A Quick Trip Outside

"He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens; and by His power He brought in the south wind."

Psalm 78:26

Not realizing how windy it was, I took Lydia outside today. (The sun was just too beautiful and warm!) I was very surprised at the strength of the wind!  Soon after we had gone out Hannah came out and joined us for a short playtime outside. 

Lydia and Hannah on the see-saw Daddy and boys made.

Let's just say that Lydia didn't like the see-saw today.

Spring is around the corner!! :)

This photo gives you an idea of how windy it was!!

We stopped by for a look at the chickens.  Lydia wanted to go in but we wouldn't allow it.

It is amazing how huge the full-grown chickens look after 3 days of staring at the little chicks!

Those of you who remember our root-cellar expedition last year...Lydia is standing on our "root cellar."  Sadly we don't think it works so all those hours of labor was for nothing.  :-(

We decided to go over to the pasture but it was so windy there too that we went back towards the house!

By this time Josiah and Eden had joined us too...but we still went inside! :)

My favorite picture of Lydia for the day! :)

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber

P.S. - We've had 3 chicks casualties so we're down to 97 chickens now. :-(

Chick Pictures!

"Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind..."

Genesis 6:20

I took some more pictures of the chickens this morning, here they are:

Aren't they so sweet?

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber

P.S. - I have a video of the chicks but I've got to figure out where I can upload it onto the blog...

The Chicks Are Here!!!

"For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind."

James 3:7

This morning at 6:45 AM, Daddy got a call from our local post office saying that our 100 chicks had arrived!   Out of all of us, Alexis was the most excited.  She's been waiting for this day for weeks!!!

After breakfast Daddy (with a few helpers ;) made their little home in the laundry room.

They won't stay in there long because they grow too fast, carry some diseases (wash your hands!!), and will soon learn to fly out of their cage - which is not allowed!

Mama let us take a break from school and chores (another benefit of homeschooling!) and everyone but Hannah, Mama, and Lydia, piled into our little green Avalon and went to pick up the chicks!

The backseaters.

It was 9:10 when we left!

Last night a wintery-mix of weather rained down upon us, so there was a little bit of snow and such on the windshield, but it melted rather quickly.

Once we arrived, we all got out and crammed into the little post office.  You could hear the chicks peeping as soon as you were inside!  The lady brought the box over, checked them over, and gave them to us to take home!  Before we went back into the car Daddy let most of us pick up and hold a little, fluffy chick!

Are they not absolutely adorable? 

Daddy got 50 golden comets, and 50 Buff Orpingtons for those of you who know your chickens!

Eden and a chick.

The chicks came via an airplane from Iowa's Schlecht Hatchery and were in a little cardboard box that was seperated into 4 sections.  They were peeping like crazy!

I managed to get the backseaters to give me a smile because they were doing this...

...as soon as the box was on their lap!

They are so precious!!

We all got to hold one on the way home.  The above chicken was the one Caleb was holding.  It would close its eyes and then open one.  It was so hilarious! :)

Lydia's reaction after we got home - when she saw the chicks.

This should give you an idea to how small the chicks are.  That's Lydia's hands.

Lydia doesn't quite understand that when you pet chicks you have to be very gentle.  Not just gentle.  Very gentle.  She thinks it's like petting a cat and the poor chicks try to get away as fast as they can. 

Daddy opening the box to let the chicks into their new home! :)

Once the chicks had access to the box, some faltered out, others stayed in the box.  So we had to gently push them out.  A few were trying to climb up the box at a 45 degree angle - they didn't want to leave! :)

Lydia managed to get into the dryer (not very safe) while we were watching the chicks settle in.

We showed the chicks where their food and water was, petted a few, and just enjoyed watching them be chicks before we started school.  Right now, they're peeping away and I can hear them very well even though I'm on the opposite side of the house.  Hopefully they'll calm down by tonight because our (Hannah, Alexis, and I) room is almost on top of where the chicks are staying!

The sweet little chicks.

