4th of July 2010

We celebrated our 4th of July hanging out with family and friends.

Look how much Lauren has changed since last year! 

We played on the water slide and had a picnic lunch under the easy-up before we headed to David and Sharon's ranch for some 4th of July fun.

Austin caught a chicken and was pretty excited about it.

 

We had a great time celebrating the fourth of July with friends!

tutu love

This little girl may be rough and tumble from having two big brothers, but she is still all girl!  When I put her tutu on her, she twirled around in circles and danced.  Ethan and Austin took turns holding her hands and dancing with her.  It was so sweet!  Look how much she has changed in less than a year!

 

I love my little girly tomboy!

Mr. Pigeon

10 days into the 21 day hatch, our teeny banty chicken poked a tiny hole in his egg.  This morning he made the hole bigger and bigger until he cracked it in half and plopped out.

See the two smiley faces?  I drew those on there the day we got him so I would know he was the egg with the already growing chicken inside.  We decided to name him Mr. Pigeon in tribute to the confused pigeon who sat on his egg and began his incubation.

After we took the shell off the top of him, he rested comfortably in his cupcake holder before we moved him to his next temporary home. 

Despite preferring to watch cartoons rather than the hatch, the boys really like the chicken now that's he is out of his shell.

Here he is!  He is black on top and has a yellow belly and tail.  He will spend the next week or so in the incubator until he is ready to go back and live on the farm where we got him.  Now let's just hope he doesn't cheep too loudly tonight!

the big switcheroo

 Ever since the boys got their bunkbeds over two years ago, Ethan has slept on top and Austin has slept on the bottom. The other night they decided it would be fun to switch beds for a night.   That night turned into another night and then another night.  I'm not sure they will ever switch back again! 

When I went to check on them last night, I found that Ethan had created his own little cubby hole on the bottom bunk.

See the hammock he created with his blanket for his stuffed animals ?  That kid is so creative.

 

Austin just told me he "double loves it" when I asked him if he likes sleeping on the top bunk. The LightScoop works great for taking pics of the kids while they sleep because the flash bounces off the ceilings and not on them!  Maybe one night I'll be brave enough to try it in Lauren's room.

just waiting

A couple days ago Erica, the expert chicken hatcher, came over to check on the eggs.  We candled them and were shocked to discover that one banty chicken was almost ready to hatch.  We were expecting an early hatcher, but not this early!  I even think I heard our early bird pecking away in his shell today!  Erica had the great idea to put his egg in a cupcake wrapper so the incubator will stay nice and clean for the three weeks before the rest of the eggs hatch. Hopefully the little guy will make an appearance sometime in the next couple of days! 

Taylor's visit

 Taylor stayed with us for 4 nights and we had the best time!  Lauren was feeling puny, but she still loved spending time with her oldest cousin.

We had fun playing with the new LightScoop Eric got me for my birthday.  I am not a fan of flash photography, so this nifty gadget sits on top of my camera to bounce the flash off the ceiling.  I love how these pictures turned out!

 

We love you Taylor and we are so happy you came to spend some time with us! 

the big premier

Last night Taylor, her cousin Nikki and I braved watching the Eclipse midnight show on opening night.  We got to the movie theater at 10 pm and were seated right away.  We spent the two hours before the movie started playing games on our phones, talking and eating.

We really enjoyed the movie and it was worth the exhaustion I felt today!  I'm all about "Edward for the book, Jacob for the look!"

mighty fun

Since my niece Taylor is in town visiting, we decided to show her around downtown Austin today.  We drove down to South Congress to grab some lunch and check out the sites.

We grabbed lunch at The Mighty Cone and it was mighty delicious.
 

Fried avocado and chicken? Yes, please!

When I saw this cool wall, I had to take a picture of my beautiful niece.  I'm so glad she is staying with us for a couple days!

eggs, eggs and more eggs

Before we headed to the farm, I had visions of four cute duck eggs sitting in the incubator I borrowed from Erica. Her love of hatching chickens had enticed me to borrow the incubator and hatch something too. The boys really wanted to hatch some duck eggs, so off to the farm we went.

Little did I know, every egg the kids picked up would be going home with me. Not to eat, but to hatch.

They are all now safe in the incubator set at the perfect temperature and humidity. Before we crammed put the 13 eggs in the incubator, we candled them to see if any of them were destined not to hatch. Only one egg was not perfect and had to be removed. That means I have 12 potential birds going to hatch! A little overwhelming? Um, yes!

My job now is to turn the eggs from the X side to the O side three times a day for 21 to 28 days. I will probably candle them every 3 days or so to see if there are any that are not going to hatch, so we can free up some room in the incubator.

Wanna know what's in the eggs?

2 duck

3 guinea

2 chicken

5 banty eggs

The fact that the chickens and bantys will hatch a full week before the duck and guineas does stress me out a little, but at least there will be more room in the incubator when they hatch. To make it a little more interesting, a pigeon was nesting on top of one of the banty eggs, so that egg will probably hatch a week early. I guess I'll just have to be on the lookout for some pecking from a tiny little banty! Good thing I have Erica to help me through this exciting project!

e-i-e-i-o

Yesterday we headed over to a local farm to check out the animals.  My mom, Erica, Erica's mom and all our kids got an amazing tour from the farm owner Melissa and two of her adorable boys.

The farm has chickens, cows, turkeys, a horse, peacocks, guineas, bantys, ducks, geese, rabbits, pigeons, a giant pregnant pig, dogs and kittens. 

The kids loved feeding all the animals.

Ethan loved the horse the best.

Their pig has a bowling ball too!

My mom held Lauren so I could take a million pictures.  Thanks Mom!

The boys thought the worm box was pretty cool.

 

Austin was extremely excited about the blue egg he found.  In fact, he brought it home with him...

To be continued...

little artist

Our little 16 month old baby girl loves to color.  She just picked up a crayon a couple weeks ago and held it correctly all on her own.  I may just be a proud mama, but I think that's pretty special. Her favorite thing to do right now is climb on top of the dining room table and steal her brother's colored pencils.  I think we have an artist on our hands!

June 20th, the last day

Before we headed back home, we decided to hit up the beach one more time.

 

 

We had a nice vacation trip and we are very blessed to have such a wonderful family!