babies!!!

So we ordered some day old chicks. We only ordered 10 pullets, or females, but since it is a small order and it is cold, they send packing peanuts. Packing peanuts are roosters. No one really wants roosters so they kinda throw them away. We got 8 roosters, packing peanuts, but one did die on the way here. We got the call from the post office at 7:30 the day before thanksgiving. That was really kinda cool. We have names for some of them.
Owl is the one with three stripes down her back, Natalie named her.
Vivienne is the red one with a V on her head. I named her. She is my special chick. I love her so much.
Ewok is the one who has kinda squirrel markings
Aiddie Michelle is the other red one, Natalie named her.
Oh and there are 7 named Duck, those are the roosters. We are not to get attached to those as we will most likely be eating them :)
Kali is totally interested in the chicks. We only let her smell and love on the roosters though. Huck doesn't care. Though he does occasionally chase the ladies outside. I actually think he is kinda scared of them though.

Oh and the first picture is actually the Ladies outside. They seems to be pretty happy out there. We have chickens! I am sure that i will post when we get our first egg.

grrr!!!

the reason I haven't blogged in awhile, frustrating putting pictures up!!!!
you will have to deal with cut pictures cuz i really have no patience to fix it. deep breath i will try to do better on the next post.

going to play a game

and try to win. Wanna know what game I am going to try and play? Catch up. I have let this go for way too long. I really do need to catch up. So the most exciting and life changing thing that has happened recently is our addition of chickens. I know you want to see pictures of these girls...

Layla calling them




yes bad picture, one we don't have very good light in our garage and two try taking a picture with wire in between you and your subject.
They were in the garage until Jack could make sure that he liked his tractor.



jack working on it more. Does anyone else find it funny that the chickens are out and the human is inside? I did, but then, well, me and my humor...


Look at those wings!! Layla was giving our birds rides on her, actually Gwen's bike


These girls we got on November 1st. They are red sex links. They are currently 12 weeks old. They have been outside for a little over a week now because we have new residents in our garage. But our Ladies names are Ellie Belon, that is Layla, she thinks it is the most beautiful name like ever. So she named her Ellie Belon. Natalie named one Cheera. And Liz, Aunt Liz, my brother's wife, named one Bertha. I do have to tell you that Bertha is the biggest of them all now. i will do a separate post for the babies. But now you have met our Ladies.

spring

Yeah yeah, been awhile.
No pictures now. I will get there no worries.
I had to post because since last night I have seen an awakening of what seems to be the whole world. I have been hearing yes we can! so much that I believe it. I actually believe it. I was excited about this election. But what is going on now? This is past excitement. I feel change. I feel like spring is here after a long winter. I can look outside at the falling leaves and for the first time since living here I don't feel the death of life. I see beautiful colors. I see CHANGE. I see it only getting better.
HOPE
It is an amazing thing. It isn't just the election. Our lives are changing also. I see things getting better. I have been in a dark place for the past year, a hole that I have been digging since we moved here and I feel like I am crawling out of my hole now. I feel better. Damn I am happy. Happy. So happy that just writing this I have tears in my eyes.

berry picking

First cute nakey Gwen!!!




We left at a bad time. It was quite a drive and by the time we got up there we all needed to eat. We saw Gwennie's and figured that we had to eat there. Umm, it wasn't all the great and Jack ended up sick from his crab sandwich. I swear he is allergic to crab. He swears that he eats crab all the time on the boat. But every time I see him eat crab he gets sick.



Sweet picture of Gwen and Jack:)



Picking the dirt out of her toes



And Jack had the camera for the first part of the journey. I asked him to take pictures. He took pictures of my butt. I am not going to share those. I have more pictures that I will share soon.

need to change

my way of thinking.
I need to realize that the universe is not out to get me. I need to realize that things happen whether you are a good person or a bad person. You are defined by how you handle bad times. I remember thinking about it years ago when I thought things were bad, ha!, how you handle the bad times determines how your good times are. I have not been handling things well. I am feeling like things are very unfair right now. Not just fr me. I feel like there are too many bad things happening to good people. It makes me want to cry, to make things better for them. But also I need them to be better for me too. I can't do it all.
So I need to change my thinking. It really helps that i talked to a friend today that holds similar beliefs. It really really helped. I need to have faith. I need to realize this is a bump. Who knows how long this bump will last, but it is a bump. Bumps go away. There will be more bumps, I am sure, but they also will go away. There will be times between the bad just like there are times between the good. Would I prefer not to have good or bad? No. We are reading A Wrinkle in Time, yes still. And they are facing the man with red eyes right now. He says something about becoming one with him, never having to feel bad anymore, never being sick, everything being perfect. Never having to worry again. And for a second I thought oh wow that would just be nice right now. I almost gave into that feeling. The feeling that life wasn't worth it. But then I thought no, it isn't life, life is not perfect, life is not free from worry. You need these bumps to appreciate the good times. Bumps have their place. I feel like I am repeating myself and not really going anywhere with this post.

