The best thing about Easter

Peeps! Stale wonderful peeps on the top of the refrigerator, hidden in the top cabinet, hidden anywhere above 5 feet.

(but that's not the best thing about Easter)

Chocolate. Chocolate bunnies, Chocolate eggs. Chocolate!

(but that's not the best thing about Easter)

Having a house and garage full of chicks (both fowl and female)!

(but that's not the best thing about Easter)

The best thing about Easter is Jesus!
He died for our sins and was resurrected, He lives!!!!

He is the Best part of Easter!

What's growing in your laundry room?

We currently have tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon and onions growing in our laundry room!

It snowed!

Since we are not living there yet, we had to drive past our new house before school to see the snow!

A must have

You need this! You probably need one in every color!

You may ask "What would I do with a 3 quart feed scoop?"

Let me tell you.

You know how you can never find a cup big enough to rinse out your kids hair in the bath tub? This is like a bucket with a handle and works awesome for washing hair.

But that is not all, oh no... like a Ginsu knife it just gets better.

Have you ever tried to clean out the wood shavings from the bottom of a chinchilla cage, guinea pig cage or hamster cage. The front of the scoop is flat and will scrape a cage clean in seconds. Did I mention it has a handle on the back so even your six year old will notice how easy it is to use.

But that's not all.

It is actually a feed scoop. I am guessing for large animals (that we don't have), but if you do, you could use it to feed your large animals.

Heck it could even hold your popcorn for movie night. The possibilities are endless.

They even come color coded so you don't accidentally use the cage poop scoop to wash out your girls hair or hold your pop corn.

Can you believe this amazing tool can be obtained for only $3.99.

Run, don't walk to your nearest farm supply shop and stock up :)

The vortex

We took a little trip to the Oregon vortex. Even after taking the tour I can't really explain what this is logically. You can check out their site here.

As we were walking in I said "Sorry girls they do not allow smoking"... to which Haley replied "Too bad... we're smoking hot".

It was sooo cold and the girls were scared. I think they were expecting a haunted house.

They used Ruby and Lucy and Cheyenne and I SEVERAL times for demonstrations... Haley was happy they never asked her.

Eric says this is all optical illusions and trickery...

all I know is I was nauseous and dizzy while we were there, and then had a head ache after we left.

Here the girls are standing on a level platform. All they did was change the order they were standingin, can you see the difference between Cheyenne's height and Lucy's height change?

The girls said it was fun but they don't want to go back- I agree.

say WHAT?

3/21/10

"Husbands and wives like everything the opposite. Dad's say no and Moms say yes." Lucy

3/19/10

"The yellow chicks all look the same, how can you tell which one is yours?" Ruby's friend

"You just see what color nail polish it's wearing." Ruby (stating the obvious)

3/15/10

My Sister sent me this quote from my nephew:

The other day Jacob was asking us to go get him some clothes, so he could get dressed (he was still in PJs). We told him he would have to go get his own clothes, to which he responded, "Gosh, you guys are so LAZY!!"

3/13/10
As we were leaving a large church event for 8-11 year old girls Ruby was freaked out and said:
"That was just scary, all the Moms knew my name!" Ruby
"Thats because you have a name tag on." Me
"Oh, I forgot about that ... I thought they were all spying on me." Ruby

3/12/10
"After reading all about chickens I have learned that every creature outside wants to kill and eat our chickens" Eric

3/9/10

Haley was really upset and complaining to me about how she is always ready for school and has to wait for her sisters... then she stops mid sentence and says:

"I see why you need to wear make up. Your eyes without it are just.... just... white and plain."

3/6/10

The girls were in the garage playing with the chicks and I called them in for lunch.

Lucy looked at the plate and said:

"Ummmm, Mom.... we were just playing with chickens!!! We don't want to EAT chicken for lunch". All the girls glared at me.

Eric without skipping a beat said "This is chicken you eat, the chicks in the garage are EGG CHICKENS not chickens you eat."

The girls were all relieved and chowed down the chicken nuggets.

Gardening

We have joined a local co-op garden with 12 other families. The garden itself is over an acre. We are in the process of getting everything tilled and planted. Today we put up the trellis material for the peas.

The girls helped weed, but mostly they had a blast looking for worms(obviously city kids). The other kids that have been around gardens their whole lives were looking at my girls like "Ya that's a worm, what's the big deal"

This garden is a lot of work, but I love the families we are working with and can't wait to enjoy the harvest. My one of my favorite things about working in a garden...

My awesome red garden boots.

