Our First Egg!!!

Our hens were about this same size when we got them 20 weeks ago.


One second after this photo was taken, the egg LEAPED out of Nolan's hands and splattered onto my bedroom floor. Even though the egg is small, it had a nice big yolk inside.

As far as I know, the hens aren't supposed to be laying for two more weeks, so a tiny egg is a big deal at this point. I found this tiny gem out by my clothesline.

This is also an exciting day for us because we have lost so many hens. We started with 8 hens and bought an adult rooster shortly thereafter. Then we bought 5 more 24-hour-old hens and 5 more roosters (the roosters came free with a bag of feed, so we said "why not?" and raised them to butcher). Because of a hawk and the neighbors' four dogs and two of the hen babies growing up to be roosters, we are down to 2 hens. We're hoping that we will get 2 eggs per day, and that's two more homegrown healthy eggs per day than we were getting before. We are blessed.

This little egg, even though it was splattered before any of us could enjoy it, has given me motivation to raise another batch of chicks. So bring on the heat lamp and the constant cleaning of the cage and the fear that Ruby will squeeze, I mean, love them to death. Instead of taking another risk of accidentally getting males even though I paid extra for females the first time around, I'll be ordering my babies online. They are guaranteed to be gender specific.

Ruby's First Sentence

"Let's Go!!!!!"

It's a sentence that totally fits her personality. She's always on the move and ready to go anywhere at any time. As soon as she walks out the door, she says "Let's go!" and heads straight for the blackberry bushes. She grabs the branches and pulls off the berries shoving them in her mouth before I can even get to her. She's completely unphased by the thorns. I don't know how she grabs a branch without crying in pain, but her love for the blackberries is more important.

Gettin' Big

I was folding laundry when Nolan asked me if I would put a hanger in his shirt to give him wings.

Ruby loves her blankie!

Feeding herself with a spoon for the first time. Ice Cream!

Happy Birthday, Lily!!!

Lily likes her bike so much that she brought it inside and wiped it down.


The cake got messed up in the car, but she still liked it.



She had no idea that she was getting a bike, even though she had asked for one.

Daddy surprised her when he brought up the bike.

Everyone had a great time at Lily's party in the park. The kids (and some grown-ups) mostly just played on the playground. I love that the parents of my kids' friends are all my friends, so I always have a nice, relaxed time, too. The rain held off until we got home, but it was a little windy.

Lily had her check-up today and weighed in at 35 pounds and is 3'7". She is in great health except that she did not pass the hearing test. The doctor noticed a slight redness in her ear and she did complain of an earache on Sunday (probably due to the wind at the party), so she is going to take an antibiotic and go back for another hearing test in 2 weeks. This is only the second time in her 5 years of life that she has had to take antibiotics. She will also be eating plenty of homemade yogurt with lots of good bacteria to complement the antibiotic.

She thinks she's big stuff now. She loves being 5. She has also asked me what new jobs around the house she can have so I'll be sure not to let her down on that one!

Our First Drama Presentation

Or homeschool drama class acted out the Beatrix Potter stories of Peter Rabbit and Tom Kitten.

The whole crew of Peter Rabbit and Tom Kitten.


Mama Rabbit, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-Tail and Peter. Lily is Cotton-Tail.



Emily is the Narrator for both plays.

Easter Egg Hunt

Nolan would shake the eggs and put them back if they didn't rattle.


Ruby caught on pretty quick for her first egg hunt.



Ruby with her helper. She thinks Papa exists just for her.

Yummy marshmallows inside!

They had a great time at the grandparents' church. Papa & Grandma set up and serve donuts and coffee between services and let all the kids help them. They had to break for a photo shoot.

Coloring Eggs With Grandma

Concentrating. This was Nolan's first time coloring eggs.

We Have Chicks!!!

Even the dog looks after the "babies".


Emily's homemade car won 2nd place for best design at AWANA last week.



Lily can't keep her hands off of them.

The kids have been wanting to have chicks ever since their Aunt Maddie got chicks last year. I wanted chickens as part of my effort to buy all of our food locally, and at home is as local as you can get. I like to know exactly what is in my food, and these days you can never be too careful about what you're feeding your family.

The kids love the chicks. They are getting bigger every day. They have to live in the house under a heat lamp for one month so the girls get to look after their "babies" all the time. After dinner all of the kids go out to the yard and hunt for bugs to feed to the chicks who then fight like crazy over it.

So, now we are a family of 2 parents, 5 kids, 1 dog, 1 fish and 8 chicks all living inside the house for now. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with everyone and still maintain my household.

