Diadora

A friend recently asked me if a photographer friend of hers could use Dia as a model for some photos. She takes pictures for a company called My Blankee. She wanted Dia and her little friend Cohen to come together. Jenny managed to get a couple good ones, but Dia was really not in the mood. She is in a Stranger Danger phase and always thinks I am going to leave her.  Plus she is a little scared of Cohen because he likes her too much and is always grabbing her and knocking her over! Let's just say Cohen was a much better model than Dia was!

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After Jenny was done with the babies she offered to take some of the older kids. Johnny had been playing outside with some water and so his clothes were soaking wet. I could not convince him to put his shirt on just a minute to take a picture, so he is shirtless. :)

Apparently we need to work on our posture around here because they are both slouching the same! I am sure they get it from me, I am not the best example!

Happenings...

Not too much has been going on around here. There are so many things that need to be happening but there is never enough time (or money!) to do it all! Here are a few random photos from things we have been doing.

The weather was really warm a couple of weeks ago. The kids thought it was warm enough to get the sprinkler out! They didn't end up playing in the water too long but at least their fair skin got some sun!

The other morning Dia was sleeping with me and Johnny decided to wake up early and come climb in bed too. He loves to lay on Daniel's side. I was surprised I managed to slip out without either one of them waking up!

We got out garden planted! Well, I should say Daniel planted the garden. He was not too thrilled that I wasn't helping him. I was holding the baby! And I did write most of the names on the little sticks to label what is planted where. :)

He had 'helpers'.

Our babies are getting big! They are actually even bigger than this now. We have a couple of chicks that will let us pick them up, one run as fast as she can away from us. This black one will let me hold her and she'll even sit down in my hand and hang out for a few minutes!

This girl is trouble. I went to check on her to see what she was doing and she had dumped all of Addie's stuff off of her bed! She is in the 'take everything out and throw it' phase. I had to try and clean it up before Addie saw it. But how could you not love that little face?!

Fire Damage

It's been almost 3 weeks since the 'incident' and I have been meaning to blog about it but there is never enough time in the day! So here it is. Some of these pictures are a little embarrassing because you can see just how much stuff we had crammed out there. In the 2 weeks or so before the fire I had been working on organizing a lot of it. There was a corner for my craft stuff, I set up an area where the kids could play and everything else went in the music room! I had just started to unpack books on to a bookshelf in there when this happened. When the guys bring all of our stuff back, I get to start all over again unpacking! Ugh.

This is where the fire was.

The ceiling was so black!!

Daniel had all of his tools and pieces of trim for projects in there.

Someone told us that when the smoke comes in it creates these little spider web type things on the ceilings. We thought we just had a lot of webs that we never noticed before!

The kids play area.

This was my craft corner. I am still nervous about what is going to come back and what they are going to label as 'non-salvageable'. Years of collecting paper, fabric, tools, ribbon, etc.. I hope most of it comes back ok because it will be hard to justify going out and buying all new stuff.

This is the music room. Most of the boxes in here were not going to get unpacked until we had the upstairs done. In here were toys, craft room stuff, furniture, Daniel's drum set, my violin, books, etc. Everything covered in black.

When the firemen came in, they came through this other door for some reason. They came barging in even though we had things up against the door. (We never used this door, it went out to the shed).

What was left of our chick pen, melted heat lamp included.

My brother in law's compressor. The most expensive item (and really the only thing out side of the chicken pen) that was damaged by the actual fire. Sorry Ben!

The kids were so excited when we found 5 of the chicks! We had to go out and play with them a bit!

I think I am going to blog the progress of the remodel on our house blog, http://welcometoourmoneypit.blogspot.com/. Check there for updates!

Spring Fair

The Spring Fair came in April. Of course we couldn't miss it! The weather was a little questionable but we loaded up the kids (and jackets, umbrellas and hats) and headed over. As we were walking up to the ticket booth, a man asked us if we had tickets. At first we didn't know what to say because we were unsure if he was trying to buy some from us or what. Turns out he had 2 extra tickets that he wanted to give to us! The kids are still free, so we all got in for free! At the bottom of the tickets he gave us was a ride ticket stub. I took it to the ticket booth to buy tickets and the lady handed me 2 ride cards without asking me to pay. She asked if I wanted to buy more and I politely said no. I didn't actually read the stub that I handed her. I wasn't sure if it was a coupon or a ticket for free rides. So, we got in for free and the kids rode the rides for free!! (As we were walking around I found one of the ticket stubs on the ground. When I picked it up and read it, it was supposed to be a coupon for discounted rides! The lady that helped me must not have known what she was doing because I got them for free! I felt a little bad, but we had already used all the tickets!)

 

 

 

 This was the first time at the fair that neither Daniel or I had to go on any of the rides with them. I do love fair rides, but if I have to go with them, it uses one of their ride tickets and we are so cheap I don't want to buy extra! (I did go on the Carosel because parents ride that one for free).

Johnny decided he wanted to go on this swing ride with Addie. At first it was slow and low, then it picked up speed and started lifting up higher. I guess he freaked out a little bit and next thing we know Addie had her arm around him! She is such a great big sister!

 

I realize this picture is blurry but I wanted to include it. This was Daniel's favorite part of the fair. Dog jumping contest. It is actually fun to watch. The dog owners throw a toy across this pool and the dogs run and jump off a platform into the water to get it. They are judged on how far they jump!

Milking Mable.

 

This kid is really in to blowing me kisses lately!

 

And I won't forget this little girl. She ended up staying in the stroller the whole time, taking 2 naps!

Little Chicks

So let's rewind a little bit. Back to about 4 weeks before the fire. 

One of the things on our checklist of 'must haves' for a house was a place to put a chicken coop. Daniel really wanted chickens. I heard they were good 'pets' for the kids. And we would have fresh eggs! Our house has a structure that we knew could be turned into a function coop. So, a week after Easter we went to the farm supply store down the street and bought 6 chicks! They were so tiny and adorable! They were the perfect size for Addie and Johnny to hold. Johnny didn't really like them at first because their feet were poky!

We bought a little chick pen for them to go in until they were big enough to go outside. They needed to be in around 90 degree temperature for the first few weeks! We set them up in the rec room with food, water and a heat lamp.

Everyday the kids and I would go out there and play with them. We want them to be used to us and people. It's best if you handle them often. They are really getting used to us and would get really excited when they heard the door open! They even recognize the sound their bag of treats (dried meal worms!) make when we open it!

Everyday they get noticeably bigger! While they were in here nice and warm, Daniel was building the rest of the chicken coop outside! We were just thinking it was about time to move them outside when the fire happened and we had no choice! 

Diadora 10 Months

My little miss is getting so big! In 2 short months she will be a year old! Her personality is so fun. She is super mellow but at the same time loud enough to demand attention when she wants it. Her brother and sister love her more everyday, especially now that she is starting to 'play' with them! I love that she waves every time you say 'hi' to her. She also just likes to wave at everyone! One of my favorite things babies do is say uh-oh. She has started saying it all the time when she drops something or if she almost falls over! Love her!

Waving!

Uh oh!