and to close, there is something completely and wonderfully sweet and innocent about dirty toddler feet. No, they did not get this dirty at my house. I do vacuum more often than that. She collected dirt everywhere we went today. Somewhere around 2 the dirtiness stops being so cute. I am going to try and enjoy the sweetness of these feet before they turn into sweaty stinky dirty toddler toes laugh

overwhelmed

But first some pictures...

A very sweet picture of Gwen and Grandma:)



Gwen loving on Roland. It is actually almost weird how much she loves him. I am not sure I have seen a toddler love on a baby like this. She insists on hugging him and giving him love.


and sweet picture of Gwen running wild after I cleaned. The girls always run back and forth after I clean :)





I don't know why I feel so overwhelmed right now. I have some downtime, thank you rainy nasty weather Washington. I so hate this place!!!
But thanks to the rainy weather I have time to think about how much all of this sucks. I am not going to go into all of it. I guess I feel like running away from it right now, which is why I am not liking that I have to think about these things. I am totally losing patience with many things though. I am sure once it gets sunny again and I can cram my days with things I will feel better, but it also makes me dread the coming of fall/winter. Makes me wonder if I will be able to handle it this year.

and the still more I promised two or more days ago...

Yes they are bad photos, try walking backwards down a hill, especially if you are as clumsy as I, and taking pictures of 4 people who are also moving...
Anyway, made me, yes made me, realize and admit that Gwen is actually more stubborn than Layla. At this age Layla still loved her wrap, really until she was 2 going on 3 she loved her wrap. You see what is over Jack's shoulder? Gwen's wrap. She insisted on walking. When we go to the store I have a hard time convincing her to stay wrapped up.
And here you can see that she really doesn't care what everyone else is doing, she does her own thing. She was walking, walking and then decided to turn around and go back:)
I love her, I really do. I worry though sometimes what she is going to be like when she gets older. I am very glad though that my girls all seem t have a sort of inner strength, hey I am trying to look on the bright side...

And one final note, I have to comment on how sweet and cuddly this girl is. At night when she wakes up to nurse she insists on giving me a hug first. I will switch sides and she will lift her littles arms around my neck and pull me down to her. She likes to cuddle. I know more than one of my friends has seen evidence of this. She doesn't just like to cuddle me:)

more

Okay, you really can't tell, this is a booby ball. It is my friend's. You may not be able to tell but she is twiddling the nipple. I am thinking I may have to knit myself one for her to play with while she is nursing...



Natalie trying to pee Gwen. So cute, Gwen thought it was hilarious


And these pictures will be split up. We went to a park/garden/beach yesterday. I will write more about it in the next post. But cute Gwen


An you know, sometimes Natalie looks so old to me. Here she looks all lanky. She is getting so big! And is so Natalie. When I see this picture I end up sighing. She really isn't my little girl anymore. I think I need to stop saying that when she gets to 3/4 my height, which she is at now...She will always be my little girl, but you know? It is just one of those things. And yes, I am babbling because I really just don't know about this.

there is NO excuse

It has been what three weeks? We have been busy, and I keep forgetting my sd card. I remember the camera but I get to places an find I can't take pictures anyway. I will do a few posts though

Don't worry this was empty, kinda cute though, eh?


Isn't this sweet? This is Gwen's second mommy. She really goes over to her to take a nap at the park:) She nurses for a little while then crawls over and falls asleep. We may have to deal with some jealousy issues when she has her baby lol!


gwen kinda insists on going outside with Huck. She also thinks she can hold his leash. Well Jack came home one night and he took Gwen out with him. And then the girls go rushing out in their pjs to dance in the moonlight. Okay it was like 9 pm, the moon was out, but there was still plenty of sunlight out. I have to say that they are very good moonlight dancers:)


