February Updates

Just a few of our recent events that have happened so far this month...

We made a quick trip to Indiana so the boys could go rabbit hunting with their cousin Caleb. Ted, his brother Bill and another cousin Jason also went on the rabbit hunt. This was the boys first rabbit hunt and all the boys (both big and small) really had a great time despite the cold temperatures. Mason and Logan each shot one rabbit. They are still in my freezer waiting to be cooked. I have a feeling they may be there for a while!

Mason, Ted, Logan, Bill, Jason and Caleb

We have recently gotten quite a bit of snow which has been beautiful and fun to play in. I know a lot of people are really tired of winter but being gone for two winters makes this one more special. I will be happy for spring though as I look forward to spring flowers, trees budding, Robbins in the yard, birds singing and mushrooms popping up in the woods! We have had fun sledding, snowboarding (Logan) and four wheeling. I have also been enjoying taking photos! I am currently taking an adult community class in photography so needed to get some outdoor shots today. Cleo the cat insisted on following me all the way today.

Just click on the play button to see Logan snowboarding

Emily recently had a Father Daughter Dance with Girl Scouts and she was thrilled to have her dad take her! She was so excited about it. She got a new dress, painted her nails and wore her tiara! They had dinner and danced the night away. Emily has been taking tumbling the since August and has been doing some fantastic moves! She is quite a natural at it. She is going to take a break for a while and give piano lessons a try.

Some guys bring their wife flowers....

Instead of bringing flowers to the door Ted brought me an icicle! The icicle was huge, almost as tall as Emily. Up until recently it has been really really cold here lately (-13F or -26C) at night and not getting much above 10F in the day. Of course when it warmed up to 25F it felt like a heat wave!



We got quite a bit of snow last week which has been fun to play in. The snow was too light and fluffy for snowballs but we managed to make a few small snowmen. The kids have had fun being pulled around with the four wheeler. Ted bought the four wheeler over the holidays and it is quite fun to play on. It came with a blade as well which helped removing the snow when we didn't want to get the tractor out.

I had tried to post this blog and we lost power due to an ice storm. Now thanks to a generator I can finish posting this! It is odd to have the power go out and no guard to start the generator. Hopefully power will be up soon!

I have compiled a slide show of our holiday season. Enjoy!

One in a billion

Another chicken blog, sorry about that. Seems like it is all I write about! But this one is really cool! Often when hens begin to lay it is very common for two yolks to be in one shell. They are normally found in quite large eggs. Today I was fixing Logan an egg for breakfast. Of course he found the largest egg I had and I cracked it in the pan and was amazed. It had not one or two yolks but THREE! I of course grabbed the camera and called everyone to see this amazing egg. I must admit I was the only one truly thrilled. Mason thinks I am crazy by this point! Emily then chose the second largest egg only to be disappointed when it had only one yolk. I looked up triple yolk on the internet and found that the odds are one in a billion. But with all the eggs produced daily maybe that isn't such a huge thing after all. I found another really unusual thing that can happen that did happen a few weeks ago, a yolkless egg. Guess those would be handy when making angel food cakes!

Fresh eggs anyone??

Well, the girls are laying. Some of my 15 hens started laying eggs several weeks ago. Call me silly but there is something so exciting about that first egg arriving! We had our grand nephews here for the weekend and I wanted them to be able to gather some eggs, just one problem. My hens weren't laying yet so I went out to "plant" some eggs and the hens had surprised me and laid 2 eggs! I am getting anywhere from 5-7 a day,some big and some very small!

Barred Rock
(this girl nearly died when our dog thought she was a chew toy-I know where the saying tough old bird comes from!)

Black Sexlink

Buff Orpington and Black Australorp

Rhoad Island Red and Barred Rock

PS. If anyone needs fresh eggs just call!

Babies and toddlers in the house

Greer and her quilt

Greer

Natalie and her quilt

Cole and Burke

Natalie

Greer (love those pigtails!)

Emily and Greer

Feeding the birds

BurkeCole

This past weekend our two nieces Heather and Darcy traveled from Indiana with their kids, two almost 8 month old girls and two boys of of which one was 3 in August and the other turns 3 in December. It was great to see them but wow did I forget how busy a house is with little ones it it! Our kids really enjoyed playing with them and were a big help with them. Ted took the boys out in the morning and let them ride the tractors around. Cole's dad is a farmer but he just drives red tractors so Ted let him drive the green tractor! Hopefully he told his daddy about that! I had decided to have the boys get some eggs while they were here, just one problem, my girls weren't laying just yet. I was expecting it any day though. So I went out to "plant" a few eggs and there was the cutest brown egg ever! My chickens surprised me and laid their first egg! Photos will be coming soon for those of you wanting to see tiny pullet eggs! The boys also had fun jumping on the trampoline. We had a nice day on Saturday so it was nice to for them to be outside some. The girls headed to town in the afternoon to do some shopping and left the all the boys at home. We came home to one sound asleep on the couch and one sound asleep by the front door! It was quite funny. Guess that is what happens when guy's are left in charge.

Vistor's from Afar

We recently had some good Scottish friends who we met while living in India visit us a few weekends ago. It was so awesome to see Helen and Fraser in our home in the US. It was a strange sensation though to be sitting around the table here rather then in Chennai and to not have the entire group here as well. They came along with their son David to visit see other son Liam who lives in Chicago run in the Chicago Marathon. While their visit was short we cherished every minute of it. The kids were thrilled to see them and were quite please to get Fraser up on the trampoline! Ted and the guys got out and did some skeet shooting even though the weather was freezing!


When people ask if we are happy to be back in the US my first response is that it is good to be back, however I still miss India! I think what I miss most are our friends in India. While we knew them for such a short time the bonds of friendship that were formed were strong. They became our family.

A few days after Helen and Fraser left my parents came for a visit. They drove up from Florida and visited all but one of my siblings. We had seen them in June at the family reunion but it was nice to have them at our house. Logan was delighted to see that he is almost as tall as his Grandma. Here are a few photos of the kids and my Mom. I am frustrated I didn't think to get some photos of my dad with the kids...

Birthday photos...

Just a week after Emily's birthday Ted celebrated his birthday. He had the day off on his birthday. I found a recipe to make a Lemon Struesal cake that he remembers from childhood. He thought it tasted great! Due to a hectic schedule Emily just had her friend birthday party this past weekend. She had a hard time deciding what to do. She wanted to have a sleep over but I limited the number of kids so she decided to have a bowling party instead! The kids had a lot of fun and I didn't have to clean up the mess!