Another Nolan Funny

Nolan says funny things every day, but I forget that I don't remember them if I don't write it down immediately. Tonight we were eating dinner and Emily was talking about a partiular Bible verse that she had memorized. Nolan thought he should remind us of what a big guy he is like this;

Nolan: "I have a lot of verses in my Sunday School class."

(Paul & I are the teachers of Nolan's class every 4 weeks so we know what goes on in the 2 & 3 year old class)

Me: "Oh, really? Like what?

Nolan (with enthusiasm): Snacks!

Walking Ruby

We were moving the pails of wheat from the kitchen to another room when we noticed that Ruby was taking a couple of steps between the pails. We pretty much tricked her into walking. It's so sad that our baby is growing up, but I know that she loves doing big kid things.

Lily Is Learning

Today was the second time she has practiced writing letters. She's amazing, if I do say so myself. I got this dry-erase board at a homeschool resale shop for $1.50. She was interested because it is different and I like that it doesn't use up a ream of paper on print-outs.

Up until about a month ago, Lily did not care in the least about ABC'c or 123's. Every time that I broke out the flash cards, I would get a slouchy "I don't know" from her even on the letters she did know. So I decided it was time to go high-tech and let her use the computer. Now she asks me every day to go to www.starfall.com to do her schoolwork. She even wants to do it at night before bed. And the best part is that it doesn't cost a thing. It has inspired her to do more things like writing now that she's confident in what the letters are. I think it's that she associates the letters with colors and the cute little songs and games instead of it just being a symbol that makes a sound. That means I will most likely be purchasing the Math-U-See program at the homeschool conference this year. I am so proud of her!

Happy Birthday, Ruby!!!

Ruby's favorite things to play with are in the kitchen. She wants to pull everything out by herself.




All of the bottom cabinets are "Ruby safe" items: tupperware, collanders, cookie trays, bundt pans. My kitchen floor is usually a mine field of dishes, but I love it.




She loves the Happy Birthday song and thinks it's for her every time.

She really hams it up with her crown on. She knows she's cute.

Isn't she adorable!?

I'm about ten days late in posting birthday pictures, but that's the way it goes sometimes. At her check-up she weighed in at 17 pounds, 9 ounces and 30.5 inches. Long and lean, just like all of her brothers & sisters. She has two teeth on the bottom and two teeth on the top and is so happy to be able to eat whatever the big kids eat. She says: Mama, Dada, bye, ball and yesterday she said "baby" to her dolly. She is our most affectionate child. She is independent and loves to explore, but checks in every couple of minutes to give me a hug. I love my little princess.

Lily got stuck upside-down. I had to take a picture before helping her down.


Ruby loves being outside.

We've been enjoying some nice weather for January lately during the daytime. Nighttime is quite cold, though. Our family is trying to conserve energy (selfishly to save money) by consolidating our unused space of the house. The back half of the house is drastically colder so we're just not using it for now. We closed off the vents to the homeschool room, back bathroom, and the two bedrooms in the back, and we put up some heavy quilts in the doorway leading to these rooms. Where does everyone sleep? There are still two bedrooms that have heat: the master bedroom and the baby's room. Paul and I sleep in our room and all the kids sleep in the baby's room. we moved the girls' bunkbed into the baby's room and three of the kids sleep in that, and Ruby still in her crib. Adam prefers being cold so he will sleep in his own cold room by his own choice. The kids can still play in their bedrooms. If they are cold, they can put on a jacket. They would rather be outside than play in their rooms any day. So, we'll find out when the electric bill comes if it has made any difference. Even if it doesn't reduce our bill, we will know that our family could live happily ever after in an itty bitty house if we needed to. Personally, I think the kids like being all together. We have a pioneer spirit. Bring on the one room cabin and put ten kids in the loft!

Very Important

As a family with five children, most of you can imagine that buying second-hand clothing is very important to our household. Our right to continue to do so is being taken away. A law making it illegal to buy or sell used children's clothing is due to take effect February 10. That's just a few weeks away!

Please take a moment to contact those in Congress who can stop this craziness. http://www.rallycongress.com/make-second-hand-kids-clothes-legal-/1471/save-kid-s-clothing-resale-consignment-thrift-stores-from-closing/

This link will explain everything and help all of you to send an automatic email to your Congressperson.

Worship Leader

Sorry it's sideways.

Nolan got ahold of my camera.

Ruby fell asleep while playing in her crib.