And I have to say we have an awesome oggie who is really great about a 1 yr old holding his leash

bookcrossing

So we went out to eat tonight. Thank you playgroup for bringing up Outback cheese fries:) And as I was getting us a table Jack went over to where they have the kids stuff. He brought a book with him to the table. I asked him why. He pushes the book over to me, "A Wind in the Door" by Madeline L'Engle. Can I tell you how much I loved these books. Then I notice a sticker on it
Thanks for finding me!
Please take me home with you!
It is a part of www.bookcrossing.com You register books and then set them free for other people to find and read and enjoy. I am so looking forward to sitting down with the girls and reading it. I am going to check out the first one first. I am kinda weird about reading books in order. So I want to thank the person who sent this book on it's journey. I want to thank the people who brought up Outback yesterday. We have decide that instead of donating books from now on we are going to bookcross them. The idea is sooooo cool! I can't wait until after we are done an can set it back on its journey. I am sure the girls are going to have fun trying to figure out where to leave it.

World Night of Henna

http://www.worldnightofhenna.com/
So, even though I am still not so great, I participated. I am donating the money I earned to La Leche League of Poulsbo. It was a lot of fun and I got to do designs that I normally don't get to do. The last picture is super sweet. Not only does Gwen beg for henna, she seems to want to be an artist also:)

Walking

So it took Gwen awhile. She was taking steps every so often but she never wanted to really walk. And then one day I wet through and cleared the floor and we kept it that way. I was going to steam clean, it ended up not happening, made cheesecake instead. And what happens, she decides that she will not crawl an inch. but then two days later when the floor is covered, back to crawling. I can't say I blame her too much.




I got to do this last night and Jack was so impressed, i have 20 pictures of it:) I am pretty happy with it also. It was kinda hard to do my shoulder.

Happy Daddy's day!!!

This is an amazingly sweet picture I caught since I woke up at like 530. Layla comes into our room a lot. She says she doesn't get much time with daddy so she needs to sleep next to him. Doesn't Gwen look huge in this picture? I think babies grow when they are sleeping next to you. That is how she sleeps by the way, she cannot be covered by the covers, she has to be on top of them. Which means I end up with almost no covers. Oh well, right?




And is this not the sweetest thing ever? They are hennaing each other with lotion.



My henna girl, she insists on getting henna, even if it is just lotion, if it is coming out of a cone, it must be on her!




And you know for a 6 yr old, just starting, she really is pretty good, don't you think?

Fun

So yeah, Gwen wasn't going to stay on the tarp, or the grass, or even the ground. She went right to the playground when we got there and staring climbing the stairs. She really had a blast playing with her sisters. It is kinda scary, but I tried to not freak. The only really scary moment was when she tried to climb off and it was about a 4 foot drop to the ground. Natalie got her before she went over though. Her favorite thing ever though was climbing up the slide and sliding back down. Se amused herself for awhile playing.



I did this yesterday. i am kinda proud of it. I am having lots of fun and have a lot more confidence not following a design perfectly.


Natalie got my camera yesterday also. I am not sure why but i really like this shot she got of Gwen. Poor Gwen was sooo ready for a nap. She sat on the grass kinda out f it for awhile. She plays hard

Oh yeah? Well, my baby does shots...

Chug Baby!! Chug!!!



And done!!! unfortunatly, she just had sausage as a chaser...


and just in case you think I am serious, I am not. That is just water. Shot glasses make great baby glasses. They are usually pretty thick, think they can't break when people drop them when they are drunk...and they are just the right size for little hands and mouths. Also they hold just enough water to get outfits wet, not the entire floor. She loves shot glasses more than her sippy which I am glad. Neither of the other girls really had a sippy.

I have lots of pictures of recent henna but had to show this one. It is actually an advanced design, had to see if I could do it. It actually turned out alright, Most of the smudges are actually from me trying to do my own hand. I am decently happy with it though. I am getting better, happy dance:)

almond roca

why why why is almond roca so good?I got another can of it and I have eaten too much of it already. But really, it is sooooo gooooooddddd. I am going to post a few pictures though this time. I am not going to ramble on about almond roca for a whole post, though I could. Can I tell ya'll that eating without braces is absolutely wonderful? Not having rice getting stuck, biting into carrots. Really, wonderful. I am happy.

so a flower Jack let me doodle on his back.

Gwen helping daddy brew



The girls actually did help. They capped bottles and then wrote PC, or CP on the bottles. Jack made prune chocolate beer. Yeah, not trying that. He says it is drinkable, but could use a cheesecake...

Gwen getting into my marshmellow fruity salad type very bd for you stuff at the park while I henna a belly.