Table rock

This is Table rock in the Rogue Valley. Today Eric took the girls to hike to the top. I have "issues" with heights so I stayed home.

Just looking at Haley this close to the edge makes me stress.
The girls all said it was soooo BEAUTIFUL.

They were able to make it to get ice cream after the hike but came home completely exhausted.

Field trip

The weather has been soooo beautiful, we let the chicks have a field trip outside.

Even though they were outside they spent more time in hands and on heads then on the grass.

Pressure cooking

Today I canned 35 pints of this item with a friend... any idea what this is?


At this friends house (not naming names to protect the innocent) I LOVE the consequences they have posted on their kitchen wall:


This is brilliant!

I am especially fond of "If you feel you have been treated unfairly, give us a written grievance"... having to articulate your feelings in writing rather then just follow me around wining- LOVE IT!

Moving day.. for the chicks

No one should have to live in a box. The Chicks have been growing so fast. Some were trying to fly out of the box, so Eric had to kick it into high gear and finish the coop today.

Although it's not painted (my job) the coop is done. Eric added amazingly thought out details to help the girls get eggs, lower the downstairs ramp ect, I hope the chicks know how lucky they are.

I need suggestions for painting it. Should I paint it to match our new house or should I go for groovy fun colors? Let me know what you think? (fyi- this is the back of the coop)

These girls looked so big in the box, but in this palatial palace they look tiny.

Say WHAT?

3/2/10

As we were getting ready to leave for karate and gymnastics my neighbor (that I have never met) rang our doorbell to tell me that our dog was loose and running around the the front yard.

I thanked her for letting me know and went out to grab Opal. Haley and two of her friends in karate uniforms came out to see who was there while Cheyenne, Ruby and Lucy were running through the house trying to catch each other. My neighbor with a slightly disapproving tone said "Wow, how many children do you have?"

I could tell she was thinking that I couldn't talk care of the loose dog, how many children am I not taking care of. I explained that we have 4 girls but 2 friends were also going with us to karate.

At this point Ruby and Lucy run outside wearing gymnastics leotards and sweatshirts no pants or shoes, so it looks like they are in their underwear. I asked them to go get on pants and shoes before gymnastics because it was freezing outside- they ignored me and walked over to pet the neighbors leashed dog obediently sitting at her feet.

The phone rings and Haley goes to get it. The neighbor now obviously thinking I am a crazy parent with no control over my kids says to me "Wow, it looks like you really have your hands full". Just as she is saying this Haley walks out and puts the phone to my ear and says "Dad needs you." then she turns to this 70 year old women and says "Do you know we have 17 pets?" The woman's eye lids disappeared "REALLY?" Haley bragging says "Oh YA, we have two rats... two dogs... two chinchillas and one is pregnant... a guinea pig... a tree frog...a hamster and 8 chickens in our laundry room."

2/25/10

At breakfast the girls were discussing overalls.

I said "when I was pregnant with Haley I wore linen overalls all the time".

Haley in her annoyed voice said "Oh great, I must have looked like an idiot baby".

Me "Haley you were in my belly, no one could see you"

Haley "Ya but they could see the overalls!"

2/23/10

Lucy was walking around the house with both hands down the back of her pants.

I said "Lucy are your bum cheeks itchy?"

She said "No, I just really like squishing em."

2/8/10

Ruby screaming as loud as possible "MOM!!! THERE ARE LICE BUGS ALL OVER THE BATH TUB".

"Ruby there is no lice in our house, we killed it all" Me

"Oh YES there IS!... come look with your eyes right here!" Ruby

"Ruby, those are little tiny pieces of hair from Cheyenne shaving her legs, they won't hurt you" Me

"Cheyenne shaves her legs?" Ruby (looking confused)

"Yes" me

"She does it in the bathtub???? That is so disgusting!... Why can't she shave in the sink like Dad?" Ruby

1/15/10

"Lucy! Why did you throw this away????" Ruby

"It's really old... like from 1980" Lucy

"That's impossible Lucy, 1980 was the Civil war and you were not born yet" Ruby

Casa de swanky coop

Eric had the day off yesterday, so he started the new chicken coop.

How stinking cute is this house?????

The nesting boxes on the sides will have hinged roofs so the girls can get the eggs out easily.

I love this man.

Holy cow!

I have wanted to talk about this for sooo long

(it's really hard for me to keep a secret)

but as of today it's official... Eric and I bought the farm!

Here is the view from our new kitchen window!

It's an older home but it has a ton of property and incredible views. With all this land I think we need some outside animals... hmmm, what to get?

