The Chicken Coop!

My talented hubby has built a home for our chickens...all 2 of them.
We think that one is a rooster and one is a hen, and if that's the case,
then hopefully we will soon have more chickens!

Here are pictures of the process (that only took about 3 days):

Kyler was Matt's right hand man!

Putting treads on the ramp.

Twelve nests...get busy chickens!!

These chicks thought they would try out the nests...

My goofy husband thought putting the egg there was funny...cute chicken, though!

more progress.

Kyler putting the roof on.

Matt applying the roof paper. Isn't this exciting?! ;)

It's getting there...

Kyler and Hannah painting. (Kyler is standing on one leg, for some reason.)

More paint.

Still more paint.

WOW!!

It still needs shingles, but what a pretty chicken house!!

Happy Anniversary, Babe!

Yesterday was my and Matt's 14th anniversary.
He was out of town, so we'll have to go on a date when he gets back.

Matthew, thank you for 14 great years and lots of adventures!
I look forward to forever! I love you so much!

Easter...a little late!

We began our Easter holiday at Matt's parents' house with the annual Easter egg hunt.

It was great to spend time with family!

We don't get to see them as often as we used to, so it's so fun when we get together.

Emma's newest word?..."egg".
She learned very quickly that most of the eggs were filled with candy.
So everytime she picked up an egg, she would shake it and then try to open it.

Very fun!

Check out Hannah's bucket. It's clear full of eggs! And she wasn't even done!

Aubrie is always good to stop and pose for a pic...

Mikaela, however, did not want to be bothered in her hunt for eggs!

This is her, "Fine! Just hurry and take the picture, Mom!" face.

She is driven and determined and even managed to find the highest money egg!

Connor knows that the high money eggs are usually hidden in tough places.

So I found him clear back behind this trailer. He left no stone unturned!

The kids with the Easter bunny...no Emma - she avoided him like the plague,
but kept watching him out of the corner of her eye to make sure he didn't get too close!

Easter morning...Emma finds her stuff. Notice the yellow chickie peeps?
I'll tell you a story about that later.

Hannah and her stuff!

Aubrie, posing just right.





Mikaela...gorgeous, even first thing in the morning!







Connor...still loves Easter morning. He calls it a "mini-Christmas"!




Apparently Kyler isn't too old to get a visit from the Easter bunny!
(Notice the egg hiding in the angel on the wall!)







And this was the biggest hit of all! We got baby chicks!
Matt put this girl scout cookie box in the dining room without the kids knowing.
All of a sudden, you could hear cheaping, but you couldn't tell where it was coming from.
The kids started running all over the house, giggling, looking for the source.
They are so used to seeing girl scout cookie boxes laying around the house,
that they kept running right past it.
It was very funny and very exciting!

My kids are such animal lovers! They LOVE these chicks!

They spent most of the afternoon playing with them!

Ok - so, story time! Remember the yellow chickie peeps in Emma's basket? Well, Matt's brother, Mark had brought us these chicks the week before Easter. We kept them hidden in the shed in our backyard. All during that week, Matt would secretly take Emma out to see the chicks. He said that she was a little freaked out by them. She wanted to see them, but she kept her distance. Well, when she saw those peeps in her basket, she FREAKED!! She immediately threw them on the floor and started climbing on me. We tried to show her that they were marshmallows and she could eat them. She didn't want anything to do with them. She just kept crying and pushing them away. Later that day, we convinced her to take a bite and she liked it. But by the look on her face, I don't think she could figure out why we were encouraging her to eat a chick. I hope she doesn't get any ideas about the real chicks...

Here they are in all their new Easter clothes glory!

A Fun Memory!

My friend, Becca, just had a fun, fun party for her 4 year old.
It looked like so much fun that I think I might steal the idea for
either an upcoming 7 year old party or an upcoming 4 year old party!
(Hope you don't mind, Becca!)
Here is the link to her cute party idea:

legrandbecslittlelaings.blogspot.com/2009/03/fancy-nancy-party.html

And it seems like I always feel less than adequate when it comes to cute,
creative stuff...but then I remembered this cute dress-up tea party we had
for Aubrie a few years ago. So I thought I would post the pics and share
this fun memory!
I am inspired to throw some fun, creative parties this year!

