the return of the Chicken

So the Chickens are growing up and now they are ugly, no more fun for the kids until they are all grown up and layin' eggs. This is Jace with the Hen in it's old cage.Paige and Gabe with chicken pets. Paige is petrafied of all animals so for her to be holding this is a big deal!
"mahma" even let Gabe bring this one in for a visit.
Gabe taking this one for a walk.
The Chickens when they were cute and little in their first home, "the box in the garage" They were stinky and had to move out to their new coup!

Where do chickens come from?

Pictures are in need but the story can be told first. Every year my parents have a "Year of the. . ." For example last year was the year of the kitty's, growing up I enjoyed, the year of the: bow and arrows, machine guns, dousing, gold, bikes, etc. Always something exciting with my dad. Anyways this is the year of the Chicken. So a few weeks ago my brother decided it would be fun to have baby chicks and the next day we had 23 babies. Well babies can't lay eggs so the next day we had an egg laying hen. So all of the grand kids take turn getting the 4:00 egg. Sometimes she doesn't pan out and sometimes she's late be she does lay eggs and they are green.
Gabe is quite the little farmer, he loves to pick them up and Carry them around. He even found a basket and piled as many as he could in so he could take them for a walk. They have also enjoyed wagon rides and john deer trips. Gabe had a treat last week and took them to school for show and tell. For sure he is the most talked about kid in Ms. Jean"s class now.
Jace on the other hand thinks they are cool but doesn't want to hold them and only pretends to touch them. Last week all of the boys built a chicken coup in my parents backyard. All it needs now is a fresh coat of paint and the chickens can move in!

Happy Birthday Jace!

Today Jace turned 2! yipee, he's getting so old!

Today was such a chaotic day baking, decorating, cleaning. You know the typical Saturday activities, so I feel really bad that Jace didn't have my full undivided attention. But I knew this was going to happen so last night we took the kids and went with our great friends the Murdocks and Kathy and her kids to Kangaroo Zoo! I forgot the camera (Bummer) but it was so much fun playing with the kids on all the bounce houses and slides. We were there for at least 2 hours and we finally had to drag our exhausted kids out because it was way past bed time. It was a blast!

The things I love about Jace: He is so small and cute, if he were a girl I would have to say he is beautiful! He is very curious and loves to play. He loves to be outside infact I think he wishes we didn't have a house and lived outside. He loves to play in the dirt and get really dirty. He is my mess maker in every way. I love his smile, I loves his hugs, I love his kisses and the way he catches mine! I love to watch him with Gabe. He talks a lot now and he mimics the way Gabe says words, so therefore they understand each other and it's great! In my dad's words "Jace is the pick of the litter!" (Shh. don't tell anyone) I love everything about my little Jacey!

Gabey loves Jace!

Mommy Loves Jace!

Daddy loves Jace!

February update

I don't know about the rest of you but I am ready for the sunshine. I have survived this winter better than the last one thanks to the beautiful snow, but I am ready for the grass to grow green and the sun to shine bright. Rumor has it the pools will be off limits to little ones so we will have to spend the summer on the boat and in the backyard. Hurry up Mr. Sunshine, come shine down on me!

Here are a few pictures of the last few days.

After church Gabe wanted his Dad to have lunch with him, so it had to be at the kids table.

For Family Night we had Grandma & Grandpa Phillips, Terri & Robbie over for dinner and cookie decorating. Yummy! Terri we love you and miss you!

January updates

So Mike and Todd got to go skiing, they had a lot of fun but they have to remember they are getting OLD!Gabe and Jace tried to have a ride on the little sled, Jace kept falling off on his face and didn't like it one bit.
Grandpa is all the kids best friend because everyone wants to help plow the snow. Today it was Gabe and Jace's turn, Jace cried forever when he had to get off.
My little Snow Angel. Jace loves the snow.
We tried to build a snowman but it wasn't very good rolling snow, so it turned into a mound!

Mike and Gabe playing race car's. All of this snow makes for some real sweet jumps! That truck seems to be indistructable landing on it's roof more than once. Mike sure loves to be a little boy.

A day of NEW

So today Mike bought a new truck. No not one that he drives with a remote control, a big Ford. He's really excited, he never loved his old work truck but it was free so it was awesome. But the boss decided he needed to sell it so Mike of course started Truck Shopping. He loves to shop for big items. I will post a picture of it later, pretty nice.
The other new thing today is Jace. He started his first day potty training. Yes he is young but he is ready and on fire. That kid kills me. His skinny little bum running around in big boy undies. Yesterday we went shopping, he picked out Thomas and Gabe picked him some Bob the Builder underwear. He went through all 6 pairs pluss a few pull ups pluss a few of Gabes old undies all in one day! They were small accidents that didn't pool on the floor. I remember puddles with Gabe, maybe that's the advatage of doing it when their small, their bladder doesn't hold as much as a 3 year olds. I know it gets better and I'm not discouraged at all (yet)! He is doing really good and he loves to put a sticker on the chart when he goes on the potty. I'm sure there are tuff days ahead but it's cold outside so why not!