action and excitement

I just had to post this picture... just for the fun of it! As some of you know, my brother, Scott and his wife Lori came up this past weekend from N. Carolina for a visit with their 2 boys Caelin and Chase. They stayed at my parent's house. Apparently, they tuckered my mom right out, cuz when she came over to my house after they left, Mom couldn't keep her eyes open! Either that or my house was just such an exciting place to be... To be honest, Andrew fell asleep, too, and Dad caught a couple winks as well... just not when I pulled out the camera!

It was great to have them come by, and after a short nap we did play a couple games before they had to go. I know she needed it... my house is far from quiet, and she slept thru the noise!

Boys and their Chicks

You know, I'm not sure if I should be happy or not, but my husband has really gotten into checking out the "chicks". And, due to his example and encouragement, each of our boys has developed an enjoyment of this pasttime, as well. I guess things could be worse... they could be ugly chicks, not the cute, fuzzy, peeping kind! Anyway, Mike managed to convince the boys that they all wanted to order a bunch of these adorable little chickens to raise and somehow enjoy, and then, well, I'm not sure what's next. To be honest, my boys didn't really require too much convincing. So Mike ordered several little chicks of the boys' choosing... Michael always liked the cornish bantams (bantam is like a miniature chicken), Josh liked the buff and partridge variety, Rhett wanted some birchens and buffs, Austin wanted barred, and Trevor wanted "little ones that laid colored eggs", also known as aracauna. They are all the bantam variety, so they're little. And, right now, they're cute. Give 'em a couple weeks, and they'll have feathers poking out everywhere, and they won't be cute. I'm really not sure what good they are other than for eating bugs... their eggs are too small to make good eatin'!(unless you have a lot of them for scrambling!) Anyway, the kids are thrilled with the arrival of "their" chicks, so we got a couple pics to share.

Austin with his barred chick...

Trevor with two of the aracaunas...

A variety of the cute, fluffy little guys. Their colors and legs help to tell what kind they are...

And these are the "teenage chicks" As you can see, they've got feathers popping out everywhere like zits and just aren't the cute babies they used to be. They do get better looking as they get older, though! Once again, you can see some color varieties. These chicks we've had for about a month now...

Snow days

I remember when I was growing up, I HATED when school was cancelled due to snow. Mom always saw it as some great opportunity to get some project accomplished around the house. Needless to say, I prayed for a 2-hour delay so I could sleep in and avoid the chores!

Thanks to my fond memories of stripping paint, stripping wallpaper, cleaning windows, etc., I decided to help my children develop some similar fond memories. So on their snow-days, if I don't work, I've been trying to help them use their time wisely... Here are some pictures of our cleaning efforts...

Dusting those hard to reach areas... the kids actually enjoyed this one..

Some people get a little touchy about being photographed doing "women's work" as Josh terms it!!

Not even Carolynn is permitted to slack-off on snow days!

Mike's beard

My husband is a very manly man (did I get any brownie points with that one, dear?). Anyway, he grows a great beard. Unfortunately, I don't particularly like the hairy look, so he has been clean shaven for most of the past 14 years of marriage. Over Christmas break, he decided to grow out his beard, and I thought it might be fun to kiss a fuzzy brillo pad for a change, so he kept it for about two months. It did help keep his face warmer in the winter, too. And with how much he loves the humidity in the east, I don't think he will ever grow it out year round... Anyway, we took some pics so we could remember how "manly" he looks with a beard. We found a cute chick to pose with him to make it look a little better, too...

Looks like she likes being kissed by a brillo pad as much as I did!

Anyway, when he decided to shave, he wore a goatee for a day, just for the fun of it. He's pretty hot, if you ask me... the cleaner his face gets, the hotter he gets! We bribed the same cute little model to make him look good, but then she quit so we threw in a last minute replacement...

And just so people don't think I'm cruel to my hubby, he did get an occasional kiss, even with a hairy face!

Dominoes

Rhett has a great talent. Well, actually he has many, but the one I'm mentioning on this blog is his talent of making domino trails... or whatever they are called! While he was home sick with pneumonia this past week, he was afraid he would go stir crazy being stuck in the house, so he asked granny if he could borrow her dominoes so he would have something to do. I kept him busy enough baking great culinary masterpieces of his choosing (finger jello cookie cutouts, playdoh, peanut butter cookies, and mint brownies), but he did manage to build a few domino trails. So I took a couple pictures to show. If I'd been thinking, I would have thought to video the "knock-down" cuz that's the neatest part, but I've been having problems with that thinking thing... doesn't always happen. Anyway, here are two of his creations! I did take pictures during the "knock-down" but it's not the same effect.Tumble!

Michael's hair

My son has the most gorgeous curly hair. I would have loved to have his curls when I was growing up... didn't happen. Scott got all the curls before I was even born. Anyway, you can see Michael's curls in the pic with all the kids at the beginnning of the blog. One day last month, we decided to straighten his hair, just for the fun of it. Can I just tell you, that boy has A LOT of hair!! It took about 45 minutes (of quality mother-son time, of course... I'd ask questions, he'd give one word answers), but the result was... interesting. See for yourself!

He's cute, but I'd probably stick with the curls!!

Someday...

Sorry. I know I am not good about keeping all up to date. I have so many pictures I take and never post cause I want to write some wonderful thing to go with it to tell you all about it. Ends up nothing ever gets posted. So nobody knows we're all moved into our addition, unless you've been to my house. Nobody knows Carolynn was in the hospital for a couple of days end of February unless you read Sue's blog. Nobody has seen my husband's new puppy or the new chicks (but who really cares about those, right?). Nobody knows Austin had his first band concert tonight, or even that he plays the baritone, for that matter! Someday, I'll do it all... have a clean house, be the perfect homemaker, be a got-my-act-together working mom, and have an updated blog!! Someday...