Rosie Bear is 5!

Five years ago this morning God blessed us with a miracle. He gave us our first child and we became parents. Not only is today Rosen's 5th birthday, but it is our 5th anniversary of parenthood. No single event has more changed and enriched our lives. 

Rosen, we love you so much and are continually amazed at the young girl you are growing into. Your sweet tenderness towards your siblings is inspiring. We love your silliness and your "shows". I pray that God will continue to lead and strengthen us to help you fulfill all that He has for you. 

 "The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One will save; 

He will rejoice over you with gladness, 

He will quiet you with His love, 

He will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

"Fan Club"

Naomi Funny Face

Before her nap time today Naomi was feeling very silly and so was making silly faces. 

Daddy's Favorite look

She is definitely our little goofball. :) Don't ever change Sweetie!

Chicken Eviction

Until today our chicks have lived in our laundry room, first in a brooder box, and when they outgrew that they lived in a kiddie swimming pool. Now that they have most of their feathers and it should be getting nice during the days we've decided to move them out to the coop.

 Here the girls stand on the ramp for the first time as they check out their new surroundings

One happy Mama to have them out of the house!

 See how big they've grown in just 3 weeks!?

 The girls would have climbed in if we would have let them. 

Never too busy to pose for the camera.

The coop complete with picket fence surround with integrated chicken wire.

 Checking on my girls through the window.

I think the roosts are just a little high for them yet. 

They just got their wings clipped and so aren't as daring as they usually are. I'm sure it will only be a matter of weeks until they are hopping up there to roost every night. 

Welcome Home Ladies!

Playing Nice

I just love checking in on my girls and 

finding them playing nicely together. 

It just melts my heart. 

I love you my sweet, sweet girls.

Braid Victory Garden - Starting Seeds

Today the kids and I made a trip down to Home Depot for some seeds and the required materials. While there they (all 3) decided it would be great fun to "sing" as loudly and obnoxiously as possible in the store. I had one of those jumbo carts that can hold my 3 small children so they were at least contained while I, embarrassed and frustrated, tried to find the vegetable varieties in the organic seed sections and read the backs of the labels to determine the best varieties to chose and try to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was not a fun trip to say the least. And to top it off, when we got home the red cabbage seed packet was empty. Oh well, no red cabbage for us this year. (I am NOT going back there again with these kids anytime soon!)

Once they had eaten lunch and calmed down we commenced the seed starting process. First, we wet the seed starting mix with some water and  I showed the girls how to test to make sure its just right by squeezing it with your hand. Then they got the very fun job of filling the little peat pots with the mixture.   

 This is what I look like after a long morning dealing with a trifecta of "singing" children in a store. :P

These are not our victory garden seeds, they are the flower seeds Uncle Justin and Aunty Gloria gave the girls the day we built the chicken coop. They are the test subjects for my fluorescent light that is fitted with two full spectrum bulbs (instead of plant lights - half the price!). They love it! :) Yes, I know they are "stretched", they were in the window sill before - western exposure so they didn't get enough light. Hoping to solve that problem for the veggie seedlings with this setup. It is 4 feet long so I can fit both flats of veggies under it. I just tucked it up under a kitchen cabinet hanging from the chain that came with it so I can adjust the height as needed. ($20 for complete setup at Home Depot including bulbs)

Daddy Cuddles

Since Daddy was working out on the garden most of the day and it was a little too cold out for them to join him, they jumped on him the second he hit the couch. Cuddle time!

A Grand Garden

With our growing family and the cost of organic produce we have decided to put in a vegetable garden to grow our own organic veggies right in our own backyard. We'll have composted manure thanks to the chickens and so it should be low cost (once established). Here you can see Nathan has already built the first raised bed along the back fence. 

 Heavy boards!

 You can see where the big maple tree stump has been ground out. We just had all 16 of our stumps ground down into mulch this week in preparation for the garden. 

 I am so blessed to be married to such a hard-working man. 

 Putting in the posts for the picket fence to surround the garden.

 First panel of the picket fence ready to go!

 Nathan measured, cut and dog-eared each board just right.

 Daddy and his little helper. 

Thanks so much Honey! Looks Beautiful!

And what better way to celebrate the completion of a project but by sharing good food with loved ones? Nathan's parents and brother & wife (my in-loves) all came over for dinner. I made homemade clam chowder and Gloria brought this gorgeous cobb salad with goat cheese. It was so beautiful I just had to take a picture. I'm salivating as I write this because it tasted even better than it looked. :)

Tuckered Out

I just had to post this. This is a picture of Naomi asleep on the ottoman in our living room. She was standing next to it and decided to lay on it for a minute as she was getting sleepy (trying to stay up till big sister got back from preschool so they could all nap together). She just couldn't make it today and fell asleep where she was. I let her stay that way for about 20 mins until I had to pack her up in the car and go pickup Rosen from Preschool.

Baby Chicks!

     I have been trying to convince my husband that keeping a few chickens for fresh eggs and for our children to experience the responsibility of caring for an animal as well as thinking about where food comes from is a good thing for a couple of years now. 

Thankfully our new neighbors next door got a few layer hens last fall and so he has gotten to watch and see first hand how low maintenance and quiet they are. (No roosters) 

Needless to say he has changed his tune and is actually excited about the prospect. I think he mainly realized that it wasn't just  a fleeting desire and that it really would make me happy. I am so blessed.

And so, he set about to build a home for our future flock. 

Getting everything laid out for building the coop. 

He loves building anything out of wood. 

 Our little man "helping" daddy with the hammer. 

Like Father, like son

 Bird's eye view

 The roosting boxes. We painted the inside white to make it brighter and cleaner looking (for now). 

Also thought it might help with cleaning?

 Finishing up the roof so they'll stay dry.

 That's the CUTEST baby chick I've ever seen! 

Oh wait, that's my adorable nephew Joshua and his pretty mommy Gloria. :)

 Since we built the coop at my in-love's house they delivered it to us the next morning.

 My handsome hubby next to his chicken palace.

 So, when you build a chicken coop a funny thing happens. You buy chicks! Shortly after the coop was settled into the backyard we were off to the farm store to pick out our new babies. We thought 6 would be a good number so we bought 8 (Braid math - we figured some would die, we were wrong)

 These are the new chicks still in the box when we got them home. 

There are actually 8 little fuzz balls in there 

2 barred rock, 2 black Australorp, 2 New Hampshire Reds and 2- Golden sex-linked.

 Putting them into their brooder box.

 Very excited

 Naomi is pretty timid of the chicks but was able to hold one with a little help.

 Settling in

 Rosen did not leave this post unless I made her the first 2 days. 

If I ever couldn't find her, this is where she'd be. She was so concerned about the chicks. 

She will make a great mother someday.

 This is her favorite. It's name is Goldie. 

The other golden is Diamond and one of the Black Australorp's is named Penguin 

(because its face has markings like a penguin). 

The others will get names when we can tell them apart.

Three days after we've brought them home they are already starting to look different. See how their necks are getting longer and some of them are starting to get their wing feathers? As Nathan says (affectionately) "They get uglier everyday."