today

Today we had no where to go, which is rare and nice. We hung out at home and relaxed. Kaitlyn today went from just climbing on the desk seat and sitting, to attempting to climb up on the desk it's self. This girl scares me. I redirected her to painting a picture, and she actually did really well. It was a hot day, so after nap time we searched for containers and some toys for water play time outside.And the chickens joined us. We have been hand feeding them oat meal and now they will not leave us alone. You go out side and they come running and stand on your feet waiting for there oats. Silly birds. A good use for all those plastic Easter eggs. The camera got smudgy so the last pics got all fuzzed.Kaitlyn's new love is dinosaurs. We have tons of those Shleich toys from farm animals, horses, cats, dogs, bunnies, wild animals, sea life, but she just wants the dinosaurs. "Raaaar" she says. Easter pics to come

o n e

Tell me, how did this happen?

Boy do babies grow up fast. She is still little, but she is so big! She has the personality in her face of a little girl, not a tiny baby. She is taking steps on her own. Her new fav game is "here you go", where you hand a toy back and forth saying "here you go" "thank you". She has yet to say thank you, but she does a really good here you go. :) If the kids are watching TV she climbs her self up into the little rocking chair, sits, watches, rocks. She also climbs herself up into big sisters desk and sits pointing and talking about whatever drawing Rhiannon left there. She's one.

Oh my gosh I'm in a picture! But I had to tell Matt, "now take one without my head cut off". sigh..

Some how my babies always end up like this at their first birthday parties. Asleep in Grandpa's arms.

This girl loves stuffed toys. She totally guilted me into buying her a $15 miny pillow pet a couple weeks ago. She just got so sad when we walked away. She bounces out of her skin when she sees a live animal, and I think the stuffed ones are the next best thing to her.

Rhiannon finally got to have the party at her house she always asks for. We had a Christmas and a Thanksgiving at our home when Mikey was brand new, but that was forever ago to her.

She kept that hat on till it fell off. She loves to where hats, head bands, sun glasses.. She gets a huge grin, and the head gear stays on her head! She feels all pretty and keeps it on. We'll see if that one lasts!

Not afraid to get messy

Cheese grin

And of course, they needed the pinata. And again, it was not too look like a person or animal. They would not let me get the cute lady bug one. Even the sun's smiley face was a bit iffy for Rhiannon.

Kaitlyn watched hanging on to her non candy pinata loot. Notice the chickens. It may or may not have been a good idea to let them run around while small children swung a big stick wildly through the air, often making contact with the ground. I was worried for a moment when the first of the candy hit the ground and they came running to check it out, but they at least were smart enough to not get close. I don't know if smart is the right word to describe a chicken, but it all turned out ok anyway.

And our girl is one. If I think to hard about it, it is horribly sad that her little baby stage is over so quickly. But on the other hand, I watched her fall asleep on my lap tonight looking at her so grown up face thinking about how she will soon be a 3 year old like Mikey, a 5 year old like Rhiannon. I get to watch another little person become who she will be, and that is so cool.

chicas

We are growing our "edible garden" in our rural, yet not home that came complete with chicken coop/run. So what did we do? We added some cute little hens that will hopefully some day soon give us more eggs than know what to do with. We have been to the feed store to see the mass amount of chicks they have on "chick days" before, but this year we were going to pick our chicks. They grew from fuzzy little puff balls to tinny little hens soo fast! And Kaitlyn's first word after "this" was "Chicken". She lights up when she sees them. Above is Bitty, our littlest chick

Baby Cakes

And Bat Man. Can you guess who named Bat Man? And yes, Bat Man is a girl.

Pics taken once a week.

Bitty turned out to be not the type of chick they said she was. She came in all curly, which is still cute.

A comb!

Our chickys have chicken butts!

And of course sense Bitty was not the chick they said she was, we added one that was. This is Bunny, who will lay blue eggs! Hopefully soon.

And finally they are big enough to go outside. This was one of the first times they went out in the little pen we don't use any more. They have run of the back yard all day, and go in the covered coop at night.

They are great for our organic garden loaded with slugs. They bop around eating bugs and pulling weeds. They are funny to watch going about their chicken business, and the kids love them.

Who would have thought, pet chickens. They are cute though.