upper respiratory thing. So, I left the Doctor's office with these instructions: 4 breathing treatments per day, antibiotics twice a day, 3 epsom salt baths per day and 4 topical anti-bacterial ointment applications per day. We headed to Anne's to pick up the breathing treatment meds because she had a bunch leftover and it is really expensive to fill. Then, off to Target to pick up our prescriptions. As you can see from our faces, it was a long morning. He did ok that day, but doesn't want me to touch his toe, doesn't like the epsom salt baths, and got a pretty bad fever. Today he is doing much better, although if anyone new comes over he immediately lifts up his toe and says, "Yook!" "My toe!" It is so sad. I wonder what people did about infections before antibiotics? We live in a very wonderful time when I can just take him to the Doctor and everything is better in a few days. As much as all of that stuff is a hardship, I am really thankful for it! I am so blessed to have three healthy children and little things like this always remind me of that. I know in an instant that can all change and I hope I would live according to the faith I have, were that to happen. As for today, I hugged them a little tighter and held them a little longer.

New Pictures

Sometimes, I wonder if our escapades at the Picture People are really worth it! I love having pictures of the kids though, and it is fun to look back at our family in our different stages. This is our newest family pic, and a picture of our mantle right now. Yes, I am taking pictures of pictures. =) The kids are getting huge! I love Aubrey's face. He is always so sad in his professional pictures. I'm glad I have a good camera to take happy pictures of him!

A Great Idea!

I finally took the great advice of someone (who, unfortunately I don't remember) to pack away some of the kid's toys and switch them out. We did this last month and divided them into 4 big buckets. 3 of them went to the garage and the other one stayed in for them to play with. A couple of days ago, we switched them out, and this was the scene in our house. It was like Christmas morning! They loved it and have been playing contentedly with their "new" toys ever since! Plus, we have so much less clutter all through the house, it is wonderful!

Laundry Soap

What does a girl do with a husband and child who have sensitive skin? Make her own laundry detergent, of course! Despite my initial doubts, it works beautifully well and is saving me some money in the process. A win-win! The best part is that I can make it smell like whatever I want. I love having control of things like that! Not to mention I know what all of the ingredients are, and they are totally natural. It is a beautiful thing. =)

So cute!

The "no" stage

On the bright side...

Baylee and I found a huge zucchini hiding in the massive amount of foliage that is our zucchini plant. The thing is taking over our garden, but I guess if it continues to produce like this, that will be OK. =)

Terrible Chicken Owners

So, before I could even post this cute picture of the chickens taking a dirt bath in their new and improved coop, one of the babies vanishes out of thin air. No kidding! I have no idea what happened, this morning some time I'm guessing it squeezed through the fence wire where by it was either swallowed whole by Jacie (as there were no feathers or any sign of a struggle) or scooped up by a hawk. The coop was not disturbed in any way, it was just gone. I feel so bad! I knew we would probably lose a few chickens, I just was hoping we could actually get up and running before they started being picked off. The worst part is that I can no longer tell them apart and so do not know which one we actually lost. Poor little thing. Having already reinforced the coop quite well, I decided I would fence the whole back part of our yard off so Jacie wouldn't be able to be back there at all. We'll see if it helps! I never thought my sweet little girl was a vicious killer at heart. ;) At least we still have Lucky, I believe that we will get more of her breed, she is much smarter than the others, and easy to spot when she is missing! I'm glad that we are not depending on these chickens to feed us, we would be in a lot of trouble!

Aubrey's Baby

I bought a little baby for Aubrey as an aid for potty training. It is the kind that actually goes pee pee and you give it real water to make this happen. I never thought he would actually LOVE it! He knows that it is his baby and he absolutely adores it. I assumed that we would use it for teaching, and then...

the inevitable would happen.

Which, of course, still happened. It just happened amid the protesting screams of Aubrey-man who wanted "My Baby!" back.

Now, I've got an all out war over a baby that cries and pees and is anatomically correct. Yikes.

Sad Morning

Well, we are thinking we might disregard the poll and name our white chicken "Lucky". We woke up this morning to a big hole under our coop, and a dead Piper. =( Lucky was hiding in the neighbor's tree. Tony found her, fortunately, and brought her in. She was very hungry! We think it may have happened last night (rather than early in the morning). Although we found her in Jacie's mouth, we still aren't sure that it was Jacie who did it. Either she killed her by accident and was just holding her, or something else killed her and Jacie chased it off. I think that if she had killed her on purpose, she would have eaten her.... but who knows. We learned, we'll try again. I fixed the coop today, but need some extra material to "fortify" it. I'm not going to mess around this time. Meanwhile, Lucky is bunking with Zorro and Peanut who are not so sure about a huge white chicken invading their cage. We'll miss Piper, she was a neat chicken, as far as chickens go.

5 Years Old!

Our Jaden turned 5 today! I can barely believe it. He has grown up so much. He is a constant joy and always keeps us laughing. He is our imaginative one, always pretending and playing. He has more energy than any 5 kids his age and uses it to fight bad guys, save princesses, and of course... not nap. We are not sure where his little personality came from, but it is a huge blessing. He makes our family so much fun and we love him so very much!


5 years old

4 years old

3 years old

2 years old

(No, I didn't have a digital camera until Baylee was born. Actually the two year old picture is from my mom's camera. I also don't have a scanner. You'll just have to take my word for it... he was a very cute baby.) ;)

Mommy's Little Helper

Or, as Suzanne calls him, Chocolate Man!

A new home for the chickens!

We finally got them outside today! They loved it and were eating every bug in sight. I'm planning to put some sod down in their run, but they had plenty of fun taking a dirt bath so I didn't feel bad. Now we just need a nest box and another month and we'll be in business!

As long as Jacie doesn't eat them.

Our first ripe tomato! Yay!

And plenty of blooms, summer should be yummy. =)