How about 4 yellow chicks... named butter, banana, pineapple and cheese and 4 brown spotted chicks named brownie, syrup, smore and chocolate.

They are temporary hanging out in our laundry room until Eric finishes their super swanky Casa de coop, I can't wait!

***Edit*** Eric just read this post and said "We don't have a ton of land... just 5 acres". To me, 5 acres is a ton of land.

Payday!

Everyone needs goals and incentives so we told Cheyenne that if she was going to school, doing her homework and getting good grades she could get her own pet. She has been doing great and working really hard... so today was pay day!

She decided that she wanted a rat, since she loves Ruby's rat. After scoping out all the female rats in the area she chose the cutest rat with a little white marking on her head that looks like a crown.

Introducing Isabella Marie Swan!

(Cheyenne is a true Twilight fan)

$1000,00

Would you ever pay $1000.00 for a box of red hots?

I did.

While eating one of these red hots my back molar cracked in half. One root canal and one crown later my cost (after insurance) is $1000.00. Ouch!

As much as I love red hots... I can't afford to buy them again.

Ruby's Fashion par-tay!

About three months ago Ruby started planning her birthday party. She wanted a "Fashion party" and told me exactly what games and activities she wanted, who she wanted to attend and what time it would start.

So here is how it all went down. As the girls arrived they were all given makeovers (thanks to Cheyenne and Haley). If they did not come dressed up we had a stylist(me) that helped them choose a couture outfit for the party. Many of the girls knew exactly how they wanted to look. One of them said to me "I want to go with a Greek/ Roman theme". Once they were all ready they got to walk the runway to loud music and paparazzi (strobe lights thanks to Eric).

They all got to design their own wallets.

They designed their own necklaces, rings and bracelets with Pop-Arty beads(these are so cool, they sell them at Target).

They opened presents.

(Fyi- Ruby had decorated all the book shelves with fashion Barbies and American girl dolls.)

After opening presents they had to work together as a design team to create the perfect look for Ruby from duct tape, trash bags, toilet paper and any wrappings left from opening the gifts.

I was impressed by the team work and creativity!

They played pass the purse and whoever had the purse when the music stopped got to open the purse and pull out a prize.

We had lunch and cake, but I think I have added plenty of photos already.

For party favors each girl got a metallic crocodile embossed purse (love the $ store) with bracelets, nail polish and candy.

I think everyone had a good time, I know Ruby was in heaven!

Ayah!

We asked Cheyenne to choose a sport or dance class that she would like to do. After watching lots of options, said she wanted to try Karate. Last Tuesday she had her 1st lesson and LOVED it. Her next lesson is not until next Tuesday, but that has not stopped her. She and Haley have been doing forms and sparring until they are dripping with sweat and laughing in delirium. I am so excited for Cheyenne, I really think she is going to excel at karate and love it.

We will NEVER have another hamster!

The weather here has been beautiful, but my life has been having a torrential down pour. It all started with Haley's lice. I realize to some this is no big deal, but it completely freaked me out. Luckily I think my freaking out and extreme measures helped insure the bugs did not spread to anyone else but Haley. I recognize this was a miracle with 5 girls using the same hair brushes.

Shortly after the lice treatments Haley became VERY sick. Eric had to leave town for a week to attend a conference in California. Haley's fever continued at 103 for over a week and it would not break with medicine. She had such bad stomach upset she lived on the toilet. The poor girl was sick as a dog. I took her into our Doctor twice because she was not getting better. I thought it was a reaction to the lice stuff. The second time they took blood and stool samples. A couple of days later I received a call from the Center for disease control informing me that her tests came back positive for salmonella!

During this same week the side of my car was crashed into while parked. While Haley and I were at the Doctor's office she had left a big glass of red Gatorade on the side table at home. The dogs knocked it over and it spilled all over the sofa and carpet. Did I mention this was Cheyenne's 1st week at a new High School? Eric was still out of town, missing all the action at our house, but he didn't miss our anniversary. I did. How could I forget our 16th anniversary!!! I had lost my mind.

AWWWWWWW!

You may ask... how did Haley get salmonella?

Squrtle the turtle is no longer a member of our family.

I have banned all reptiles from our home. Haley loved this turtle and did not want to give him up... I did not want him in our home. So I sold my soul to the devil and Haley now has a black bear hamster. If you are not aware of our adventures with hamsters you can read here.

Never say never.

Happy birthday Ruby!

My little Ruby is 9 today!

Congratulations Haley!

IT'S ORANGE!!!!!