Abbey turns 7

I'm not a big fan of birthday parties so Abbey has yet to have one. This year was pretty much the same but I did let her plan the day because I felt bad. We went swimming with her cousins

and then to Chuck E Cheeses.

i love this picture because I was trying to get her to look and smile when at the last minute she spotted someone that had dropped a token and REALLY wanted to go grab it.

she collects nut crackers and Grandma Allen gave her this one.

Abbey gets nervous and shy in a lot of situations but then she will surprise me in others and come up with some of the funniest things to talk to people about. She enjoys learning French and told me that this year she doesn't want to play sports, she wants to do dance or gymnastics. I do think those 2 activities are fitting for her.

Cloe's 10th Birthday

and I shamefully admit her birthday was February 18th. I'm doing a little catch-up. It was weird when her birthday arrived because I realized she has been in our family for 10 years and in less time (8 years) she will be an adult! That freaks me out. Cloe is a great student and loves school. I have had 2 teachers e-mail me and tell me what a pleasure she is to have in class. She likes to put on dance productions with her little sisters, especially Charlotte because she thinks she is just adorable doing dances. She is a great help and I know I can always count on her.

Grandma and Grandpa Brown came down for dinner, cake and presents. We ate her choice of pork roast, mashed potato's and canned green beans. She specifically said canned green beans. She was stoked on the butterfingers g'ma gave her.

and stoked on her new heeley's from Mom and Dad.

I know I've raised her well when she asks for strawberry cake with my cream cheese frosting.

love day

This year I bought Ryan and the kids mailboxes at the dollar store and found a Valentine sort of countdown/daily love notes on pinterest.

here are 2 of the 14 days. The kids loved coming home and "checking the mail"

Abbey's hair on Vday. A last minute heart.

We had our usual candle lit romantic dinner a day early because Ryan and I decided to hit the Valentine crowds and do out on a date.

a crowd pleaser around here

My mother-in-law bought me a cookbook for Christmas, she knows me so well. You may have heard of it Our Best Bites, or seen the website. Well there are plenty of delicious recipes but I just wanted to take a minute and recommend the french dip sandwich all 4 kids ate them up and the husband had 3. Me, I only had half of one, meat doesn't settle so well with me lately.....

Today I figured this is our 4th Sunday in the new house and I'm still not done unpacking.

The weather was perfect this weekend so the kids spent the days rollerblading. Of course after Brody's EIGHT am basketball game

and a little kids workshop at Home Depot.

Oh, and how could I forget that mediocre lunch at Panda Express. The kids got free kids meal coupons at school. I should have given them away.

Instagram

I am officially an Instagram user and have plenty of random pictures that need a home here on the blog. This is what has been going on. In reverse order of course because that is how blogger loads pictures :)

lunch and recess with Abbey. Charlotte loved feeling like a big kid, I loved feeling like a celebrity among her friends and Abbey just loved having us there.

she looks lonely but she loves it out there

rather than unpacking, we made cookies and decorated for Valentine's Day. Still productive even if it wasn't the best way to spend my time.

Brody playing basketball

Charlotte and Dad in the studio

the new library

guitar lessons. Ryan is trading a student tuition for teaching the 3 older kids how to play the guitar.

I won.

moving in

moving out

cheese ravioli with brussel sprouts and bread

good-bye Lady hen, we love you and will miss you!

dinner during moving = milkshakes. Hey, no one complained.

more food.

Her first time going to a birthday party by herself

finally some snow!

painting her nails at Brodys wrestling practice.

empty nest

*I didn't have time to finish this the day it all happened while the emotions were still high :)

Back in May of 2010 we were given all we needed to raise chickens. A free large dog house, equipment for a run, 3 chickens and a boy that had a crush on my sister was handy enough to put it all together for me, also for free. It was a little scary at first and I had a little bit of "buyers" remorse but I ended up falling in love. I loved my chickens and I loved them even more after they started laying delicious eggs.

In January 2011 we moved to our new house (this is where I stopped)

and all I could think of when I brought the chickens over was "they must be in heaven with all this space to just roam". They were and then shortly after, one of them, my favorite one Belina went to heaven. Thanks to that damn dog behind us.

In February we decided to add to the flock and bought 2 baby chicks. The kids LOVED them. Charlotte a little too much and they were squeezed to death, remember?

Then came the replacements a few days later, this time we bought 3.

In May that damn flippin dog got out again and killed 2 of the young chickens. (to save you on the math, we are back down to 3)

On KSl we found a boy selling chickens that were about the same age as the ones that were killed, 8 weeks. We bought 3. Shortly after a different neighbor's boyfriend had 2 dogs that played tug o war with one of the new ones. Another scarring experience for Cloe as she was the one that was trying to save them and round them up while I beat the shit out of one of the dogs. I was so mad! Luckily he had more so we went back for one more chicken. I think I am forgetting a killing of one of the originals, Ella.

After that we had Cheetah, Lady, Ducky, Penny and Bella. And not too mention, they spent far more of their days locked up and not roaming the yard. Late Fall of 2011, Ducky disapearred and Bella was killed by the dog across the street. Then she killed 2 more before the year was over. We were getting ready to move and were down to 2 chickens. We found our house and were told we couldn't bring the chickens.

I posted on facebook that a friend could have everything for free. My friends mom said she wanted them (I didn't want to give them away for free since it wasn't a friend anymore but whatever)

The day they came to pick the stuff up, I got in the cage to catch Penny and the second I grabbed her I started to cry. I handed her to the kids and then caught the other one, Lady and handed her to a kid. I let the kids hold them one more time before we got rid of them. After the left I went inside and started crying. I was so sad to get rid of them, I love my chickens. Time has passed and I am over it now, I do miss having them around and nothing beats fresh chicken eggs. Someday I will buy some more ladies. I think people are surprised about the feelings they have towards their chickens after they buy them. It seems so weird to love a chicken but there is something about them, they are so soft and whenever I would come outside, they would always run to me like a dog wanting food. How could you not love a pet that is low maintenance and provides food for your family!

Christmas Break with 2 holidays included

Remember before all this fancy technology, people used their imagination? Well, on Christmas eve, Christmas day and New Years eve, we were too busy using our fancy technology of video recording and didn't take any pictures. yep, no still pictures of Christmas. But luckily we have Grandma's that do take pictures and we saw them so maybe we will have some....

Use your imagination and think of how our holidays went :) Christmas eve we went to Ryan's moms house to keep with tradition. Ryan and Cloe sang a duet to "Baby it's Cold Outside", very cute, Abbey attempted a song in French but was very stage fright and then we did the nativity. Charlotte made her debut as Mary this year and took the role very seriously. Her and her cousin Caleb who is the same age, walked in holding hands and sat through the scripture reading like the holy parents that they were.

Christmas day was great. We told the kids they had to stay in their room until 7:30. We set our alarm and they were all asleep still so WE woke the kids up Christmas morning. Toys were very minimal this year, more necessity items and "toys" that wouldn't be thrown into the toy room and forgotten. They got a trampoline and rollerblades and pillow pets. But the tramp is still in it's box. we're moving, unexpected, more on that later. We went to church out of guilt. Let's be honest. Then headed to my moms' for presents, family and Christmas dinner.

New Year's was spent at Ryan's brothers house. The boys (men) played some basketball (Ryan's dream of family bonding come true) then we hung out, over indulged on food and played the Wii. Happy New Year, I love this time of year.

Brody has been wrestling, in fact his season ended this week. He loves it and he is feisty so this seems to be right up his alley. He practices and has matches during the week and then on the weekends he has tournaments at different high schools. Back in November he took first place in his division, I was pretty proud of him.
At his tournament yesterday, we had been there a couple hours and Charlotte was getting restless and started to throw a fit. The lady by us reminded her that Santa can see her and then I told her she won't get a present when she cries like that. She did calm down. Later that day at the gas station, a car pulled up next to us and Santa was driving. Brody pointed it out and I rolled down Charlie's window. The first thing she said was "Hi Santa, I not crying!" They were so excited to randomly see Santa like that.

buddy

We started The Elf on The Shelf tradition this year. I read the kid the book under the tree and in the book it says that once you give him a name you can't touch him. So they each cradled him and kissed him before we gave him his name. We stuck him in the tree and named him "buddy" and then the kids started talking to him and telling him their wishes.

The tooth fairy and Buddy sometimes get lazy/forgotten. But it has been fun finding new places and the kids like looking for him and when they act up, I remind them that he is watching, but that is starting to lose it's effectiveness.