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I’m finally consolidating the pics and videos from the last month and getting them to ya:

Here we are at the Evergreen (our church community) Camping Trip 2008:

Here are some random pics followed by pictures from Ben’s birthday party:

…and a video of the cow train from the birthday party- you might see us in the middle with yellow and red raincoats waving!

Here is some video of Ethan learning to ride his bike:

Here is some video of us finding our way through the muddy corn maize yesterday with other Evergreener’s, as well as the kiddos climbing the hay pyramid:

Here are more pics from yesterday’s Corn Maize with Evergreen at the Pumpkin Patch and the bonfire later:

Way cool for our friend Heath to offer his handyman skills, tools, and scrap wood to turn our terribly makeshift coop/run into a glorious two level paradise

While I can take NO credit for this masterpiece, I want to thank Heath and his assistant Hubby for spending the entire day, in 90-100 degree weather, putting this baby together. What a team! (like, seriously, the Heath and Amy tribe - consider your egg needs covered for YEARS as payment for this help!)

Since I did nothing but get in the way, lol, I spent the evening with the kiddos, Heath and Amy’s 4 yr old Ben. It is SO funny to listen to two preschool boys talk! While eating their dinner after a long bubble bath, I hear Ben tell Lil’ E, “What a great way to spend a very hot day - eating good spaghetti and drinking ice cold water!” LOL

Since the chickens are now blessing us with a dozen or so eggs a week, I can’t tell you how excited I am to have them in a coop and run that I can keep clean and contained. They are getting more and more accustom to our presence and each have their own little personalities. My girls!

Below are some more random pics from the last several weeks. Enjoy!

Singin’ the Doxology Song at the Creek after Baptism - couple of weeks ago… (Yes, you do hear Lil’ E saying, “I don’t know that song!”)

Little E’s birthday was last week - the big numero tres! We filmed him opening his packages from grandparents and friends since we couldn’t celebrate together.

(And yes, I am embarrassed by this. I am not an exception to the rule that no one likes to see themselves on camera… But Lil’ E is such a doll )

“In its most profound sense, beauty may engender a salient experience of positive reflection about the meaning of one’s own existence.” -Wikipedia

“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it” -Confucius

“Beauty is not caused. It is.” -Emily Dickinson

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech

A few hours later, the snow had piled up quite a bit - this is the most snow I’ve seen in my entire life! Watch the slideshow for some random recent pics. Oh, you’ll see my chicks are growing up! Their names are Cocoa (the maran), Ginger (the Gold Sex-link), and Paprika (the Rhode Island red). Cocoa has turned out to be the “sweet” one- she enjoys being handled. Paprika is curious and the leader of the bunch, also doesn’t mind being handled. Ginger, bless her heart, is a big baby and we joke about putting her outside when she won’t shut up.

Yep, one Gold Sex-Link, one Maran, and one Rhode Island Red. I got them at two weeks old so they won’t be in the brooder (a box with heat lamp) in our kitchen for more than about 4 weeks. Yay! What should I name them???

Here’s what I’ve designed for a portable coop and run so far. It’s using the old rabbit hutch as a coop for them to lay, and then building a predator proof run from 2×4’s and wire mesh walls against it. Exciting stuff, huh?

We’ve got a great little backyard, as you can see from these photos of Lil’ E and his new bud from the “child-swap” situation, Finn. All it needs is a few chickens!

Why raise chickens in your backyard? BackyardChickens offer these reasons:

• Easy and inexpensive to maintain
• Eggs that are great tasting and nutritious
• Chemical free pest control
• Fun and friendly pets with personality (yes, you read that right)
• Free fertilizer
• Weed Control
• Uniqueness- Be the cool person in town that grows their own eggs!

For more information about raising backyard chickens, check out the following links!
BackyardChickens.com
MadCityChickens.com
Livingscape Nursery; Chicken Fest (where we got our chicks!)
Urban Agrarian blog
wiki-How; Keeping Chickens in the City
The City Chicken
My Pet Chicken

Of course, watching the eclipse from the rooftop last night made Lil’ E want to sing about twinklin’ stars… on about the third round (he went on and on) I grabbed it on the camera’s video (sorry about the sideways thing!)

can appreciate the beauty in this picture:

Ethan’s first potty poop, 2 years 7 months old! And yes, he will kill his mom one day when he finds out she put this picture on her blog…

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared some photos!

Check us out, doin this or that around town. Snapped some shots of what my last post described- the opened tulips, the many Spring shoots and early blooming flowers! Check out Peter Rabbit runnin around, as well as the melted crayola “stain glass” butterflies we made today! Can anyone say “Spring Has ALMOST Sprung?!”