We told the girls to wear their lovliest tea party dresses.
When they arrived, we let them pick out hats, purses, and gloves
from our dress up chest.

This is the table, complete with lovely decorations that
I found at Savers! I took pics of Aubrie and Mikaela in their
dress ups and put the pics in those 2 old-fashioned frames.

This is the dress-up chest.

We used our princess tea set and it made really cute place settings
for each girl. They even had their own name cards.

This is the fancy finger food that we served.

These are our fancy finger food servers! Connor and Mikaela and
their cousins, Bailey on the left and Tiahna on the right.
They were told to use fancy, proper words and british accents, if possible!

This is the Tea Cup cake and the mini tea cup cakes!

Here is a close up of the cake.
I actually baked it in a Pampered Chef batter bowl!

And what could make a 4 year old Aubrie happier than a pair of
shiny orange sandals from Grandma Suzi?!?!?!
NOTHING!

Finally!

I would like to take a moment to thank my awesome hubby for getting things done!
Nothing would ever get painted or hung on the wall or put together
if he didn't either do it or get everything ready and then tell me to do it.
This is a project that's been waiting for me to do it for months.
Matt finally put the pictures in the frames and then called me downstairs
to tell him where I wanted them hung on the wall.
I think it looks great! Thanks, Babe!

Cutest kids ever!! I might be biased, though.

Important Warning for Women!

I came across this and knew I had to share!

My thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years ago.
I went to sleep and woke up with someone else's thighs. It was just that quick.
The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Whose thighs were these and what happened to mine? I spent the entire summer looking for my thighs.
Finally, hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans.

And then the thieves struck again. My butt was next.
I knew it was the same gang, because they took pains
to match my new rear-end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier.
But my new butt was attached at least three inches lower than my original!
I realized I'd have to give up my jeans in favor of long skirts.

Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched.
One morning I was fixing my hair and was horrified to see the flesh of
my upper arm swing to and fro with the motion of the hairbrush.
This was really getting scary - my body was being replaced one section at a time.
What could they do to me next? When my poor neck suddenly disappeared
and was replaced with a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story.

Women of the world, wake up and smell the coffee!
Those 'plastic' surgeons are using REAL replacementbody parts - stolen from you and me!
The next time someone you know has something 'lifted', look again -
was it lifted from you?

THIS IS NOT A HOAX.
This is happening to women everywhere, every night.
WARN YOUR FRIENDS!

P.S. Last year I thought some one had stolen my Boobs.
I was lying in bed and they were gone! But when I jumped out of bed,
I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in my armpits as I slept.
Now I keep them hidden in my waistband.

(Thanks to Priscilla for letting me borrow this!)

Smorgasboard

Now I understand why people do posts called "our month in review", etc.
I haven't been very attentive to my blog on a consistent basis,
so I need to do a "catch-all" post. Please bear with me!

Lately, Emma has taken it upon herself to empty the trash. Does this mean I've actually taught them something?! I love it when they think chores are fun!

She found this Dora hat in the snow box and put in on herself!

Emma has decided that she is much too big for her high chair anymore.
So she sits at the counter with the big kids, thinks she's really neat,
and makes a humongous mess!

This is my cute little mommy-in-training. I love moments like these.

Hannah playing our "Wii Sing" game. Or is it Hannah Montana?!
Can you tell that Kyler is singing, too?

We finally talked Aubrie into cutting the stringy ends off her hair.
What a cutie! She wants to cut it even shorter next time.

Can you tell who this pancake is supposed to be? Mikaela asked her dad to make a Goofy pancake and he did! Matt, I'm totally impressed!

The cutest girls in the whole world, ready for their dance performance!

Can you tell what this is?

It's getting bigger...

Connor is building the world's largest (and only)...

PYRAMID OF SMARTIES!!!!

(and you thought there wasn't anything to do in Circleville.)