Mega Update

I know, I know, it's been a month since I last blogged. So here is what has happened in our lives over the last month:

Trent - has become so very fast at crawling, pulls up to stand on EVERYTHING, asks "what's that?"and "who's that?" all day long, says "wuv", "mama", "dada", "yes", and mimics a whole lot more.

Kade - turned 3!! My sweet babe has turned into quite the monster, but so goes with the territory of a having a three year old. The day before his actual birthday we took him to the dinosaur museum with our family and my younger sister's family and they got to make some awesome fossil moldings. The 3 year olds made raptor claws and the 5 year old made a T-Rex tooth. The rest of the night and all the next day Kade refused to part with his "Happy Burtday Rapper Claw". On his birthday he was ever so satisfied when he opened an overwhelming amount of train gifts (thanks, family!!) and has been in love ever since.

Braxton - had his first piano performance and did fantastic! Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star never sounded more beautiful. We are taking break from taekwondo for a little while and really focusing on the music. He is just thriving and really enjoys it.

Paul - turned 27!! Yep, his birthday is the day after Kade's. We had a very romantic date and enjoyed getting fancied up for our dinner reservations at The Roof (courtesy of my most recent client, thank you!!). The food was excellent, the music wonderful, and I can't tell you how nice it was to spend a few hours just enjoying one another's company. Paul had also been busy making a toy room downstairs! We are leaving the walls unfinished for now so that the kids can express their artistic urges freely and the floor made up of the mats one would find in a karate studio. It's awesome having a living room again!

Myself -exactly one month ago I attended a client for the first time in a year. My goodness, it was a beautiful birth. And my amazing friend, Megan, watched my boys for me overnight. I'm so thankful to have Megan as such a close friend. She is the best! And since then I have been putting together birthday plans and playing host as we get through all the birthday-ness. And woohoo for mail packages containing uteruses, pelvises, placentas, and more! Oh..and I have read The Best Birth (DON'T READ!), The Blue Cotton Gown (READ!), A Pea In A Pod (READ!), Homebirth in the Hospital (READ!), and Real Birth (READ!) along with the first two books in The Hunger Games. And if you haven't read those, stop whatever it is you are doing right this moment and read them!!

Together we have planted our starts and as of this evening we have about 45 yellow tomatos sproutlings. The boys love to go down and look every morning and night for new sprouts. We are still patiently waiting for our chickens to provide us with a bounty of eggs but have faith it'll happen soon. Lastly, we are learning Italian as a family. The boys are such sponges and are soaking it all up!

Ciao!

Feeling Wingy(less)

Last night we decided it was finally time to let the chickens be out and about during the daytime (while the our very curious boxers stay inside) so before we opened the door for free roaming, we headed to the store to pick up some scissors so we could clip their flying wings (totally painless and harmless!!). Figuring we'd just hit the closest store to us, we picked Wal-mart. If you ever decide to have chickens and need to clip their wings I don't suggest going to the craft department at Wal-mart where the cranky old lady with poofy gray hair sits with a menacing stare that dares you to ask for any type of assistance for if you do may the Universe come and save you from the secret CIA moves she secretly practices on her breaks just in case someone like you happens to ask a question that she just might consider one of the most stupid questions on the face of this earth...or she might try to eat your kids. Anyway, we did dare to ask (and thank Goddess she didn't pull out the CIA moves or eat my kids, but we both know she was thinking about it) if she might happen to know which pair of scissors one should use when preparing to clip the tips of chicken feathers. She thought we were joking. After assuring her that we were indeed not joking and wanted to clip feathers she told us to go "that farm store". Yes, we know we should have gone to the farm store but we had guests who were soon coming to visit and upon their visit were planning on feasting on Oreo pies, fresh raspberries and a bit Jell-O topped with whipped cream, and orange smoothies made with non-chlorinated water as of the guests who were coming there happened to be a chlorine allergy among them and we didn't have any of the ice cubes made with the non-chlorinated water or any of the desserts made yet...we the ingredients for those up on that same shopping trip....so we didn't have time to go "the farm store". Sooooooo......while cranky old lady with poofy gray hair walked away deciding whether or not to call security on the hooligans with chickens, we picked out a grand pair of scissors (and the rest of our goodies) and headed home to clip, mix, whip, and refrigerate.

Oh...and the chickens did quite well. I think they enjoyed Kade crooning softly to them, "Don't worry little chickens, me-me keep you safe."

For more backyard chicken info check out http://www.backyardchickens.com/