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Last night we had our quarterly Bread Becker Pick-up.  (Our B.B. pick-up is when people who order food and such from http://www.breadbeckers.com/, pick up their stuff that they ordered - we're one of the co-ops for the area.  We make the entire night into fellowshiping and eating new and old recipes with everyone we haven't seen in awhile)  Everything went really well!

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber :)

P.S. - There will definitely be a few more chick posts! :)

Seth's 9th Birthday

"the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God."

Luke 3:38

Seth turned 9 on February 23rd!  We decided to wait until Friday (the 26th) to celebrate his birthday, but he still opened one present (from Grandma and Grandpa) that came through the mail on his real birthday!

The birthday boy!!! :)

Um, yes, the box was hard to get open!  It took lots of persuasion before it finally opened! :)

Aunt Mae-Mae called right as Seth was getting into the present to wish him a happy birthday!

I know this picture is out of order, but I wanted to show the mask Seth got from Gpa and Gma! :)

Seth received a shirt from Disney World's Animal Kingdom, some nice camouflage pants, socks, and some raspberry mints!

Lexi showing you the mint! :)

The patties were raspberry mint flavored and Seth let us all have one.

Of course, I couldn't get through a single post without a picture of Daddy! :-D

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Wednesday afternoon Na-naw (our grandma) came and picked Seth up to take him birthday shopping with her (a tradition she started for those over age 5-6).  He went to Sonic (the new one in Mechanicsville), came to church, went to Dairy Queen with them afterwards and fell asleep at their house watching the Olympics.  He then went to the Science Museum of Virginia because someone had given us 3 free tickets and they were about to expire (and we all couldn't use them by then).  Seth is the most engineering mind in our family.  He's constantly thinking up new inventions.  (For example [and it's just one of many!], he wants to make a life-size replica of the Axiom from the movie Wall-E.  He says that Caleb will be Mo, Alexis the Beautician Bot - or something like that - etc.  Guess what I get to be?  Those police robots that take pictures ;)  Anyways, the Science Museum was right up his alley!  He came back after a lunch at Cracker Barrel.

The next day we celebrated his birthday!

Caleb bought Seth Skittles from church and made a rainbow assortment around his plate.

When asked what to make for his special breakfast,  Hannah persuaded him to choose omelets! :)  And for the bread he chose coffee cake...

We ended up with the blue icing because Na-naw had bought Seth a snake from the Museum that was the color of the icing in the photo, and he liked the snake...so why not have icing the same color?  :-D

Doesn't that make your mouth water just looking at that?

Daddy is a superb breakfast chef!  He can make omelets, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, etc. to however you order it.  His omelets and scrambled eggs are one of my favorites!!

The birthday boy with his blue snake.

After breakfast, the day went on.  We cleaned up the house for the Nash Luncheon on Sunday and made the ice cream cake Seth wanted.

Seth's dinner was chicken in wine sauce, rice, green beans and corn, and homemade buttermilk rolls.  After dinner he opened his presents!

(Now pay special attention to every one's faces in the pictures...they're pretty funny! :)

Seth got lots of different things from people, but mostly candy!   Daddy and Mama got him Traders and Barbarians Catan game to go with the Expansion Set Seth got with Na-naw.

While Seth was looking over all the presents he just opened, Daddy and Caleb were planning an attack.  Caleb had bought Seth some silly string and Daddy was quietly shaking it up under the table.  Guess what Daddy did?

You guessed it!  He sprayed Seth! 

Of course Daddy didn't use all of it but it definitely surprised Seth!

In return, Seth got to spray Daddy and Caleb...

Now that everyone was sufficiently stringed, we watched the movie Beauty and the Beast before stopping halfway to eat ice cream cake!!!

Yummy!

This is the same cake we made for Hannah's birthday last year except we only used one cake split in half.

We were out of "real" candles, so Daddy lit the "country candles"...matches!  (Seth had matches for a few of his candles on his 8th birthday last year too!)

Blowing out the "candles."

Thus ended Seth's 9th birthday!

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber :)