"Most all things in America were made from China." --James

Matthias LOVES His Dad

While having a discussion about how great it is to be a kid I asked Matthias, "What is the best part of being a kid?" "Being with my dad." No hesitation, no stopping to think. Matthias loves being with his daddy!

While Exercising...

James: Matthias hold this bean bag on my back while I do push ups.
Matthias: I'm not the servant of you.
James: If you don't do it I will take away your toy.
Me: Maybe if you want to get someone to help you then you should offer incentives rather than threats.
James: If you hold this on my back I will give you a penny.
Matthias: Ok.


After this interaction the boys started exercising together for over an hour. Hannah even got in on some of the action. They lifted weights, tied weights to their legs and did crunches and leg lifts, ran laps around the yard (which is actually quite a big loop). It was pretty funny. They seriously ran like 10 laps. They decided they were going to be really strong.


James: Tomorrow we are going to wake up at 6:30 and play. Then at 6:48 we'll run 2 laps around the yard. Then go back to bed. Then at seven eight we will run some more laps.

Boys' Chatter

While sitting down to lunch of PB&J (except Matthias who has cheese sandwiches) the following conversation ensued. James' initial accusation was a taunt much like you might say to your younger sister "you like to eat frogs" or "you have blue hair", something completely untrue said for no other reason than to irritate.

James: Hannah has white bread.
Me: Everyone has wheat bread.
James: Except Hannah. She has white bread. I saw you cut some store bought bread for her.
Me: Bread from the store is already cut when you buy it.
(Incredulous stares)
James: Why can't people cut their own bread?
Matthias: The store cuts bread?



Just as we sat down to dinner the other day I though James' new book he ordered, "Encyclopedia of Science" may have arrived while we were gone at the gymnastics so I stood up, walked to the door, opened and looked out, then sat back down.

James: Why did you open the door?
Matthias: Did somebody come?
Me: Just checking to see if there was a peacock on the porch.
Matthias: And was there?
Me: No.

Everyone continued eating. And I had to laugh that my comment caused no pause whatsoever. Our neighbors have a peacock and a peahen who regular come over to our house, mostly in the back yard scaring our chickens, but sometimes I'll find the peacock on the front porch as if waiting to be invited in.

Rocket

It was windy, as per always here, and during the first launch the rocket blew and got stuck in a tree but Taylor climbed up and got it down so we could shoot it one more time. Lots of fun! (this was in like April, not today)

Harvey Farm

It's official...one year in the making and we finally have our chickens!
















I could write a totally separate blog just about our chickens. If I had an extra 30 minutes every day, which is turns out I'm usually a couple hours short. So I will spare all the details and give a brief synopsis.

Taylor built an awesome coup. Because we're like that and tend to go over the top. He designed it, bought wood and built it. The boys and I stained it, at 1 pm in 95+ degree weather. It was lovely. And Taylor was finishing the roof and hardware cloth the day the hens came...he was up until 1 am out there working. He does a lot of projects in the dark...building the tramp, planting a pear tree, mowing the lawn.

4 hens came 2 weeks ago from our neighbors. The kids love them, named them very original names Chick (Matthias'), Feather (James'), Hannah (Hannah's), Molly (ours). I'm not kidding, Hannah named her chicken Hannah and we call her that.

Feather found a hole in the fence 2 days later, pecked into our only neighbors yard, got chased and mauled by a giant dog, rescued by me and Matthias. I gave her a shot. In the leg. Me, a shot. To a chicken. This is blogged in great detail in my journal. It was traumatizing and very dramatic.

Bought 3 baby chicks from our neighbors. The kids marched over $3 in each little hand and picked out their little ones. Which we are hoping all turn out to be hens. They are all very cute and pretty. These ones are named Riley (James'), Luke (Matthias'), and Cocoa (Hannah's). These are the boys best friends and Hannah picked that name out like a month ago and stuck with it. The kids LOVE the little chicks and will play with them for hours. Once I asked James if he wanted to read with me and he said "No, I want to play with the chicks." He then laid under the swing set for like 20 minutes with Cocoa (she's the favorite).

Matthias is the little chicken man and can catch and hold the chickens like you wouldn't believe. He has no timidness or fear of them and just loves to be with them, hens or chicks. He makes up all kinds of games and just follows them around. He had Cooca sitting on his shoulder the other day when I went out, little pirate Matt. He's hilarious.

Yesterday I got a little Welsummer chick. When we decided to get chickens I started looking and decided I had to have one of these, they are beautiful and lay really dark brown eggs. She is super cute and very needy. The other chickens haven't accepted her into the flock yet so she gets pecked at a lot. The 3 little chicks got a lot of pecking done to them last weekend, but are pretty much left alone now except by Feather who is the meanest (probably because of her injuries).

And that's the short story.

Big Girl

We decided if we start treating her like a big girl maybe she will stop acting like a baby...ie crying in sacrament mtg, throwing food, general whining. We are very optimistic. So I whipped her up those awesome sheets from some fabric I had laying around and she was ready to go. And she is a great little sleeper in her big girl bed. Stayed in all night and didn't get up until after 7. She even claimed this morning that she fell out, bonked her head, and got back in. Love this little girl!